Crazy Feet

The are all in on the Donald Dewar.

Whole weekend will be a write off.

Well the other option is they could take over one of the local 3G pitches with council approval and they would have a few years to get the pitch up to standard, like Drumchapel United at The Donald Dewar. Easterhouse play out of Stepford as well.

Dumbarton or Vale of Leven might take them in as tenants until they get their own park sorted?

I think if you read between the lines in this article St Pat's are definitely thinking about stepping up a level.

Will be a tough league. Be interesting to see if all of their players fancy taking a year out of playing in a top league also before they (hopefully) get promoted to the Caley Prem. Drum have a 21s side but standard of 21s is quite poor at the moment and their 21s team wouldn't get near promotion next season.

How does amalgamating leagues and just proceeding as normal otherwise generate further interest in football? Are young guys who have just left 20s or 21s really going to be motivated to keep playing because the SAFL and Central have merged or the Caley have recruited a few new teams? The powers at be are missing the elephant in the room with the fact society has changed and moved on and many young guys simply don't want to give up a full Saturday afternoon every single week to play football anymore. 35s and Sat Morning are thriving. The Saturday afternoon leagues should be asking themselves why is this? The answer is staring them in the face.

I don't think it's a particularly well run league anymore than the others from what I know. It has the most established clubs and best facilities but that doesn't equate to being a well run league so I know what you are saying. Of the amateur leagues I'd actually say the SMAFA and Sunday/35s Leagues are better run with more progressive ideas than The Caley/Central. Just small things like using an APP for the teamlines, and issuing fixtures weeks in advance allowing teams to plan etc. Small things but they make a difference. Longer term, I think the afternoon amateur leagues need to adapt and become more flexible with their kick off times and even days. Saturday morning is thriving because of the kick off times, and the Over 35s is thriving because they play on a Friday night. These both give the participants the opportunity to play football but still have a lot of flexibility and time to do other things with their weekends also, from family to other social / work commitments. This is the main issue the afternoon leagues seem to be missing and simple mergers of leagues do not fix.

Will The Central still be the place to be when St Pats leave to join the WOSFL?

Drumchapel's arse collapsing? Two bad results on the spin and well beaten last night (scoreline making it look closer than it was).

A switch to summer football and the potential for Friday Evening games would go a long way to saving the amateur game imo. Young boys just don't want to give up their full Saturday afternoon every week anymore, society has changed and the genie isn't going back in the bottle. The amatuer game needs to adapt.

The clubs the Caledonian League are looking to attract and bring in, albeit maybe not very top amateur teams at the moment (Drum Ams aside), it is all clubs who have good facilities and an infrastructure behind the amateur team from youth level all the way up to amateur football. So you can see what they are trying to do with the teams they are bringing in.

But they were, certainly against Aberdeen.

All over the world in every league, it's nearly almost the team that spends the most money who wins the league every time.

Beat Falkirk and Ayr at home and you're playing in Hampden. What an opportunity.

Why does leagues merging save the amateur game? I don't get this argument tbh. Surely at a simplistic level, how much the game propsers boils down to how many guys want to play football v how many teams operate in the area? I don't think the SAFL joining The Central is suddenly going to make hundreds of guys lost to the game start playing football again. Numbers of participants dropping is by far the biggest issue. For the last decade, participation has steadily declined which resulted in there being too many clubs within a small area and the fallout from this being a lot of clubs folding. The problem will fix itself naturally when there is enough players left willing to play combined with the right amount of clubs within the area still operating.

Nonsense. The reason leagues are demising is due to the number of players taking part falling dramatically and there being too many teams / leagues in the central belt. But we could talk about that all night and the reasons for it.

I think it looks like The Central are just bringing teams in for money / to get the numbers up rather than looking to improve the quality of the league. How many of the teams joining from the SAFL are established clubs with top facilities etc? How many of them will come over and compete in the Premier League? If the rumours are true around other central clubs then it looks like a bad move. But I guess the Central's loss will be The Caley's gain.

More to follow from The Central? This merger looking like a horrendous move by the Central League.

Drumchapel Ams confirmed as joining the Caley League for next season.

I'm assuming the merger with SAFL clubs but that is just speculation. One of the big central clubs has already applied for another league with potentially more to follow if rumours are to be believed.

A little birdy tells me some of the Central big guns are not happy at the changes. Interesting few weeks/months ahead.

Was nothing wrong with the speech at all for what was the biggest game of all of their lives. Maybe if they got cuffed 5-0 after it, it would be embarrassing that he said he didn't see them as underdogs and basically felt they could win if they believed in themselves.

Good luck to them I hope they do it but I think their journey comes to an end tonight.

Aye it didn't work eh? Deary me!