SPFL League 1 Play Off Semi Final: East Fife v Clyde/Clyde v East Fife

[Diamonds are Forever]

15 minutes ago, San Starko Rover said:

I’d say the HL/LL playoff is actually fairer by not going to ET.  In a two legged game if it goes to extra time one team gets home advantage for 120 minutes while the other only gets home advantage for 90 minutes.  

 

That's true, but then is that not the reward for finishing higher up the league? The higher placed teams get the 2nd leg at home and therefore get the slight advantage of playing ET at home.

[San Starko Rover]

3 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

That's true, but then is that not the reward for finishing higher up the league? The higher placed teams get the 2nd leg at home and therefore get the slight advantage of playing ET at home.

Of course and that’s why it actually makes sense that the SPFL and the HL/LL playoffs are different.  The HL/LL playoff needs to be completely fair (no extra time) while the SPFL playoffs can be skewed to favour the higher ranked team.

[Diamonds are Forever]

8 minutes ago, San Starko Rover said:

Of course and that’s why it actually makes sense that the SPFL and the HL/LL playoffs are different.  The HL/LL playoff needs to be completely fair (no extra time) while the SPFL playoffs can be skewed to favour the higher ranked team.

 

Exactly. It's difficult talking about fairness in play-offs because league play-offs are inherently unfair. You play 36 games and then basically reset the points and go again with a small number of teams (not that I'm still bitter about us losing out to QP last year after finishing 21 points ahead of them...). It's a sacrifice in the name of entertainment, which is fine.

As you say with the HL/LL no side finished 'higher' so making it as level a playing field as possible is the correct thing to do. With the Championship, League One and Two play-offs I think it's right that the higher placed team gets the slight advantage as a reward for their performance over the season.

In reality it makes almost no difference, for example we lost at home in ET last year. But I still think it's the right thing to do.

[Kelheart]

Now that East Fife are out the running I'd  like to see Clyde stay up for purely selfish reasons in that I think they will be worse than us again next season , Annan seem to keep a good squad together and think they would do better than us next season as we will be going through major rebuilding that said all the best to both teams and hopefully it's a gut wrenching , nail biting affair for the fans you just can't beat it 

[macclyde+]

4 hours ago, Big Fifer said:

Firstly, congrats to Clyde, couple of cup finals coming up for you now.

Secondly, Clyde are absolute muck and I'll be very surprised if Annan don't turn them over. But ultimately, if we can't beat that Clyde team over two legs we don't deserve to go up. The fact we were in the play offs after (IMO) one of the worst summer recruitments/squad build we've had in recent years was a bit of a minor miracle, if we went up this year we'd have been straight back down. 

As far as that game is concerned, we looked very comfortable first half but we really needed to get the second before half time. Trouten looked so good in the first half but second half his legs were away and he looked done in. I'll be interested to see the highlights for the red, the first yellow card it sounded like he got to the ball and the elbow we couldn't see much in it. If it was for an elbow rather than just a foul shouldn't it have been a straight red? Shepherd is good at getting centre backs rattled by continuously getting in front of them, and even better at rattling opposition fans. Once he was gone we had no focal point and it was just a waiting game frankly. McDonald was clearly keeping Trouten on for pens but you have to actually get to the penalties for him to be useful and given his legs were done in from 45 mins in that was an odd tactic. Clyde didn't look up to much even with the man advantage but we just sat back the entire time.

Ach well. Always next year.

Congratulating us then ripping us a new one. Seems like salty tears tbh.

Yes we weren't very good first half, however poor finishing from your guys, apart from the goal obviously.

Couple of changes and we were better 2nd half, better team even prior to the red card .

Agree with you on Shepherd though, no idea why it wasn't a straight red tbh.

Also thought it strange EF fans booing Lyon when he was clearly smashed in the face 

 

[Big Fifer]

21 minutes ago, macclyde+ said:

Congratulating us then ripping us a new one. Seems like salty tears tbh.

Yes we weren't very good first half, however poor finishing from your guys, apart from the goal obviously.

Couple of changes and we were better 2nd half, better team even prior to the red card .

Agree with you on Shepherd though, no idea why it wasn't a straight red tbh.

Also thought it strange EF fans booing Lyon when he was clearly smashed in the face 

 

Indeed, make no mistake, my tears are 99% salt at this moment in time. I am incredibly bitter. You're right, we dominated opening 30 mins but from there it was more even and we came out second half and looked rotten and you lot were on top. We could barely string a pass together for some reason. I think that game would have went all the way to pens without the red. As I say, fans bias kicks in for the red, maybe it was a clear elbow from your lots side of the ground but the view we had it just looked like an aerial challenge. Guess we can see something in the highlights!

[Pride Of The Clyde]

23 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:

Indeed, make no mistake, my tears are 99% salt at this moment in time. I am incredibly bitter. You're right, we dominated opening 30 mins but from there it was more even and we came out second half and looked rotten and you lot were on top. We could barely string a pass together for some reason. I think that game would have went all the way to pens without the red. As I say, fans bias kicks in for the red, maybe it was a clear elbow from your lots side of the ground but the view we had it just looked like an aerial challenge. Guess we can see something in the highlights!

I don’t think the guy has much complaints over the red card, looked like an elbow to the face and should have been a straight red, even his reaction and acceptance when he immediately walked straight off would indicate he knew what he had done.

[Brian Carrigan]

3 hours ago, San Starko Rover said:

Of course and that’s why it actually makes sense that the SPFL and the HL/LL playoffs are different.  The HL/LL playoff needs to be completely fair (no extra time) while the SPFL playoffs can be skewed to favour the higher ranked team.

The way the play offs are structured is an absolute shambles - three different formats between five divisions? Stupid. Obviously there are reasons for that which I won't rant about atm.

I actually don't think 'no ET' is fair. Once you get to penalties it's an absolute lottery. The fairest way to decide a game is by playing an actual game of football. I understand we can't have multiple replays, but the idea of a game being decided on pens is 'fairer' just doesn't compute to me.

[the_bully_wee]

I think Shepherd's relative lack of reaction to the second yellow was telling, to be honest. Agree with the above that the game was destined for penalties without the red card, though, as we had grown into the game without creating much and we were much more compact and organised in defence after the break.

[King Kebab]

4 hours ago, macclyde+ said:

Congratulating us then ripping us a new one. Seems like salty tears tbh.

Yes we weren't very good first half, however poor finishing from your guys, apart from the goal obviously.

Couple of changes and we were better 2nd half, better team even prior to the red card .

Agree with you on Shepherd though, no idea why it wasn't a straight red tbh.

Also thought it strange EF fans booing Lyon when he was clearly smashed in the face 

 

Lyon was getting booed for the apparent dive and general rolling about that he did to earn Shepherd his first booking, more than getting elbowed in the pus for the second one, the first foul was right in front of the Fife fans and it looked like Shepherd never touched him, of course the highlights might prove otherwise!!!

[Jaggy Snake]

 

[Big Fifer]

I honestly still can't tell from those Clyde highlights. He definitely leads with the elbow, can't actually tell if it makes contact though. I am on my phone so will look tomorrow. 

[Bully Wee Clyde FC]

Our highlights are far from conclusive (we charge for this?) And the ref didn't help himself by yellow carding Clyde guy for  the same foul on EF right back AND then ignoring another EF similar tackle.  

Shepherd is a great player at this level, but must be 1 of the daftest. It was always going to so much harder foe either team with 10 men.  

EF totally different proposition on Friday compared to Tuesday, IMO.

 

[Skyline Drifter]

1 hour ago, Big Fifer said:

I honestly still can't tell from those Clyde highlights. He definitely leads with the elbow, can't actually tell if it makes contact though. I am on my phone so will look tomorrow. 

Not sure if serious? 

It looks a VERY clear red card. In fact it looks like it should be a straight red.

[Pride Of The Clyde]

10 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Not sure if serious? 

It looks a VERY clear red card. In fact it looks like it should be a straight red.

That was my thought at the time and the video just backed it up.

[Big Fifer]

14 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Not sure if serious? 

It looks a VERY clear red card. In fact it looks like it should be a straight red.

I've looked at this on the laptop and I still can't tell if there's contact mainly because of the camera quality, so I'm not sure how others can tell, but have to base it on all players reaction including Shepherd himself so must have caught him. If so, it's a red.

[CM.]

4 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:

I've looked at this on the laptop and I still can't tell if there's contact mainly because of the camera quality, so I'm not sure how others can tell, but have to base it on all players reaction including Shepherd himself so must have caught him. If so, it's a red.

It's clear as daylight  

[Skyline Drifter]

3 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:

I've looked at this on the laptop and I still can't tell if there's contact mainly because of the camera quality, so I'm not sure how others can tell, but have to base it on all players reaction including Shepherd himself so must have caught him. If so, it's a red.

You realise he doesnt actually need to have made contact for it to be a booking at least right? 

Although it looks pretty clear to me that he did and he certainly leads with his elbow.

[Big Fifer]

1 minute ago, Skyline Drifter said:

You realise he doesnt actually need to have made contact for it to be a booking at least right? 

Although it looks pretty clear to me that he did and he certainly leads with his elbow.

If he leads with the elbow and makes no contact it's a yellow? If so, then yes its a yellow and a subsequent red card. Calm down lads, honestly the angle we had at the game it looked like a completely fair challenge which is why I'm questioning it so much!

[CM.]

Big Fifers laptop