craigiemack

Agree with what you say here ekok. I went to dalbeattie twice and found it one of the more enjoyable LL away days. Nice town, good pubs and a good set up at Islecroft. Feel a bit sorry for the Star, they've had some good squads and great players over the years but have just always found it difficult to keep hold of them. I don't think we won down at Dalbeattie until our 4th season in the league, they were a bit of a bogey team for us. I think they'll do well in the SofS but will only ever find their way back to the LL if they are the only licensed champions, which is very unlikely.

How many has Richard 'Ricky' Miller played for? ETA: according to tranfermarkt, Shire, Gala, 'Broomhill', Berwick, EK and Tranent. Although Shire in League 2, Broomhill when they were a past existence and Tranent in EofS. But he has also played for Vale of Leithen, Selkirk, Whitehill and Preston. What a player, what a man!

Andy Shirra will be appointed caretaker, will oversee a backs against the wall 1-0 win over Caley Braves then be appointed permanent manager. There is no other outcome.

Was never a huge fan of Del as manager but obviously he’s a club legend and has put an incredible amount of time and effort into the club to keep us going so for that fair play. Ure was manager for some of my favourite ever days as a Shire fan, namely.. Huntly 1-4 Shire, Scottish Cup Civil Service 3-4 Shire, two last min goals Shire 5-1 Lithgae Rose, SCC annihilation Spartans 1-2 Shire, LL Cup Semi Final Dalbeattie 1-3 Shire, a personal favourite Shire 2-1 Berwick, Offords Challenge Cup securing goal. So for those days and the memories he gave me, thank you Derek and good luck in the future The club must now get a new manager in place. The problems at the club run much deeper than the manager but getting an exciting product on the park is the only way we can entice people back. All I ask is that we employ someone that has no connection to the Shire, if we do, which I am 99.9% sure we will I honestly just give up. The full club has a losers mentality, accepting mediocrity is the shires core value. We need someone to come in and completely change the mindset of the club. If we don’t then it’ll just be the same of excuses and players getting away with murder.

That was just an incredible watch. The intensity and physicality of the game was unreal. Can't help but feel that was a big missed opportunity for NZ, all 3 Aussie tries were avoidable. I can't believe Hughes grubbered on the 2nd tackle, Australia weren't set and they had the chance to at the minimum get a repeat set, i'm sure if he had his time again he would've done anything but kick it.

That was a great game between Fiji and NZ, lots of training session games this WC as expected so was great to watch a real competitive game. As I posted earlier I was at the Fiji-Australia game and thought the Fijis more than matched them in parts. Tonight they probably should've knocked NZ out, some soft tries conceded and they really should of went for a drop goal at 18-12 to make NZ score twice in the last 15. Samoa/Tonga tomorrow and the two semi finals sould be great watches.

Beating Own Goal Cumbernauld in whatever laughable form they call themselves will never be boring. Inject Si Ferrys tears right into my veins.

Quite a lot of replies so ill try work through them. The main point is the pyramid is flawed and it will never work unless there is a mass resructuring, which in turn would never be voted through. At the end of the day the inbalance between north and south will never create a fluid pyramid. If there is going to be no change in relegation from SPFL2 then i'd like the LL to be either 14/16 teams with 3 going down. It would still mean a lot fo the league are playing for nothing but would surely open up more teams to the prospect of relegation. As shown in the table this season with the tightness of the mid table teams. 3 Champion Clubs going up. Preferably though the SofS goes to Tier 7 and the 2nd place in the East and West play off for the 3rd promotion spot. Again though this will never happen because clubs won't vote for more relegation. My radical change for the pyramid would be for the HL and LL to be replaced by 4 leagues of 12 at Tier 5. A HL, Midlands and Fife, East and West. 2 relegation spots from SPFL2 with a playoff winner from HL/Fife and East/West going up. Perhaps if SPFL2 was increased to 12 then you could have a play off place playing the 2 losers. That way its more localised, particularly in the Highland 'area' and if there was ever a disparity in teams the Falkirk/Stirling/West Lothian/South Fife teams could easily move about leagues to solve this. But nothing will ever change. The SPFL clubs are never going to vote for increased relegation and neither are the LL clubs. The extra hundred fans teams get at Colts games will be enough for them to keep voting them in and eventually when one of them wins the league I would not be surprised if for an extra 5k the rules are changed to grant them the right to promotion. I'm seriously at the point where i wouldn't mind getting relegated this season to just get out the LL, its an absolute stain on fitbaw in Scotland - I'm sure Berwick and Cowden fans will eventually begin leaning the same way.

Every team in the league from Spartans in 4th to Hearts in 16th have nothing to play for and its only October, they won't win the league and won't be relegated. If Shire win a couple games in the next month then we'll be safe (although we're 99% safe already) We've also been knocked out the Scottish and South Challenge Cup so we won't play a game that really matters until the LL Cup in April. How can clubs attract fans when there is literally nothing riding on games?

It genuinely baffles me that people want bigger leagues. The LL is an absolutely abysmal league to be apart of. The Shires attendances are dwindling and its because we are literally playing for absolutely no reason. In the SPFL 6/10 league positions have a positive/negative result meaning that almost every team will still have something to play for until well into April and the middle of the table teams can often be playing for playoffs at both ends at the same time. That attracts people to games and makes a much better spectatcle. If the LL was a 10 team league it would be one of the most exciting in Scotland.

we lost 6-0 have a word with yourself hahahaha

It’s actually impressive how difficult we made batting on this pitch look. No boundary in over 10 overs is absolutely abysmal stuff

johnathan davies is insufferable isn't he

I was at the Australia v Fiji game on Saturday night, almost 14000 there which was a decent turnout considering England were playing earlier in the day. I'm a big league fan but this was my first ever time at a game live. It's certainly an easier game to follow on the TV with the close ups of the rucks etc but you really don't appreciate how hard the hits are and how quick the game is on TV. The crowd was certainly on Fijis side and the scenes when they opened the scoring was something to behold. The cold and the rain didn't help the quality but Fiji were in it until just after half time, they blew a great opportunity knocking the ball on in goal at 12-4 which would of kept things interesting. Josh Addo Carr is a freak, his long range try and the speed he was going at was quite unreal. The Aussies quality and fitness showed but it was a decent game to watch. The main thing I will take away from it is what a class act the players were. At the end of the game pretty much every player walked round shaking hands, signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans. A few of the big names didn't but DCE, Tedesco, Val Holmes etc all went round every stand. And special shout out to Cam Munster who was still on the pitch at the back of 10 chatting and having a laugh with the fans. I'm sure after playing 80mins in freezing conditions for them the last thing they would've wanted to do was walk around taking hundreds of selfies but the 20 seconds they spent with each fan are memories that last a lifetime and inspire the next generation.

Nico Hynes of the Cronulla Sharks wins the Dally M, he’s also eligible for Scotland and would be some coup if we could get him for the World Cup. Hoping Campbell Graham is also in the squad but wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the Aussie squad.