MONKMAN Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Belfast or any bit of Wales on a wet midweek autumn night! Surely life is hard enough! The games are all played at the weekend, I couldn't care less if it's raining or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallumPar Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Have Celtic suffered today, due to the decision to have this game on the same weekend as youth internationals? It does seem strange to arrange top flight u20 teams to be in a cup, where international u19/21 games are also played that weekend? I genuinely don't know how many players they have in the youth teams for internationals. Although I expected them to lose, to a full time senior side, I didn't expect such a hammering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 9 minutes ago, Tam said: Belfast or any bit of Wales on a wet midweek autumn night! Surely life is hard enough! Tbf, next round is October international weekend. S4C have announced coverage on Saturday teatime, presumably whichever Welsh team is drawn at home. There is no broadcast deal for Northern Ireland, but I suppose Premier Sports might show Linfield if they're drawn at home, unless their deal or interest is only Celtic 'B' games. Friday night or Sunday afternoon/evening would be most problematic for away fans. Who knows what BBC Alba will pick and when. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 4 minutes ago, CallumPar said: Have Celtic suffered today, due to the decision to have this game on the same weekend as youth internationals? It does seem strange to arrange top flight u20 teams to be in a cup, where international u19/21 games are also played that weekend? I genuinely don't know how many players they have in the youth teams for internationals. Although I expected them to lose, to a full time senior side, I didn't expect such a hammering. They have no-one in the Scotland U19s squad. They have Liam Henderson and Ryan Christie in the Scotland U21s squad, but Christie would be too old for the Irn Bru Cup and I really doubt they would have fielded Henderson. According to Wikipedia all their Development Squad players are Scottish apart from one each from both Irelands. They have only made 2 changes from their R2 tie at Cowdenbeath, and both have simply dropped to the bench. In short - no. This is them at full strength. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tam Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 36 minutes ago, MONKMAN said: The games are all played at the weekend, I couldn't care less if it's raining or not. OK. Fair enough! I am still not sold on this though. Who are these teams and why do they float into the competition when they do? Are Scottish teams going to float into their cup competitions in the same way? Have sales of Irn Bru slumped so badly in NI and wales? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MONKMAN Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Top 2 Irish (Crusaders and Linfield) and Welsh (Bala and TNS). I like it, they've been brought in to mix things up a bit and brings interest from the other countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 How embarrassed are these teams going to be getting scalped off of our lower league teams? There's no real financial gain for them either outside of a few grand from TV, and the 400 or so that usually venture out to watch these oddity teams play in utter joke leagues aren't exactly going to travel either. I don't understand why they were for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 No TV money. I suspect it's the perceived prestige... plus a few thousand £ prizemoney is probably welcome when your home crowds are pretty low (Linfield 2,504; Crusaders 1,532; TNS 375; Bala 281) and your league generates virtually nothing from sponsorship or TV. Also the chance of few thousand £ more from an away gate at Hibs or Dundee Utd. I thought it was interesting that the press there was originally reporting that the places would go to their 5th & 6th placed clubs not those which had qualified for Europe and collected UEFA money. Did SPFL or their leagues change it? On the one hand it would have spread income around more instead of focusing it on the top 2; on the other hand the clubs lower down would be of even worse quality and playing in front of even lower crowds. It makes sense for the Northern Irish anyway as their clubs effectively pulled the plug on the Setanta Cup against teams from Eire in 2014. This opportunity fills that hole to an extent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andylivi1 Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Introduce, lowland league teams and highlands league teams along with junior teams, open draw, straight knock out. Simples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch Stanton Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 2 hours ago, HibeeJibee said: According to Wikipedia all their Development Squad players are Scottish apart from one each from both Irelands. Ajer played for them at Cowdenbeath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowdenbeath Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 3 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said: Ajer played for them at Cowdenbeath. And against Annan, it was exactly the same starting line up in their first two games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowdenbeath Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 2 hours ago, HibeeJibee said: Tbf, next round is October international weekend. S4C have announced coverage on Saturday teatime, presumably whichever Welsh team is drawn at home.There is no broadcast deal for Northern Ireland, but I suppose Premier Sports might show Linfield if they're drawn at home, unless their deal or interest is only Celtic 'B' games. Friday night or Sunday afternoon/evening would be most problematic for away fans. Who knows what BBC Alba will pick and when. Premier Sports is basically Setanta Ireland so I would imagine with Celtic now out they will turn their attention to one of the game involving the Northern Irish sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Apologies, I was comparing today's and R2's line-ups the wrong way around. As noted they missed Ajer presumably with Norway U19s. Other change, Aitchison, simply dropped to bench. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowdenbeath Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 1 minute ago, HibeeJibee said: Apologies, I was comparing today's and R2's line-ups the wrong way around. As noted they missed Ajer presumably with Norway U19s. Unclear if Aitchison away / injured / dropped? Aitchison came on as a 2nd half sub, PJ Crossan who had been a sub in the 1st two games started in his place. Surprised Aitchison didn't start he looked their best player against us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellichtie Posted September 4, 2016 Share Posted September 4, 2016 I would keep it regionalised for the first few rounds, unseeded with a few more teams added from the Highland and Lowland Leagues. The NI and Welsh teams are completely unnecessary and the under 20's teams that are involved don't even seem to take it seriously. It was a simple format that the SPFL/SFA have completely ballsed up for no real reason other than to look "progressive". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nowhereman Posted September 4, 2016 Share Posted September 4, 2016 Regionalisation is great. In two regionalised draws this season we have been paired with Peterhead and Stranraer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clayhole Blue Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Personally I like the format, but it's a missed opportunity to get Tier 5 involved and have a nice round number of 64Seeding is a must Why is seeding a must? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrman2011 Posted September 5, 2016 Author Share Posted September 5, 2016 You could have Hibs vs Dundee United and Fort William vs Rothes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clayhole Blue Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 You could have Hibs vs Dundee United and Fort William vs Rothes So? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan Vojáček Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Sure somebody posted that there was no desire to have these 'Colt' teams in the League, and having them in the Cup wouldn't be in the slightest risky. http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/7232732/A-league-of-their-own-Celtic-and-Rangers-want-Colts-teams-in-SPFL.html?CMP=spklr-_-Editorial-_-TWITTER-_-scotsunsport-_-20160906-_-Football-_-574821252 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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