AlansHotBath

If Broomhill do go down, there is the potential for them to try to get into the West and ground share/build at a non-licensed ground, with the potential long-term goal of coming back to the LL after making the necessary upgrades. That of course would depend on the owner's appetite to run a 6th tier with no immediate hope of getting back to the 5th, which given they seem to have sacrificed their relationship with BSC for a say in the running of the Lowland, I am admittedly sceptical about.

I think the desire to nominate a league from Club 42 is less about what is easier and more about being able to continue a model of having players based in the central belt and just travelling for games, rather than relying on a more local base. Whether that is sustainable or sensible is another debate, but in any case it's not something the league structure should be amended to facilitate. Although I would be funny to see a lowland club go for the HL thinking it was easier, they finish 3rd and are then stuck there forevermore.

Now there's a cross-over between two of my niche interests I never thought I'd see. For a bit of context, NJPW's attendances are notably low atm - Korakuen Hall can seat in the low 4 figures iirc - due to various elements including the pandemic and poor booking over the last 2 years.

Disappointing, Bonnyrigg were simply better and able to do everything they needed to better. The space they had in our third for the first and second goals was absolutely ridiculous. Losing two so quickly allowed them to slow the game down and keep control without much hassle. I have to question the logic of switching to a back-three for this game, not necessarily in principle, but I think this is the first time we've played that this season and switching to an unfamiliar formation in the biggest and probably toughest game of the season is dangerous. Out adherence to passing out from the back is increasingly frustrating as well - we aren't good enough to do it, never mind against a team like today; and what little joy we did get up front came from playing quick balls up to Healy and Watson (who, very small silver lining, looked potentially really good as a front two). I am not sure how many times we tried to pass it short from Connelly to Gibbons, who immediately passed it back under pressure so Connelly could just hurriedly punt it nowhere, or indeed what it was supposed to accomplish.

I am nervously excited for the big cup tie today - Bonnyrigg are the better team overall, but I don't think we are a million miles apart, and we are in good form coming into this, it is well within our grasp to win it if the lads can rise to the level of their better performances from this season.

I confidently predict: Broomhill v Tranent ( Tranent) Cowdenbeath v Civil (Civil) East Kilbride v Stirling uni (EK) East Stirlingshire v Bonnyrigg (Shire 10 - 0 Bonnyrigg) Edinburgh City v Bo'ness United (Bo'ness) St Cuthbert's v Gala (Gala) Dalbeattie v Rothes (Dalbeattie) Berwick v Stirling Albion (Stirling)

I only saw one of the games (the win at Stirling Uni) but 3 wins and 3 clean sheets in a week over 3 difficult opponents is pretty good going. Hopefully - hopefully - we have got past that recent period of poor discipline and conceding late goals, and will be able to maintain this form into the next Scottish Cup game.

I wonder if a team has ever broken a 'biggest defeat' record in back-to-back games before?

Not only promoting the backroom staff but promoting the guy who is the former manager's brother. Very odd.

Is there a third Aitken brother they can try?

Funnily enough I remember reading on the Fort thread a while ago that they were rumoured to be bringing guys up from England to play, and they were staying in caravans the night before games. At the time I thought it was nonsense, from a skim of their Transfermarkt page a bulk of their squad appear to be English lads who've most recently played for lower league English teams. No idea who many played for Gretna, mind you, although I imagine the north of England is a regular market for them.

Good to hear about Healy at least, and yeah it very much reminded me of the VoL game. Both teams are pretty stodgy but offered zero up front, and your own scoreline depends on how early you score. I am always fearful we'll up losing those games 1-0 to a single shot on goal but we have ground both of them out this season at least.

Pretty rubbish game in all honestly, but I will take a low-hassle win the Scottish Cup any day of week. I'm mainly concerned about potential injuries to Healy and Turner, hopefully both are back up and running soon.

The indication seems to be they didn't know. Did Fraser know, is the real question, or did the SFA spring it on him after the LL clubs has already pushed this through?

Vale - or maybe just their now-departed manager- didn't help themselves in a lot of people's eyes with that statement claiming the powers that be are holding them back and everyone criticising them were armchair pundits who'd never kicked a ball in their sad little lives. But yeah, them going down this season doesn't fix the overall issue that there isn't enough movement between tiers.

Delighted with the win today. A few weeks ago I was looking at our fixtures and wondering where the next win was coming from, but taking 3 points from visits to Spartans and Dalbeattie is great stuff.

We've signed the lad playing as a trialist for us in the past weeks. What a fascinating career - PSG Youth system, the lower leagues of England including playing futsal, 3rd tier American leagues, and VoL.

I haven't seen any unofficial headcounts from the more recent games, but it wouldn't surprise me to hear they'd dropped off now that the novelty has worn off, the weather is getting worse, and the big teams are playing again. And will continue to do so through the season.

I was fully expecting a loss today, so I'm delighted with a win and even more delighted Spartans didn't give us enough time to shit the bed. Do Spartans usually put out highlights of their games?

Yeah, I'm the same - I think he was broadly pretty well thought of, but he has spectacularly misjudged this whole thing, and I think it happening alongside the BSC/Broomhill split (idk the ins and outs but it can't be massively off-base to say his running of the club without regard of the reason BSC was founded in the first place led to that) has really soured people on him. I've said before that my gut feeling is that Fraser, through his role on whatever development board he sits on with the SPFL (I'm blanking on the exact one), knows that colts are coming to the professional leagues, and he either wanted a bite of the pie for LL clubs beforehand, or he knows that the guys who introduce this idea will say it's a great thing regardless of how it turns out and he'll get plaudits for trialing it at tier 5 first.

Amazing how quickly Fraser has tanked the reputation of the league and his club so he can sit next to someone in an Old Firm tie and hear "nice wee club you run here George"

Can see this issue becoming increasingly contentious as the season goes on. Clearly governing bodies are dead set on getting games played, even in situations like Falkirk had for their game against Cove. Personally I feel if both teams are happy to postpone there can't be that much of an issue with it.

Hopefully, I have seen other clubs do a mixture of both pre-buy and cash at the gate. But tbf the club do advertise heavily that there's no pay at the gate available.

I think a draw is a decent result, CSS created far more chances and were unlucky not to score more than 1, imo. They look like a really good time, very organised and their front 3 is impressive, I think they will remain near the top of the league for the rest of season if they can keep that up.

'Crazy money' is presumably relative - I would have assumed that VoL had the lowest, or near enough lowest budget in the league - combined with geographical difficulties in getting players made it nearly impossible for them to compete the last few seasons, but were still overspending based on the results and performances.