Gordon EF

Clyde - the lesser of two evils. Hoping East Fife do their part in stopping EK and consign Clyde to 10th tomorrow, as they probably have a better chance of winning the play off than Stranraer.

As opposed to East Kilbride who have rocketed from their lowly position in the Lowland League to their current lofty position in the Lowland League. And it only took a small fortune and an army of ex-SPFL mercenaries to get them there.

They voted for B teams. f**k them.

It would. But it means their relatively OK performance last season doesn't mean much compared to what's a very different side this season. Nobody's under any illusion that going down would be tough. Partly because any decent players would picked off and you'd be shopping in a lower quality market for replacements.

To be fair, they were plundered for all their decent players. Albion Rovers last season without Charlie Reilly would have bombed.

Look on the bright side, you'll get a seat, cover from the elements, and access to actual toilet facilities.

Bonnyrigg adapted far better to the conditions than we did, both against and with the wind. Today exposed some of the weaknesses from earlier in the season and teh reality is that sometimes you get games like today and you have to be able to deal with different kinds of conditions. We didn't do that. Bonnyrigg did, so fair play. After 9 games unbeaten, that was a bit of a reality check and I'm sure the Campbells will have learned a few things about our shortcomings so hopefully this defeat can help us stamp those out for next season. Whilst the play-offs are technically still possible, realistically, they're out of our reach now and Spartans will get the final spot. The overall performances and results have still been excellent since the Campbells took over and it's still impressive that we've gotten so clear of the bottom and and least given Spartans a little run for their money. Huge result for Bonnyrigg though. I'd imagine that will be enough to keep you guys away from 10th place.

Wonder if someone like Gary Naysmith would be a good shout for the u21 or u19 job. Former international, decent pedigree as a manager. He'd likely see it as a step up and probably won't be on the radar for top clubs jobs. Always quite liked him as a manager.

A pretty enjoyable game that. Elgin can probably feel a little hard done by given how much they contributed but we deserved the win. Elgin are clearly a much improved side from the one earlier in the season and I don't think you need to have any worries about relegation. Really good to see Jack Healy continue his good form with two great crosses for our goals.

I'm not suggesting some kind of contractual set up where punishments and rewards are triggered. It's just a rule of thumb that if we're qualifying for tournaments then Steve Clarke is doing a good job. If we're advancing in tournaments, he's doing an excellent job.

Watching Wales lose on pens was infinitely more rewarding.

Is it OK to just put the Wales game on?

Scotland's on fire....

At least the Queen's still dead.

Describing McCann as "Anglo" earlier as well. What a stupid teuchtar c**t.

Patterson has been an absolute bomb scare.

On goalkeepers, barring Craig Gordon playing most games for Hearts between now and June, the keepers will be Gunn, Clark, and one of Gordon/Kelly. This is going to depend heavily on whether Gordon is back to the required fitness level. If Clarke and his team, believe he is, I've no doubt Gordon will make the squad. If they don't then it'll be Kelly. I'd loved to have seen Craig Gordon make a total recovery and get game time at the Euros but unfortunately, I think it's unlikely. Although, personally, I'd have him on the plane if he feels he's fit enough and is assesed as fit enough.

We shouldn't. And if I was the SFA, I'd be making it clear that qualification for the Euros is the minimum expectation and progression from the group is the stretch goal, in terms of judging Stevie Clarke's performance.

There's little point in putting out a total B team. I'd imagine it'll be largely the first 11 with a few inclusions that he wants to have a look at (Ferguson?) and a few exclusions based on tiredness / burnout.

Against Netherlands, clearly. In qualification, only Spain, France, England, Belgium, and Portugal scored more goals than Scotland (discounting goals against the bottom side in 6 team groups). And I seriously doubt we created significantly more chances than sides who scored a similar number of goals to us. Our finishing has been absolutely fine in competitive games recently.

All blue = shite Yellow all over the place = shite Shite kit

Obviously i've got no idea what the SFA's metrics success are but I think there's a danger of retroactively setting expectations. Before the Euro-qualifiers kicked off, it was far from consensus that we'd qualify automatically. Plenty of folk on here thought we'd either not qualify or it would be a real dogfight between ourselves, Norway, and possibly even Georgia for 2nd place. Anecdotal obviously, but I remember looking at international forums and the consensus was generally that Norway would qualify ahead of us. Since we pished qualification and ended up giving Spain a bit of a run for their money for a while for 1st place, it's easy to look back on it all with an air of inevitability. That absolutely was not teh majority feeling before a ball was kicked. There was plenty talk of it being a good thiing we had the play-off spot in the bag, etc. I'm absolutely confident that Steve Clarke will be given the next trournament cycle, no matter what happens at teh finals this summer. it would be insanity on the part of the SFA to ditch him any time soon.

Playing at NDP is just a battle. If you can battle and have at least a tiny bit of quality, you'll likely sneak a win by virtue of having at least a tiny bit more quality than Bonnyrigg.

The Scottish media's anti-East Fife agenda is obvious and sickening.

The league belongs to Stenhousemuir. Only the most jittery of Stenny fans or the most deluded Peterhead/Spartans/Dumbarton fans would think otherwise. Well deserved not only because they've clearly been the best and most consistent side over the season but for their long-suffering supporters who've never seen them lift a league trophy.