Marten

When Rangers were liquidated, Dundee were promoted to the SPL instead of reprieving Dunfermline. The open spots in the First & Second divisions were taken by the losers of the play-off finals, resulting in promotions for Airdrie & Stranraer. Livingston's demotion in 2009 again meant losing play-off finalists took the spots, resulting in a reprieve for Airdrie & promotion for Cowdenbeath. Gretna's liquidation in 2008 was the same, resulting in promotion for Airdrie & Stranraer. Airdrie's liquidation in 2002 was before the PO existed, instead Falkirk & Stenhousemuir were reprieved. Obviously the situations are different, especially with the existence of play-offs. But when ignoring the PO (which was an easy solution really), 2 different methods have been used: extra promotion when Rangers were liquidated and clubs reprieved in Airdrie's case. So there isn't really a clear precedent to apply to the LL this season. I agree that it would be fair to regard Selkirk as the bottom club, but that can't be done as it's not in the rules. I would assume that this is a point to be discussed at the AGM.

They refused this because the rules were changed during the season which the SFA deemed too late. I can't see any issue with changing the rule for future seasons though.

This, I find it disheartening how disrespectful some people are of smaller clubs, regardless of whether they are junior or senior. I was at Inverkeithing on Saturday, yes their standard of football and facilities were poor. But I spoke to some volunteers / committee members of the club and got a great impression. They are a new club and are working hard on improving things further. What they have already put up for the groundhop day was actually quite impressive for a club that's less than a year old. People there are working very hard to develop the club further, there was great enthusiasm with everyone I spoke to. All clubs that are run by hard working volunteers, but especially smaller ones, get my respect. These people are badly needed in Scottish football. Ultimately, they provide youth and adults of all levels with the chance to play football.

When I spoke to one of the organisers he told me that most junior clubs were actually interested when he spoke to them. The fixture secretary refused to even discuss the idea to accommodate this though.

I agree with you on the first red card, that could arguably have been a straight red for the tackle as well instead of 2 yellows. The second red card seemed very harsh to me and to all people around me agreed with that, a yellow would be fine. The penalty shouldn't have been given as you agreed, but it shouldn't have been retaken either. Another very harsh decision as the goalie pretty much saved it on the line, so it can't really be argued that he came off his line, I think it was understandable how players were annoyed with that. For the third red card I again think a yellow would've been fair but a straight red very harsh. I must have stood fairly close to you as it happened close to me as well. I didn't find that language worthy of a straight red, especially as I heard such language (or fairly similar) earlier in the game with no action taken at all. If anything, the inconsistency is what annoyed me the most. That probably caused my reaction which (as I said) is quite rare for me. And I wasn't the only one with such a reaction based on some of the hoppers around me. I think this was easily the poorest refereeing performance of the weekend (and one of the poorest I've seen in a very long time). Today's referee was excellent btw.

Your finishing was good today, Preston definitely weren't as bad as the scoreline suggested, but you guys were more effective.

How many days does April have?

Penalty was outside the box, it was wrong to let him retake it and the second & third red card were completely unjustified. Just after the first red there was also a very harsh yellow for an IHS player for kicking the ball away. There was no consistency, he was just completely awful. I was there as a neutral and I ended up swearing at the referee. That's very rare for me, but he was so poor that I just got very annoyed.

I quite enjoyed Blackburn myself. Spoke to some locals as well about the club. I knew something about the club because of P&B, but it's a proper community club and you lot left a great impression on me.

Each game has around 250 extra people in attendance compared to what you would expect, but there were only 2 official "Groundhop UK" coaches. So a lot of people just made their own plans, myself included..

And 301 at Inverkeithing v Heriot-Watt University is pretty impressive too. And I've seen the worst ref in my life imo. I was there as a neutral, but the guy was awful.

I think 100 would be a fair estimate, yes.

Brilliant crowd tonight, I struggled finding a parking place near the ground! Not just due to groundhoppers btw, Bonnyrigg had a large following.

Dunipace 0-4 Bonnyrigg Rose

Haha, I recognise one of the Albion Rovers fans in your photo. Met him on a few of my trips.

I'd be very surprised if you don't apply tbh. But if you go down, at least the EOS isn't a bad league to drop into next season. Plus the EOS forum would have some extra activity from you guys.

With the way things are going now, Berwick could easily finish bottom. And tbh, how they have been playing recently (except for their one recent win), I'd quite fancy EK to beat them (can't really judge the strength of Cove myself).

Really just depends on the teams that are in tier 6. If the "English approach" gets copied, that would mean teams would be shifted from EOS to ERJFA (or vice versa) to balance the numbers on both sides.

I'll probably do all except for Linlithgow, as I've already been there and I don't want to get back to Dundee too late.

Correct, over time the overlap has been resolved by the FA by just telling clubs where to go. If you would apply a similar idea to Scotland, the ERJFA could cover "Central-East" (i.e. Tayside, Fife, Perthshire) and the EOS "south-east" (Borders, Lothians, Edinburgh). A similar thing could be done in the west with SOS covering "South-West" and the WRJFA "South-Central". The north can become "North-East" (NRJFA) and "North-West" (NCL, maybe Highlands/Islands would be a better name). 6 champions can get promoted, 3 teams relegated from tier 5. That and relegation from SPFL will mean teams will have to be moved around a fair bit in tiers 5 and 6 in the first few years, but eventually it would create pretty even regions. For tier 7 and below it can be sorted more on a regional basis, with probably amateurs tagging along at the bottom so every region will have a tier 7 at least.

That's what I thought previously as well and imo doing in that way would be common sense. But the UEFA in their wisdom decided differently...

Congrats to EK, I reckon you can do the play-offs too.

I haven't noticed that we were annexed by Fife to be honest...

That's not a constituent country, but a "special municipality" in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Dutch like making it complicated.

Technically, France only borders the Kingdom of the Netherlands, not the actual country The Netherlands as that's only a constituent country of the kingdom, like St. Maarten is as well (the other 2 are Aruba and Curacao).