Ballboy

15 more goals 200 less fans.

Personally I think crighton and fordice have to be kept as the main central defence. Good to have solid players who can come in for injuries and suspension though. Fordice showed last season he can play right back very well but in the middle covers much more. With McDonald right and McCann left we had a very solid back 4. Kerr did play well at the end of the season but had a shaky start and got dropped then we looked more organized and solid with crighton and fordice in the middle. We have quite a few players who can play in different positions if needed but the back 4 played well in most games I really dont see any need to change that. With McKay as a defensive midfielder I think all we are missing is a creative midfielder. The way Murray used hawkshaw and young glass when we had them was as attacking central midfield with wingers and holding midfielder. Maybe the plan will be the same to use Robert as an attacking no10 rather than a winger. Over all I'm pleased we have kept the core of one of the best sides we have had in years. Couple more midfielders and we should be competing at the top end again.

I do agree with the 1-11 on the shirts. Got used to seeing squad numbers help identify who new players were. Then the names appear towards the end of the season. Always thought the little number in the diamond at the back was our thing maybe almost as much as the diamond. It perhaps made our top just as distinctive. Not sure on the rules in domestic football are like europe with set size of letters and numbers but I'd love to see the little number return.

Maybe hes still there?

The evidence I shall give will be the truth. Somewhere near the truth and nothing like the the truth.

It seems with a legal challenge rather than have the vote or decisions made over turned it would be much easier for the start of a new season to be delayed until the the courts have time to review the legal process. This more often than not is not done quickly. Any new tv deal would have to be delayed also as courts could give a decision to over turn a vote and complete the previous fixtures and the previous tv deal would have precedence as it's still part of the 19/20 season. Everyone has pretty much resigned to the 20/21 season beginning with the same structure. Quite a few have grievances and about how it's all gone but now most are willing to get on and build for a new season the only problem is hearts. They are the only team with the money and mindset to mount a legal challenge and this could delay further decisions and start dates for 20/21.

From what's being said among most clubs this proposal is the one that has most support across the 42 clubs. So if reconstruction is going to happen this is how it will be. The only real blocker is clubs cant agree on the term. Premier league want to change back as quickly as possible however most do not want the possibility of their club being in a relegation spot when it does. Also a few have concerns over a 27 game season giving some more home games than others and having to offer a 13/14 game season ticket. Then the same principle as above filtering down. Meaning dont relegate 3 team now but it means we could be in relegation zones for any future change. Personally I don't see any change happening due to the self preservation but I just want it sorted.

27 game season with 14,10,10,10 leagues. Seems to have to most support between the top level clubs. Also lower leagues. As an airdrie fan still thinking we could have had a decent chance of promotion (ok probably play offs) from an early finished season. Probably is the fairest as no teams are relegated and league winners get promoted and 2nd placed teams and Kelty/brora go up. They only arguement with this plan is for how long.. no teams are losing out in the season to come however when 3 are relegated from the top it filters down. St mirren, Hamilton, Ross county all agree with the principle but dont agree on the terms (2/3/4 year). Will be the same for championship bottom 4 and league one. Surely now it has to be agreed or nothing. Leave as is or promote lowland/highland league winners and 2nd place teams or leave as it is. Ok hearts, thistle and stranrar will lose out as will Kelty and brora but Scottish football is the real loser. This has been dragging on so long. All the different proposals from teams who want to "keep it fair " but funny enough it still has our best interests included. No team even those with money can offer contracts to players with no knowledge of what league they will play in. Sort it now or there will be arguments till October. What if this and what if that. No relegation is fair and unwanted colts told no. Just fcukin decide. Up or down. 14, 10, 10 ,10. Yes or no.

The diddy cup will have to be changed soon too. Not only with the non attendance from supporters of clubs who have colt teams and clubs playing colt teams but but also the issue with Ireland. They play summer football airdrie ended up playing against a so called reserve team as the bohemians were playing a Europa league qualifying game in the same week. Also the semi final against east fife having to be cancelled as the game was due to take place in winter. Soon fans of invited clubs from Wales and Ireland will have little interest in coming to Scotland for games. For now their is the day out value for teams drawn away but that wont last forever.

I totally agree fans of all lower league clubs would have to agree to boycott games against colt teams. However if season tickets have been payed and colt teams pay for 200 tickets there is no financial penalty really apart from the fans who pay at the gate. It really would take for fans of all clubs to unite and boycott. I do believe though some chairman give not a f**k even for their own fans. If over a season the difference is fans only not turning up for 2/4 games is offset by payments and loan players meaning possible promotion or avoiding relegation each season can be achieved. I dont see it being voted in though top tier clubs still have self preservation and if hearts stay up they will have a budget to improve more than a Hamilton or st mirren. So if 3 teams are relegated from the top league in 2/3/4 seasons the long term will out weigh the short. Dundee utd and Inverness added give more competition and increase the likelihood for some to be in relegation spots in the future. My only worry is money talks. Usually more than fans. I have voiced my opinion before that colt teams are not wanted but I admit i still went when airdrie played hamilton colts in the diddy cup. But that's my choice as a fan not wanting to miss a 1st team game. I for one though would join any boycott from any fellow lower league fans of colt teams games.

Have to say I do like this signing. Hes looked like a solid goalie in the games against us. Probably the same as Hutton last year in terms of not having a strong defence infront of him so hes had more work to do than other goalies in the league. Still young too so I'm sure he will get better. Quite sad to see goalie gal leave aswell though. Last season he looked good before his injury. Did well to some back after being out for so long then when he gets his chance kept ( I think ) 5 clean sheets in 7 games. All the best to him. Hope he gets chance with another club at a good level.

I think what Strachan's point is that clubs like Albion rovers and Annan who are in league 2 but still have a vote when it comes to the reconstruction of the league system and have never been in the top league. He's saying small clubs especially part time clubs should grateful to part of the spfl. I'm sure may fans of the (top) teams in Scotland will think he has a point as they should be deciding what teams come in. Realistically it shows in attendance in cup games when lower league teams get drawn against premier teams. It just shows how the people running our game really feel. I'm sure as a former Scotland and Celtic manager his views still has influence at SFA level. Also because of his status as a player and manager the press in england will report on what he says. Not so long ago the hearts chairwitch went very public with her view Scottish football had to many clubs. Now she needs votes for her reconstruction plans the small clubs all sudden matter. Sevco a few seasons ago needed lower league teams to admit them back to the league system as a new company and now dont give a f**k if part time teams dont survive this unprecedented event we now have. It seems though the people who have influenced our game over they years believe big clubs should only play big clubs. Small town teams and part timers should have no voice and no influence on what happens with the top league. A question was asked about how may teams have produced young players to enhance Scottish football but how many players have left the bigger clubs and played in the lower leagues maybe on loan or had a short spell at a lower league team as they would say to get their love of the game back. Gary McKay-Steven for airdrie. Robert snodgrass going to Stirling Albion on loan. Many more at other clubs have made a difference. More teams in Scotland now have former youth players who didn't make at our top 2 clubs and had to drop down the leagues to get game time because the big 2 especially are more interested in bringing in players from other countries then developing young Scottish boys.

I really think the premier league would rather have hearts in the league for Edinburgh derbys and more to offer for the tv deal when they play the ugly sisters. The bigger travelling support they have too. However it looks more like the thought of having extra relegation places in the future and most of them have bottled it. Just shows it's ok to feel sympathy for other teams but just not enough if it means yours could lose out next year. I'm sure most premier chairman will say it's wrong for hearts, thistle and stranrar to go down with games still to play but f**k them if it means we could lose our place. The view will be hearts and Dundee utd will have bigger support and ultimately more money than Hamilton and st Mirren so save them now means possibly less in the future for us. Self preservation at its finest. It's the same in league 2 also. They have said they would all vote as 1 and wouldn't consider 14-14-16 as it ultimately means in the future if there is extra relegation clubs like brechin, cowdenbeath, Albion rovers, could lose a league place if Kelty and brora are there. All of these clubs from top to bottom talk about the greater good of scotish football but would have more credibility if the just said what we all know.

I dont see why we shouldn't go into the new season with confidence. We have 9 players signed up from last season and if we are able add a strong midfield we will definitely be up at the top. Falkirk should be favourites with thistle but Falkirk didn't beat us in the 3 games we played with a win for us. Thistle have the worst squad they have had in years. Ok coming from a division above and they did beat us in the 1st league cup game. But we should be looking at winning this league. If we can sign Callum Smith permantly maybe keep kieren Miller and add 2 or 3 midfielders we have the makings of a very good squad. Our back 4 have already signed and Hutton. If we add a good goalie as back up I'd be expecting a shot at the trophy at the end of the season. Personally I'd Keep Thomson and Roberts. To make 11 who played together from this season and id add a full time goalkeeper and give more of the young boys game time as they have shown they can compete. I wouldn't have as big a squad and try to add a creative midfielder also an experienced goalkeeper to challenge Hutton. If we can add a few good loans we can have a very good squad thats capable of winning the league.

Or did he not come in one to ask dale Carrick how come your so good?

Is he not out of contract in the summer?. I don't see him being offered a new deal if he is.

I do agree there have been a few moments to savour. Even big nat off the bench to score late against forfar at home. Eckersly scored a peach against clyde at Hamilton in the league cup. Let's be honest though an overhead kick is going to win just for how pleasing it is to see. Special mention too for the epic penalty shoot out against queens park in the league cup.

Voting has opened for goal of the season. Surely Callum Gallagher against clyde is the winner. The gallacher winner against Falkirk wins for what it meant in the last minute of a very tense game and the celebration after. I had a great view of dale Carricks against stranrar. Fantastic wee flick even heard their goalie and defender ask each other how did that happen?. Some brilliant goals this season.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.80scasualclassics.co.uk/blog/adidas-broomfield-trainer-airdrieonians-f-c/&ved=2ahUKEwjS8pDsuProAhUUShUIHSq0ACEQFjAAegQIAhAC&usg=AOvVaw1o9EV5pTZFCtoJ4cfi7wU7&cshid=1587503966455 Gives the full story here.

Mate I do get your sentiment. The way this season has ended (fair play to raith rovers we would all take the trophy if was us) scotish football has been the same for many years. The over all product has been going down hill for many years. I can only speak from an airdrie supporter point of view. Having grown up watching a team battle their way to the top league and cup finals then ultimately go bust as business men tried to squeeze every last penny out of people who were willing to try save a small town team. How would u feel if your team weren't there at all?. For a few months their was no Airdrie fc in any shape or form. Even after an application to SFA and being told no our club was gone. Most airdrie fans will admit to having sympathy for clydebank as it took for them to lose their club for us to gain our club back. Hearts have obviously seen an opportunity to stay in the top league when they were looking likely to go down. As would we all if we were bottom with games to play. The spfl have a lot to answer for allowing chairman from hearts and hamilton to lead reconstruction talks as they stand to benefit most from not being relegated. However when Falkirk went down last season and all this had happened then most Falkirk fans would feel the opposite of today as a team chasing promotion will have a different feeling from a team trying to avoid relegation. This season my point of view has changed also . Now I take my son home and away. For the last 2 years me and my boy have missed 3 games in total. Now he goes to bed at night dreaming of playing for Airdrie. A few years ago that wasnt possible as their was no Airdrie fc. The 2-1 away game with the last minute winner at Falkirk got my boy hooked. He now believes (ok I haven't told him were not that good) Airdrie are going to win every week. Our game is our game. Good and bad. Some weeks we win some we dont. Season in season out Atleast we have our clubs to support and moan about. It's why we have this web site. We all complain about how our clubs or how our leagues are treated/viewed by others but what else would we do on a Saturday? Stay at home and watch the English perm get bigger? Watch and listen to to ugly sisters win every year and complain about missing out on what they feel they should get? I'm happy to support my local team. Good or bad. I'm just grateful to have my team to moan about and now it continues with the next generations ups and downs. The self preservation will continue and we would all probably vote the same if we were there. . Now we can only hope the reconstruction talks lead to our game being as even as possible for us small clubs.. but it's all we can hope for.

This is being noticed more and more around the bigger football country's in Europe too. Clubs like Roma, Lazio, inter Milan are saying the English championship are quickly becoming more able to pay higher wages. Their is supposed to be a review of all European competitions and maybe bring back the cup winners cup in some format. It's a sad day when clubs around Europe and particularly our own Scottish leagues are struggling so much and and English premier clubs are still looking at possible 100 million plus transfers .

Goes back to what I said though. Their must be more to this than we are being told. Dundee wouldn't agree to promote Dundee utd without some sort of benefit to themselves. Unless they have been told a reconstruction proposal from them would be considered first. To promote the top four championship teams and no relegation would please them. Partick will stay in the championship so wont complain too hard.Hearts and Hamilton chairmen are running the debate so I personally think that's what they will push for and wont really care about the rest of the clubs.

Their must be more to all this. Why would dundee change their vote if the only benefit they get is a few friendlys that their fans would ultimately have to stump up ticket money for? No way they vote Dundee utd champions if doesnt benefit themselves in some way. I think they have been promised a 16 team league.

I think its pretty much guaranteed the main discussion will be to offer Dundee a chance of promotion as a few friendlys wont really offer much. However if they are in a new look top division they will get a bigger slice of the tv deal and have a chance to stay in the top league for the season after. I do agree noway hearts and hamilton chairmen should be the ones leading reconstruction talks If they have had a say in relegation for partick and stranrar its ludacris to let them find a way of trying to save their own seat at the top table.

I'm sure it's not the way anyone would want the league season to end but hey-ho it is how it is. The team in 1st place win the league. The rovers have been top for most of the season so apart from the ifs buts and maybes of a few it's from a place of compete and utter jealousy Congratulations to all at raith rovers fc , players and fans. 2019/20 league 1 champions.