A12A1

I think I might become an Annan supporter. Just for a week or so. I'll decide next Saturday night. It's a lot closer than Elgin.

I'm not JH either. Or even related to him. Do I get a prize? If so, just beat Clyde 13-0 and we can call it quits. I'm not a greedy man.

He predicts Berwick will be relegated first, and only then successive promotions. I would prefer it the other way round.

Quite so. Edinburgh took a late season dive to raise Berwick to the heady heights of 8th with 37 points. This season with 3 games to go we have amassed barely half that. Still, Edinburgh have bounced back this year so there's hope yet...

And another thing. For the last 2 seasons Berwick have only survived because another team have plummeted to the bottom and kept 10th place occupied below us. Last year it was Cowdenbeath. They languished at the bottom all year with 22 points in the end was it? This year we might not even match that. Yet we still have another team in a death spiral that might yet just about save us from bottom - Albion. Bottom line is Berwick's problems are not recent and certainly not since JH arrived. And he has to shore up the dykes before even thinking about planting seeds for a better future. It doesn't help to blame him for the state he found them in when he arrived. He looks keen. Let's back him.

Agreed except that this year there really should be 2 teams going down. Both Berwick and Albion are so far away from 8th it's embarrassing. But rules is rules and I'll support the team until the end in hopes of better next year.

Well said. I really don't know how JH or anybody else can motivate a team when the so called supporters are undermining him in public. Shut up and back the team.

Relax guys. 3 weeks to go. Back the team. Back the manager. Then you get 3 months to moan and whinge as much as you like. This is not that time. This is the time to be strong and back the team.

I bet this has been JH's secret masterplan all along.

No need to worry. All we need to do is win our last 3 games while Albion lose their last 3 and the sfa take back their 3 free points. By my reckoning that makes us safe by 10 points. Easy peasy.

3-0. That's twice as good as last week.

But there are other sanctions available to deal with this. Dock them 5 points? Relegate them, like Rangers a few years ago?

That's just the conflict that comes from supporting the team and supporting the game. But ultimately we would all agree that the game has to prevail.

The problem with a replay, apart from squeezing it in, is that neither team deserves it. Clyde because they are the guilty party and Albion because they would have lost anyway. Why should either get another bite at the cherry?

What you mean is ARGUABLY suffer. But in the real world we all know Albion would have lost anyway. No team should get free points.

Fairly rubbish might be putting it mildly. But it's about the integrity of the league table. No team should have more points than they have won on the pitch. Fewer is okay as punishment for the guilty. But awarding unearned points punishes the innocent rivals whoever they are.

The world is not perfect and we often have to sort the mess out as best we can. It is a virtual nailed on certainty that Albion would have lost anyway. Docking points from the guilty team is fair. It's their own fault for breaking the rules. Awarding unearned points to any team is unfair to their rivals in the league who have to win theirs on the pitch.

But it does not follow from that that if he had not been on the pitch Albion would have avoided defeat. They were being beaten by just about everybody at the time.

You might be right that you don't deserve the punishment. That is debatable. But the certainty is that Albion don't deserve 3 points that they didn't win on the pitch and Berwick (God forbid) don't deserve to be chucked out of the league by committee after winning it on the pitch.

I suspect you've put your finger on the procedural unfairness there. Clyde will have someone there to argue their case. Maybe Albion too. But is anyone going to be speaking for the other affected teams? Berwick Peterhead Edinburgh? I'd like to know.

I agree with your last sentence but not with replaying the games. Clyde are the guilty party why reward them with another go? Wouldn't everybody be tempted to take a chance on ignoring the rules if that's the precedent? In any event I cannot see there is any time to squeeze in 2 extra games before the end of the season. And after it Clyde are in the playoffs. And how do we determine finishing places & thus playoff fixtures until they're done? And if Clyde could even pip Peterhead to the top by winning these 2 extra games why should Peterhead suffer? Ditto Berwick if Albion were to win. The season is supposed to end at the same time for everybody.

Agreed. The trouble with awarding/deducting points is that other teams can be affected (eg Berwick) when all teams should be judged solely on results on the pitch. Or else the points can be meaningless (eg QP with nothing to play for). Either way it's a bad idea. Best solution I think would be let the results stand (sorry Albion!) but dock the guilty team some points, if they must, from the start of next season.

Have you seen our record over the past months? Can't blame a Berwick fan for being ever so slightly glum about our point scoring prospects over the next two weeks. If we win every remaining game I promise to go see an Arbroath home game in December in my underwear; stringing four wins together now is such an unrealistic scenario that thinking, let alone talking, about it is pointless. You are right of course but then again at this stage in these circumstances strange things do happen. So Arbroath in December may yet beckon. Maybe we might book a coach.

You are right in the sense that everything is speculation. The only certainty is that it's in Albion's hands not ours, but I would prefer our fixture list and we need 2 points more than them from 4 games. I would take us to get that.

I like that. Good positive stuff. As I see it we need two points from two games and then we can end it by beating Albion on 27th. Fingers crossed.