Skip to content

DISCLAIMER: Our blog section contains a mixture of internal blogs and external blog feeds which are displayed via third-party integration tools that we have no editorial control over. Under the provisions of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and its associated safe harbour style protections under the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 CaleyThistleOnline acts as a mere conduit for those externally published or linked blogs and assumes no responsibility for their content. This responsibility lies solely with the original author or publisher of the article or blog in question. We will act expeditiously to remove any content that is subject to a valid takedown request. Please use the link at the bottom of the page to contact us with any valid request (guests) or use the report post function (members) to initiate the request.

Football

World Cup 2026

Across The Pond - 6 days to go

So here we go (here we go, here we go) ... The competition starts in 6 days time and Scotland are firmly ensconced the USA preparing for their World Cup return in 8 days, albeit without Billy Gilmour, which is a big loss to the side, but we are nonetheless at our first World Cup since France '98 and the Tartan Army will be there in force, tickets or not. I remember France 98, we got beaten by both Brazil and Morocco enroute to a bottom of the group finish. Let's hope history does not repeat itse
World Cup 2026

Across The Pond - World Cup Approaching: Part 2

And now for the promised part 2 of the World Cup Approaching blog. For this part, I am going to review the Toronto Stadium now that I have had a chance to sit in the finished article for the world cup and also pass some good news (for me) on at the end. Thanks to my son's youth team, I was able to secure tickets for us to go along to Canada -Vs- Iceland as I mentioned in part 1. This was my first international game in 30+ years. My last time was at Hampden Park in the early 90s I seem to recall
World Cup 2026

Across The Pond - World Cup Approaching: Part 1a

Well my last AI generated blog header aged well didn't it! Shows what can happen when you make assumptions. The World Cup playoffs yesterday certainly brought some surprises not least of which was Bosnia & Herzegovina deservedly beating out the Azzurri to reach the finals of the World Cup. I watched the match yesterday and have to say that this was a deserved victory for Bosnia & Herzegovina. They fought hard for every ball, looked like scoring on multiple occasions and deservedly equali
World Cup 2026

Across The Pond - World Cup Approaching: Part 1

Doesn't seem like several months since my last post in this blog, but apparently it is! That means its longer since I last posted than it is until the first game at the Toronto Stadium in the World Cup. 77 days from now, on June 12th Canada will open the Canadian portion of the FIFA World Cup when they take on that famous team of "TBD". (that's apparently what it says on the electronic ticket - for those lucky enough to secure one). Yesterday morning, the identity of 'TBD' was between Northern I
World Cup 2026

Across The Pond: Perseverance

Oh well, as one door closes another opens as they say ... not sure who actually said that but that's what we all say that someone said isn't it. In my case, the door that closed was yet another advanced World Cup ticket window which ran until October 31st and should have seen those lucky enough to get selected receive a purchase time and date by November 7th. Having said that, this comes with a huge caveat in that there is actually no guarantee that even with a purchase time and date you will
World Cup 2026

Across The Pond: Ticketless (for now)

Ok, so September 30th came and went without an email from FIFA, unless you count the numerous emails offering a guaranteed ticket if I spend hundreds of dollars on some card pack or other. It was a longshot of course, but I was definitely hoping to be one of the lucky ones in the estimated 4.5m people who registered for the VISA presale for tickets for World Cup 2026. Alas it was not meant to be, probably also in part due to the fact that I restricted myself to only the games taking place in Tor
World Cup 2026

Across the Pond: Maple the Moose, Zayu the Jaguar, Clutch the Bald Eagle

Well, that headline is a bit of a mouthful isn't it! What does it mean? Well, it's the mascot names for next year's World Cup! For World Cup 2026, you get three mascots for the price of one since the event is being held across three countries. In a caricature of Canadians that would make our late great friend the @IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER proud, and give him many moments to wind me up, Canada gets Maple the Moose. Only thing better would have been Louie the Lumberjack or Bob the Beaver! According t
World Cup 2026

Across The Pond - Toronto Stadium

A busy football week in Toronto! On Tuesday, the City of Toronto (owners of BMO Field) and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), the owners of Toronto FC and other franchises in the city, who are also the exclusive custodians of BMO Field, announced they had completed Phase 1 of the work for the upgrades to the stadium for next year's World Cup. Due to the continuing MLS football season as well as the Toronto Argonauts CFL season, Phase 1 was largely concentrated on unseen stuff other than
World Cup 2026

Across the Pond - Just the Ticket!

Its Ticket Time !! Almost there ... as the graphic says: 11mins and 50 seconds until I can officially apply for tickets for the 2026 World Cup courtesy of FIFA partner VISA's presale window. Having said that, all of this was after well over 90 minutes of the spinning dots tantalisingly telling me I was almost there, and then the countdown timer starting at 30 minutes! All the while while I was keeping my fingers crossed that my browser didnt crash or I had some other IT failure happen! The actua

2025/26 Scottish Premiership preview

Before we get on to anything else, I'd like to point out that I got huge stick last season for predicting Dundee would come tenth. Just saying, like. What do you mean, even a stopped clock is right twice a day? Anyway... In recent years, my Premiership season preview has tended to follow a pattern: first we have The Cheeks Of The Glasgow a***, then we look at the three clubs whose budgets should -but often don't - put them comfortably clear of the rest, and then the other seven who could all pot

2025/26 Scottish Championship preview

Ah, the mad, bad Scottish Championship, a place where teams who think they're too good for this level quickly learn to show respect after they've been scudded at Gayfield. There's a reason why clubs looking to get promoted fill their squad with players who are known to be good at this level, rather than ones who they think can do a job in the top flight. Thus ROSS COUNTY followed their relegation by quickly moving for Declan Gallagher and Ross Docherty, who formed the backbone of the Dundee Un

2025/26 Scottish League One preview

For my annual League One reviews, I've tended to assume that full-time sides (the ones that are not financial basket-cases) are likely to beat out part-time ones over the course of a whole season. Of course Arbroath put that particular theory to shame last season, but I'm not going to let a small thing like that stop me. Of this season's four full-time League One teams, INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE are the bookies' favourites but start with a five point deduction courtesy of last season's admi

2025/26 Scottish League Two preview

Lessons I've learned from the League Two previews I've done in the past (many of which have been extremely, spectacularly wrong): - Do not pay much attention to the League Cup group results. They tend not to be a good indicator of what's coming. - If there is a team that is pretty well bankrolled, put them near the top as they will either romp it or, if they don't, they will sack their manager and/or bring in loads of players in January and then romp it. - The weakest team right now is not actua
World Cup 2026

Across The Pond - World Cup Preparation

Seems my first blog on the World Cup was timely ... Earlier this week, FIFA announced the World Cup schedule of games for each venue and in Toronto it will kick off on day two of the competition with the Canadian National Team game at BMO Field. BMO Field is to be renamed Toronto Stadium for the duration of the World Cup due to sponsorship rights / FIFA No idea who Canada will be playing yet, what group it will be, or who makes up that group (fingers crossed for Scotland) but it's the World Cup
World Cup 2026

Across The Pond - World Cup Edition

Toying with the idea of reinstating this blog, not just as a Toronto FC blog for anyone interested but perhaps more relevant (assuming Scotland can qualify) a blog about the pre-World Cup 2026 preparations in Toronto where BMO Field will host several group stage games The current field is undergoing in-place upgrades as the MLS season continues and the new stadium will go from this .... to the images below with the addition of temporary seating. The stands on the left (West/Main) and right (Ea

The eighteenth annual Narey's Toepoker Team of the Year

I'm getting later at doing this every year, so sorry about that. Still, traditions are traditions. And it's always a fun excuse to look back at the teams from the olden days. I can barely remember when Stephen Hughes was actually a thing... 2007/08: Allan McGregor (Rangers), Alan Hutton (Rangers), Carlos Cuellar (Rangers), Lee Wilkie (Dundee United), Lee Naylor (Celtic), Barry Robson (Celtic), Stephen Hughes (Motherwell), Barry Ferguson (Rangers), Aiden McGeady (Celtic), Scott McDonald (Celtic

Worst signings of the 2024/25 Premiership season (part 2)

This year's top ten, as promised. Numbers 11 to 25 can be found here. In all the year's I've done this, I've not really had to think much about ranking players in the context of clubs releasing them because of run-ins with the police. How on earth do you quantify that? And is it possible to still think of this exercise as a bit of pointless fun when you're referring to allegations of assaulting a woman, or domestic violence? Hopefully next year I'll be back to just ranking goalkeepers with c

Worst Signings of the 2024/25 Premiership season (part 1)

As Andy Williams once sang, it's the most wonderful time of the year. People wrongly assumed that he was referring to Christmas, but actually he was a big fan of this blog. Honestly. For the thirteenth time, I present my list of the worst signings made by Premiership clubs this season. Here's your reminder of the twelve previous victors : 2012/13: Rory Boulding (Kilmarnock) 2013/14: Stephane Bahoken (St. Mirren) 2014/15: Jim Fenlon (Ross County) 2015/16: Rodney Sneijder (Dundee United) 2016/17

2024/25 Scottish Premiership preview

A friend and I were reminiscing about the good old days the other evening and discussing how old we were when we first got into football. For me, it was the 1990/91 season, as Scotland embarked on their successful Euro 92 qualifying campaign and Aberdeen failed to get the point they needed at Ibrox on the final day to win the title (to this day, an Aberdeen-supporting mate practically spits on the ground at the mention of Michael Watt). That was more than 33 years ago and in that time no-one e

2024/25 Scottish Championship preview

When was the last time the Scottish Championship felt as open as this? Usually the side(s) that come down have a clear financial advantage that ultimately works in their favour over the course of an entire season, but that isn't the case this time around. And at the other end we can normally pinpoint a part-time side as relegation favourites, but not in 2024/25. Genuinely, there are reasons why fans of every club can dream of a successful season...and perhaps fear a dreadful one. Let's do this

2024/25 Scottish League One preview

Traditionally, my League One season previews follow a standard pattern: the full-time teams near the top, the well-run part-time teams in the middle and part-time teams that seem one step up from a pub side at the bottom. Except this time around the part-time teams seem to be the professional outfits, whereas the full-time sides...well, let's segue neatly onto the subject of  INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE, who are back in the seaside leagues for the first time this century, and my God it has be

2024/25 Scottish League Two preview

In the absence of one clear heavily-bankrolled favourite, trying to predict League Two has been a bit of a mug's game in recent years. Luckily, I happen to be a mug. I work from three tenets here; firstly, a good (or terrible) manager makes a hell of a difference; secondly, good recruitment makes a hell of a difference; and thirdly, the League Cup results are a lousy predictor (Forfar Athletic have burned me too often on this point). I'm not in a position to judge whether the maverick Michael Mc

The seventeenth annual Narey's Toepoker Team of the Year (part 2)

The defence and goalkeeper can be found here. CENTRAL MIDFIELD: MATT O'RILEY (CELTIC), CALLUM MCGREGOR (CELTIC) Honourable mentions: Lyall Cameron (Dundee), Beni Baningime (Heart of Midlothian), Connor Barron (Aberdeen), Mark O'Hara (St. Mirren) I'm cheating a bit here as O'Riley could - should? - be better placed as an attacking midfielder. Anyway, he was damn good and possibly should have won Player Of The Year? McGregor is McGregor, a class above any other deep-lying midfielder in the leagu

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. : Terms of Use : Guidelines : Privacy Policy

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.