Going Downhill Forever - Scottish Fitba Season 2021/22

[Lang Spoon]

Nice to see the Premiership looking a bit competitive for a while anyway. The Championship below Inverness looks spicy also, the first goal in the link below by the Rovers is quite a sexy piece of passing and movement. And I'm agin Arbroath after their not having any steak and black pudding pies left on my last visit there, so get it up ya eh. Worrying sparse crowd though.

[blameless]

Amazing statistic from Thistle's 6-1 win at Accies on Friday night - this was Thistle's first win in a televised game in 28 attempts. A lot of the prior 27 were against the gruesome twosome, but it's still a shocker.

[The Red Max]

...will Aberdeen pull the plug on the Stephen Glass experiment?

They really ought to, before it reaches a critical point, but according to todays newspapers he's going to be given more time to "turn things around".
Giving the job to a rookie manager with no CV to speak of was always a huge gamble, and I don't see any justification for delaying the inevitable parting of the ways.
Perhaps our chairman is allowing Tam Courts relative success at Dundee United to influence his judgement, but we are truly awful in every department, with no identifiable style or pattern to our play. Shambolic in defence, no control in midfield, and impotent in attack - I can't fathom why our chairman thinks that Stephen Glass is capable of sorting it out before we get dragged into a relegation scrap. But he's a man with a considerable ego, and that's never good in a club chairman.

Alex Neil is out of work at the moment, and seems the obvious fit.

[blameless]

Nice to see the Premiership looking a bit competitive for a while anyway. The Championship below Inverness looks spicy also, the first goal in the link below by the Rovers is quite a sexy piece of passing and movement. And I'm agin Arbroath after their not having any steak and black pudding pies left on my last visit there, so get it up ya eh. Worrying sparse crowd though.

Arbroath's captain is a nasty bit of work. If the SPFL beaks see that "accident" at the corner flag he's going to be sitting out a few games.

[CY_Boaby]

When a new manager struggles he needs to have friends in the media. I see the BBC's Kenny McIntyre is now going for the jugular, but maybe Stephen Glass still has the support of the local press? But once they all start turning against him then he's a dead man walking. Glass doesn't appear to have many friends in the media, and if he ever gets another job in Scottish football the media won't let him forget this.

A couple of years ago Austin MacPhee endured a torrid time from the media when he was caretaker manager of Hearts, especially from the BBC Sportsound team. And the poisonous pricks still put the boot in at any given opportunity. I was listening to the Scotland v Israel BBC 5 Live commentary and when Israel went 2-1 up, Roddy Forsyth immediately put the blame on MacPhee saying he was the new set-piece coach, and since we lost a goal from a set-piece then it was basically all his fault. Needless to say when we scored the injury-time winner, from a set-piece, there was not a peep from him.

[Gangster Octopus]

Aberdeen Bankies? Shouldn't that be on the distant fans thread?

[Lang Spoon]

Shocking news about Walter Smith, 73 doesn't seem old these days.

[CY_Boaby]

Sad news. I had no idea he was ill and none of the reports that I've read are saying what his illness was.

I remember at the time thinking his sacking at Everton was harsh. Mind you, I always had a good laugh when his Rangers team messed up in Europe.

RIP Walter.

[blameless]

Oh hell, that's a shocker. Absolute hero to several generations of Dundee United and Rangers fans, and the man who rebuilt the mens' national team after the Vogts debacle.

RIP Uncle Watty.

[jwdd27]

Also good with the media - this at least will live forever:

RIP

[BallochSonsFan]

I think this will be only the 2nd Sons game I've missed since the season started. Not usually one for away games as I've normally got hockey by now, but the Clan don't start playing home games for another couple of weeks.

This season will do well to top last weekend's spectacle at the Penny Cars Stadium. 6 yellow cards, 3 red cards, a manager sent to the stand, 8 men Dumbarton equalising in injury time and Airdrie scoring a winner in the 97th minute. One of those games that unless you witnessed it then you just wouldn't believe what happened. Dumbarton's Ross McLean got a straight red for dissent. Geggan and Buchanan went for 2nd bookable offenses, both having been booked for dissent for one of their yellows. Airdrie with 2 penalties, one of which was saved by Sam Ramsbottom in the Dumbarton goal.

I doubt many folk will have witnessed something that absolutely crazy in some time. Referee and his assistants were woeful. Soft calls and quick to card any Dumbarton player who voiced the least bit of displeasure.

[CY_Boaby]

Well they took their time, but the Dunfermline board got there in the end and finally sacked Peter Grant, winless after 12 games and bottom of the Championship despite being tipped as pre-season favourites for the title. Whoever on the Pars board sanctioned that appointment in the first place should follow Grant out the door. They really need to get this next appointment right, but already there's talk of Kenny Miller which will surely infuriate an already angry fan base. Did the Pars Supporters Trust really do their due diligence on this German mob that they sold the club to last year?

Meanwhile, Hearts fail big time in their quest to shake off the accusation that they're just a bunch of Edinburgh-based Rangers fans who can't afford the bus fare through to Ibrox every fortnight. I have a lot of time for the Foundation of Hearts, they've done an amazing job, have over 8,000 members and were a great help to St Mirren fans when we were setting up to be a fan-owned club. But guys, you really need to sort this shit out.

[tee rex]

This is what happens when Brian Cox and the Succession mob take over your club.

[elguapo4]

Rangers post losses of £ 23.5 million for last season. They obviously have a George Best attitude to second chances.

[tee rex]

Bertie Auld has died. When I saw the headline I immediately reflexed: "Partick Thistle", not Lisbon lion. Because the lasting impressions are from when you're a kid, and so he was a manager not a player.

Conversely, the instant name-association response for Paul Sturrock is - player, Dundee United. The management jobs I need to look up.

[blameless]

Aye, wee Bertie was Jags manager for much of my childhood too (1974-80).

Sadly, we're now at the stage where the Lisbon Lions are disappearing fast - there's now only Bobby Lennox, John Clark, Jim Craig and Willie Wallace still with us.

[CY_Boaby]

St Johnstone’s vice-like grip on the domestic cups is finally loosened, a result so seismic the shockwaves even made it on to the sports news here in Australia (although they appear to be more interested in reporting it from an AngePostecoglou angle - the fools!!) And Rangers players have allayed fans' fears that the Steven Gerrard legacy would be tarnished by his departure, honouring his 100% record of winning zero cups and crashing out yet again. Good to see normal service is resumed.

I've just watched the Funso Ojo incident at Tannadice. What an unpleasant twat that Utd fan is, but at least he's been banned from Tannadice (not too sure for how long) as well as charged by the police. And then there's the kid a few seats along who starts throwing his sweets at him. I remember the days when Dundee Utd fans were given an award from Uefa for their good behaviour. I don't think they're going to get it this year.

[DPDPDPDP]

St Johnstone’s vice-like grip on the domestic cups is finally loosened, a result so seismic the shockwaves even made it on to the sports news here in Australia (although they appear to be more interested in reporting it from an AngePostecoglou angle - the fools!!) And Rangers players have allayed fans' fears that the Steven Gerrard legacy would be tarnished by his departure, honouring his 100% record of winning zero cups and crashing out yet again. Good to see normal service is resumed.

I've just watched the Funso Ojo incident at Tannadice. What an unpleasant twat that Utd fan is, but at least he's been banned from Tannadice (not too sure for how long) as well as charged by the police. And then there's the kid a few seats along who starts throwing his sweets at him. I remember the days when Dundee Utd fans were given an award from Uefa for their good behaviour. I don't think they're going to get it this year.

Ah, the inconsistency of Scottish football. Funso Ojo gets a yellow card (a second yellow) for taking two steps towards the guy who shoved him in the chest. The next day, Rangers’ James Tavenier shoves (an out of order) Hibs fan. Result - no action taken.

and so to the Scottish League Cup Final where Celtic are awarded more tickets for the final than Hibs. Surely for a final, the starting point should be a neutral 50:50 split of tickets, then if a club can’t sell its allocation, then the tickets get offered to their opponents. That would make sense. But not in Scotland.

[Belhaven]

The Scottish Championship has an interesting look at the moment. Two points separating the top 5, then a fourteen points gap down to number six, and then one point separating the bottom 5. No mid-table obscurity in this division.

[blameless]

Couple of shocks in the Scottish Cup today - Clydebank beat Clyde, which is an upset but not outrageous; however, Hamilton Accies of the Championship lost 1-0 to Ayrshire Junior side Auchinleck Talbot.

[Southport Zeb]

Also Banks O'Dee coming from behind to beat East Fife.

[Discordant Resonance]

Couple of shocks in the Scottish Cup today - Clydebank beat Clyde, which is an upset but not outrageous; however, Hamilton Accies of the Championship lost 1-0 to Ayrshire Junior side Auchinleck Talbot.

Auchinleck seem to be the Scottish Cup non-league specialists of recent years, akin to old Wimbledon or Yeovil, South of the Border.

[AMMS]

I've seen Auchinleck play twice in the last couple of months, a 3-3 draw at Pollok and a 2-0 win at Clydebank. Don't be fooled by the fact those 3 are playing at the 6th tier of Scottish football, that's an anachronism, the creation of a pyramid in Scottish football has placed them, and a few others, at a level well below their ability. That said to beat a side from the Championship is exceptional. Clydebank had a great result today too at a sold out Yoker. For the Bankies playing league sides again is hugely symbolic.
The Junior scene had a reputation for emphasising the physical side of the game, but in the two matches I've watched Auchinleck this season I've been struck by their desire and ability to play passing football. I'm sure they can handle themselves if needed but that's not their default style, or Pollok or Clydebank's.
I watched Rangers B team hammer Broomhill in the Lowland League last week. I think Pollok, Clydebank and Auchinleck would beat both those teams even though they're in the league above them.

[torres]

Yeah. Spot on with that AMMS.

I’ve seen a fair bit of that LL lately and I haven’t seen one team that could touch Talbot and the other Junior front runners……. And I’d include Celtic B in that.

[Lang Spoon]

Do Talbot want to move "up to" the Lowland League?