garrellburn

Your'e probably correct in that Rossvale have a regular guaranteed income from all the parents of the younger kids who play in the age group teams but I would imagine rthat most of it is also spent on them. However they must be paying decent wages for their junior side otherwise they would not have attracted the players . Their fanbase is minimal, no doubt about that and whether they can continue the present model long term is in my view doubtfull. Gartcairn come into the same category and have similarly enjoyed a quick success. It will be interesting to see if both can move up and establish themselves in the higher leagues.

Some debates about penalties go on for weeks here. I'm very disappointed that you've given in so easily.

Surely not the worst you’ve ever seen. It was soft but it was a penalty. Your boy was a bit naive and gave the referee a decision to make. There is absolutely no debate about this one. It wasn't a penalty, it wasn't a foul, I'm even doubtful if there was any physical contact between the players. But the referee gave a penalty. Only he can explain why. But he won't, of course, we just have to accept it and move on. Viewparker says it was; you say it wasn't. Isn't that debate?

All this debate about "was it a penalty". it is happening at every level, watching Match of the day and its just the same, penalties awarded for minimal contact and that's by referees who are full time officials, getting £5000 a game, never mind £50, have full time assistants, 4th and 5th officials on the touchline, VAR, goal line technology, fifty TV cameras trained on the play from every angle, and still people argue about decisions. Its the modern game and no longer a full contact sport. In the good old days a team was lucky to get half a dozen penalties in a full season, now its unusual to have a game without at least one; and two or more is not a rareity. It does usually balance out over the course of a season but I would rather it went back to good old fashioned tackles being allowed in any part of the pitch. It won't though.

Alzheimers setting in?

Cursing like a navvy dosn't make him brilliant. A very cheap way to get a laugh.

!03 goals scored in our division already, that's 4 and a bit per game, the highest average in any of the four divisions. You have conceded 20 in three games so if you were to continue like that you could be correct, but I don't think so. Not even Fort William have conceded that many in a season. It may not be looking too good at the moment but things can change pretty quickly.

The official attendance at this game was 7714. It was a sixth round Scottish tie whiuch ended 2-2 , Rob Roy won the replay and went on to lift the cup. The highest ever attendance was 8876 v Broxburn in a replayed sixth round tie in 1951 . That was the first junior game I ever attended. There may well have been an even bigger crowd at a tie v Petershill in january 1959 when it is estimated that over 1000 Petershill supporters broke in , coming down from the main road , over the railway line which used to run behind the ground and the wire fence which was no real barrier to them. That game was one of the first to be filmed for Scotsport by STV. Unfortunately the film has been lost, believed destroyed in a warehouse fire many years ago, but the result was good, a 4-0 win for Kilsyth although we lost to Carluke in the 6th round with 6300 present. I would put the absolute capacity when both ends were fully terraced at around 10 thousand.

Glad you enjoyed your visit today, although probably not the result! Won't comment on the game, enough of that else where. We have made a lot of improvements in recent years, latest was total refurbishment of dressing rooms after an arson attack last year. Pretty certain they can now stand comparison with any others in the junior game. Before that we replaced pieshop and toilets aabout three years ago. The terraces on the west of the tunnel were relayed about six or seven yeats back when we also removed all the old terracing behind both goals and grassed it over, it gets cut regularly. The dugouts, tunnel walls leading onto the pitch and walls in front of the terraces were rebuilt about ten years ago though unfortunately sub standard brick was used and it is spalling quite badly in some areas. Enclosure roof repainted with a sponsors name last year. It has to be one of the largest adsvertising boards in Scotland at over 300 feet long. Boundary fencing replaced on two sides of the ground as well a few years back. Club hut refurbished, we took it over in a semi derelict condition from Glasgow Rangers supporters club. A pretty comprehensive list as I am sure you will agree, but still a few jobs we would like to do, looking forward to our visit to your own ground later in the season to see the new covered enclosures, etc. Quite a few other clubs have made improvements as well, Perthshire is looking much better than it did a few years back and the new grounds at Renfrew, Port Glasgow, etc show that despite ruimours to the contrary the junior grade is not dead just yet. It is changing but a lot of clubs are preparing for a new era, the name may change but hopefully the clubs will survive. PS Enjoyed a chat with Tommy Flynn, recalling the games he played against us in the 1950's.

Approx 500 words, if you can't do twenty words a minute its time to go back to typing school. So about 25 minutes + thinking time = six hours.

Agreed, the explanation from Valeman has the ring of truth about it, unlike some of the other comments. Staggering that the design of a facility such as this can be left to someone with so little experience of what is really required. I wonder how much he gets paid? Salaries for top Council jobs are out of all proportion to the abilities of the people holding them it seems from all the cockups that we keep hearing about. Havn't been to Port Glasgow yet, but I wouldn't say Carluke is the ideal example of a new style ground, spectators are too far away from the action and the hilltop location is a bit windswept. Renfrew is still the best so far, but nothing to beat an old style ground like our own providing that it can be properly maintained and updated as necessary.

Overall Kilsyth were undoubtably the better team going forward but our defence needs strengthening urgently or we will find ourselves cut off in the bottom half. David Waters is being sorely missed and no adequate replaclement has been brought in. Salim has now failed with two penalty kicks although Danny Smith, our best player on the night, netted when the keeper spilled it. We were rather unlucky not to get an equaliser in the last few minutes when Rossvale were on the ropes but thats how it goes. As for the venue, it is one of the worst for spectating that I have ever been to in over sixty years of watching junior football and I can tell you I have been to some real dumps, but it would have cost no more, probably less to put decent terracing along the FULL length of the side opposite the sports hall and a little covered area such as Renfrew have would be pennies compared to what the entire complex must have cost. But that has nothing to do with Rossvale, it's all down to East Dunbartonshire Council who obviously have no idea of what is required for a proper junior venue. I wonder if NEW ADAMSLIE will turn out any better?

Rutherglen Glencairn and Cambuslang Rangers as well. Going back to the days before the West Region Shotts won two successive promotions and were champions of the top division in the following season. This was after they had been banned for a year for being naughty.

Yes, add 3/4 and you will have a starting eleven.

Thats very true. We'll see what you can do at Thorniewood, wishing you thge best of luck there, its a good club with very good people.

A good start in our friendlies, but brought back down to earth in games against Harestanes and Lithgy. I'm sure big Jim is getting a good squad together and we'll be an improvement on last season but not expecting miracles.

Little doubt that Holm Park will hold more spectators but I would think Lochburn can easily take at least 1000 so should be adequate. Parking is the biggest issue for visituing fans; bearing in mind tthat both are "visitors". Maybe 20 cars in the area just outside the entrance, most of which will be taken up by players and officials. The road heading up to the canal (Lochburn) allows for some parking but not really enough for a club with perhaps a couple of coaches as well as more than a few in cars. Never found it a problem to find a parking space at Holm Park.

Names evolve through time as the main activity of the club changes. Queens Park are undoubtably the oldest club which played ORGANISED football in Scotland, but they were simply following on from the example in England where a set of rules for the game had been drawn up. Queens Park's main activity was cricket and they wanted to play another game during the winter months. They needed opposition of course and contacted the Vale of Leven sporting club whose main activity was shinty, but also partcipated in cricket, quoiting and rowing. The rest is history as they say, and the game quickly caught on but the names of the clubs did not immediately change to reflect what soon became the main activity of the club. Many clubs which sprang up played a range of sports and some had the suffix "Football and Athletic Club". The "athletic" part was dropped as football became the main activity of most of them. It was perhaps natural that only the town name or other suffix reflecting the cultural leanings of the club, e.g. Celtic, Harp, Hibernian, was retained. New clubs still being formed today seem not to have any suffix in many instances. I never hear Rossvale, Gartcairn or many of the new Lowland league clubs being referred to with any other added part to their name. Maybe we should just refer to them by what most of their fans call them, "the Gers", the "Tic" or "Hibees", the "Peasy" and so on.

Don't think anyone really knows apart from themselves. It was a show of hands (holding red or green cards) and although there were 4 reds it would be hard to say who they were bearing in mind the brief time they were in the air. It was just noted as an overwhelming majority rather than an actual count. There may also have been one or two abstentions so not neccesarily 121 in favour, but a clear result nevertheless.

Are treason and arson in a naval dockyard not still capital offences? Who will hang for this? Nominate your man.

Taken in? admitted or duped?

Shock tactics are often the best!

Well, it's taken nearly 250 pages and almost 5000 posts to get completely off the subject ' junior football, what is the future' but we have finally got there. It usually happens somewhere around the second page

Not since Yokxit, it is now an independent, self governing entity, you have to produce your passport to gain entry to Holm Park.

What about Rob Roy, he was a well known rover. The club named after him have roved from East Dunbartonshire into North Lanarkshire, but that was long after Queen Victoria snuffed it.