DoingThe42

Another one for Cowdenbeath 1-1 Montrose (4-5) I thought the McAllister - Hester strike partnership for Montrose would be an absolute winner, but they really didn't work out today. No communication between them, not much link-up at all, and they provided little threat. Hester, especially, really struggled to get into the game. I'm seeing Montrose again next week, so I'll be curious to see how this develops. Montrose played well in short bursts, but it wasn't a great 90 minutes from them. Cowden were pretty impressive, with McNab and Walker particular stand-outs for me. They pressed well when out of possession and looked quite handy getting forward, just lacking the final ball at times. Probably unlucky not to win in 90 minutes. Also good to see Andy Rodden getting a game for Cowdenbeath. Perhaps didn't quite get a fair crack of the whip at Clyde. First time at Central Park for me, very enjoyable .

I hope Charlie Reilly gets some time on the park for Dundee this season. Absolutely tore up League Two playing in a team that got relegated.

I hope you're right. There's definitely been a need for a centre half. With this and another midfielder in with the Australian lad, I don't think the squad is far away from what we'll need, considering those back from injury. I'm looking forward to seeing how Kingsley does this year. I think he suffered a lot from the chaos at the back in terms of changing selection as well as his injuries. Hopefully get something similar to what we had with him previously.

I'm not saying Hearts aren't a bigger club than Peterborough. My issue is that there are lots of other clubs with more money to spend and who are a better prospect for a 27 year old leaving them for a less than huge fee. It makes me suspicious that we're his choice. Plenty of richer clubs in England and none of them want this guy. Coming to Scotland makes sense for damaged goods with injury pasts or who haven't been getting a game and need to rebuild. Any decent English player will stay in England if they have the chance to. Anyway, I hope he does well. But these things always make me uneasy. In terms of fees and wages, there'll be similar players to be had for better deals elsewhere.

Always suspicious of a signing from the English leagues. Nobody down there dreams of playing in Scotland, so why are we the best he can do? 27 years old, available for probably not huge money. It doesn't pass the smell test for me. I see someone alluding to Anthony Taylor above. He's a great example. It was suspicious that Aberdeen were able to get him in the circumstances, and he turned up to be shite. We were able to get Ollie Lee. LEt's be honest, shite. We got Jorge Grant. Again, mainly shite. I don't think it's a good market for us to operate in. Poor value. I'd always query why a player from down there would want to move here, and why there aren't English clubs outbidding us.

As someone who has had the chance to take what would have been (for me) genuinely life-changing money in the ME but decided not to because I didn't want it on my conscience, I am quite happy to call out multi-millionaire footballers (especially ones who kid on to be LGBT supporters) as being vastly in the wrong for doing so. Got to be honest, I am happy to quietly judge absolutely anybody who takes the money over there in any line of work. Slaves aside.

League Cup groups are good, but clubs should be allowed to field trialists, as long as they name them. It's not fair that clubs down the leagues can't use these games to get a look at players they might want for the season while these games are removing days to play friendlies or bounce games to judge players. And then that obviously leads to really weak subs' benches and skewed games. Also, stop seeding the last sixteen. There's no reason for it.

Comparisons with Darvel and Gretna seem a bit off, since Johnstone has around four times the population of those two places, no? Surely a town of 15,000 can reasonably be expected to support an SPFL team in the long run. Places like Darvel and Gretna would always be unlikely to be able to support a team at a good level long-term without the ongoing involvement of a wealthy backer, but if things are done right, I don't see why Johnstone can't aim to have a team at a much higher level than it does now. It'll need investment to get it going, but it doesn't seem a mad idea to me. The note of caution for me would be the complete failure of a club like East Kilbride to catch the imagination of its local population. Maybe Johnstone Burgh will be better at that, I don't know. But nothing EK has done has seemed to make any impact whatsoever in the town. Maybe getting into the SPFL would do that, but they've certainly failed to build more than a friends-and-family fanbase so far. Although, clearly, a completely new club is a different beast, and perhaps investment in an existing team like EK Thistle with a bit of community recognition (and town centre location) might have been more successful.

Thought Clyde were good in the first half and it only really turned in the second half when the stupid rules in this competition meant Clyde couldn't freshen it up when players were obviously tiring. Couldn't believe some folk around me having a go at the lack of pressing when the team was obviously tired and there was nothing that could be done. Overall, not bad. Went better than expected. Reasons to be less pessimistic than I think most are. Looks better than last season.

Wishaw 2-4 Lesmahagow, 12/07/2023. Well then. What a night. Within ten minutes of kick-off Wishaw had gone a goal behind (to a penalty taken as I glimpsed through the fence on my way in) and had a man sent off for something he said to the referee after a disagreement over a marginal offside call. It was probably offside, but getting yourself sent off over it in a friendly is monumentally stupid. The move didn't even result in a goal. Maybe the ref could have calmed it down instead of going for the red, but I don't know what was said. Before half-time he had levelled the sides, with the visitors going down to ten for a bad tackle. It was probably a red card, but the ref wasted no time in getting the card out, seemingly delighted to even it up after the earlier fuss. Among all this first-half drama, the visitors had taken a 3-1 lead. Both sides played some decent stuff at times, and it was a first half that flew past. Second half was decent too, but the main entertainment was the primary school-age Wishaw ultras. At one point they threw a bottle of water at the Lesmahagow dugout. When someone threw it back out, it landed about five yards away from the weans on the grass. As one, the twenty or so of them threw themselves to the floor clutching their heads and started rolling about. Fucking tremendous stuff. A further goal each left it as a very satisfying night. Six goals, two red cards, a bit of controversy. All for three quid.

I think when this was discussed last season, those who know about these things said it was possible but would be really expensive, so is very unlikely. I think where the capacity is now is roughly fine. I'd only look at extending it after a good decade or so at this level of attendance.

Strongly disagree. Capacity should be at a level that encourages season ticket buying, creates a bit of scarcity, and protects against inevitable fallow spells. Thinking of giving up your season ticket? I wouldn't, there's a waiting list etc. Roughly 20k for Hearts is fine. The stadium being full is good.

I agree with you that the segregation area is too big. I think that's obvious. But there's absolutely no reason to suggest Hearts (who still give Hibs a whole stand) are going to give anybody a zero allocation. It won't go smaller than this, and this is about right for most clubs. You might wish St Johnstone got more tickets, but it's not as if they've been bringing thousands to Tynecastle for years. I was at the 3-2 win against St Johnstone last August and the 3-2 win over Motherwell in (I think) November. Both those games benefited from being full houses with full away ends. It's hard to make a case that Hearts should be keeping back tickets for other clubs just because you'd like more. If games are selling out quickly, that is good. The crowd for that game in August was 18,353. In 2002 St Johnstone won at Tynecastle in front of 10,672. The story here is that Hearts have almost doubled attendances for these games in roughly two decades. If that means some away fans can't get in, that's just life. The idea Hearts are heading to an away fan ban has no basis in reality.

Absolutely mad to see this framed as anything other than a good news story. I remember being at Tynecastle for league games with four-figure crowds. Now there's a waiting list for a season ticket and Hearts are in a position to move away from relying on OF fans and basically fill the ground themselves. It should be underlined that Hearts have won no major honours in more than a decade and finished fourth last season. This isn't some post-cup-win bounce or some shite like that. This is a club effectively growing itself and is very good news long-term. I understand that some people might not like that idea, but it's true. Only a fucking idiot would frame this as anything other than a good news story.

Old Firm fans moan about wanting a challenge and that clubs should run themselves better. Hearts are making a sound business decision here. Tickets for Tynecastle are hard to get. I know from trying. As mentioned above, most games last season were an 'old-school' sell-out with the Ticket Exchange being open. Obviously, not everyone shows up, but that doesn't change the fact that the place is sold out. So, it's only right that Hearts maximise how many of our own fans can get in to see the team. It would be a crazy decision from aq business point of view to tell our own fans we don't want their money so that a few more Celtic or Aberdeen fans can get in. They won't be back the following week, and, frankly, can f**k off.

I think we'll be taking a bit of time to assess how this lot are looking, which I think is fair enough. If they are back close to full capacity, Hearts will be a good side next season. If not, then the transfer targets obviously change a bit. No real issue with a bit of caution. There are loads of players out there.

Blantyre Vics 3-1 Forth Wanderers, 05/07/23. A late decision to head along to this one. A really entertaining game. Arrived just too late to see the visitors take the lead, but did see them miss a couple of chances and have one disallowed for offside. Then Vics got level before half-time and really had the better of it after that. Two second half goals finished it, but the second half was played at a good pace and the game zipped by. Really enjoyable for a friendly. Young lad wearing 45 for Blantyre caused no end of bother with crosses from dead balls. Could be a player if he can start doing that from open play too.

Newmains United 0-8 Clydebank, 04/07/2023 A bit of a mismatch tonight at Victoria Park as the Bankies run up a big win. It was 4-0 at half-time and same again in the second half. Although, full marks to Clydebank for really seeming like they were going for a 10-0. It looked on at 7-0 with about 25 to play. They never let up, and with the chances they created it could have been ten and then some. Newmains seemed quite demoralised by the end. Decent evening out. Will try and get back here this season to see Newmains play in more favourable conditions.

I'm considering doing the same with the Scottish Cup. Can't find the dates anywhere. Am I being daft?

You just reminded me of Lesser. I'll need to get there too. You've got some belters left to go. I'm a big fan of Montrose (and the Golf Inn) and Elgin, especially. Looking forward to getting back up to Elgin for the Clyde game in December. Bonnyrigg is good, too. A unique kind of ground. Absolutely loved doing it all last season. Got to be honest though, it's nice to look at the fixture list this season with no stress and not having to plan everything out in my head. Got myself a Clyde season ticket to force myself to behave like a normal person.

Which ones do you have to do? I'm back to just Spartans to go to tick me over. Opening day of the season for that one for a sure-fire win for the Bully Wee.

Anyone know who today's number 8 was? Thought he looked decent for most of it, if not quite fit. Thought the 3 struggled to get into the game at all.

I found getting parked at Partick Thistle a massive pain in the arse last season. Didn't help that I ran into some shocking traffic on the way there and was about an hour later than I thought I would be. Made it in for kick-off just in time after a 15-minute walk/jog. Hibs wasn't great. Lots of tramworks etc going on, and I ended up parking at a mate's miles away and getting the bus. Maybe if you know the area, it's fine. But that was a nightmare. Driving in Edinburgh in general is just horrific. Tynecastle is maybe also intimidating for parking to the casual visitor, but I know some places there and it's fine. That aside, I can't really think of anywhere I've had trouble. Elgin was probably the best for parking, as I parked for free about twenty seconds' walk from the turnstyle. Similarly piss-easy at Forfar, Peterhead, Stranraer, East Fife, Queen of the South, Accies, You can definitely park for free within five/ten minutes' walk at Annan, Stenhousemuir, Motherwell, Dundee (United), Morton, Raith, Dunfermline, Alloa, Edinburgh, Kelty, Dumbarton, Bonnyigg, St Mirren. Ross County I had maybe just more than a ten-minute walk last season. Usually just go on the train, but it was a fucking Sunday. Used the (paid) ground carparks at Falkirk, ICT, and St Johnstone. Fine, but a pain in the arse to get away. The rest I've not driven to, but gone on the train.

St Roch's 1-3 Clyde, Paul Kelly Memorial Cup Final, Petershill Park, 02/07/23. The Bully Wee claim the first of what I'm sure will be an avalanche of silverware this season, with three goals from the fabled Trialist bothers. The team was a mix of the familiar and the unknown. A couple of the trialists looked decent, but it's often hard to tell. Still, Happy New Season, everyone.

My dad took me to see Queens Park play Alloa at Hampden once in 1993, but I can remember basically nothing about it, other than that we sat in the old Main Stand. The only time I ever sat in it. I remember the seats, but not much about the actual game. Spiders won 2-1. Euro 96 qualifiers and for a good few after that I was an ever-present. This one was my first Scotland game at Hampden, having been to a few at Ibrox in the previous campaign. Funny to see loads of empty seats, as my (child's) recollection of that campaign is excitement and big crowds. Only 20,000 at Hampden that night, and the San Marino game came in under 30,000 too. I used to love going to watch Scotland. I still listen to the games or sometimes go to the pub to watch them, and hope the team wins, but I can't say I ever consider actually going to Scotland games any more.