energyzone

Voluntary ones run by a separate organisation?

Via the WOSFL - by proposing not allocating Saturdays throughout the season for the junior cup. Prioritise the league and the compulsory cups and let the SJFA have the headache of working out when to accommodate their optional competition. That way they can make early plans as to when to have their two-legged semis which causes minimum disruption.

He slagged off the entire WOS league on Facebook!

They get away with it because clearly clubs are happy with the arrangement. I haven't heard or seen any representations to change anything from those WOS clubs who don't participate in the JC.

Surely just because @jimbaxters mistakenly posted it in the WOS forum instead of the Junior one, bless him

I thought so too, mind you it's the stage of the season where players are being approached by other clubs now that certain clubs are confirmed in a certain division. I thought it was strange that he mentioned 6 or 7, not sure how that's meant to make the rest of them feel with 3 matches left, albeit there's nothing much left to play for.

I wonder who the 6/7 players the manager referred to in his post-match interview as having conversations with are.

It was a quarter of a century ago in fairness.

Fans at this level (especially those from Talbot by the way) are notorious for being critical of artificially funded clubs but Gartcairn seem to escape most of the attention. Compare the jibes directed towards Johnstone Burgh and Darvel (and previously Irvine Meadow, Hurlford, Kilwinning, Bathgate etc) to the relative silence towards Gartcairn. At least it was mostly clear who was funding those clubs whereas all we've been told about Gartcairn is that the funders are a bunch of like-minded businessman in some sort of jolly business venture, investing in a club with no fans, while Airdrie and multiple other pre-existing clubs are a short distance away, all of whom would have welcomed the cash injection. They are warping the financial landscape at this level just as much as those other clubs but there is a curious lack of conversation here about it. Maybe the source of the finances is legitimate but it rings alarm bells for me.

Ha, good point. I meant Johnstone Burgh for the third spot - I don't think they are out of the race yet.

I'm going to go for Drumchapel, Shotts and either Blantyre, Rutherglen or Shotts for the third place. Unfortunately with Beith looking like they are winning the Premier then we won't have a fourth team promoted.

The impasse was partially down to the Junior representatives at the meetings giving false information to the rest of the group. I remember the former Kilwinning Rangers chairman saying that their representative at the PWG announced that no West Junior clubs were interested in the pyramid, which was a surprise to him as Kilwinning and others had been working for some time towards a new league structure.

True - four North Ayrshire teams next season. I don't mind playing some of the Glasgow/Lanarkshire teams but the crowds do suffer from a lack of a local rivalry.

On a brighter note, at least we will have another local derby next season with Ardrossan being promoted.

We tried to play the same way as we did last week (to great effect) and knock the ball about but that early goal came from nowhere and rattled us for a good 10-15 mins. Rutherglen are a strong physical side and they completely outmuscled us all over the park and defended very well. We didn't really get any clear opportunities at all and were relying on a second ball in the box. Unfortunately I'm not sure we win any second balls all match. I can't really fault the effort - but the quality just isn't there.