Pompey Blue

Consistency needed. Strong finishes to the last two seasons would’ve meant so much more if the starts had been better. Start strong and who knows how far Berwick can go.

1. Berwick 2. EK 3. Tranent Berwicks form last 3rd of last season was as good as anybody’s. They’ve strengthened and only really need a second striker still. Tight league to call though.

The slightest notion that the old firm were doing this for the good of Scottish football is thigh slappingly hysterical. If tomorrow they were offered places in the English premier league they’d take all of half a second to accept before sticking two fingers up to Scottish football. At least with one ugly sister gone a modicum of integrity has been restored to the LL.

There’s serious talk in England of 3 up 3 down between the league and the conference and league clubs are generally in favour. They recognise that making it easier to get promoted is a good thing if ever relegated. It’s about time league 2 clubs in Scotland got behind a proper model of promotion and relegation.

Why is the very simple idea of automatic promotion and automatic relegation through all tiers of the pyramid so baffling and toxic to Scottish footballs lords and masters? Why does club 42 get a chance at all of redemption through a play off after finishing rock bottom of the entire football league? They fully deserve to be relegated and when relegated should be able to see a clear and attainable route back into the league. As for all these ambitious non league clubs they resemble the millions of sperm all scrambling to be the one who fertilises the egg. Anyway it’s time to get excited about Rangers v Celtic in the cup final. (Not).

Brilliant statement and finally the first club to stick their heads above the parapet and call out this garbage for what it really is. Let’s hope this leads to many other clubs issuing similarly strongly worded statements.

True it’s a well established set up and even clubs way down the ladder, say level 9 or 10 on the pyramid can dream of league football simply because there’s a clear path through promotions. The Scottish pyramid seems more like a bunch of sealed boxes piled on top of each other where getting promoted is more of a maybe than a reality.

Post of the thread for me. If dropping into non league wasn’t such a terrifying prospect we might get some real progress. The English model has to be followed. The conference there is a thriving league and I include conferences north and south too. That’s because there is a proper promotion and relegation model. Getting into the football league is attainable unlike Scotland where a club has to virtually complete the 12 tasks of Hercules before gaining promotion. Fluidity of movement between divisions is the lifeblood of any domestic league. Take that away and it becomes uncompetitive and stale. How can it be right that probably between 5-8 clubs who are stronger than most of league 2’s clubs are marooned in the LL and HL simply because it’s impossible to get promoted. Needs sorting.

League 2 clubs thinking the conference is preferable is hysterical in its muddled thinking. The bottom 3 or 4 clubs in league 2 are way weaker than probably the top 5 in the lowland league. So a relegation to the conference would almost certainly be followed by another relegation the following season as they finish bottom of the conference. At which point they are 2 promotions from the league and probably an eternity of non league football beckons for them. Without the conference they are only ever one great season away from league status again. Berwick for example are harbouring realistic hopes of a return. The underlying problem is every club and i mean every club is only interested in their own little world and none really care about the overall health of the pyramid.

There’s nothing in it for lowland league clubs but even less for the highland league ones. They would in effect be facing 7 southern clubs, that’s 14 gruelling unattractive away games in a season. How is travelling to Berwick on a miserable wet Tuesday night attractive to a club like Buckie? Why would any HL team want that grim and grizzly journey to East Kilbride in the middle of January? They’d also be kissing goodbye to all the highland rivalries built up over decades to instead play a bunch of reserve teams. The HL should as one be giving this atrocity the proverbial middle finger.

Whisper it quietly but Berwick look a good outfit this season.

Solid start to the season for Berwick yesterday. For the first hour they were simply streets ahead of the Braves. They then got caught not knowing whether to stick or twist and lost impetus. Overall though they played well and were attractive to watch as well.

I bow to your superior knowledge. I always thought that unattached free agents could be signed and played anytime during the season.

What worried me most under Harvey was as soon as the team conceded the game was over. 1-0 soon led to 2-0 and beyond. Hopefully that’ll end now. They may go a goal down in the play offs but for goodness sake stay in the tie and don’t throw in the towel as under Harvey. Still looking bleak but hope is restored just a little. Are there no out of contract players who could make a difference willing to be signed up for 2 games!!!!

They have to be FORCED to explain the inconsistencies. How can the same offence committed in the same season receive 2 different punishments? Big club gets away with a soft touch, little club gets walloped. Clyde, Berwick and indeed any fan angered by this should not let this drop.

Court of arbitration for sport? If the rule clearly stated pre season that clubs would face the sanctions Clyde did and this would include gifting the opposition involved 3-0 wins then fine. But I doubt that’s the case and firmly believe the inconsistency in handing out these punishments needs to be explained fully. Personally I’d not be giving up until I got a detailed and comprehensive explanation of why they awarded what they did.

Idea for the Albion Rovers game. Throw the doors open. Free admission and get a thousand fans in the ground. Roar on the team to avoid that play off. It won’t happen but could be a tactical master stroke if it helps the team win.

Forfeiting a match is different to fielding an ineligible player.

Can you imagine the consequences if this was happening at the top end of the table and a team was robbed of automatic promotion because a rival was gifted 3 points. It would end up in court.

Maybe the answer then is to dump Clyde into 10th place and let them face the play off.

But it does affect Berwick whichever way it’s dressed up. A possible relegation is at stake here due to a club being awarded bonus points after a defeat. That has to be a consideration in all this otherwise the powers that be have helped send a team down.

Let’s hope the appeals panel is more neutral than you seem to be.

If Berwick finish bottom by 2 points then that’s hardly an irrelevance is it. They’d have finished bottom because Albion were given 3 points they didn’t win. Again that’s a scandal.

Nonsense. Did that same player stop them scoring a goal in that game? Would Albion have won 3-0 if he hadn’t played. Of course not. Point Is Berwick are being adversely affected by a mistake not theirs. That’s a scandal.