craigkillie

I honestly just had it in my head that it was initially supposed to be called A/The View from the Lockdown and someone had made a mistake in the first week which you ran with. I feel stupid now. This might be considered too close to the title of a popular BBC Scotland football show (watch it this Friday night at 10:30pm and now on the iPlayer for 30 days) for a completely unaffiliated podcast to use without getting into trouble.

I'd have thought the use of the word "previous" to mean "the one before that which you were discussing" was fairly obvious, so no idea why you chose to be deliberately obtuse. The issues with the defence in the two September came mostly from McTominay's inexperience in the position - both goals which we conceded stemmed from his poor positioning and had nothing to do with McKenna or Tierney. The overall blame for poor performances were much more down to the attacking players than the defenders though - it's not like we conceded a ton of chances in those games.

I can't remember who came up with it, but I assume it was a play on the title of a popular BBC Scotland football show (watch it this Friday night at 10:30pm), where we were recommending things to view (and listen to) during the lockdown.

If we're still in the same boat come December, the SFA should genuinely think about moving the Scottish Cup final to Inverness, Dingwall or Elgin and letting the good people of those towns attend the game.

I think I still prefer the old format too, but I think the current one works better while we can't be in the same room. When there's three of you on a Zoom call it's hard to make the conversation flow and you also often end up talking over the top of each other unless it's very structured. The other advantage of the current format is that the guests can generally spend more time focusing on the games they're discussing, because you each end up only having to cover a couple of games and therefore you can actually spend more time on them rather than trying to focus on all six. For example, this weekend I was able to watch St Johnstone v Dundee United in its entirety (unfortunately) whereas normally I'd probably have spent five minutes on it. The stuff about the time is fair enough, I find them a bit long too. The problem is that it's really difficult to get through the games without getting carried away. I hosted one of them a few weeks ago and I think it ended up being about 90 minutes or so, even though it didn't seem like I spent very long at all with any of the guests. Fowler is a bit better at keeping a lid on things, but even his have been a bit longer than normal. When (if?!) we ever get back to some form of normality I'm pretty sure we'll return to the old way. I'm going to be honest, when I saw Tony was hosting this weekend I thought it was going to end up being about five hours long - I've never known a guy who is so relentlessly enthusiastic when talking about football. The running order for these shows is nothing to do with the games and more to do with who is available when - Fowler allocates us the games and then whoever is hosting sorts out the times. The only reason Adam was on first was because he was the only person who could do Sunday night, while Thom and I could do earlier and later on Monday respectively. I have absolutely no doubt that if I'd been on first then Tony and I would have spent about 40 minutes talking about Killie v Hibs and another 20 on the Saints v United game, and the others would have needed to be cut short as a result. I agree with the comment above that the Old Firm fans who contribute occasionally are judged much more harshly than anyone else. For example, I'm sure I've been guilty of bringing everything back to Killie in the way that he did with Rangers, but nobody is nearly as bothered about that. I suppose that's reasonable enough though, we hear enough Old Firm coverage elsewhere so it's natural to be fed up of it. As @thisGRAEME already pointed out though, it's hard to put a line-up together for the podcast when the TV show is consuming every waking moment of five of the regular contributors. That means we occasionally have shows where we need to bring someone else in, and it makes sense to look at people who have experience in podcasts or other broadcasting and who we know are going to be reliable. Given the make-up of the country, that inevitably leads to sometimes having Old Firm fans on. I listened to Monday's show earlier and I thought Adam was pretty good, he provided good analysis on the two games even if it was naturally viewed a bit through a Rangers prism.

He is now, but the bulk of his career has been in the second tier.

Yes, playing regularly in Serie A is exactly the same as kicking about the Portuguese or Spanish second tier or being a sub goalkeeper in Greece.

McKenna and Tierney both played in the back three in the previous international break.

Gallagher is much taller than McKenna and Cooper is about the same height as him.

The new format has been announced by the SFA, and it's not really in line with any of the ones outlined here. Thankfully it includes every eligible team, kicking off with two preliminary rounds in November and December and then Round 1 on Boxing Day. https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/scottish-cup-202021-format-confirmed/?rid=2107 They've called it a reduced format, which it is, but the round names are a bit of a red herring, since the 2nd Preliminary Round is not really a million miles off the usual Round 1, and then there's a knock on effect on all the round names from there. I guess that is mainly to get round sponsorship issues with the two tournaments overlapping.

But Glasgow is in Tier 3, and their work would be open.

Brophy doesn't look fit enough for 90 minutes right now. I'd stick with the same midfield and attack for this and just bring in Findlay and Millen for Rossi and Dikamona. We'll win 2-1 anyway like we always do so not too bothered what line-up we go with.

The SPFL rules say that streaming can continue as long as we are still in the "Restricted Period", and this includes any time where there is reduced capacity.

This isn't really true, is it? United's season ticket was sold on the basis of giving fans a credit for every game that they've not been able to get in for after the first three. Therefore letting these ticket holders in for a game reduces the club's liability come next summer. Perhaps in reality most fans won't claim this refund anyway, but the club can't be absolutely certain of that.

This isn't really anything to do with the SFA or the Scottish government - it's up to each individual club to make that decision once they are allowed to have fans. I don't see any reason why the SFA would be blocking clubs from having fans at games once the government allows it - all of the SFA's advice to clubs to date has been based directly on Scottish Government advice. Until now, the restrictions have been at a national level so it has made sense to have a single set of rules for clubs. The idea that they are going to intentionally deny dozens of clubs across the country the chance to generate income purely to satisfy some need for consistency across the country doesn't seem hugely likely to me, particularly when it's based on government guidelines. If, by December, there are some areas of Scotland with big stadiums in Level 1, but Glasgow isn't, I can even see them considering moving the Scottish Cup final to one of those areas if the logistics allow it.