Sidney Lumet

I think it’s a crying shame that there wasn’t/isn’t a vision amongst those in charge at Fauldhouse to see that their future was/is best served amongst the bigger and more powerful teams in the EoSFL and not in what will be no more than a glorified local amateur league should north-south ‘regionalisation’ arrive in the ERSJFA or in a Tayside heavy ‘super’ league that the ERSJFA will be forced to set-up should that body retain any hope of Pyramid access – unlikely as such access may seem. The first boat was missed last season, a boat that had they sailed on it could very well have seen a good Fauldhouse side navigate their way out of the transitional season conferences just completed and into the EoSFL Premier League for this coming season alongside the real big hitters at this level in south east Scotland – just as Blackburn have done. With – apparently – the EoSFL still keeping the door ajar for next season then a brave and wise decision would be for Fauldhouse to jump aboard this second boat and apply for access to the new conferences at Tier 7 in the 2019/20 EoSFL season. Yes, there will be a wee bit of travel into the east and the borders but not any more, and probably less, than the journeys up into Tayside promise should they stay put and a ‘super’ league is retained. The real carrot, though, is that finishing in a promotion spot in one of these conferences – and I’m pretty sure Fauldhouse are more than capable of achieving just that - guarantees Tier 6 football the season after next alongside the east’s big hitters. It’s got to be what a club of their stature is thinking about instead of withering on the vine in the dying ERSJFA. I genuinely think that for Fauldhouse - and for the likes of Bathgate and Armadale too - a move to the East of Scotland Football League is absolutely the right thing to do in every regard. Should they do so, others from West Lothian would surely follow and a form of the local leagues they crave will be theirs, alongside the return of other rivalries not that long lost. It really should be a no brainer.

You'll be one of those small thinkers previously mentioned then?

I swithered long and hard between going to watch the Broxburn game where they could clinch the title and the Edinburgh v Blackburn game where everything was on the line for the visitors re getting to the Premier League - the latter won out as I suspected Broxburn had an easy task and it turned out to be so. So, Paties Road. The hosts were apparently top notch last week against Heriot-Watt, which set up the Blackburn game as the weekends most important encounter and you could see just why they’d managed to lance the university’s hopes by the way they got in and about Blackburn in the first half. However, they couldn’t turn that early prominence into a goal and a great double save early in the second half by the visiting keeper laid the foundation for a comfortable and deserving win for the visitors - timing is everything and boy did they not time their run to fifth place and ‘promotion’ perfectly?! As an aside, I felt a little bit voyeuristic at the end when, on leaving, I saw who I later learned was Blackburn’s President/Chairman in what seemed two genuinely emotional embraces with two ladies who I’m guessing were also involved with the Club. You could see just how much it meant to each of them and it is exactly this commitment that should draw more people to the game at this level. I might even try to get along more often myself now!

Alan, you do neither side of the argument any good whatsoever with personal insults. It's poor on your part.

I'm sure I've read somewhere in one of these threads that Kilbowie Benches represents Clydebank in an official capacity. If so, his tone and choice of words when discussing the EoSFL and its representatives should be pretty disturbing for fans of his club when you consider that the EoSFL and EoSFA boards have been nothing but accommodating to Clydebank when they were holding joint discussions on the Bankies moving to the EoSFL. To have someone involved in the running of the club constantly and wilfully misunderstand or, indeed, deliberately misrepresent the EoSFL's position on all of this is pretty poor stuff. It's been clearly and concisely set out in this and other threads by several posters that the EoSFL would welcome a west feeder league into the Lowland League and that they, and the Lowland League, only oppose the nonsensical idea of a geographically overlapping feeder league in the east - what is difficult to understand about this is, well, difficult to understand.

Wow. Screwball. Complete Screwball.

I think we are reading the ravings of a pretty deranged individual here unfortunately. As glensmad has quite rightly pointed out, for 62 of 63 west clubs absolutely nothing will change. Not one thing. So how someone can come to the conclusion that "certain clubs will go to the wall at the expense of this" is quite something. "Certain posters on here are pushing it purely for financial benefit to themselves" - how this can be ascertained is way, way beyond any sense but I'm looking forward to the answer as to what is meant by this quite bizarre statement. "Too many well planned narratives, documents and pictures to suggest that this is just a point of view thread" - is it truly beyond your grasp to believe that articulated, well thought out points of view can be made on these forums and that people who post them have mastered the art of internet searches, spreadsheets and screen grabs and the use of cut & paste and drag & drop tools that Microsoft offer their users and can use these tools quite quickly to illustrate their points? All this coupled with your recent, over the top bombardment of Pyramid threads with posts with scant relation to the topic and your utter obsession with Burnieman paints you as a pretty sad individual who really ought to move beyond scouring these boards for his posts. Online stalking is creepy.

Exactly, and I think this is similar to a point made a few posts earlier - who outwith West Lothian will ultimately care about the winners of an isolated, all but cut-off local league that is likely to see interest even from West Lothian locals dwindle further when it transpires they're going to watch the same few teams face each other week after week after week? It really is beginning to take the shape of a glorified amateur league. What a disappointment. Surely there will be at least a few teams that will want to escape this madness and head to the EoS, thus making what is being proposed all the more unpalatable?

Agreed. I merely responded to lithgierose raising Whitburn on this thread and compared and contrasted what I believe are the different attitudes between your club and theirs. I apologise.

Ah, Whitburn Juniors. Sadly, a real anachronism. From being one of the powerhouses of the east when refusing promotion to the East Region Super League on its creation to (despite eventually ascending to the Super League with their tail firmly between their legs) paddling about in the lower reaches of the ERSJFA in more recent years with no cohesion or direction and certainly no vision (I know they top the current East Super League but that’s down entirely to all the bigger teams having long since moved onto better things). From a delegate to the SJFA who, wrongly, has been knocked back more than once for a place on its governing body (yet they quietly take such insult and slavishly remain beholden to Junior tradition) to a club official who gets to sit on the bench like he’s part of the coaching staff (or he certainly used to when I got along to watch) and likes nothing more than a wee walk with his orange buddies during the marching season. No wonder they are haemorrhaging supporters. I don’t think they’ll evolve anytime soon into a club that will be leading anyone anywhere right enough!! It’s a real shame too as they certainly would enhance the EoSFL were they to raise their eyes above the horizon. Fauldhouse, on the other hand, certainly seem to have some forward thinkers involved and I don’t imagine it would be too much of a leap to believe that they could indeed be a club who just might see the merits of engaging with the wider Scottish footballing community through a move to the EoSFL.

As I posted on another thread, Fauldhouse have an excellent set-up. Good cover, decent changing and catering facilities, excellent hospitality facilities and some hard work carried out in recent times means an improving playing surface too. Get the necessary documented policies and procedures in place (none of which, it’s important to note, are required for entry to the EoSFL) and they’d be well placed in every regard for licensing purposes, full SFA membership and access to the Scottish Cup, other than the lack of floodlights. Hopefully that would then be something they could be helped to work towards – for example, membership of a Senior league (EoSFL) means there is access to much larger ground improvement grants from the Scottish Football Partnership than if they were to remain in Junior football…..and the EoSFL themselves also provide modest grant aid for ground improvements. I genuinely think that for Fauldhouse, a move to the East of Scotland Football League is absolutely the right thing to do in every regard, from grant money benefits as noted above to possible future Scottish Cup entry, from renewing rivalries with many of the teams who left the ERSJFA last year to enjoying facing some entirely new opponents. What's not to like? If Fauldhouse, probably the biggest team in West Lothian alongside Whitburn and, perhaps, Bathgate that are left in what is becoming the wilderness of Junior football in the east, were to move I think such leadership would show others the way and those others would be sure to follow.

These are absolutely fair points and would certainly give rise to the argument that clubs are weighing up their options and are readying to come to the conclusion that the move that others made last season is the one to follow. I really hope that is the case. However, I just fear that those entrenched in their ways simply aren't being exposed to the realities of the situation and are, therefore, positioned only to remain where they are through either blind loyalty, misinformation or satisfaction that a wee local league is where they used to be and a wee local league is where they wish to return. I'd like to imagine that the positive nature of the move for those who made it last year would be a huge encouragement for those who didn't to follow suit this year, but I'm just fearful that many involved with the remaining West Lothian clubs who see those who left as nothing more than traitors to the Junior grade will hold sway. You just have to look at the nature of some of the arguments on here and how articulate postings can be railroaded by replies of absolutely no substance that, without any rationale, insist "Juniors is best". I can see just such arguments being played out in committee rooms across West Lothian with articulate voices arguing for change being shouted down. Or worse, I can see inertia meaning no arguments or discussions are taking place at all and the status quo for many or all of these clubs is and will remain their default position. As I said, I fervently hope I'm wrong.

The closer it gets to the EoSFL's end of March deadline for new applicants the more it begins to seem that the remaining West Lothian clubs are content to exist in their own wee bubble where, if they can get some sort of regionalisation of the ERSJFA, they fight out as close to a 'local' championship as they can each season and hope against hope that the SJFA can somehow live up to their promise of shoehorning them into the Pyramid - and even that may be, for at least some of them, a promise they'd rather not see fulfilled anyway. The ambitious and, dare I say it, forward thinking West Lothian clubs - Linlithgow Rose, Bo'ness United, Broxburn Athletic and Blackburn United - have already moved on and left the inadequacies of the Juniors behind with, I understand, one or more of them on the verge of full SFA membership to match Linlithgow's. Sadly though, amongst the remainder it would appear that there is no similar ambition or thoughts on how to grow their clubs and become part of the wider Scottish football community. I truly hope I am proved wrong.

Has there been a new date set for the SFA Board meeting or did it indeed go ahead on Monday? If it did go ahead on Monday then bringing forward a meeting that, at least in part, was set to deal with the outcome(s) of a related meeting not scheduled until the Tuesday seems - at best - a rather odd decision. If the meeting didn’t take place on Monday then surely it will be rescheduled to later in the month as decisions that impact on clubs need to be taken in good time? If there is no rescheduling then when, in fact, is the next meeting? Can decisions be made ex-committee? If I understand correctly, the Licensing Committee don’t meet again until around June but do the SFA Board meet monthly as it’s this meeting that needs to make rubber stamping (in the case of clubs with floodlights) and derogation (in the case of those without) decisions? I guess I’ve asked a few questions that no one immediately has the answer to but surely they are all pertinent to those clubs going through the licensing/membership process who would like to understand what happens next and when?

This pretty much sums up the potential folly of any move to regionalise the east Juniors into two, eighteen team leagues - if that has indeed been proposed at last nights meeting. Three, twelve team leagues could also be imprudent as such a set-up is unlikely to provide enough league fixtures (or a horrible imbalance if teams have to play each other three times) for those involved. All of this on top of absolutely no variety in terms of fixtures year on year if there is no turnover of teams through relegation and promotion, something that can't happen without access to the Pyramid, access that is uncertain at best and highly unlikely at worst.

Understood JC, but even reconstruction might leave you in a league where, despite some local rivalries being restored, you will forever be in without promotion or relegation (no ‘Super’ League above and no regional league below)? A move to the EoSFL might not see all West Lothian sides together in the one conference (if conferences are again employed to sort out tiers) but some will be, more of the games will be more local (Edinburgh and Mid and East Lothian as it used to be) and - importantly - progression up and down the tiers is there, as is the option to become licensed and play in the Scottish Cup. I can’t help but think the West Lothian clubs should be reaching out and grasping this opportunity now. The ERSJFA simply can’t offer anything comparable.

Wouldn’t it be wise for Fauldhouse United, Whitburn and Pumpherston, as clubs who either knocked back the ERSJFA ‘Super’ League or who have seemingly suffered because of their place in it, to get together and speak with the EoSFL re moving next season? Indeed, I think Bathgate Thistle turned down a place in the ‘Super’ League too so their thoughts must be similar to those of Pumpherston and they must surely be at least thinking that the EoSFL offers a better future going forward? If these clubs were to blaze the trail for a second wave of applications to the EoSFL after last seasons moves then I’d imagine the remaining West Lothian clubs wouldn’t be long in following and then you have the ideal Tier 6/Tier 7 set-up in the east, at least as far as West Lothian would be concerned. East and Mid-Lothian are all together in the Pyramid and it would be great to see West Lothian follow suit and rejoin them to be part of an exiting future.

If I remember correctly, Pumpherston won the East Region South Division last season but turned down promotion to the new ‘Super’ League to avoid the excessive travel they feared such promotion would entail? If their opinion on travel remains the same then I imagine promotion is something they will likely turn down again - but does this mean that they’re happy to play in the same, narrow league season in season out with nowhere to progress (or regress) to or will they be bold and seek a move to the EoSFL? Seeking such a move would seem the sensible way forward given their decision at the end of last season.

Oh, I’m not at all sure you’re way off - I think you may be pretty much all the way to being 100% correct.