AlansHotBath

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/sep/16/zander-murray-comes-out-as-gay-scotland-gala-fairydean?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other A historic announcement- Gala's Zander Murray is the first Scottish player to come out as gay while still playing. Hopefully one day this will not be news, but in the mean time I am sure he will be an inspiration to people in the Scottish game, and we can move onwards further towards a type of football that is genuinely welcoming to everyone. I am sure this was not an easy step to take, but fair play to the club as well for giving him a platform and a place to feel comfortable enough to do it.

That's all games postponed this weekend (and likely next weekend as well for the funeral). I'd have thought ploughing on with the TheTradeRadiator.com South Challenge Cup Second Round would be a great mark of respect for the Queen, but it is what it is

Surprisingly good performance and result last night against St Mirren B. I thought we'd get leathered, especially when I saw Brophy in their starting line-up, but I suppose he's no match for Connor Greene and Tony Coutts. Hopefully use this to get the league season back on track.

That'll be the chippy lights back on then

I was at the game last night and thought it was overall a decent performance. Ewing does indeed look like a pretty commanding CB and should form a good partnership with Greene, and Honeyman, a winger recently signed on loan from Falkirk, looks very exciting. He created our goal but we didn't do much attacking in general in the second half so he wasnt able to have much more impact on the game. The main downside was Andy Kay getting a straight red for mouthing off at the ref, apparently refs have been told to clamp down on that from players this season so hopefully that's a lesson learned. My main concern is at fullback, we've definitely downgraded there and in particular the guy playing LB looked about 12, very quick but I can see him being bullied off the ball a lot this season. We tend to do a lot of work through our fullbacks so hopefully that is something we can tweak and accommodate for over the coming weeks.

I think Shire will finish midtable, I'm not really familiar with the guys we've signed and I haven't been at any of our pre-season games, but even if we stand still I think Bo'ness and Open Goal Broomhill Football Club will improve, and it was fine margins for us finishing above Berwick and CSS, so wont take a lot for us to slip down a few places. Mind you, I thought that at the start of last season and it went better, so who knows. We may be reliant on loan signings again over the course of the season. Edit: plus the inclusion of Cowden and Tranent, who I probably expect will be looking to finish in the top 6 In terms of real teams who can actually be promoted, looks like East Kilbride and Spartans will be favourites imo.

Spotted this in the Ardeer thread: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20220707/282943863967591 According to "Lowland League sources" their payments are up to date but they want to distance themselves from the company.

Interesting approach. I wonder if eventually they will just go all out and have folk pick the team via the app.

Well, they won't get any money for sponsorship but iirc the league didn't have a sponsor before that anyway. I suppose they've got their otherwise pristine reputation in Scottish football to consider.

Not really sure what this company's deal is, they seem to only exist to sponsor football organisation and then not pay up. I saw they'd taken over Ardeer Thistle in the WoS recently.

I'm not really a fan, but I will wait to see what they look like in person. Didn't like the previous ones much at first but they grew on me after a while.

Either no punishment, or a points deduction that doesn't actually mean anything at the end of the season (at least until they manoeuvre the Colts into competing for real and being able to enter the promotion play-off). Also of note - they appear to have removed the age requirements, or at least are no longer mentioning it alongside the above. I think this was also spotted in the initial pitch to have colts for another season earlier in the year.

Welcome to the Lowland League, where half the threads are the same 5 people having the same argument about the Dutch and Crotian youth set-ups for eternity

He was rubbish for us as well a few seasons ago at this level, I think Forfar actually paid a transfer fee for him when he left, staggeringly. He should sign for Berwick this season to complete the full set.

West clubs do often come across as being more parochial and Junior-obsessed than the east, although I'm sure there are a few chairman and fans who are keen to move up. Anyway, congratulations to Tranent, it's good to see the LL slowly getting stronger despite the efforts of some of it's current member clubs.