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Women’s Euro 2017 – part 2 – Rotterdam

After leaving Utrecht we headed up north for a couple of days and spent an afternoon in Groningen. Groningen is a university city, the largest city in the North with a population of just over 200000 and it was supposed to be quieter during the summer, but we had the usual hectic game of ‘dodge the bike’ – Groningen has been called the ‘World Cycling City’. We did the obligatory Groninger Museum and were mightily impressed with the building, which stands in the middle of the canal and links the r
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Women’s Euro 2017 – part 1 – Utrecht

First stop on the Euro 2017 tour is the 24426 capacity Stadion Galgenwaard in Utrecht. FC Utrecht were formed as recently as 1970 by a merger of 3 clubs. Utrecht are the only club outside the big three (Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV) never to be relegated from the Eredivisie and last season they were 4th. Their average attendance was just over 18000. The modern stadium dates from 1982 but has had a couple more revamps since then and the current look of the place dates from 2004. Apparently the name is f
The Mantis

The Mantis

0

Women’s Euro 2017 – part 1 – Utrecht

First stop on the Euro 2017 tour is the 24426 capacity Stadion Galgenwaard in Utrecht. FC Utrecht were formed as recently as 1970 by a merger of 3 clubs. Utrecht are the only club outside the big three (Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV) never to be relegated from the Eredivisie and last season they were 4th. Their average attendance was just over 18000. The modern stadium dates from 1982 but has had a couple more revamps since then and the current look of the place dates from 2004. Apparently the name
The Mantis

The Mantis

0

Dunfermline Athletic FC – East End Park

YouTube: ICT and The Pars coming out, 2005 A few memories and photos of East End Park before I head off to the Women’s Euros in The Netherlands where I hope to be blogging a few reports from the Scotland games. As usual I hope the Pars supporters will excuse any glaring errors. I try to use my own photography on these blogs and I apologise for any images not bearing my personal watermark as that means I have nicked them off the internet * Some perspective – although I have spent many a pleas
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Dunfermline Athletic FC – East End Park

YouTube: ICT and The Pars coming out, 2005 A few memories and photos of East End Park before I head off to the Women’s Euros in The Netherlands where I hope to be blogging a few reports from the Scotland games. As usual I hope the Pars supporters will excuse any glaring errors. I try to use my own photography on these blogs and I apologise for any images not bearing my personal watermark as that means I have nicked them off the internet * Some perspective – although I have spent
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Largs Thistle – Barrfields Stadium

That’s my season over. It started away back on July 2nd when I was missing my fix badly enough to go along to Cliftonhill to see Albion Rovers lose 3-1 to Motherwell in a friendly, with torrential sunshowers coming along every 15 minutes to test the leaks in the old stand. Since then I’ve seen Internationals with Scotland (men and women), Premiership in Scotland, England, Portugal, Iceland, Northern Ireland and Faroes, Highland League, U20 Development, East and West Juniors, Northern League in E
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Largs Thistle – Barrfields Stadium

That’s my season over. It started away back on July 2nd when I was missing my fix badly enough to go along to Cliftonhill to see Albion Rovers lose 3-1 to Motherwell in a friendly, with torrential sunshowers coming along every 15 minutes to test the leaks in the old stand. Since then I’ve seen Internationals with Scotland (men and women), Premiership in Scotland, England, Portugal, Iceland, Northern Ireland and Faroes, Highland League, U20 Development, East and West Juniors, Northern League in E
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Bankfoot and Luncarty

I picked two pretty obscure clubs to blog about this time, but I have to say I enjoyed researching them, although there’s not much out there. If anybody has anything to add to this blog, or just corrections, don’t hold back… I became aware of the villages when I started youth hostelling with my mates before I left school. One year we got the bus to Perth and walked to Birnam, where there was a hostel in an old schoolhouse, but this has now been demolished. I had a look for it last year when we
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Bankfoot and Luncarty

I picked two pretty obscure clubs to blog about this time, but I have to say I enjoyed researching them, although there’s not much out there. If anybody has anything to add to this blog, or just corrections, don’t hold back… I became aware of the villages when I started youth hostelling with my mates before I left school. One year we got the bus to Perth and walked to Birnam, where there was a hostel in an old schoolhouse, but this has now been demolished. I had a look for it last year when we
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Cowdenbeath FC – Central Park

Can’t really blog about anybody else this week as The Blue Brazil are very much in the news. Having been part of the Scottish League system since 1905, they have finished this season as the dreaded Club 42 and face a two-legged playoff against East Kilbride to avoid dropping into the Lowland League. Worse still, this would represent a 3rd consecutive relegation. The club’s foundation is disputed (either 1881 or 1882) but they have played at Central Park since 1917. Usually dismissed as a dump b
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Cowdenbeath FC – Central Park

Can’t really blog about anybody else this week as The Blue Brazil are very much in the news. Having been part of the Scottish League system since 1905, they have finished this season as the dreaded Club 42 and face a two-legged playoff against East Kilbride to avoid dropping into the Lowland League. Worse still, this would represent a 3rd consecutive relegation. The club’s foundation is disputed (either 1881 or 1882) but they have played at Central Park since 1917. Usually dismissed as a dump b
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Shire and Stenny

One of the benefits of being an old git is being able to bore people about how things used to be. Back in the 90s you had Stenhousemuir playing at Ochilview, and East Stirlingshire at Firs Park. So over the years I’ve seen Stenny with the old stand shown below, which is opposite where the new 626 seater Norway Stand is. The old “Doll’s House” stand had 310 bench seats and was built in 1928, 7 years after the Warriors joined the League, to replace the old wooden stand which had burned down. They
The Mantis

The Mantis

0

Shire and Stenny

One of the benefits of being an old git is being able to bore people about how things used to be. Back in the 90s you had Stenhousemuir playing at Ochilview, and East Stirlingshire at Firs Park. So over the years I’ve seen Stenny with the old stand shown below, which is opposite where the new 626 seater Norway Stand is. The old “Doll’s House” stand had 310 bench seats and was built in 1928, 7 years after the Warriors joined the League, to replace the old wooden stand which had burned down. They
The Mantis

The Mantis

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ÍBV – Hásteinsvöllur

Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja is quite a mouthful so I’ll be referring to them as ÍBV from now on. I had been to Iceland twice before and caught a glimpse of these islands off the south coast. I managed to persuade my missus to go back to Iceland in September of 2016 and we spent four nights in Vestmannaeyjar, or the Westman Islands as everybody calls them in English. Apparently the West Men were the Irish. To get to Vestmannaeyjar is not the easiest task. You can get to the ferry by car but w
The Mantis

The Mantis

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ÍBV – Hásteinsvöllur

Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja is quite a mouthful so I’ll be referring to them as ÍBV from now on. I had been to Iceland twice before and caught a glimpse of these islands off the south coast. I managed to persuade my missus to go back to Iceland in September of 2016 and we spent four nights in Vestmannaeyjar, or the Westman Islands as everybody calls them in English. Apparently the West Men were the Irish. To get to Vestmannaeyjar is not the easiest task. You can get to the ferry by car but w
The Mantis

The Mantis

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Reds Preach ‘Consistency’ Ahead of 2017 Campaign

This week Toronto FC unveiled its new 2017 primary kit at their now annual ‘President’s Breakfast’ event. President Bill Manning and GM Tim Bezbatchenko addressed the media and invited supporters and also spoke about their goals for 2017 (Supporters Shield and unfinished business in the playoffs are the stated objectives).   In this brief video blog I offer up my opinions on what I heard from the club today and how this quiet off season for the Reds is EXACTLY how it should be coming off the
Scotty

Scotty

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It Had To Be Stefan Frei

I don’t know if I believe in fate or Karma or the impact of the spiritual when it comes to sports. Not sure if players blessing themselves before they cross the white line onto the field of play actually does anything. Not sure if being hexed or possessed of nothing but bad ‘luck’ means anything either. But this heart breaker loss for my Toronto FC has gotten me thinking about the power of these sorts of intangibles. __________________________________________________________ The irony of Stefa
Scotty

Scotty

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CanCon Can

In this post game video blog I take a brief look back at the last four games for TFC that I did not blog about (you know, Altidore and Seba getting hurt, Bradley and Johnson away on International duty, the 2 pts out of 12 available run, and why there is not yet reason to panic). I take a look back at a memorable night against the Impact in the 2016 Voyageurs Cup Semi Final first leg. I also take a look at what might be some questionable mathematics on my part to try and explain the possible outc
Scotty

Scotty

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Raising The Roof

Toronto FC finally kicked off the home portion of their 2016 campaign with a solid 1-0 victory Saturday vs FC Dallas. In this post game video blog I take a look at the roof and how it impacts the game day experience in the South end of BMO Field, I take a another look at the continuing defensive solidity the Reds are showing (this  time against one of the better offensive clubs in MLS in FC Dallas), I anoint Jozy Altidore as my Man of The Match & I end off with celebratory video from the st
Scotty

Scotty

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Player of the Year Update

Its that time of year again .... time to go through all the polls and calculate who is winning the race to be the 16th recipient of the CaleyThistleOnline Player of the Year award. The CTO - POY award was started in season 2000-2001, and other than the Supporters Club / Trust Player of the Year award, it is the only external award recognised officially by the club and included in their year on year stats, a fact we are very proud of.  An interesting fact about our award is that in the 15 ye
Scotty

Scotty

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Repeat after me - It's not Sky's or ESPN's fault

Broadcasting deals for Scotttish football have received a lot of bad press in the last 12 months. Some off it quite rightly warranted, however a great deal of iit was anywhere between misguided to just plain wrong. The facts are there are 2 types on sport: sport with a TV presence and amatuer sport watched by 2 men annd a dog. Some people are too quick to judge the negative aspects of broadcast contracts without acknowleging the overwhelming positives. And they are overwhelming, so let's loo
Gabby

Gabby

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Armageddon - thy name is league reconstruction

If you were to give 100 monkeys 100 typewriters (computers that didn’t need electricity for the younger viewers) I would be willing to bet they would come up with a better plan for league reconstruction than the ones currently on offer. Before I look deeper into these I first wanted to look at the reasons given for league reconstruction to see how we got here. When the SFA/SFL/SPL and any other alphabet soup of organisations released a joint statement last year they provided the following re
Gabby

Gabby

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