The Mantis

P.s. Only a select few will know what I'm on about and they're a' deid....

Are you no staying over like?

Feck off back to Canada.

Rene's right again. In the last match v Alloa at home, I was more concerned about that record than winning the game as we had already conceded the title, losing 4-3 to Livi the week before. With only 6 minutes to go, up popped 'Spider' Stewart to open the scoring and so we had scored in all 36 games. On the way down the road we overtook the Livi team bus returning from Forfar where they had been presented with the trophy. I was driving and we sat in front of them for a mile or two. Big Dougie Lynn, in the passenger seat, lazily waved two fingers at them out of the window, and Ray Stewart, sitting in the front of the bus with the trophy, returned the compliment. Do you think the SFA Compliance Officer would be interested

Even rarer, Naelifts bought a round.

Were we undefeated at home in the league that year? I think we were, but that's not it

What was remarkable about ICT's league campaign in 98-99 (apart from the promotion)?

Thanks for the link: wasn't aware of that blog.

I think Dundee Utd have already tried that

The SFA does make payments to its member clubs based on how much it makes itself through the National team, the Scottish Cup etc. so although there is very little money in the SPFL from TV etc compared to the English Leagues, the SFA is not badly off at all. I know that my non-League club (Whitehill) got a substantial bonus this year from the SFA due to being licensed so Brora will have got the same. In SPFL2 that bonus will be increased about fivefold from what I've heard.

We're in the Semis, people will swim there if they have to!!!!! Can't see the Celtic fans swimming there tbh, all it would take was for somebody to chuck in a bar of soap.

Just because Brora have been battering in the goals in the HL I think it's a bit premature to suggest they will be thrashing either of these clubs. Brora's results against teams from other leagues this season haven't been anything special and I think you're underestimating the LL for one thing. Edinburgh City have won the LL by a fair margin and Spartans, who reached the last 16 of the Scottish, are unlikely even to be in the top three. Granted, Brora have already won at Meadowbank but 3-2 is hardly a thrashing. Also Spartans beat both Clyde and Morton, that's Clyde who won 3-0 away at Turriff. Meanwhile City knocked out Auchinleck, no mean feat. I think Brora are favourites to win both playoffs but making rash predictions is a bit daft.

Not being cheeky but were you also present, by any chance, for Colin Stein's hatrick? No, listened on the radio. It was really 9-0 with big Coco getting 5 but the BBC misreported it My first International was 2-1 v Czechoslovakia in September 1973 when we qualified for the 1974 World Cup.

No but I can tell you the score. 6-1 to Gibraltar Mrs Mantis' first Scotland game on her birthday and she was well impressed, she's wearing her new scarf to bed I think Myself, hadn't been to Hampden since 2004 with ICT but enjoyed it and looking forward to the next time....

The thing is, we all know Watkins isn't the greatest ball player but he muscled his way through two or three times today and just at the point of pulling the trigger he lost control, although it was as much the fault of the bumpy pitch as Marley's.

That was as bad as it gets. Two poor teams on a poor pitch. Dreadful game and whatever balance we had was destroyed by the 3 substitutions. Doran might have made a difference as he looked really fresh and eager to get involved but when we put Tarlo & Eddie on we looked even more clueless. Started with 3 at the back and nobody seemed to know what their job was, with a strange lack of urgency as though we were 3 goals up. Partick actually looked a very poor side and the boy Lawless was allowed too much space to get in just about the only bit of quality in the whole game, a decent left footed strike that crept in at Ryan's left hand post.

I'm fairly sure I can recall hearing long ago on Radio Scotland that these panels are drawn from a pool of former players, former refs and journalists. No, they're made up of 3 officials from SFA member clubs.

Aye, get yourself a smartphone then. Oh I see, you mean small change

Off

Train is full of Rovers fans, just winding up into party mode. Couple of cops on it too, nobody's allowed to drink till 10 am :-)

And you think some of 'us lot' need to grow up

If you were not so obsessed with your risible attempts at stereotyping or professing support for a party one of who's spokespeople 'only has issues with negroes' it might not have escaped your attention that there is more than one poster on this thread who has, in other fora, expressed support for independence. I have encountered few if any Nationalists who are in the least narrow minded far less so warped as to take delight in failure at a quintessentially English sport which, world wide, has almost as many followers and active participants as football. Those of us who want a proper, progressive, grown-up nation to live in have more to think about than using sport as a jingoistic stick with which to beat other nations.

I'm not sure what you mean Rene. First, Tynecastle has no terracing. Maybe you mean the stewards have turned a blind eye to huge numbers of bevvied-up young men standing, same as they do when the twins of evil visit us. But that's not the same as 'standing being allowed in the lower leagues'. Second, I can't recall any club being relegated from the top league and still having terracing in place after having stretched themselves to meet the criteria of 6000/10000 seats. We ourselves were obliged to have only seating even after relegation in 2009. Teams with terracing such as QOS are rare and have never made it to the top division.

Surely only the likes of Bobby Mann or Mark Yardley possess enough of a gravitational pull to alter the course of a football. Now where's that old photo?