The Fly

I understand where David Dowling's coming from, and I think perhaps an individual non-league club might find it more difficult to get a premier tie. Given the way the draw is set up though I still think non-League clubs overall have got a better chance of facing a 'big' side (i.e. top of 1st Div or SPL). Expanding on what Scotty says, Round 2 will consist of 22 non-league and 10 3rd Division clubs. Even in the unlikely event of the (random) balls coming out of the draw so that every 3rd Div club got a tie against a non-league club, and went on to beat them, that would still leave 6 non-league clubs in the draw for Round 3. In all probability some of the 3rd Div clubs will be drawn against other 3rd Div clubs, and some non-league clubs should expect to be able to beat lower 3rd div clubs (East Stirling, Elgin anyone...). Assume that 10 non-league clubs make it through to Round 3, you'd again expect some of the 2nd Div clubs to be drawn against other 2nd Div or against 3rd Div clubs. Hopefully at least a couple of non-league clubs will be able to beat their 2nd or 3rd Div opponents, justifying the expansion of the competition and their automatic inclusion. I'll stick my neck out and say that at least three non-league clubs will make it through to the Round 4 draw including the top 1st Div and SPL clubs, which I think will be an improvement on the previous position and make it a more interesting competition overall. Hopefully TV will be more interested in some of these games, fans should be more interested, and sponsorship monies increase. I've only been to one Scottish Cup game in the last few seasons, partly because of fatigue at seeing us playing the same old sides - now we're in the SPL a draw against of of our bottom six foes at SPL really doesn't get me fired up. Strangely, I would much rather have a good old-style day out on the terracing. I would be happy to see all sides in Round 1, but I don't think it will happen for the various reasons mentioned above. A question though: why did Golspie Sutherland (but none of the other 'non-non-league' sides) compete in the Qualifying Cup North (and presumably will go into the Round 1 draw next season) ???

Will you take a post-dated cheque for £1.5m drawn on the Bank of Zambia? :023: No doubt you'd get excuses like these from Rangers and Clyde clicky clicky :001:

The format's going to be a bit more complicated so that byes are avoided - entry of clubs from each division/league staggered to give some reward for clubs finishing at the top of lower divisions: Round 1 - 36 clubs enter: 14 clubs who formerly participated in the Qualifying Cup North (excluding top two in Highland League from previous season) 18 clubs who formerly participated in the Qualifying Cup South (excluding East of Scotland League and South of Scotland League champions from previous season) 4 Scottish Junior FA clubs - winners of the North/West/East Super Leagues and the Scottish Junior Cup Round 2 - 18 winners + 14 clubs enter: Top two in Highland League from previous season East of Scotland League champions from previous season South of Scotland League champions from previous season Ten SFL third division clubs Round 3 - 16 winners + 16 clubs enter: Ten SFL Second Division clubs Six SFL First Division clubs (those finishing in bottom six positions previous season) Round 4 - 16 winners + 16 clubs enter: Four SFL First Division clubs (those finishing in top four positions previous season) 12 SPL clubs and from then on it's a simple knockout for three more rounds to get to the final. Overall it sounds like a Good Thing, although I suspect an explanation of the rather complicated entry stages for the different clubs will have to be printed on a little card for reporters, managers, fans and others to carry around for reference! I guess you couldn't bring the top clubs in at an earlier stage because of the potential fixture pile ups after Christmas for those clubs still in the League Cup and Europe (whoops ) I think this setup gives the smaller teams a pretty good chance to progress though, and more opportunity for 'giant killing'. Presumably the actual draws won't be seeded, so you can end up with any team drawn against any team in any round?

McCall behave like a tube? Never I do rate his managerial abilities however, given a reasonable (or less) amount of resources he seems to do pretty well.

Two or three new players sounds fine to me. We can't afford galacticos, or anywhere near their level, so there's no point in packing out our squad with a host of players all around the same level of ability. They would then get narked because they are always playing in the reserves - or the alternative is squad rotation, and I don't think much of that idea. Stability is what we need, to my mind that's been the greatest strength of our team in the SPL (and before) - players only being changed from match to match if absolutely necessary. I'm happy enough if we're targetting specific positions that need filling, and seeing how it goes over the summer and pre-season. Caff looks to be capable of replacing Dods, and Zander seems a great prospect, I think our main concern is replacing Dargo if he goes, with cover for the other positions as well. As the man said, no great overhauls, just simple replacement will see us fine. It worked for Trigger's broom :004:

Stick me down for a pair :003:

Number 2 makes most sense - I think those are more or less the rules that Dundee had to work to about the time the SPL was formed.

IHE on the trumpet :rotflmao:

The blazer is hanging proudly in my wardrobe, a little tighter around the waist than back then :001: :001: :001: - it still comes out on special occasions! I've still got Shearer's old training jacket as well :003: That was a great night, but I think the following year (the day we won the First Division) was even better - pics clicky - remember Robbo rolling in with the trophy, and then Emily having to babysit it for the rest of the evening as it was passed around for everyone to read the names and hold for photos! Scotty - I remember what you said when I suggested that a certain internet photosite red cross whizz could take over this site for you... :015: It's a shame that nothing can be sorted in advance because of the split - because of this we can't get a date for a last home game, even without knowing who we're going to play :008: I don't know what can be done about this, other than perhaps trying to provisionally book the last two weekends of the season and then cancelling when you know which Saturday is going to be the last home - but I can't imagine that many (if any) venues would buy into that idea!

Sounds like you've been on a back-to-school week with Tom Hendrie :001:

Yep! Basically if we equal or do better than Dunfermline we're officially safe - if both us and Dunfermline win then the gap is still 13 points, with only 12 available.

According to the Italian media RAI clicky clicky he was released. Allegedly he's a friend of a lawyer who used to be involved at a club in Dundee, and is talking about a move to Scottish Division 1 football to resurrect :010: his career.

I say good luck to him - he's been a key player for the club, and I can't blame him for wanting to play at the highest level possible and secure his financial future. I'm sure he's thought of the risk of ending up in the reserves and on the bench, and decided it's a risk worth taking. CC would know exactly how Brown felt knowing that Celtic wanted him, as he was in the same position 20 years ago. Now, bring on Mikey! The future's Fraser :003:

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy :001: Agree with GrJn, the long ball wasn't pretty to watch on Saturday and didn't produce much. Here's hoping for a decent enough performance against Rangers, and revenge on St Mirren in a dazzling display of one-touch football - well, hope to beat them at least. I'm not overly worried about 11th position, considering how tight the league is this season, we're not detached at the bottom and a couple of wins. I'd be much more worried if we were in 10th place and there were three clubs at the bottom with a big gap to 9th.

Haha! Hadn't seen that story in the Record, was looking at the BBC story about Ribovas. I'm sure the Hearts players would normally be capable of organising themselves reasonably well, but with Pressley seemingly out you wonder... guess it comes down to what the tea-lady thinks :001:

Any idea who's in charge of Hearts for this? Ribovas - no, gone back to Lithuania, back in December Malofeev - gone, with a touchline ban if he comes back McGlynn - to Raith Rovers Ivanauskas - won't answer his phone Any bets on Romanov snr or jnr being in the dugout? ???

To answer Alex's question: - ABC is the Audit Bureau of Circulation, an industry body that records how many copies of a paid-for newspaper are bought - VFD (Verified Free Distribution) is the equivalent certification for free-distribution newspapers - JICREG is another industry body that monitors the number of people actually reading the newspaper (i.e. you, your wife, the kids, the dog) - for paid-for newspapers you normally have 2-3 people reading each copy; for the worst of the free-distribution newspapers you can sometimes have less people reading a newspaper than the number of copies distributed (i.e. a large number go straight in the bin). JICREG enables a better comparison between paids and frees if we need to compare readership in any given area. The Highland News (like a number of other newspapers) is misleadingly named - it only covers a small geographical part of the Highlands. Calling it the "Highland News" makes it sound grander! Incidentally, circulation figures (average copies sold) for the Ross-shire Journal, Inverness Courier, P&J and The Scotsman for comparison: Inverness (adult pop c.52000): Courier Friday edition 16373, P&J 5933, Ross-shire Journal 1467, Scotsman 555 Dingwall (adult pop c.15000): Ross-shire Journal 4320, P&J 1714, Courier Friday 813, Scotsman 89 To sum up: 10 times as many people in Inverness read the Courier than the Ross-shire Journal, 5 times as many people in Dingwall read the Journal than the Courier, virtually nobody reads The Scotsman! Figures that go some way to explaining why news and sport will be reported with a local bias in the weeklies - the P&J is the only newspaper with a decent circulation all across the Highlands.

It would be interesting to know what exactly the 'Assets' are and how they're valued - for example, a football stadium like Ibrox would cost a lot to build, and theoretically be worth a lot, but does it really have a 'second-hand' value of £xx million? A bit like some of the players Rangers have brought in - cost £x million to buy, but you wouldn't get two beans for them on e-bay :001: And the Livi wages... :crazy06:

No

I think we broke him twice - at Morton and St Johnstone (unless I'm going senile) :-D

OK, so having the managerial scalp of (inter alia) Billy Stark, Gordon Dalzell, **** Campbell, John Barnes, Billy Stark etc we can start making a list of players we've broken :001:

No alarm bells ringing in my ears, just a UPS duff battery alarm on the server at work that's giving me a headache :015: CC's comments after the match were honest and right - we played well overall, posed Hearts problems, were unlucky to be a goal down twice and just lost concentration/shape for the two late goals. Hearts are still a good side, if not as good as this time last year.

If you can bring that number up for the game then I say :notworthy01: :clapping04: !

Maybe it's a urban legend, but are we the only club that Dods hasn't been relegated with?

Get yer (duffel) coat! :015: