Kicker Conspiracy

Buchanhaven beating Broughty is a bit of a shocker! Good to see three North teams in the QFs though and at least one in the semis - recent years it's just been Banks o' Dee if anyone at all at this stage.

At least you can see something some of the time!

Campbeltown - Vale of Leven seems to be missing from round 1?

And I went la la la la la la la la la la la la la Oh la la la la la la. Just like everyone else does when they can't think of any more words (Half Man Half Biscuit, Venus in Flares)

You'd think so, and to some extent it does depend on which cups teams enter, but even so the Lowland League fixture list is pretty chaotic and there are often missing weeks. Shire didn't have a game on the first day of the season, and even in the middle of March we now only have one real game (i.e. not against a B team) left this season - and even that one was postponed from earlier in the season.

I like the way you think they care about the League and Challenge Cups!

Has there been any announcement about how this will affect promotion and relegation? Only one team down?

So the plan is to continue with 19 in division three and 12 in division four in the following seasons as well? Seems a little, well, eccentric, to say the least.

There's nothing wrong with the Highland League; it certainly doesn't need this kind of shite.

They've already finished their games, so I'm not sure there's much they can do now!

Absolutely agree Dave. Very disappointing second half for Shire after being completely in control in the first. Both Bo'ness goals were great, though, and we never really tested your keeper after going behind. Gutted that we didn't make it, but good luck in the final next week.

Shire have just tweeted that we have been drawn against Caledonian Braves next Friday. The winner to play Edinburgh Uni or Bo'ness (who played each other in the group stage). The other half of the draw is East Kilbride v Berwick and Gala v Broomhill. QF 22/23 April; SF 7 May; Final 15 May

Great to bump into you again Marten!

Pretty sure these are all R2 ties.

I got 75 from a headcount at the Dunipace - St. Andrews game on Tuesday.

That's a long term goal for me too I suppose. Although of course the actual number of grounds on your list will change each year, even if you restrict it to the Pyramid! Be great to hear how you get on. If you haven't done so already, the Futbology app is good for keeping track of where you've been (it tells me I've been to 123 grounds in Scotland so far, including quite a few which no longer exist).

At the risk of going off on an irrelevant tangent, is there a reason why you are so attached to this particular archaism? Language changes, and this particular bit changed a few centuries ago!

If you're American, maybe.

This is absolutely brilliant, I do hope you can manage to keep it all updated.

It would be cracking if the Scottish Cup actually was organised like this, with all the junior teams involved.

Or another way of looking at it: Finish 14th out of 16 (third bottom) you are down, finish 14th out of 18 (fifth bottom) you stay up.

I agree that it seems inevitable, but you never know. It didn't make much sense to me as an outsider for Burntisland Shipyard to be the only Fife team in the EoS for years and years when there were umpteen Junior teams on their doorstep. It could have been to keep their Scottish Cup entry, but Girvan were always a precedent in having membership of SFA and SJFA at the same time, so I'm not sure it was that. Anyway, it would be an interesting, if odd, mirror image situation if one of the Fife Juniors refused to move even while everyone else left.

I counted 42 at Arbroath Vics-Lochee Harp yesterday.

38 at Nairn St. Ninian - Montrose Roselea in the first half

I counted 154 at Pumpherston - Armadale at the start of the second half this afternoon.