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The Notorious BRC - Scottish Fitba 2017-18

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    The Notorious BRC - Scottish Fitba 2017-18

    Ah, you'll figure it out!

    Shackleford got the ball rolling at the end of the last thread, so may as well start with the Dandy Dons - Can they hold onto their much-coveted honour of being the "2nd best team in Scotland"?

    Will Dundee Utd go into administration?

    Will Raith Rovers continue their freefall into the abyss?

    Stay tuned for another season of fun and frolics.

    #2
    I bought a Berwick Rangers mug yesterday in a small shop in Berwick, and got chatting to the bloke behind the counter. According to him, this season is going to be "a struggle". So, that's the inside word from the north-east. He threw in a match programme from last season, and then the more we talked, the more he gave me - programmes from recent cup games against Rangers and Celtic. He also put a Berwick - Rangers FC half-and-half pin badge on the counter. I wasn't sure if he was offering that for sale, or as a bonus gift because the mug was a fund-raising item and was priced accordingly. Didn't really want it either way, so I just left it there. If you're ever in Berwick, it's called The Sporran Shop, I think, and you will have a lovely chat about football without much fear of being disturbed by other customers.

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      #3
      The south east Imp, surely.

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        #4
        As for the opening post no sane person would make predictions for Aberdeen until they know if their manager will change and who'll be playing for them. But that won't stop me saying yes, they'll come second again.

        Dundee Utd in admin would be terribly sad for their supporters, if it happens they should prepare themselves for assorted supporter groups from clubs they've previously never thought badly of shouting 'football integrity' at them and urging their own club to try and kill them off. Apparently that's what happens when you're club fucks itself up.

        Raith Rovers, please see above.

        Who is going to win Div 1 or the Championship or whatever we're calling it this season? A St Mirren, Morton, Inverness, Falkirk four way murder-ball all season or have Morton had their season in the sun and are Falkirk destined to always be the bridesmaid?

        As for Rangers, I predict we'll be looking for a new manager before 2017 is over and expect lots of 'lost in translation' articles lifted from Latin American papers about how shit Scottish football is and how bad the weather in Glasgow is.

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          #5
          Planning break to Dumfries & Galloway/Ayrshire in early August. Dunno whether to postpone it to catch Lincoln away at Wycombe or go earlier as originally planned and see Stranraer v East Fife. Assume i'd have no trouble getting in at the latter. Worried the Lincoln game will be made all-ticket.

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            #6
            Originally posted by AMMS View Post
            expect lots of 'lost in translation' articles lifted from Latin American papers about how shit Scottish football is and how bad the weather in Glasgow is.
            I've never understood why Scottish papers bother doing this when Graham Spiers articles are full of the same thing without the need for any translation.

            Down Thistle way, we've lost our best defender to Barnsley, and may lose our manager to Oxford United. I suspect this season may be a return to relegation-fighting form after last season's heady 6th-place-and-lying-down-to-the-big-teams-after-the-split showing. I'd be delighted to be proved wrong, of course.

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              #7
              Can the Dons, or anyone else, close the gap? Sad really but it's the best we can hope for and would be deemed a worthy objective in the business world and in most sports. So, setting aside the annual "Scottish fitba is deid" lobby based on a big team either going bust or the other one winning everything easily, I'm quite enjoying it and predict that we will finish in the top three. Achieving champion also ran status will depend on the better outcome from either us getting some new bodies good enough to replace Hayes and McGinn or Rangers mass influx turning up one or two good eens to add to their keeper, Alves and Jack. StJ came 4th last season, some achievement and that will be hard to replicate.
              Then there is another gap of sorts: 12 below StJ and a mind boggling 30 behind the Dons come Hearts and the other 7 with 12 points between them all. Closing that gap will be significantly easier than the 1st/2nd version and i expect (hope) that there will be a bit of a ding dong between us, Rangers, Hearts and possibly Hibs (on the basis that the last two teams promoted finished third) for the top five places. Dancing in the street if Celtic are pegged back but I doubt it.

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                #8
                BRC is WSC-speak for Big Red Club. The closest we have to one of those is my mob, but despite our clean sweep of second-place trophies (certificates?) last season we are a wee bit far away from being a global marketing behemoth in the mould of Man U / Liverpool / Arsenal..... so I'm struggling here.

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                  #9
                  It's been an interesting week at Rangers as it seems we've finally managed to rid ourselves of Mike Ashley. Earlier this week it was announced that the ridiculous merchandise deal Sports Direct had with Rangers was being ripped up and replaced with a new one year deal much more in line with what might be expected. Our previous deal still had 7 years to run but had been subject to a boycott by supporters for the last few seasons, so although the club wouldn't receive any money anyway neither were Sports Direct.

                  Then today we hear that Mike Ashley has sold his shares in Rangers, half of them were bought by Club 1872 which is our combined fans group. This now gives our fans group over 10% of the shares in the club and they are now our second largest shareholder. You get so used to bad news surrounding your club that when something good happens it almost seems incredulous. I'm refusing to contemplate what we either had to give Ashley or have over him for this to have happened, I'm just going to enjoy this for now.

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                    #10
                    I thought the BRC thing was about Third Lanark coming back.

                    Did I say me & Fussbudget were on Sportscene last season?

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                      #11
                      Back in 1977 I saw Berwick Rangers play a pre-season friendly at home against ? At the final whistle I left the ground, went a few miles down the road to a pub for a couple of pints and then returned to the same ground a couple of hours later to watch the Berwick Bandits speedway team take on Mildenhall. Exciting Summer holidays eh ? I even took pictures.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by imp View Post
                        I bought a Berwick Rangers mug yesterday in a small shop in Berwick, and got chatting to the bloke behind the counter. According to him, this season is going to be "a struggle"..
                        Yep, that's a pretty adequate summing up. Bookies have us joint favourites with Edinburgh City to finish bottom but that's probably being less than generous to City who have some decent players (albeit playing the dullest football possible). Still, if you set your sights really low you can't be disappointed, eh?

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                          #13
                          Kilmarnock have signed Lincoln's Alan Power. I honestly can't assess the gap between the National league and the SPL, so I'm not going to try and make a guess as to how he'll get on. He's an honest, industrious, no-thrills midfielder with a decent shot and a reliable penalty-taking record. RobW can probably say more, he's seen him way more times than I have. I'm still trying to get my head around the idea of a Lincoln player getting signed by Kilmarnock.

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                            #14
                            I think the club are hoping that Andy Robertson's expected sale from Hull to whichever other mid-to-lower-level prem club wants him will save us from admin.
                            We get 15%.
                            15% of the huge overpricing that affects British players in such transfers, hopefully (sorry, principle flees screaming at such moments).

                            Or maybe it's just English players it affects...and why has Maguire sold first..?..and why isn't he being mentioned daily in those stupid fucking 'gossip' stories? Aaaaaaaargh.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Exiled off Main Street View Post
                              Back in 1977 I saw Berwick Rangers play a pre-season friendly at home against ? At the final whistle I left the ground, went a few miles down the road to a pub for a couple of pints and then returned to the same ground a couple of hours later to watch the Berwick Bandits speedway team take on Mildenhall. Exciting Summer holidays eh ? I even took pictures.
                              A couple of years ago I did a May Day Bank Holiday weekend odyssey encompassing Edinburgh Monarchs v Sheffield Tigers speedway, a Hibs v Rangers play-off semi-final second leg, Berwick Bandits v Redcar Bears, Celtic v ICT and Glasgow Tigers v Newcastle Diamonds speedway.

                              I can think of few weekends I've enjoyed more, it was certainly preferable to the camping trip the rest of my family went on.

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                                #16
                                I can hear Newcastle Speedway from my living room, but have never been tempted to go. I've been to the dogs there twice.

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                                  #17
                                  Oh you should, you should, you should. I used to hear Wimbledon Dons at Plough Lane when I lived in the area and in my ignorance thought it was stock cars. Had I realised and popped along I could have discovered the live sport 15 years earlier than I did.

                                  The dogs is a passable occasional night out but crap sport.

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by imp View Post
                                    I bought a Berwick Rangers mug yesterday in a small shop in Berwick, and got chatting to the bloke behind the counter. According to him, this season is going to be "a struggle". So, that's the inside word from the north-east. He threw in a match programme from last season, and then the more we talked, the more he gave me - programmes from recent cup games against Rangers and Celtic. He also put a Berwick - Rangers FC half-and-half pin badge on the counter. I wasn't sure if he was offering that for sale, or as a bonus gift because the mug was a fund-raising item and was priced accordingly. Didn't really want it either way, so I just left it there. If you're ever in Berwick, it's called The Sporran Shop, I think, and you will have a lovely chat about football without much fear of being disturbed by other customers.
                                    After reading the first line, I was about to ask if it was The Sporran and started typing my answer accordingly, before reading onwards.

                                    I love that little gift shop. Am amazed it sells anything at all, with combination of totally hidden placement and the stock being years out of date and completely random. Went there last May bank holiday, and I also enjoyed a chat with the owner about BRFC. I didn't dare ask him why he had the dreadful old glassware for Arsenal and Man Utd items still available.

                                    I bet for certain he hasn't sold the various Blackburn Rovers merch he has inevitably had there for 20+ years.
                                    Last edited by KGR; 26-06-2017, 13:33.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by imp View Post
                                      I bought a Berwick Rangers mug yesterday in a small shop in Berwick, and got chatting to the bloke behind the counter. According to him, this season is going to be "a struggle". So, that's the inside word from the north-east. He threw in a match programme from last season, and then the more we talked, the more he gave me - programmes from recent cup games against Rangers and Celtic. He also put a Berwick - Rangers FC half-and-half pin badge on the counter. I wasn't sure if he was offering that for sale, or as a bonus gift because the mug was a fund-raising item and was priced accordingly. Didn't really want it either way, so I just left it there. If you're ever in Berwick, it's called The Sporran Shop, I think, and you will have a lovely chat about football without much fear of being disturbed by other customers.
                                      Ahem!

                                      South East.

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                                        #20
                                        Great wee shop that though imp, he's a lovely guy.

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                                          #21
                                          He is. And Berwick's geographical co-ordinates are clearly a topic of discussion up north (or south).

                                          In another shop, in Edinburgh, I found a book with a picture inside of the late Fergie, Accies' most abusive fan, and it prompted me to write a tribute piece. Have to admit I didn't buy the book, even though it was only two quid, but too large and heavy for my luggage allowance, so I snapped it with my iPhone instead. Could any copyright holders please get in touch etc.

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                                            #22
                                            Good piece, imp. I seem to recall that Fergie had some fairly unprintable things to say when Accies were exiled to Firhill - around 50% of the Evening Times article asking for his views on the topic was asterisks.

                                            Did anyone ever come up with the definitive answer as to why a guy named Ian Russell was known as Fergie?

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                                              #23
                                              Fergie was something else.

                                              Early 90's I worked beside a guy from Hamilton who was ostensibly a Rangers fan but had a soft spot for The Accies. Went to a good few midweek games with him as well as the B&Q cup finals they made. Fergie was an absolute constant and kept up a non-stop torrent of verbal howls and thumping the advertising hoardings around the park.

                                              I notice imp has already detailed the occasions he was evicted off the team bus but in addition to them my favourite story about him was one of the club's directors helping him move house. He was moving out of an upstairs flat where the stairs went straight up from the front door after passing through an internal glass door. The director told the story that as you would imagine there wasn't a great deal to move and they were pretty much ready to go after loading the van after an hour or so. As he was getting ready to leave Fergie picked up a clapped out holdall and laid it down at the top of the stairway. As he did this an empty Irn Bru bottle fell out of the bag and rattled all the way down the stairs before smashing the internal door.

                                              My mate used to also play Sunday amateurs and they played in Accies shirts, it wasn't unknown for Fergie to turn up at their games and howl abuse at them.

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                                                #24
                                                Should get to see my first top level Scottish team next month; Ross County at Arbroath...

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                                                  #25
                                                  Hearts win a tug-of-war with Hubz to sign Kyle Laugh-at-me.

                                                  I'm not sure how I feel about this.

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