vikingTON

Massive, raging wee guy energy emanating from the fruit loop vegans here. Not the best idea for your membership to announce its intent to sink the government - when the actual party in charge can just empty you first. Thanks for playing anyway.

https://news.stv.tv/west-central/train-line-to-remain-closed-after-a-massive-sink-hole-appeared-under-the-tracks Passengers forced to change service at Airdrie will be forgiven for thinking that they've already entered the bottomless abyss.

Nobody's keen on playing 4 times a season - it's just an established function of the league system for 30 years now. It isn't a major concern either way outside of the next reconstruction proposal being put forward and going nowhere. There's really no evidence to support the second part of that post. It's not as if the Highland or Lowland Leagues are hotbeds of tactical innovation and youth development because they have a larger league structure. I'm in favour of larger leagues in principle, but the idea that they'll have a significant effect on the quality of football is overstated. No it hasn't, you've set up a straw man argument here.

Perhaps you should try harder and your 'contributions' wouldn't be so utterly irrelevant.

An open but poor quality game between two teams visibly low on confidence after recent form. Arbroath had some concerted spells of pressure to score though I think we probably had more chances in total across both halves. The difference early in the second half was caused by improved decision-making to exploit openings that were present throughout. Precious little for either team to take from that going forward. We just need to consolidate our position and take a ruthless approach to the squad going forward. Other than Quitongo, none of the many players whose jacket should be on a shoogly peg made a case today.

Every team that finishes top of their league should have the opportunity to achieve promotion if they meet the required standards to progress. That's a functioning pyramid structure and already have that in place. There's absolutely no reason why automatic promotion should be granted for winning a league. It doesn't actually strengthen the quality of the levels above if the 'best' from a regional tier comes up every other season and stinks the place out reliably. You're appealing to 'common sense' because there's no other reason to justify your personal preference; having already abandoned the claim that a 'bottleneck' exists in the current structure.

The obsession with 'holding the keys to Bute House' is part of the problem. There's no point being in government when you have pretty much no drive left to deliver serious reforms and the ministerial talent pool resembles three tadpoles in a shrivelling puddle. All parties of government require renewal on the sidelines eventually. Fruit loop Greens letting Scottish Labour in to run a minority administration - while ending Yousaf's leadership - would be the best possible way for the SNP to reinvigorate itself and draw a line under the past few years.

I have no time for West Ham as a club and their nauseating fan base, but this is the wrong take. They want rid of Moyes because their club has collected a large number of quality attackers over the past two seasons, but his tactics inevitably revert to 'shitfest from set pieces and hoof it to the big man, wee man partnership' of Antonio/Bowen. When you do have players like Kudus, Paqueta capable of picking teams apart and others not getting a look in (Cornet was signed for fairly big money and has made 20 appearances in 3 seasons), then it's fair to conclude that Moyes is not getting the best out of their particular squad.

Why would they have to do this to address your weirdo conspiracy theory? Did you attend that play-off? What part of that contest supports your theory?

Abbey Vale are 4th this season with no chance of promotion. A completely competent team at their existing level - not one that has reached a 'bottleneck' from progressing at all. They've haven't lost out on shipping 200 goals in a single Lowland League season, just because a handful of pyramid anoraks insist that All Champions Must Be Promoted.

As opposed to filling it with games against rancid B team outfits which you were all over instead.

The reward for winning a league title is the trophy and status of champions. They are not being denied that by having to demonstrate their worth to move from a local tier to a regional tier of competition, and in turn from a regional to a national tier. It's bizarre that Scottish football has developed this fixation about 'ventilation' and harrumphing about play-offs, when the end result is that the best equipped teams play at their appropriate level and those that aren't equipped do not get caught miles out of their depth by a promotion that isn't appropriate. The only issue I'd raise is that licensing should have been made compulsory and the terms tightened much, much sooner - to stop the likes of Cove and Edinburgh City pushing well above the tier that their overall club structure reflected. That would have rewarded more sustainable development by clubs from the traditional non-league, even if the replacement rate is smaller.

The system is therefore not a bottleneck for the reasons already set out. Which EoS or SoS team are ever likely to be banging their heads endlessly against a glass ceiling from this stage onwards? I'm not seeing any at all - particularly with more clubs likely to enter both leagues from above in the near future. And once the West region finally catches up in terms of licensing, the handful of clubs similar to Bonnyrigg, Linlithgow etc. will progress upwards at a pace determined by merit. The idea that there will be three crack outfits battering down the door to the LL each season if only for the cruel and unfair play-off is a fantasy.

No it isn't, because literally none of the clubs taking part have been denied promotion on a regular basis. What sort of bottleneck allows Bonnyrigg, Bo'ness, Tranent and Linlithgow all to sail through to a higher level without a problem? Have St Cuthbert's Wanderers been cruelly denied their right to err, stinking the place out and conceding 200 goals in one season at a higher level?

None of these points are relevant to your claim that there's a bottleneck in the current system preventing clubs from progressing on merit through the (LL path) pyramid. There categorically isn't a bottleneck affecting EoS teams from progressing. There categorically isn't one affecting the SoS either. So rather than being a 'pyramid' problem, it is in fact a minor issue for one particular, recently-formed league. And one that wouldn't actually be solved by your clamouring for automatic promotion for all league champions anyway.