Marten

Meanwhile the Spanish FA changed their tune and officially requested him to leave. Also, they have changed their mind and are no longer planning to take legal action against Hermoso, which would have been scandalous. Rubiales deserves all he gets.

I know what you mean, I just said what the SFA should do. The awful conference plan shows they are not in the remotest bit interested in the pyramid as a whole, so I won't hold my breath for it actually happening!

Yep, I'm sure they'd come up with a different excuse should the SPFL finally play ball. Don't get me wrong, I do agree that there should be automatic relegation from League 2 as well, but that's just not an excuse for not increasing relegation from the Lowland League. In my opinion, the SFA should take more control of the pyramid like the FA have done down south and force through better promotion/relegation. One auto-relegation spot from League 2 and at least 2 from the LL would be a big improvement already. Also, they can start with kicking out the B-teams after this season and replacing them by 2 more tier 6 clubs. Yes, I know only 16 member clubs are currently allowed and they only get away with 18 as these B-teams are "guest clubs", but I don't see why the league can't permanently go to 18 clubs without B-teams. Sadly, I know a lot of this is wishful thinking as I can't see the SFA upping their game any time soon, hence why I believe the LL should open up themselves, that will undoubtedly quicker increase the quality in the LL and give a stronger argument in any discussions with the SPFL. And yes, I sound very harsh in my posts above, but that is because I do passionately believe in the principles of a pyramid. For all its faults, the pyramid has definitely shown to be a positive in Scotland but it still needs to improve. As the top non-league tier in the southern half of the country, the LL has definitely become more attractive. It's starting to become a good mix of ex-juniors, ex-SPFL, old senior non-league clubs & relatively new clubs. But the league lets itself down by its conduct. Allowing these B-teams in was an absolute disgrace. These teams have never added anything & only devalued the league. Also, not increasing relegation really let the league down. As said, there is no excuse really for any of that. That's why I sound so angry with the LL clubs blocking this using poor excuses. In my opinion, they are blocking improvement of the pyramid. And because I believe so passionately in the principle of the pyramid, that annoys me greatly.

Yeah, it will be a good test for us. It's a shame the differences in our league are so big. Hopefully we can go up as the Highland League obviously would provide more of a challenge. But there are still a few good sides in our league so it won't be a walk in the park by any means. Because our league is so local I also look forward more to any cup games outside our area as it's a nice change from the usual.

Spanish politicians are starting action to remove Rubiales as well. Good, get that creep out of there.

Good to hear, it's always good when clubs get off the mark. I hope they manage to do establish themselves in the EoSFL as they seem a decent addition.

With the form of both of our teams (barring yesterday for you guys, but still!), next week promises to be a good one. We're flying high in our league but are very much aware of the challenge next week as the EoSFL Premier is clearly a stronger league. It has all ingredients for a potentially great contest. For both (at least for us, but I assume for you too) the league will be the number 1 priority this season, but I'm sure both sides quite fancy a decent cup run. I'm looking forward to it, we'll bring down a decent following, I'll be on the supporters coach (which is full).

It's the LL who should change, not the ones lower in the pyramid. The LL are a disgrace of an organisation. I genuinely wouldn't mind if clubs that are against more relegation from the LL or connect it to the SPFL issue would go bust.

Absolutely bollocks. Those issues are NOT linked in any way. Any clubs who use the issue with the SPFL to stop a reasonable promotion/relegation with tier 6 are absolutely pathetic. Self-preservation at its finest. There is absolutely no excuse to not have at least 2 direct relegation spots, not with the amount of licensed clubs below the LL. Meanwhile the LL has absolutely useless sides that devalue the league, like the B-teams who should never have been admitted in the first place. Admitting these joke teams was a kick in the teeth for tier 6 clubs. And joke clubs like Broomhill deserve to go bust. And then you have the nerve to often say the EoSFL, WoSFL & SoSFL should work with the LL to improve the pyramid. If you want to improve the pyramid, the LL is your enemy, not your friend. The LL is a stain on Scottish non-league football.

All our scorers are on our Facebook page and all the match details, including line-ups and scorers, on the SJFA website.

"Our grade", there is no such thing as separate grades in the pyramid.

Agreed with that, but it does go both ways. The Lowland League have consistently shown disrespect to the feeder leagues. The LL's behaviour towards all 3 feeders is disgraceful, yet ekok closes his eyes to that.

Another high-scoring afternoon in the Midlands League. Lochee United & Broughty Athletic picked up important & convincing wins, 5-0 at Tayport and 5-1 against Downfield respectively. Both sides are building up a clear lead now. Carnoustie lost again, this time to a last minute goal at home against East Craigie. The bottom of the table clash between Coupar Angus and Forfar United finished in a 4-4 draw.

Tayport 0-5 Lochee United Another brilliant performance in what I thought would have been a tough game. First half we were easily the better side but didn't finish enough chances, the score was 0-1 at HT. In the second half we were commanding throughout, a very strong performance with some excellent goals. Bobby Linn was the Man of the Match, he played a part in all goals.

That stuff is disgusting anyway...

I know people over here who went to the same school as him too (no surprise seeing as he grew up a few streets away from where I live), they all basically said he was already a weirdo back then.

A day full of goals across the league, 59 in total, nearly 6 a game on average! Convincing wins for Lochee United, Broughty Athletic & North End, Downfield were 0-0 at HT but got the expected 3 points as well. St. James took another big scalp, a few days after beating Broughty, they now beat Carnoustie, who seem to be out of it now. It's still close at the top, Saturday looks promising with Lochee United visiting Tayport while second meets third with Broughty hosting Downfield.

Lochee United 9-1 Forfar United Well, another game with lots of goals. We started poorly though, a mix-up in defence was punished by the visitors, a well taken goal to be honest. Within 2 minutes we equalised and not long after we were 2-1 up. After about 40 minutes we said to each other that this was our poorest game so far this season, which was right at the time but the players must have heard us because after 2 quick fire goals it was 4-1 at half-time. The second half was excellent. Some players were taken off at 5-1 to save them for Tayport on Saturday. A few good goals resulted in a 9-1 win. Some excellent stuff in the second half. Finishing was excellent.

I haven't made my mind up just yet, but I wouldn't rule it out. It depends on a few things, I don't agree with him on everything (but then again, I can say the same about all others), so I'll wait for his manifesto to see if the things I disagree with are not too difficult for me to hold my nose and vote to get the reforms I believe are needed. Also, it depends on the others that will join his party, most specifically who the candidate for PM will be. But the first impression is that a vote for him is at least an option I'll seriously look at. Edit: worth adding that while some international media labelled him as "conservative", he is only slightly socially conservative for Dutch standards, meaning that for UK standards he is already not really conservative but basically moderately progressive and for US conservative standards he'd probably already be some crazy liberal heretic.

There could be major change at the Dutch General Election on 22nd November (after the coalition collapsed last month). Pieter Omtzigt, who rebelled against his own party CDA (Christian Democrats) after exposing corruption in Dutch politics and questioning actions of the main parties (inluding his own), got kicked out of CDA and continued as an independent MP. He has since been arguing for political reforms that are imo badly needed. On Saturday he announced he'll run in the election with his own party. He has been very popular for some time and immediately took the lead in the polls, his party is now expected to become the largest party. He won't become PM himself as he stated he is not interested in that, he is building a team around him and will announce his party's PM candidate in the near future. https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/08/pieter-omtzigt-what-does-he-stand-for-politically/

The Tay Road Bridge got opened, I find it interesting how England seem to constantly go on about a bridge between Dundee and Fife. Then again, it does have footballing importance as the original Highland/Lowland League boundary was in the middle of that bridge.

It's very early on obviously but I agree Ajax are poor for their standards. Based on what I've seen so far I'd make PSV title favourites.

Feyenoord also drew their second game, their derby away against Sparta, they were 2-0 down but ultimately equalised in stoppage time. PSV & AZ won 3-1 away at Vitesse & RKC respectively, they are together with FC Twente (3-1 at home against Zwolle) & Heerenveen (2-0 away at Utrecht) the 4 remaining teams on 100%. Two of the promoted teams (Almere & PEC Zwolle) are still on 0, but Heracles picked up their first points of the season at home against NEC.

The seethe about Spain's timewasting/shithousery is something else. England did it worse in their European championship final against Germany. I was at that game (bought tickets & booked a trip well in advance in the hope the Dutch would make it but thinking a final as a neutral is always good). And for that matter, I didn't once blame England for it because had The Netherlands reached the final I'd have wanted the same if we were winning.

In fairness, both stoppages were quite lengthy. Also at some point there was a Spanish player down who needed some treatment. I'm not really surprised with 13 minutes.