The_Kincardine

Of course it was a good result but what's that got to do with his usual predictable pish? As I see this part of the thread there's only one diddy with predictable pish and it's certainly not the bloke from M'well...

What a desultory outcome that was for us - we really let Villarreal off the hook.. Arfield should be dropped for missing that opportunity close to the end of the game after great work from Dorrans. I suppose a draw in Spain is OK but it really should have been so much better...

Aye, it's my fault, Dindy. I'll add 'homophobic' to my list of P&B epithets...

I know that the answer is 'very little' but you have to ask what occupies the mind of the empty-headed diddies when they trot out phrases like, "Literally get away with Financial doping". Still, it's my diddy phrase of the day. Take a bow, @DeeBairn.

Ejeria and Jack both out for tomorrow and oor Alfie suspended. Let's hope for Wattie levels of bus-parking and, at best, a draw. The back 5 pick themselves so I'd go with: Candeias Arfield Coulibaly Halliday Kent Lafferty

It's a fair assumption that Rab is aged at least 45 so if his auld man liked 'Boyne songs' he could easily have supported Hearts, Dundee, Airdrie, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Clyde or Cowdenbeath - all of whom featured in Scotland's top flight in the 70s and many of whose fans liked a wee nod to King William and The Boyne now and then. Your statement really doesn't narrow things down much.

Agreed. The upside is that none of that has happened on this thread.

Wee bit of drama queenery there MT. Anyway, I have no beef with how our fixture list turned out as I hinted at. It wouldn't have made any difference. I am, though, astonished that a club chairman would lift the phone to Peat in the way that he did. Aren't you or are you inured to the hatred that has come to define Scotland?

This is the point that your post founders on: All three Scottish clubs who have won European trophies, your own included, would have forsaken domestic titles for European success.. I know that supporters of your own club, in its season of glory, would not have swapped their CWC win for the a league title - though you came within a baw hair (or a bad draw against Hibs) of carrying off three trophies that year. I actually think that we weren't good enough to win the EL in 2008 whatever preparation we'd been given beforehand, that our best player was Wattie, and that we'd have been found out anyway. However, any Rangers fan I know would have happily swapped a league title for another European trophy (however theoretical that was). So your point that, "They wanted help to win the UEFA cup and also for it not to f**k up their chances of winning the league" is utter nonsense. You also missed the major point on this topic - as do most posters. Peatgate isn't about whether Rangers received/didn't receive help. It's about a chairman of a club lifting the phone to the SFA Chairman and asking that they don't receive help in a European competition which has absolutely no implications for any other club in Scotland. This is why I often refer to Scotland as a nasty, pernicious wee country and, to your credit, you are the only poster who actually agreed with the chairman who phoned Peat. Still, what a shite way to live your life.

This may make sense to some but I don't even have an O Grade in Diddy.

Sure, but only a fool would judge the right number of fans who should be supporting a team. You stating 'too many' puts you in the same camp as Boab stating 'not enough'.

1. You are right. I haven't stats to back it up but, anecdotally, you don't seem to get anything the same number of armchair QotS fans as the likes of me - fans in (now) name and Rangers TV only. I have to take issue with the estimable Boab on this point. 2. That's entirely moot. Folk can identify with whichever club they want, surely? When I browsed through the threads earlier there was some fool berating, of all things, people from Livingston supporting Rangers rather than Livi. This is idiocy writ large. There are folk from West Lothian who have supported Rangers longer than Livingston has been a town!

I am shocked, Rab. In the nasty, bitter, parochial wee country that Scotland has become Peat only received one such call? Clearly another example of club chairmen being out of touch with their fans.

Well there is the cultural aspect. This is partly (though not exclusively) down to P&B turning from a broad-ranging discussion forum to a Sevco-obsessed mess. You saw this when our manager made a throw-away remark about referees after the Aberdeen game. I counted 7 active Rangers threads that evening. This is horrific stuff. Now I know that Ken Fuckall is trying to be tongue-in-cheek in his post but, in his clumsy and inane way he isn't wrong. I quote: The decline has been gradual over a few years but has accelerated rapidly over, say, the past 12 months. Like you, I'd prefer it to be reversed and would start with the board's structure. We currently have too many forums and sub forums. The present set-up needs to be pared back. We have a structure that was fine when active users could be counted in their thousands and match threads could attract 411 users and more. We now have hundreds of active users and match thread numbers can be counted in their tens on a good day. What we have, though, is the equivalent of an old country mansion with several wings which, at its peak, was occupied regularly but has been near-abandoned apart from a few rooms. The upside of a serious rationalisation and culling of forums/sub-forums is that it brings the active users together rather than dissipating them as it does now. As a trivial example, I browsed through the board a few minutes ago and had no real memory of us having an NFL thread. Seems to be fairly active but is hidden in the bowels of the forum. Equally, looking at posts about Scotland requires more clicks than is necessary and the 'Tartan Army Ramblings' is in an odd place. Streamlining the board would, hopefully, draw one in to some new topics and make potentially popular topics easier to access. 'Easy to access' is, of course, important. The likes of you and me who have posted on here for a decade plus may be ok with such a clumsy arrangement but the competition for P&B is Twitter, Instagram and indifference. Easing the board's accessibility will stave of the competition pro tem. The cultural issue of indifference is trickier. How you get a discussion group dominated by Sevco-obsessed, empty-headed Yesser sweetie-wives to be winsome to new entrants is much trickier. This is one I'll leave to people more adroit with social media than me.

That, apparently, is the best team in Dundee. I hate to think how abject their DayGlo neighbours must be then. The last time I saw such a useless shower of impotent wastrels play at Ibrox Celtic put 5 past them. Aye, Dundee even managed to eclipse last season's Rangers in their incompetence. Some good performances from us with special mention to P&B's bête noire, Andy Halliday. Terrific shift from him and he's doing well under Stevie G. Maybe, as he's not the brightest, just carrying out simple instructions well? He's certainly started the season competently. Shame that wee Alfie's lovely goal was chalked off - it'd have been our 2nd best goal of the day...