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First game played at McDiarmid on this day in 1989. Not been a bad 33 years. Unless you support St Mirren, who haven't finished in the top six once during this period.

Called this 18 months ago when it became obviously that all cancer and other targets had been ignored whilst we "dealt" with covid. Who'd have thought terrifying people into staying in the house and insisting they don't bother the NHS would lead to massive delays in diagnosis, treatment and lead to excess deaths. Seen it so many times, "why have you waited so long", the reply invariably is "we didn't want to bother you" Who'd of thought cancelling thousands of operations and appointments would lead to pre existing conditions becoming much worse. This of course doesn't include the discharge of addictions patients as apparently you didn't need that during a pandemic and the policies that fuelled a massive mental health crisis I'm thus country. Chuck in waiting times through the roof thanks to decisions taken during lockdown the service is on its arse. Of course nobody will be held accountable as they were all just keeping us safe despite ignoring their own promises, the science etc when it suited to continue with awful lockdowns. Incredibly sad and tragic for those now paying the price and who already have .

I sorely miss this annual publication, the Bible of Scottish football back in the day, I started collecting with the 1984/ 85 edition, And bought it every year until it stopped being produced. Thanks to eBay and online bookstores I finally managed to get all the early editions to complete the collection.

That statement might as well say that TJF- or any other fans' party interested in the shares -could have had a copper-bottomed and costed plan to provide the club with millions of quid a year and unicorns that shite out rainbows, but they were always going to work with the PTFC Trust despite them not having any sort of coherent plan, leadership, or communication

Ipsedixitism.

He trained exceptionally well , showed no signs of lack of fitness , he had a training plan sent to him weekly from the club whilst abroad , could feature on the bench tomorrow and reckon should be fighting for a start against Dundee

It was a really exciting time to be a Saints fan. We rose up from playing in front of 1500 (and far less in the really dark days) as a part time club in the bottom league, to being full time and regularly filling McDiarmid in the premier league. The stadium move and success on the park combined led to the most interest in Saints in the town I’ve known, probably only rivalled for a few weeks by the build up to the 2014 cup final. With new stadia not that big a deal nowadays, it’s easy to forget how massive a move it was at the time. I think only Scunthorpe in the British leagues had moved to a brand new ground in recent times, it was unheard of in Scotland. We benefitted from bigger away crowds as well, as everyone wanted to visit. 8300 for a top of the table early season clash at home to Morton in the second tier seems wild nowadays. The other thing was that first season at McD we won the old first division playing the most attacking entertaining football I’ve ever seen us play, and carried that on into the first half of the next season in the Premiership.

Thanks

Some signing that for a club facing financial meltdown.

You trust the other supermarkets? We were eating horse for months without knowing about it. Donkey's years in fact

I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a player to not be shite as much as this.

ThrobAir

"The type of performance that can unite the divided Thistle fans". f**k OFF!! On field performance is irrelevant when people are trying to steal the club you jaundice looking c**t.

Spot on. This DMing folk, getting their pals to go "I know him, he's been a Thistle fan for years' and one on one chats can get to f**k.

That announcement video is absolutely superb I've no idea how this will work out. If we'd lost our first three games then it would look like the panic button - but we've started the season well, and the big man made an impact last week. He's also a player I've always liked. So it's a signing I'd really love to see work out.

The owners got me a gift, actual f**kin tears.

Gogic has signed.

News reports that emergency services "raced to the scene" of an accident. Surely their first priority should be in getting there as soon as possible, not indulging in childish competitions to see who does it first?

No matter how good the content i could never buy anything called "pinch of nom". That's 360° toe curling.

I might be in the minority but I like the white shorts with the Partick Thistle strip

Kicked the Boo-kay.

Fraser is a decent player i would rather we let Flynn go.

And yet there’s still people inScotland who think we benefit from being part of the Union. It makes me despair.

Check out some instagram cooking pages, a lot of people fire up recipes with videos showing them making it. I realise this is just a small thing. Cooking actually really helps with my anxiety, turns out for some reason I'm quite good at it (I used to have no clue, my missus taught me the basics) anyway, the level of focus required for multiple dishes or something complex takes my mind away from whaetever probably ridiculous reason is making me anxious. Finally managed to get back into weightlifting again, another great go to for my anxiety. Not sure what it is, probably chemical related in my brain, maybe dopamine? But lifting always gives me a great feeling during and after, lasts for a long time. Sometimes so upbeat that I can't sleep as I'm excited to do it again. Weird. Ok bit of a brain dump there, hope you guys are all doing well.

10 for Friday, sometimes I fall at the last, today was a lucky guess.

Could be a key man for us.

No bother Neil Oliver. Thank you.

That greying team in 2034 would still end up pumping Falkirk in league one tbh.

Went to two Falmouth Town FC games this week. The first being the home game at the weekend against clevedon town and a big 4-0 win to earn their first 3 points since promotion the season before. 4 goals in the first half, which really could have been more, as the referee inexplicably blew for HT as town were through on the keeper. After the half it was a non entity with the job being done and the only effort of note being clevedon hitting the upright. The second was last night. A 3-1 win against Torpoint Athletic, winners of the eastern conference last year and promoted alongside town. Started with the big centre back for Torpoint sparking out the wide midfielder for Falmouth in a high ball challenge, where he led with his elbow. A red card anyday and right in front of linesman, who flagged and then told the ref it was a 50/50 gone wrong. No booking and even more shocking, not even a talking to. Falmouth again we're 3 up at the half and again the intensity dropped from KO in the 2nd. Torpoint quickly getting a goal back but the game fell into niggly fouls and dirty play and the ref almost lost control of the game. For the 6 pound entry fee a great couple of days out and a great atmosphere. their left midfielder Tim Nixon could play at league 2 level in Scotland and do a job

In games like this Firhill must be one of the worst stadiums televisually...the Main Stand empty, the terrace to the left derelict and overgrown with weeds, only a smattering of fans behind the other goal.

Meanwhile chez Greenlantern...

…but, is it a typical Robinson signing? You can never find a Motherwell fan when you need one.

These days, right, you say that you're Rangers and it's estimated that they'll spend £196 million to maliciously prosecute you.

They also never cost £26,000,000 Mind you "Gaelic Dictionary" and "Gaelic TV" are both on their too so I'm just gonna presume it was written by a fucking c**t. Jist got dotted by the idiot. Now we know who wrote it.

I think the only really decent day Alloa fans have ever had at Airdries current ground was winning the Challenge Cup Final there vs Inverness in 1999. That play-off semi final performance was indeed a shocker and we were very fortunate to come away from that with only a single goal deficit. Like the Airdrie fans referenced, I cant even remember the game right before the play-off semi where Kirkpatrick scored the winner, even though i was definitely there. I think we had already qualified for the play-offs and Im guessing Airdrie were also pretty much there too making it a very low key affair. As for last season- in the first fixture there we left ourselves with too much to do after Airdries second which was an absolute worldie- but we should have really taken a point on the balance of play. The boxing day game was a disaster sitting incognito amongst Airdrie fans (away supporters banned due to Omicron outbreak) 2 down after a shambolic opening 10 minutes. When Airdries third went in (another cracker) part of me was actually hoping Airdrie would get a few more and perhaps accelerate our previous managers inevitable slide towards the exit door. Alas Euan Henderson put in a consolation goal almost immediately for Alloa to scupper any hopes of that happening. The podcast with Kevchenko,KierenAAFC and AndyDD is a really good buildup for the game for both sets of fans- worth a listen tomorrow morning pre match if anyone hasnt already done so.

We've often got our best loans in late August as the top flight teams make their final decisions on their squads and hopefully that will be the case again. A striker is crucial - we aren't going to carry enough threat with the current options in attack - and I'd be disappointed if we didn't add another LB too. Or we could just bring Dougie Hill back again, it's been a while since we last signed him. That said, I'd be sticking with Church on the left in the meantime. Really enjoyed the podcast again but was a little surprised with the suggestion that the complaints over Taggs on the left against Edinburgh were a case of hindsight. I've been banging on about it for months and I saw several fans commenting in the aftermath of the Kelty game of the need to get our best players in their best positions. Taggs should be on the right flank unless it's an emergency and Cawley should be further up the park where he can really influence the game. We are weaker than previous seasons and have to make the most of these players.

Fucking hell................

That's one of your better ones

Where is the source before I cream myself? Scott Burns just confirmed he has signed a 2 year deal.

David Martindale: I’ve got baggage but I have no problem with that — I’m to blame Livingston boss admits his drug-dealing past will always haunt him but he’s determined to carve out a bright future Martindale savours last week’s victory over Hibs at the Tony Macaroni Arena ALAN HARVEY/SNS GROUP Michael Grant Friday August 19 2022, 12.01am, The Times Share When rival fans want to verbally abuse David Martindale they select from quite a stock of ammunition. “‘You’re fat’, ‘you’re bald’, ‘you’re ginger’, ‘you’re a drug dealer’,” he says. To be fair, it’s not exactly a list of defining characteristics you would chose for your Tinder bio. “It’s pretty brutal at times but I don’t take it personally. I’m thick-skinned.” Lately he has been called more than that. Take it as a sign of how far Martindale has come that these days some seem to regard his biggest crime as being a Rangers fan who has the audacity to take points off Celtic. In the court of social media the manager with by far the most remarkable back story in Scottish football doesn’t get credit for spectacularly punching above his weight — Livingston’s resources are about 1/60th of Celtic’s — but instead suffers primary one-level accusations that he sends his teams out to try against Celtic and lie down to the team he supports. “This theory about ‘Davie Martindale tries harder against Celtic’, I’d love to know how you put that into practice,” he says. “Six of my players are Celtic fans.” He was born in Govan and naturally his dad first took him to Rangers. Even when he moved to live in Livingston around the age of ten he returned regularly to spend holidays with family. An aunt lived directly opposite Ibrox. “I don’t understand why there has to be this stuff about ‘bias’. People are a product of their environment. You grow up in a housing estate in Glasgow and it’s hard to shake that. I grew up in Govan and spent most of my childhood and every school holiday there. But I’m a football fan first and foremost. There have been times when I really enjoyed watching Celtic. If anyone calls themselves a football fan and says they didn’t enjoy watching Henrik Larsson I’ll tell you they’re a liar. I used to love watching him. Shunsuke Nakamura. Lubo Moravcik. Loads of them. I loved watching their great teams. “If an Old Firm game makes no difference whatsoever to Livingston then I would want Rangers to win. But if they’re playing each other and it affects Livingston, I want the result that benefits us. I would sit supporting Celtic if they were playing Kilmarnock and Kilmarnock were a point behind me.” ADVERTISEMENT Brendan Rodgers drew and Neil Lennon and Ange Postecoglou lost their first away games against Martindale’s Livingston (and essentially it was his team even as the assistant manager to others and power behind the throne before he took over in late 2020). There have been draws against all three of them at Celtic Park too. “We must take the plastic park with us,” he jokes, a reference to how often any good Livingston home result is attributed to their artificial surface. With a budget of only £1.4 million, the smallest in the Premiership, he remains the last manager to have inflicted a league defeat on Postecoglou’s side all of 11 months ago. This is all humdrum football stuff, itself a sign of the reinvention of 48-year-old David Martindale. For a while he was the interview they all wanted as the convicted and jailed drug dealer-turned-football manager. Early in 2021 he spoke to journalists all over Britain and even from France and Brazil. Friends and contacts in Australia and Italy got in touch to say they had just seen him on television. Football Focus did a feature on him. “I said to the club media officer I’ll do any interview that comes in, just schedule it and tell me. I tried to be open and honest. I think I actually got to the point when the public said ‘we know this story, going to shut up talking about it’. Even I was getting bored talking about ‘Davie Martindale’s story’.” Martindale has been open and honest about his past mistakes CRAIG FOY/SNS GROUP People warmed to him because he took full responsibility and made an open book of his time in organised crime. In 2004 he was arrested when a major cocaine gang was busted and then received a 6½-year jail sentence in 2006 after he pleaded guilty. He was 32. While originally on bail, he enrolled in a construction project management degree at Heriot-Watt University and crucially the university allowed him to complete that when he came out of prison. Reinventing himself continued when he began volunteering at Livingston. The club took him in and he slowly grew in influence and rank through a combination of energy, hard work, commitment and ability. Today he is a walking advertisement for rehabilitation and second chances. Despite the inevitable shouts from rival fans he is seen by most as just another manager now, a highly-talented and meticulous coach and a respected peer of all the other bosses. Well, so it seems from the outside. SPONSORED “Maybe within Scottish football,” he says. “Not so much down south. There you’re not Davie Martindale the football manager you’re Davie Martindale the convicted drug dealer. What does everybody do when they meet somebody new? They put their name into Google. So you put me in Google and it throws up the story. That story has maybe dropped ten places now, it’s more about Livingston, but it is all still there. I’ve not got a problem with that. It’s me that made that problem.” A phrase he uses is about still having to climb the walls he built around himself. “You can still feel it in general life. I have had offers [from other clubs] but I don’t think I’ve had a lot of offers. I’ve got baggage. I think Malky Mackay is one of the best managers I’ve come across. Malky has a little bit of baggage [from offensive text messages]. My baggage is far bigger than Malky’s and Malky still has hurdles to overcome, which I find incredible.” Every so often he will be watching TV with Martha, the wife who stood by him through jail, and their ten-year-old daughter Georgia when a prison drama or a news item about jail will come on. “You get a flashback. I don’t really worry about things I can’t control. I can affect the future, I can’t change the past. “I never used to see my crime as having a victim. Cocaine was synonymous with ‘Hollywood’ if that makes sense. Only when I went to prison did I realise there were actually victims. I genuinely hadn’t thought that for one minute but I saw it when I went into prison. So I regret that and of course what I put my family through. I was on bail for two and a half years and in prison for three and a half. There’s six years of your life. You’ve got to have a mental resilience to try and get through that.” ADVERTISEMENT Actually taking drugs wasn’t for him and he was only a moderate drinker but in his social circle in west Lothian — amateur football, the pub — the culture of drug use and dealing was around. “I would walk into a local pub and there would be drugs lying on the table. Machetes. Other instruments lying there. That was normal to me. People taking drugs off a table and having a bottle of Budweiser or rolling cigarettes with whatnot in them. That was just normal. I was in that environment. I think a lot of it stems from poverty. Where did my greed stem from? Probably poverty. I never really had a lot in my family life. I wouldn’t say we were poor but we definitely weren’t well off. I wanted the nice trainers. I wanted two pairs of jeans. I wanted an Adidas tracksuit. I wanted a bike. I never had a lot of those things. I got my meals and roof over my head. “The adversity I’ve had in life is probably unique compared to most football managers and that has given me a different skillset for the job. I rely heavily on my intuition. I am very intuitive in terms of sussing players and getting the best out of them. I probably lived on my intuition for 15, 20 years. What are you doing in prison every day? You look at the people around you and working on intuition. You have to, because you are in a dangerous situation nearly every day.” Prison life prepared Martindale for the stresses and strains of football management CRAIG FOY/SNS GROUP During prison visiting hours friends would tease him that he had adapted so well to jail he seemed to be enjoying it. So, so wrong, lads, when he could not be with Martha or his young son at the time, David. Close family began to mean even more as the number of visitors dwindled. “It’s only when you’re about six months into prison that the phone calls stop. The letters stop. The visits stop. And all you’ve got left is a close-knit bunch, a core of family and friends. That’s when you have a massive reset.” At first the headlines were negative: in 2015, “Livingston FC under fire for giving coaching role to drugs crook”. The coverage changed and softened as his qualities and engaging, candid personality emerged. The media’s tone was markedly different by the time he sought the SFA’s approval as a “fit and proper person” and was ratified as manager in 2021. “I don’t think I would be sitting here today if it had been negative. I think Scotland as a country can be very positive when we need to be. We’re good at knocking people at times but when people need your help we are a good country. We want to help people. I think people from working class backgrounds can maybe relate to me slightly.” Not only is he in with the bricks at Livingston, he laid some of them. During lockdown he was classed a key worker and could be found at the stadium with a toolbelt to help build new gym facilities. He can reel off precise figures and percentages about what different final league placings, or visiting supports, or VAR, or Uefa solidarity payments or umpteen other factors will have on the club’s budget. “I run the department. I do all the stadium management. Sometimes I go home at night with a lot on my plate and I’d love to just concentrate on the coaching side. I’d like to just be a first team manager. But I’ve got a lot of autonomy at Livingston and I think that is one of the reasons it works. If I ever did leave Livingston I would have to adapt.” Already he is third in the list of the Premiership’s longest-serving managers behind Callum Davidson and Robbie Neilson. “That’s disappointing. That’s how society is going in general. We’re always looking for something better.” Even so, it would be only human nature if he eventually looked for something better himself. There have been three or four offers from other clubs over the years including one in the summer. There is a highly capable manager there for any club prepared to weather an inevitable reaction to appointing him. Livingston were within 16 minutes of beating Rangers on the opening day and then took six points from Dundee United and Hibs. It suits them to be lazily dismissed as physical and basic when that does not fit with the profile of their squad nor a regime drawing heavily from sports science, nutrition and data analysis, much of the latter by Martindale. “I’m not thinking ‘I don’t know what else I can achieve at Livingston’. There is always more to achieve. Can we get European football? I would like to think so. In my mind that would be a huge achievement. ADVERTISEMENT “I owe this club so much. I know money is important but I try to take the financial aspect out of the job. I get to put my daughter to bed every day and get to take her to school. I generally sit down to have dinner with my family four or five nights a week. I am in a privileged position. I would say I am content. Only if someone phones from England one day and says we are interested in Davie Martindale would I go and speak to John [Ward, the chief executive] and Robert [Wilson, the chairman]. And only if they said ‘we think that would be good for you’ would I explore it further. “But if my wife said she didn’t want me to go, I wouldn’t go. When times were really tough, she stood by me.”

Low and the Trust gang are hoping that we don’t and that the animosity will all just fade away within a week or so. And in the past I think they might have been right, but this time it feels a bit different. Now that we have a vehicle like TJF to keep everyone informed and engaged, hopefully we can keep the pressure on until these b*****ds realise this isn’t going to work.

some unhinged and ill-informed indy supporters spouting and shouting nonsense at a on his best day, competent, BBC reporter - nothing short of horrific. Such hateful scenes. Successive Tory Govts feeling more and more enabled to make vulnerable and ever more poorer people at the bottom end of society destitute and without hope or options, whilst they fill their pockets through self serving decisions that benefit less than 2% of the population (supported by the "opposition" who are content with the current voting and establishment structures) - that's politics. Nothing to see here.

Just worth mentioning, for those unaware of the nuances of the FK postcode but, Dawson Park was a school in the Falkirk area for handicapped children and ones with special needs, it was often used as a (poor taste) jibe to people growing up who 'weren't the brightest/not the full shilling' back in the day, in retrospect symptomatic of humour in the 80's and 90's where stuff like that was deemed acceptable banter. Reading this guys posts on here one can understand his username choice and how he must think it's hilarious.