Marten

I believe the pyramid agreement is that we have to be finished by the last Saturday in April, so the 27th. We don't have to finish the same day as the HL. So that gives us 27 matchdays. East Region Cup ties often get played at the end of the season anyway, so they likely won't come out of the 27. If we win the league and get to the play-off, I wonder whether or not we will still play in the ER Cup, but time will tell!

Yep, delighted with him. He came on as a sub on Wednesday night and looked good. Hopefully we'll soon find out...

Results last night: Lochee United 5-0 Forfar West End Blairgowrie 1-5 Broughty Athetic No issues for either side.

They are still some way off a license so it definitely isn't possible this season. Even though they have floodlights, there are plenty of improvements to the ground still needed. It doesn't seem like there are currently any concrete plans to get this done.

In the Dutch Cup this week AZ needed penalties to beat Quick Boys from the third tier, but did go through in the end. The results were (level the club play at in brackets): Last 32: PSV 3-1 FC Twente (postponed just before Christmas) Last 16: Excelsior Maassluis (3) 1-2 ADO Den Haag (2) Excelsior Rotterdam 0-2 FC Groningen (2) AZ 3-3 Quick Boys (3), AZ won on penalties NEC Nijmegen 2-1 Go Ahead Eagles Almere City 1-2 Fortuna Sittard Vitesse 1-0 AFC Amsterdam (3) Still to be played: Feyenoord v PSV (Wednesday 24/1) USV Hercules (4) v Cambuur Leeuwarden (2) (Thursday 25/1, postponed last week) The QF draw has been made: NEC Nijmegen v ADO Den Haag (2) FC Groningen (2) v Fortuna Sittard USV Hercules/Cambuur Leeuwarden v Vitesse Feyenoord/PSV v AZ Remarkable thing in the draw is that this will be the 3rd consecutive round in which 2 teams from the top 4 play each other. First PSV beat Twente, then they will play Feyenoord and the winners of that tie will play AZ. With Ajax already out, this could open up opportunities for the smaller sides.

Last weekend PSV got their record with going through half the season without dropping any points. But today they did drop their first points: they drew 1-1 at Utrecht. They are still 10 points ahead of Feyenoord who beat Vitesse 1-2 away. Third placed FC Twente lost at NEC and are now 5 points behind Feyenoord, AZ couldn't get much closer though as they only drew 2-2 at home against PEC Zwolle, they are now 3 points behind Twente. Ajax are trying to close in on them by beating RKC Waalwijk at home (currently 2-1 at half-time).

There aren't enough licensed teams in the Midlands. The only 3-way split that could work would be the old junior structure of north/east/west. That could give a LL East with: Brechin City, University of Stirling, Cowdenbeath, Bo'ness United, Linlithgow Rose, East Stirlingshire, Civil Service Strollers, Tranent, Gala Fairydean Rovers, Berwick Rangers, Lochee United, Broxburn Athletic, Musselburgh Athletic, Hutchinson Vale, Dunbar United and Jeanfield Swifts. There would then have to be further regionalisation further down though to not get tier 8/9 games like Tweedmouth Rangers v Brechin Vics. But tier 5 splitting in 3 isn't going to happen anyway. Fair point, but then it is about 45 minutes more for Cowdenbeath to the likes of Banks O'Dee, Inverurie, Formartine, Fraserburgh etc. than it is for Lochee United, so overall it's quite a bit more travel for them. But as you say, a change of the regions isn't going to happen at tier 5.

In terms of promotion / relegation, yes, also in the Highland League I'd like to see more. But they have more of an excuse than the LL. There is a grand total of 4 licensed teams in the 3 feeder leagues, 2 of them being in the incredibly weak North Caledonian League. So for now the current arrangement is understandable. Once there are more licensed tier 6 clubs in the Highland part of the pyramid, this should also change. The difference in numbers and quality is obvious, but really the only way to address that would be to move the "divide" (I know there isn't really one in the rules anymore) further south. You can't really have the likes of Cowdenbeath in the HL or the likes of Crossgates Primrose, Dundonald Bluebell & Sauchie in a HL feeder. An argument could be made for Jeanfield, Kinnoul & Luncarty, but that's about it. With Scotland's geography, a lopsided pyramid is inevitable. Unless the LL gets split in east & west on tier 5, but it's pretty clear that won't be accepted either.

A very remarkable result that Coupar Angus got their first win of the season by winning 1-6 away at Blairgowrie! I know Blair were missing a few important players when we beat them 9-0 the last game pre-Christmas, so I can only assume they are still out. But even than the margin is remarkable.

You can keep saying that, but there is absolutely no excuse for not opening up relegation to tier 6. Connecting it to promotion/relegation with the SPFL is really just a very poor excuse. And with the recent vote to keep those useless B-teams that devalue the league, those clubs haven't exactly won any respect...

The eredivisie restarts this weekend. As it stands, with 16 games played by all teams, PSV are well clear at the top having won all 16 of them and only conceding 6 goals in total. When they hammer Excelsior at home on Saturday (yes, I'm very confident here... ), they will have the record of the best ever league start (they currently share it as Ajax started with 16 wins many years ago). No team has ever reached the halfway point of the season (17 games) with a 100% record. Feyenoord follows in 2nd (automatic CL spot), 10 points behind PSV. FC Twente are in third (CL qualifying) 4 points behind Feyenoord, with AZ one point behind them. Ajax are in 5th but quite some way behind the teams ahead of them: 8 behind AZ and 23 behind PSV. From Ajax the teams are quite close together, RKC Waalwijk are 11 points behind Ajax in 16th which is a relegation play-off spot. Volendam and Vitesse are both 3 points behind them in the direct relegation spots. Fixtures this weekend: Friday 12/1 RKC Waalwijk v Heracles Almelo Saturday 13/1 Fortuna Sittard v Sparta Rotterdam FC Twente v AZ PEC Zwolle v SC Heerenveen PSV v Excelsior Rotterdam Sunday 14/1 FC Volendam v Almere City Go Ahead Eagles v Ajax Vitesse Arnhem v FC Utrecht Feyenoord v NEC Nijmegen

Fort were definitely not treated unfairly with regards to the play-off. It's their own incompetence that put them in that situation. If we are to win the league, the exactly same rules will apply to us and we have been aware of that from the moment we got accepted into the pyramid.

Interesting day at the top today. North End won 2-1 away at Broughty, who dropped points for only the second time this season. The first time was against St. James, who were beaten 2-0 by Lochee United. As a result, Lochee United & North End saw their gaps with Broughty reduce to 6 resp. 8 points, with both sides having 2 games in hand.

I'm not disputing that. I just don't believe the SFA would change their minds depending on the B-team vote. My view is still that the Cowdenbeath board are dishonest in their statement. But ultimately, the SFA are about the most dishonest you can get. They sold the absolute lie that the conference league was a done deal. This was something a few clubs, including Cowdenbeath, based their previous B-team vote on. And that's not exactly anything new. With Lochee United we had bad experiences with the SFA's dishonesty too. They claimed the juniors entering the pyramid was a "done deal", which was an absolute lie. I personally know people who now regret having believed what the SFA said back then. This is just history repeating itself. The SFA only dance to the tunes of the bigoted 2 in Glasgow. I do strongly agree that an expanded LL without B-teams is very much desirable and the best for improving the league. I just am sceptical that's really what the Cowdenbeath board want and I really don't believe this vote would ultimately help this happen. I want to be proven wrong on this and if so, I'd have no problems holding my hands up and admitting I misjudged it. But this is how I look at things now.

I can't stand Brexiteers so don't compare me to them, thank you. Do you truly believe what they said in the statement, that this is transparent? That they really want to improve the LL for the better rather than just get the B-team cash? That they ultimately want B-teams fully out of the pyramid? If they honestly believe in their own words, sorry, but then the SFA has them totally fooled. The last time around the Conference League threat was being used as reason for voting for B-teams. That ultimately proved to be a completely empty threat. Why should we assume that this LL expansion debate isn't another bit of rubbish from the SFA to get teams to vote for B-teams. The statements from Albion Rovers seem to contradict Cowdenbeath. And to me, what comes out of Coatbridge on this subject seems far more honest.

I've criticised EK plenty of times for their support of B-teams. But while saying nothing isn't right, such a dishonest statement is even worse. I don't believe a word they say and I can't believe how so many Cowdenbeath fans seem to believe this shite. I've never had anything against Cowdenbeath and even had a bit of a soft spot due to Cowden fans I met, but this stuff is really putting that to the test.

Just been catching up on the posts about the reasoning re. the vote for B-teams. Honestly, how naive are you lot for believing that dishonest shite? The Cowdenbeath board is a disgrace, doesn't give a sh!t about "ventilation" or the league in general despite their claims to the contrary. The last vote they spread the lie about the conference league as "justification" and now this pathetic stuff, and people fall for it? There is no justification for this vote, simple as that. The statement is entirely dishonest.

Also interesting how the proposed league set-up doesn't include the word "European". I guess they are already planning some room for some rich clubs from places like Saudi Arabia.

Not exactly those names, but yes, the Dutch version of P&B has gotten quite funny I must say.

Highlights:

Ajax have been getting higher up in the league again. But in the cup they were knocked out by a non-league team for the first time in their professional history. They lost 3-2 away to USV Hercules from the Derde Divisie, 4th tier. The game was played at FC Utrecht's Galgenwaard as Hercules's ground doesn't match the requirements.

I remember when Haarlem went bust. I immediately said I feared more clubs would follow. And unfortunately, I was proven right, 3 more clubs followed within a few years (Veendam, AGOVV & RBC), with those 4 spots ultimately being filled by those useless B-teams. Unfortunately, Haarlem didn't even manage to restart in non-league. All 3 others have a non-league club with (nearly) the same name playing in the same ground. Out of those, RBC is doing the best by far. Started in the 10th tier, now up to the 6th tier in which they are runaway leaders and are looking very likely to get promoted to the 5th tier, which is a part of the "division system" at the top of the pyramid and back in semi-professional football (although plenty of clubs in tiers 6 and below do pay but officially it's amateur).

In Scotland I started watching random games when I moved here. I wasn't really planning to pick one team but I eventually got drawn to my local side, Lochee United. Should Lochee United go bust, I'd just go back to random games. Whether or not I end up sticking with one team in particular, time will tell. In The Netherlands I grew up with Excelsior Rotterdam. Like various Dutch clubs, we also have a non-league side that is separate from the club, playing in the 10th tier. A bankruptcy for Excelsior wouldn't affect the non-league side, so I'd simply support them. In terms of professional football, I wouldn't pick a new favourite.

In fairness, although I'm still sceptical about that club, indeed they are in completely new hands. Wait and see how they will be conducting themselves going forward I suppose.

In fairness, you can't really compare promotion to the HL with the LL. The HL has a total of 4 licensed clubs across the 3 feeder leagues. And then 2 of them are in the very weak NCL.