Marten

Seconded, I was quite impressed when I went there. Very friendly people at the club too.

Kilmarnock 3-0 Hibs Really good game from Killie, quite impressed with them. Hibs were poor. Two power cuts in the second half meant the game finished much later than expected. At some point I thought the game would be abandoned and the fans around were quite anxious. The Hibs fans were clearly not happy with the game resuming!

The whole point is that there is now an artificial divide in football. There is no real difference in identity/culture between senior and junior non-league football. It's simply non-league football, whatever label you put on it. It's pointless to continue having different "grades" covering (roughly) the same area. In my opinion, an important aspect of a pyramid is to bring all non-league clubs together in the same system so the best teams play in the LL (or HL) and the next best in the appropriate league for their geographical area.

Also been to Fort William v Rothes today! Even just for the views it was worth it. Great day out.

The only way how the approach like in England would work is 2 tier 5 leagues in the south (i.e. LL East / LL West) and 1 in the north. Then Dundee would likely fall in LL East, making it easier to manage. But even then, the "English" approach could mean a team like Cove Rangers ending up in the same league as clubs in the Borders due to the thinly populated area between Dundee and Aberdeen as you already highlighted.

Agreed, let's also not forget that the population in Scotland isn't exactly nicely divided over the land area. The vast majority of people are on a relatively small strip of land. If there is going to be a flexible border, it's only a matter of time before central belt clubs end up in the Highland League, just like Hearts were in the north section of the League Cup this year, while Edinburgh City were in south.

If we qualify automatically, we won't be in the play-offs. Our spot will instead go to the next team in the C division that isn't qualified yet.

Adding colt teams to the league structure greatly undermines the whole league structure. Yet there isn't one single benefit. Other countries show there is not a shred of evidence that this benefits youth development. The plan is completely and utterly stupid.

Just had a look on German news sites and can't find anything, so I'm not sure tbh.

To think I predicted that the Dutch team would have to aim to be amongst the 2 best 3rd placed teams to at least be top seeds for the Euro 2020 qualifiers

The Netherlands come back from 2-0 down against Germany with goals in the 85th minute and 90+1, meaning that not France, but The Netherlands are the last team to qualify for the Nations League finals.

No it doesn't. "Berg" means mountain and kamp means "camp", so the literal translation of his name is "Mountain camp".

Interesting quote in that article: "And it is now likely that they will rejoin the East of Scotland Conference C next season if the revival plan is successful.". Whoever has written that article clearly doesn't know anything about what's going on in the EOS at the moment...

At least the PWG have negotiations that have a slight chance of a universally agreed deal any time soon.

I did, thank you. I do enjoy trips like this one and seeing different parts off the country. I haven't yet seen much of D&G so this trip gave a nice impression.

Rangers 7-1 Motherwell I was in the away end where I joined a friend of mine who supports Motherwell. Before the game I told him that they couldn't do as bad as my (Dutch) team Excelsior Rotterdam, who lost 7-1 to Ajax today... ...safe to say I'm not expecting another invitation from him any time soon!

Annan Athletic 0-2 Cowdenbeath yesterday. First time I've seen Cowdenbeath this season, they look a lot better than last season. Still a surprising result though. A few Cowdenbeath die hards (or nutters? ) stood in the pouring rain all game. One of them had a Cowden top on and no coat.

The first round has only just started and I'm already getting annoyed of the patronising way the commentators talk about non-league sides. Yes, these guys are part time and have another job, we get it!

Brilliant stadium indeed. I've been there once, for the 2011 play-off Conference final between AFC Wimbledon and Luton Town (couldn't be played at Wembley due to the CL final taking place there). Despite the attendance only being 18,000, it was a brilliant venue to play it at.

Here are all the prices, Shire are the most expensive, Edusport & Dalbeattie the cheapest.

Saying that the EoS went for quantity over quality is unfair. The point is that the pyramid is for clubs at all levels. The likes of Eyemouth and Tweedmouth have just as much right to be in there at their place than the likes of Hearts and Hibs. Having clubs moving over en masse was always going to cause issues. An argument could be made for only accepting stronger clubs first and then let weaker juniors join at the bottom a season later. However, it's in my opinion far better to have 1 messy season and then move to a proper tiered structure in which all clubs play at the right level for them. For clubs like Linlithgow, it will only be one year playing against some of the weaker clubs, they will be EOS Premier (or LL) next season. And saying the pyramid is about reaching the top is wide off the mark. The pyramid is about playing football at your level. If it's only about reaching the top level than really only the 20 or so full-time SPFL sides have a reason of being in the pyramid as they are the only sides realistically capable of playing in the Premiership.

Considering abandoned matches in the Dutch league (just like nearly anywhere outside of the British Isles) are generally finished at a later moment from the moment of abandonment and not replayed, they will only have to come back for 89 minutes and 25 seconds.

Some shocks in the Dutch Cup last 32 this week. PSV lost 2-3 at home to RKC Waalwijk, who are struggling in the 2nd tier. Third tier AFC & Kozakken Boys beat 2nd tier opposition (TOP Oss & Almere City) and 4th tier ODIN '59 won 1-3 away at top flight FC Emmen. In total, 9 Eredivisie teams, 4 2nd tier, 2 3rd tier and 1 4h tier made the last 16. Draw for the round of 16 (level of the club between brackets): Willem II (1) v AFC (3) ODIN '59 (4) v SC Heerenveen (1) FC Twente (2) v RKC Waalwijk (2) Feyenoord (1) v FC Utrecht (1) AZ (1) v PEC Zwolle (1) Roda JC (2) v Ajax (1) Fortuna Sittard (1) v SC Cambuur (2) Kozakken Boys (3) v Vitesse (1)

When I lived in England I always enjoyed going to non-league games. Seen many lovely grounds, especially in the north of England. I'm planning a weekend south of the border again early February, hopefully I can go to some nice games then.

Peterhead 2-1 Albion Rovers A typical game of 2 halves. Peterhead took the lead within minutes and then scored a second just over 10 minutes later. Albion Rovers were very poor and lucky to only be 2-0 down at half time, it could easily have been 5. Second half was much closer. Rovers scored one and even had chances of an equaliser. Deserved win for the hosts though.