VillanoXIV

I have listened to f**k all of Open Goal apart from one advert, and I swear to god, I thought they literally could not read. The main issue is that, yes, this stunt might get a few people interested but the problem is the people who are interested also paid money to pack out the Hydro for an interview with Paolo Di Canio six months ago. Hard fucking pass.

Hearing from sources ITK that if Gretna are relegated, their league of origin that they would return to is the Unibond Northern Premier League.

Not a Raith fan (Thistle FWIW) but clearly very distressing day for decent Raith fans. A cautionary tale about people chucking it. I was massively into wrestling for about ten years until the pandemic. Quality was sliding by that time anyway but then they had their own scandal with swathes of big names being outed as rapists, paedos and abusers or covering up for those who were. And you know what? I just chucked it. No grandiose statements, no wailing online. I just flipped the switch and stopped completely and silently. I’ve watched bits and bobs quite recently and it left me dead inside. This is coming from someone who used to travel across the country to watch it and I can’t think of anything I want to do less now. It’ll be the same for Raith. For every (rightfully) angry punter on P&B, there’ll be two who just disappear and go watch Kelty or K&D or find another hobby and once the ritual’s gone, they’ll never return.

Seeing as I’ve read seven pages of boundary hysteria, I’m changing my picks. The Lowland in five years will consist of: East Kilbride Spartans Rangers B Celtic B Brechin City Aberdeen B Elgin City Brora Rangers Fort William Orkney Wick Academy Sleat and Strath FC New Pitsligo Caley Braves Darvel Brechin Victoria

Relegated to the Lowland: Bottom half of League 2 is crammed with Lowland catchment teams and I would expect Cowdenbeath, Stenhousemuir and Albion Rovers (sadly, as I have a big soft spot for them) to be down in the Lowland with Elgin possibly going to the Highland and law of averages saying that at least one Club 42 will beat the drop in the next five years. Promoted out the Lowland: I am absolutely convinced that Talbot will win the Lowland at first attempt and settle into SPFL mediocrity by then. i think Bonnyrigg will get out this year but not go on a mad Cove/Kelty League 2 speedrun and end up becoming the new “cloggers” battling to avoid relegation in five years. The other three years will see Brechin somehow pull themselves back out the discard pile, plus another ambitious Highland team and the aforementioned Club 42 defying the odds one season. I think EK are pumped. They had five/six years of money chucked at them against the village teams/youth clubs to get them to League 2 and it’s not happened. They have cratered this year and all the weaker teams are going to be replaced with bigger teams than EK. Relegated out the Lowland: Vale of Leithen are obviously in big trouble, while the Uni clubs won’t be far behind them. I can also see TAFKA BSC Glasgow crashing out in five years tbh. The wheels have fallen off a bit this season and I think they will really struggle to compete with a flood of far more attractive teams for players to go to. For that reason, I think Caley Braves will not be there in five years either. They’ve changed their identity and I just do not see them competing on a budget of app-wielding trainspotters and French maws paying tuition fees. Cumbernauld Colts are probably going to be stretched as well as the league starts to shift from community clubs and parochial village teams to ambitious ex-Junior teams and you would probably fear for them by 2026. Promoted to the Lowland: Again, in five years time, Talbot will have sailed through the Lowland and found their place in League 1/2. Darvel and Clydebank will probably come up in that time as well, possibly Pollok too. From the East, I imagine Penicuik will go up this year and keep their place by virtue of being better than the LL bottom feeders mentioned above while Linlithgow Rose will make their way up. B Teams: The OF will get bored in about two years and f**k off to some shiny new reserves League when they realise they can’t buy their way into League 2. No one will give a f**k. So my 18 team Lowland League in 2026 will probably finish something like: Clydebank Cowdenbeath Linlithgow Rose Darvel Albion Rovers Spartans Irvine Meadow Pollok East Stirlingshire Stenhousemuir Berwick Rangers Bo’ness United Gretna 2008 Gala Fairydean Rovers East Kilbride Dalbeattie Star Penicuik Athletic Civil Service Strollers

I went to the Braves game tonight as I live down the road from Bothwell and, without meaning to sound snide, was really shocked to see actual Braves fans there. Every time I’ve been to see them in the past the only people cheering them on were parents of French youngsters intermittently shouting “Allez, Allez!” so was stunned to hear actual Scottish shouts. Obviously, COVID will have curtailed the amount of French lads in the team but what else have they done to actually get people who aren’t just weirdo trainspotters like me going?

What is the current lay of the land in terms of actually watching games in tier 2? Obviously these are friendlies and not really advertised but the play-offs has fans at it so I wondered what the script was. Is it a case of fans are still banned or just a case of they wouldn’t have been bothering to charge entry even if these games were pre-plague times because they’re bounce games? EDIT: For the sake of openness, I am in tier 2 North Lanarkshire and would only be going to games that are in tier 2 locally that can be accessed without going through Glasgow.

Comment underneath the WOS Facebook mentioned Glenvale and St Peters, both from Paisley, as being part of the new teams.

Surely if you’re going to bend over for the sake of a measly three grand, you could parachute Talbot, Pollok and Clydebank in and rake more than that in gate receipts?

I am probably one of the most forgiving about Colts teams in the pyramid. Stranraer and Caley Braves do it in the SOS, as did QoS and Annan. Stirling Uni do the same in the EOS and Hibs and Berwick have done it in the past with little protest, same with the Highland. I wouldn’t begrudge the likes of Motherwell or Hearts making up numbers in tier 6/7/8. Hell, if Thistle entered a side, I’d love to go watch us play the likes of Petershill, Ashfield and the like. I do think there is a way for clubs to embrace their reserves sides playing in local competitions and make it worthwhile for everyone by advertising it well and bigging up the local connection, but I really don’t think the Old Firm are the ones to do that. The OF don’t care about anyone except themselves and if you look at their involvement in the Challenge Cup and the derisory way they treat the Glasgow Cup, it’s clear that they don’t care about making them better and their fans don’t care about going to them. They will not be there for just a year, they’ll bring no fans, and it’s clearly just a power grab trying to wedge Colts in so they can exert more influence over the lower league teams. Get them to f**k.

Think it goes without saying that Falkirk need a real change in direction with a clear out being top priority. But who to take over as manager? You need someone with experience, a big name to lead a big club, someone who can inject new ideas into the club. I know just the man.

Kelty and Brora won those as well. Brora were 17 points clear (having played three more games, mind) and Kelty were six points clear having played one extra game, with both leagues being five or six games away from completion. I like Brechin, lovely wee town, great ground, I even want them to remain in the SPFL, and lord knows my own team has seen it’s own relegation stitch ups over the last year or two but this isn’t one of them. If this is the way they want to act, then get down. The Highland and Lowland have nominated teams who were denied the title and the opportunity to get promoted last year and were coincidentally top of the table when everything shut down. The leagues showed solidarity and put them forward because it was the right thing. Brechin will complete their season and can easily play the play offs, they have nothing to hide behind. If they can’t beat Kelty or Brora, they don’t deserve to be there.

Surely the answer to the Tayside question is have a EOS members vote to see whether they are happy to accept them? If they then either get promoted to the EOS Premier and/or get licenced, consult with the LL and HL and say “In the unlikely event [team x] are promoted, they would prefer to play in your league, are you happy with this arrangement?” If they’re not, they can choose to either with the least preferred option or not take promotion at all, I don’t see any issues in having them in EOS regional conferences where they are likely to remain and in the event they do go on some mad Leicester-style run to the EOS title, there is more than enough time for them to declare an interest prior to actually lifting the trophy and the pyramid shouldn’t be a rigid draconian joonyurs setup where rulings done a decade ago are set in stone and have to be obeyed just because.

We actually seem to have based our game plan on being somewhat defensively solid at the expense of having any sort of plan as to how we’re going to score goals ourselves, which is wild seeing as people tipped us to steamroll the division. 1-0 Airdrie. Ally Roy to be rebuilt using Robocop-style technology and then tap in a last minute winner. Zak Rudden to be crushed by a vending machine and ruled out for the rest of his contract.

I am guessing they weren’t allowed under COVID restrictions, maybe too many staff members already? I know from other team’s updates like Albion Rovers that they can’t even give live updates because social media staff weren’t allowed in the game, so I presume this falls under the same remit.