Leaderboard

The FSS membership went past the 600 mark last night - that's a fantastic jump from 500 about 6 weeks ago. Many pay more than the basic £10 a month also. Moreover it was the one year anniversary of the launch yesterday so that's great news. Thanks to all who supported this initiative and we hope it will grow and grow. We should announce that FSS is the communally fourth largest shareholder in the club soon.

Alert! If you are about to read this on a phone, I’d recommend waiting for a bigger screen…. Your first para probably covers about 95% of Queen’s fans. I can offer my reasoned opinion on the second, based on 36 years of working in the construction industry. Whether it’ll make you feel better, I’m not sure. I’ll not repeat myself about how or why this contract has been let, other than to confirm it’s been done in-house. Never in my experience has there been a project without a Programme of Works. It’s a critical part of a contract and written into the contract terms. Each individual trade is awarded a Trade Package and within that is the agreed dates, between both parties, of when the works will start and end. There should also be mechanisms in the contract where both parties can alert each other to any possible delays that will affect the finishing date, referred to as an Early Warning Notice. This allows a plan of corrective action to be put in place. The agreed contracted dates are also the trigger for penalty clauses. If a trade contractor fails to meet their deadlines without good reason, they get punished financially. Usually by having the associated costs deducted from their final account. At the recent round-table meetings, the club President confirmed there was no programme of works. When asked why, the answer was the contractor refused to work to a programme. In that circumstance, normally, they would be shown the door. As previously mentioned, there is no hoarding with the site information, health & safety information, Considerate Constructor information and most obviously an advertising board with the contractors name. I’ve been told first-hand it’s a company called Calma, based in Rutherglen. What I surmise from all of this is that after the debacle of the first contract, which the Adjudicator found heavily in favour of Bell Building Projects, our lot were struggling (frightened) to appoint another contractor and “someone” has facilitated this company who have taken on the project but entirely on their terms I.e. zero-risk to them. So, when the CEO said what she said last February I suspect (having confirmation from the President that they were still believing the original programme would be met) she was referring to the original programme timeline, superimposed into this year’s calendar. And she had no skill or capability, nor chose to ask those who did, of foreseeing that her programme would not be met, or even close, when you have a contractor deciding what to do when it suits them. It’s been clear to me, and others I'm sure, that there is no trade co-ordination, which means no site management of worth, which leads to each task being done in turn, with no forward planning. And most importantly, no incentive for the main and sub contractors to get done on time. Of course, time is money and I’ve absolutely no doubt this effort is a runaway train in terms of budget by now. The Royal Box was never planned for and it’s the second design team, Arka, involved in that only. As my Mum used to say, a one-eyed man with a white stick could see who’s running, and paying for, that show. More importantly for me, the South stand should have been built in conjunction with the East Stand. The two are physically connected and the same design, materials etc. Critically, the junction of the two is the main entrance to the East stand, something that is mandatory in terms of the SPFL license.. When I saw the drawings introduce a temporary access/egress for Away fans in the East stand, the writing was on the wall. But guess what? Gleeds who were the Project Manager (the money men) on the first project got dropped. And the new team watching the purse are none other than City Building Engineering Services, part of City Holdings. Convenient, eh? Sorry if the blood has gone out of your legs by now but it’s complicated. Believe it or not, this is the abridged version. None of the people involved in the first contract should have got near this. It’s been taken over and run by Team Haughey (Jim Simmonette was around in the early days). And that’s the reason why our “Directors” and CEO are off the radar. With regard to the fixture fiasco…when Neilly from Stenhousemuir spilled the beans a while back the penny dropped. It’s basic arithmetic really. For as long as anyone can remember teams are scheduled to play home and away in consecutive weeks. So if a team is ground-sharing, both leagues involved have to be made aware in plenty of time (Dempster said at the meeting last February she had until 1st March to confirm where QP would play their home games) so that fixtures can be co-ordinated to suit the home-away cycle for both teams. Tricky but do-able for the guys who do that stuff. Introduce a third team into that cycle and you’ve got musical chairs. Three into two can’t go. So without any possible doubt, when the fixtures were put up and season books being printed, our Committee and CEO must have known, must have, that we would be the ones left standing when the music stopped. And so it will remain until we return to Lesser, or the season is finished. I saw a comment about feeling sorry for the committee. I don’t. They were given a lifeline in the summer of 2021 to get help from people in the club who care about Queen’s Park, and they ignored it. Furthermore, they continue to flout the operating rules of the club, as set out in the Articles of Association, by ignoring firstly the membership and secondly sidelining what are effectively events in the Articles that, as per the change to Professionalism, the members should, by Companies House law, be asked to vote for or against changing. Critical events such as the AGM date, submission dates of audited accounts, re-election of committe members, re-election of office bearers. Whilst the professionalism on the playing side has risen sharply, the shady behaviour of the Committee/Directors has taken the values of honesty & integrity, keystones at QPFC for 150 years, in the opposite direction. As for the CEO, nothing but a charlatan. She’s not working for QPFC.

10 for Tuesday, educated guess on the children's book

Always a Celtic fan to come along and ruin the fun. “We might get pumped but we’ll be pure brilliant at it, unlike them!” FFS

What a difference a few months makes, by the way. As we’ve discussed so many times over the last few weeks, the team we have at the moment is nowhere near the finished article, but after the last few years of insipid garbage dominated by charlatans unfit to wear the shirt, manage or run the club, it finally feels like we’re slowly beginning to get the Falkirk FC we all love back. Huge credit must go to the players and management for that. No doubt there will be bumps and justifiable criticisms to come, but to actually be looking forward to games on a Saturday again is a class feeling.

Wow the planets must be in alignment 10 for Wednesday, knew 8 and a couple of good guesses

10 for Wednesday.

Super sexy TEN for Wednesday. Think we've had the British East India Company before and I finally seem to have remembered what vertices are.

10 for Wednesday

To be honest, I'm more annoyed about this than what may or may not be going on with our former chairman. Ask anyone involved with any committee - be it a sports club, gala, PTA, whatever - and they'll tell you one of the biggest problems is getting new members on the committee, particularly younger ones. We had not one, but two, younger guys willing to come on board and they were the only two not to get one of the posts. It may be their age had nothing to do with it but it's a bit disheartening for them and any other younger folk that want to get involved. Also means a whole generation of support has no representation on SMiSA- although not as bad as having no women on the board, which is the case with the club and, it seems, now SMiSA. Would have also have been good to get some fresh faces involved - regardless of their age. I'm sure the four involved will do a good job, but they're all guys who have been involved with the club/SMiSA/whatever before so I can't see much fresh thinking coming from them.

I saw "larkhall" trending and assumed it was laughing at Rangers. Something much funnier as it turns out:

It’s no surprise anymore. Imagine someone like Shearer, Souness or Neville saying something like that, for all their faults you can’t say the main English pundits don’t prepare for their punditry or commentary roles. Even when discussing individual teams, you would never hear one of them saying ‘I’ve not seen much of Fulham this year to be honest’. In Scotland it’s worn like a badge of honour to show ignorance towards our game, at the same time as taking a wage to literally talk about our game. I know I will sound like a broken record because I’ve mentioned it a hundred times, but a taxpayer funded organisation should not feel the need to employ someone like Bonner, who makes absolutely no attempt to hide the fact he hasn’t done a single bit of research in to any team out with the OF. It genuinely angers me that he is still in that job.

This is the equivalent of a guy who’s just shat himself and spewed in the pub and is now laughing at a guy who’s spilt a pint down himself.

So, to paraphrase, its a case of ... "its really, really tough having to try to compete in this tournament against clubs who have vastly superior resources" ... That right, aye? Try explaining that to the other 10 premiership clubs in Scotland. Excuse me if I shed no tears.

This is a disgusting misappropriation of the Poppy. The Poppy is in memory of those who died at the front, half the people in this picture played at the back.

Neither are Dunfermline, according to the 'NW'

Police are hunting for this guy.

10 for Tuesday. Got a mnemonic for the wives, which helped.

That's the OF's Champions League goal-difference up to -31. Great to see them BACK AT THE TOP TABLE, Kenny.

European Super League chat for this shite. Celtic and the likes of Plzen have infinitely more right being in the champions league than the likes of Spurs who havent won a trophy in about 15 years. Watching the old firm get pumped every other week has been great entertainment as well. Long may it continue.

Just as well Rangers B are in the Lowland League, otherwise this might have been REALLY embarrassing

Let me be the first to say, as a humble fan of Scottish Football..... Thank you Rangers. We, and indeed the history books, will not soon forget what you did for us this campaign. You promised good for Scottish football and by f**k, you delivered. An absolute, start to finish compendium of hilarity, incompetence and most importantly, truly abject humiliation and embarrassment. You should hang your heads on shame, but the rest of us.... Well we will be busy laughing for years. GIRFUY club and fans [emoji23][emoji1787][emoji23] [emoji867]

Scotland and England played each other on the 13th November 1999 and there wasn't a single poppy in site. What happened since is that the UK engaged in two wars (both of which were a complete disaster). The US saw during the Vietnam war the corrosive effect of the people hating the troops and made deliberate repeated attempts to lionise the military. The logic is obvious, people are less likely to be against unpopular wars if they love the military and military personnel. And it's far easier to suppress opposition as anti patriotic. When some military personnel eventually engage in total b*****d behaviour - i.e. torturing and murdering innocent people - they are protected in the court of public opinion. Marine A served a token 3.5 years for beating up an unarmed prisoner, then shooting him in the chest, then bragging he broke the Geneva convention. This was all caught on camera, I'm sure far worse wasn't. The poor guy died a horrific death watched on by other soldiers who did nothing (indeed Marine A insisted they didn't give first aid before he murdered him). Most soldiers do a professional job, but the veil of hero worship isn't for them. The original intent of remembrance Day has been b*****dised beyond recognition. Originally devised to stop senseless killing, poppies now adorn military bombers. Sadly, it pretty much reflects the very worst of our society and needs filed directly in the bin. Every year we piss all over the original intent of remembrance Day.

The number of people who can't spell 'lose' is quite alarming.

Mate why do you even bother supporting St Mirren, genuinely? I think I’ve seen about 2 positive posts from yourself towards the team in the many years I’ve been on this forum, and these have came after victories where you had tipped us to lose heavily. We’ve made the best start to a season in the top flight in my lifetime, and every week I see you predicting a loss. Now you seem to have a grievance about the running of the club. By all accounts the current set up is not perfect, but it’s light years away from what it was like under Gilmour in his last few years. I had actually forgot about the Rangers debacle, and he had his face plastered over the back pages of the tabloids stating 10(?) clubs would go out of business if Rangers werent admitted to the Premier League. This turned out to be complete and utter fantasy, and the only team in Scottish league football that has went out of business in recent memory is Rangers themselves. I won’t pretend to know any of the intricacies around the Kibble deal, and from speaking to people involved with the club I’ve heard great things about them and I’ve also heard not so great things. We fought for years to get fan ownership, giving the supporters a genuine association with the club through Smisa, as well as the ability to elect a fan representative at board room level. I’m very surprised that Gilmour received enough votes to get him elected, but it’s happened and we can only hope he isn’t there with the sole intention of creating disharmony at the club, which I fear he is going to do. Im also struggling to think of a reason why he would actually want to come back. He’s an older gentlemen who devoted a lot of his life to St Mirren, and I’m sure most St Mirren fans are grateful towards him for how he managed to leave his position with the club on good footing. I know he likes his cricket and golf, would he not rather spend his retirement years sitting back with a pint or playing a couple of rounds of golf each week? I’m sure his motives will become clear soon enough but it’s a situation I’m finding hard to understand.

I think it's nice that three of Scotland's top clubs now each have a European record. Celtic - first Scottish/British club to win the European Cup Aberdeen - first Scottish club to win two European trophies Rangers - worst record of any team in the history of the Champions League group stages.

They try so hard to be part of the gang... F*** them.

I'm a rather unenthusiastic Guardian reader, finding it less shite than it's rivals rather than actually good, but every now and then one of it's writers really hits the spot - "Either he appointed a home secretary with a vicious demagogic streak knowing she is useless, in which case he has wilfully sabotaged one of the most important departments in Whitehall for no obvious gain, or he did it because he is blind to Braverman’s deficiencies, in which case he shares them." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/02/rishi-sunak-suella-braverman-british-politics-austerity-hostile-environment

I love when people just make up stories nd expect the other posters to believe them.

Coming back from the dead, it's the Rangers way.

I am out of the loony bin. Not fixed, not by a long way, but no longer a self-pitying pathetic mess

-11 Oh if they could only have taken those missed opportunities, how it could have been so different

What a fantastic week for Scottish football! The old firm being humiliated will never not be fun.

GIRUY “Packy”

Couple of utter fucking deviants

Our special episode of the podcast with John McGlynn & Paul Smith will be available from 7am tomorrow morning

Sportsound presentation being taken on by McIntyre, the embarrassing apology and subsequent toadying to rangers, and the introduction of VAR have been the perfect storm. It’s tabloid radio for OF types now. Trying to dig up controversy and drama at every opportunity, the constant over-analysis of every referee decision, all with Allan Preston constantly interrupting with his inane screams for attention. Keep Crichton, Stewart and Loy and take the rest out the back and shoot them. Then run them over. After that start again by begging Richard Gordon to come back. What was once an enjoyable afternoon’s listen has now become an unbearable shambles. All subsidised by the licence payer.

CEO: Missing. President: Missing. Stadium: Missing.

I’ve been a member at Ranfurly Castle in Bridge of Weir for the last few years, and possibly due to the course being in such an affluent place, they seem to have an infinite amount of women members aged 60+. I would like to see Census data from the area because the average age must be about 75. It’s like one of these Sicilian villages where the life expectancy is 98 because they live on a diet of the freshest fruit and vegetables Waitrose can deliver. I genuinely mean no harm towards them though, and I’ve spoken to many of the women either on the course, in the clubhouse or in the car park as they put their clubs and trolley back in to the boot of their Jaguar F-Pace or Porsche Cayenne. They have always been very polite and I’m glad to see them still partaking in a hobby that they enjoy and keeps them in good health. However…There is nothing more soul destroying than rushing home from work, getting a shower and changed into your golf gear, rushing up to the course to meet your friends, only to see 4 women standing on the first tee. I’m not a great golfer by any stretch of the imagination, but when I duff my 6 iron 20 feet infront of me, and then do it again, I’m picking my ball up and telling my playing partners to carry on. Women at my course don’t subscribe to that mentality, and will stubbornly continue to jab the ball towards the hole while I watch on from the tee box, my soul slowly eroding away with every swing. Usually I am in a 4 ball as well if it’s during the week, but I could count the amount of times a group of women has let us play through on one hand during the last 3 years. We’ve actually had a group of women that we played behind for the best part of 5 hours one afternoon, who we then bumped into in the car park when we came off the 18th green, who shouted over ‘I hope we didn’t hold you guys up’. Instead of saying what I wanted to say, which would have been ‘Of course you fucking held us up, you seen us standing on every tee box for 10 minutes watching you and your snobby pals blooter pink Srixon golf balls in to farmers fields, and duff 80% of your shots no more than 20 feet infront of you’, I just said ‘nah yous were fine’, and jumped in to my car to head butt the steering wheel multiple times.

I for one have had just about enough of the the 'us and them' frame of mind which is becoming more and more prevelant within the current political climate, so to see it show itself within what is my partial 'escape' from everyday reality - going to support the Queens and trying to be part of every game - it is, to say the least, highly frustrating not to know what the f**k is going on due to the lack of communication from 'them'?. Throw us a bone here - how about a heads up on completion of the ground and the reasons behind the long delay? - - Surely we deserve at least that given the hoops(npi)we are being asked to jump through regarding dates,times,travel,expenses etc. etc. We, like the current lot down south, are swiftly becoming laughed at for the apparent incomopetence shown and I really hope that it does not end up bleeding into the team's performance on the park --- give us a break eh?

The aggregate scores are fantastic. Rangers 1-7 Ajax Rangers 1-9 Liverpool Rangers 0-6 Napoli

Hi everyone. I've written a wee thing about the QP fixtures shambles. It's nothing you guys won't already know, but my main point is that media outlets like the BBC should be doing their jobs and pushing for clubs like Queens Park to be transparent with supporters and not just shut them out and expect the cash to keep rolling in. Maybe Sportsound could cut five minutes of Old Firm time this Saturday to get someone from QP on to explain themselves. Then again... https://doingthe42.co.uk/?p=133

^^^

The culprit has been apprehended.

Eh predict a riot.

Hopefully he was on the piano.