Shanner

The guy is such an arsepiece

(Without eating a pie or dispatching a toley).

I suspect you may be proved right but I'm still in a jaunty and upbeat frame of mind about the situation.

Right, intae thse basturtz Talbot.

Tune in next time for more vague, verbose pish...

Good stuff!

Has the new fella planted the Junior flag atop the pyramid Reichstag yet?

The crumb of comfort I'm holding onto is that we can't be as poor as last week. I think we'll make a game of it and win on the night. Hopefully it will be enough.

That clears it up.

I actually thought it this was the thirty page Junior Takeover bonfire thread. You're right about not infecting innocent threads with pyramid pish tbh.

I don't think Clydebank have ever been the highest placed team with a licence. Talbot would have had the pleasure!

You also said "random team" in a post before that. As for your second paragraph - no I'm not and I'm not sure how you've arrived at that conclusion.

everyone and their dug favours straight promotion, that's a given I'd have thought. I'm pointing out that the current imperfect system would be improved by letting the highest licensed sides in all divisions enter the LL playoff pot rather than sending our apologies from the WOS because our champions don't have their shit together enough to get a license again.

saying random repeatedly does not make it so. You're also predicating your argument on me being a fan of the current playoff and promotion set ups; I'm not, and those are a separate issue to this. If my team won the league in the WOS I'd very much regard it as a cracking stroke of luck if they were allowed to bypass the minefield of a game against a decent quality EOS opponent (in any format). I say luck, but it would actually be tinged with a bit of professional embarrassment at having dodged a bullet that other teams before didn't.

in what way does this actually undermine anything? whst are you saying is devalued? Nobody's saying they should face a random team - it's the highest-placed team satisfying all the criteria for promotion. Giving the East teams a free hit at promotion against an SOS side as we currently do is a bit farcical in itself as they're benefiting from the WOS winners lack of a bit of paper as you put it.

It's not really undermining anyone. Hypothetically you could have a team with no intention of seriously pursuing promotion or a licence spending the money they're saving on that process on their playing squad. Not very good for the integrity of things. Win the league, get your trophy and if that's the height of your ambition then it shouldn't really be a problem if another side steps up to the plate

Yup plenty of precedent for it elsewhere in different forms. As we're in a setup where even qualifying Champions don't get promoted automatically it's not something I anticipate changing anytime soon.

Thank you!

Nope.

We can go back to within 3 points of them if we win the games in hand. I can't see us winning all of our remaining games which is probably what would be required to give us a hope.

Not beyond the realm of possibility that Largs could nick the runners up spot.

Rob Roy 4-3 Cumnock Troon 2- 0 Glenafton Whitletts 1-2 Shotts Perthshire 0-1 Kilsyth Rangers Bellshill 1-2 Threave Glenvale 2-1 Saltcoats

fair enough post - I don't see the SJC as something that has an absolute right to exist at all costs and I'd be surprised if there are many left that really feel that it is a hill to die on in terms of returning to the Juniors as a way to preserve it. It should always be as flexible as possible IMO. The arguments for keeping it are still more compelling than the arguments for scrapping it at this point, especially when a lot of the "scrap it" camp are unabashedly motivated by an unhealthy dislike of the Junior grade with the SJC being the preeminent symbol of that. The question of why so many people are desperate to essentially vandalize a competition that still gets a great level of fan engagement at the turnstiles is the one I always like to try and get answers to because football is all about the fans and getting shot of a product they are demonstrably still attached to really doesn't feel like the "good guy" argument in this. So if we are going to get shot of it any time soon the arguments need to be far stronger than the stuff on 99% of this thread and should include attractive alternatives to the SJC to gain some buy-in from the SJC participants because that would be walking the walk in terms of being progressive.

not sure of the exact figure mate. was certainly over 1k.

I'm becoming convinced many of them don't know themselves and just toe the party line on the topic. there will likely be about 6k over the four semi-final games - a healthy figure that you will seldom anywhere else at non-league level.