The Mantis

Aye Schoenfeld (sp?) to city centre is a piece of piss. Can't go wrong with Berlin even (especially?) this time of year, masses of things to see. One thing I did was take the train out to Union Berlin's stadium in Köpenick which is in the former DDR. it was 2008 but it had a very East European feel compared to West Berlin. Also the Olympiastadion, Jesse Owens and all that.

Off to Cove de Piedade v Benfica B tomorrow am followed by Benfica v Boavista afterwards.

They were sending up the Shetland detective thing.

Hope Shire stay down for a year longer. Firstly, because youse are all decent c***s, it's been a real pleasure, and secondly, if say Cowdenbeath or Berwick come down it will strengthen the reputation of the LL and possibly bring on automatic promotion in future. EK can f**k off to the big leagues, ambitious unlikeable c***s that they are

Guilty m'lord. Since it's only 4 days you could stay around Reykjavik and use the buses although they're pricey - if you use them a lot you'd be as well with a car. You wouldn't go much beyond the golden circle in that short trip. There's a lot more to Iceland than that tiny SW corner so you need to go back in summer for a week or more. There's hostels across the country if the hotels are too pricey. Definitely use Sadcars. What some people haven't mentioned is, the mountain roads, the ones that start with F, are off-limits anyway unless you have a 4x4 or want to void your insurance. Most of them will be closed for the winter. You do get the odd gravel road but Sadcars won't be bothered about a few chips in the paint. Hotel - wise I've usually stayed at the Fosshotel Baron.

Cheers for that, haven't been paying attention recently, quite a change in fixtures. We're going thurs 12th for a week so it's just a case of what Mrs Mantis will put up with

Aye, just checked and the England & Wales version is 1983. Garden centres? My wife's tried that one a few times

I've got 2 editions of FGoGB, the 1987 one with a predominantly white cover, and the 1996 one (mainly green). Even in that short span the grounds have changed a lot. Both of them appear to be on eBay for just a couple of quid. A real cracker of a coffee table book is Football Grounds From The Air (2006) by Ian Hay. It was priced at £20 but I'm sure I got it at one of those bargain books places for £6. A few guys at work went and got it too, including legendary groundhopper on here, Rab B Nesbit

I'm familiar with Lewis & Harris but that's all, they're only remote if you're somewhere else

Dave, that top one isn't Stornoway Utd, it's Ness again from a different angle. Utd share at Goathill with Athletic (Aths) which is in town. The bottom one doesn't appear to be in Lewis or Harris at all. No idea where it is though. EDIT- it's a neutral venue at Ullapool. Obviously it's now time for a shameless plug for my blog on Lewis & Harris which is HERE

There's a huge thread floating about somewhere but I can't remember where. It was active till 2 or 3 months ago. Loads of old ground pics. Anybody help? Edit - Found it HERE

I saw him a couple of weeks ago at Oriam. Scored a hat trick against Hearts in the youth cup. Oriam Blog.

I've just done a blog about the new Oriam Centre. I suppose that counts as quirky

It sure was. This was discussed in another thread but fecked if I can find it right now. I've got some decent photos so I'll do a blog about Bayview some time soon. If anybody's interested I've just done a blog post about Oriam the new national performance centre.

Decided to look this up but couldn't find sizes for Hannah Park. Pitch sizes in the laws of the game are: 100-130 yds by 50-100 yds. Hampden, McDiarmid and Caley Stadium are all 115 by 75. Ibrox is 115 by 78. Celtic is 105 by 68. These are all from footballgroundguide.com.

That looks like the ground record v Rangers in 1969. I was there, a lot of us young laddies were sitting on the track. 25225, not a lot of people will believe that Goalie is Stewart, 6 is Mitchell, and Penman and Stein of Rangers. Ayr 2 (Young, Ferguson), Rangers 1 (Stein).

Aye no problem, it's just a scan off a Kodachrome slide so the quality's not great.

That's a bit cheeky. I always try to give people credit for photos where I can but things like this make you want to just put a watermark across it. The first Easter Road shot on P7 is mine too and it's been cropped.

I actually took this one, back in March 1998, but some c**t has cropped it

No problem in a wet suit though, or even a dry suit. I was last there in 1996, replay v Whitehill, winner played Celtic.

Broch down to 8 men and still the Rose couldn't beat them.

Not at all, old chap. Just a polite request are you sure Jack never whooshed you

I wonder who that could have been

Sounds quite an eventful game. I know you're an EK fan but is it asking too much to get a team sheet so you could actually name some of the opposition? Even the scorer at least.

I'm going by soccerbase which has been reliable in the past. Certainly has the matchdays in order which is the main thing. Also the official UEFA site. Times are likely to vary but it looks like the top league is always Sunday. I also use the groundhopper app for iOS which is absolutely brilliant.