CaleyD

Was speaking to another fan today who was seated 4 rows from the back of the North Stand and was asked to sit - the reason given was that he was blocking the view of those in the next section over!!!!

I suggest you just avoid talking to Rangers fans and that should solve the problem :015: I'm guessing he is comparing the singing of the Sash to the singing of Flower of Scotland and he would be right in the fact that the two songs are very similar in terms of celebrating victories in battle. The difference between the two is that we don't add our own verses/lines to The Flower of Scotland, whereas Rangers have the habit of adding F** the Pope between verses and at the end of the Sash. Even without the added lines, the guy you are speaking to has shot himself in the foot by admitting that it is only sung in order to wind up the other half of the OF. I can't find the link right now but I believe legislation exists that says even though something may not in itself be sectarian, if it is used in order to incite another group/race/organisation then the behaviour can and will be adjudged to have been sectarian and those involved can be punished accordingly. The same rules apply to singing Flower of Scotland but there's one important difference. We sing it as we recognise it as being our (unofficial) National Anthem and not with the intent of winding up another nation. Had your friend been able to argue that Rangers fans sing the Sash as they recognise it as being their Anthem, and was it not for the added lines then people would have no argument. The same applies to many of the other "Loyalist" songs sung by Rangers, on their own and in the right place and sung for the right reasons then they are fine, but that is not enough for Rangers and by your friends own admission they are sung with the intent of inciting the other half of the OF. In short, the songs are not Sectarian, it is the manner in which they are used and the added lines which make those who sing them sectarian.

You fat barsteward - even I only need an XXL - I do have a spare should you wish to borrow it to keep you safe as you cross the A9 :004:

The Bouncy always brings back bad memories of the day I was caught doing the truffle shuffle whilst standing on a table in the French class. I'm sured it scared poor George Barney for life :029:

People behave no better/worse at Football matches now than they did 5, 10, 20 or 50 years ago - the only difference now, in terms of the SPL, is that they seem to think they have the power to re-write the laws of the land. No Law anywhere says it is illegal to stand at a football match, no safety certificate is issued on the grounds that all people must be made to sit....these are lies and myths perpetuated by the SPL in order to try and dumb down the fans and force them in to complying. The only time we see any real trouble is when they try to enforce these farcical rules, it is only at that stage that people (fans) cross the line in to law and commit the heinous crime of swearing or non-compliance and it is only at that stage that the police have any powers to get involved. In short it is these "Rules" and the manner with which they are enforced that is causing the problems, not the fans - and they are only made worse by the fact that the punishment is far in excess of the crime on many occasions. What frustrates me even more is that clubs happily accept these rules that are handed out by the SPL with very little resistance or consideration for how they will impact on the fans. They somehow think that it will make life easier for them, when in fact it is having the exact opposite effect. The SPL create these rules to make it look like they are combating issues such as sectarianism, which is fine if that is what the rules were being used for, but they are not, they are being used to target the "soft options" so as they can increase the stats on numbers they have taken action against and include it in the "Look at how many people we arrested in the Sectarianism and Being Disruptive etc" category. The club can hide behind the "It's the big boys that made us do it" line all they like, but as they continue to do so they are fast losing the respect of the fans ans if they aren't careful they'll start losing the income as well. The sooner they stop trying to treat us like we are idiots the better. Yes, we need rules, but the rules have to be sensible and realistic and they have to be applied in the problem areas that they were intended to handle. All rules should be justifiable and not simply exist because someone said they had too. I accept that the SPL/Club have the right to impose any rules they see fit within the stadium, but they also have to accept that imposing these rules in the manner they do is going to bring them problems. The "Powers that Be" need to remember that is the fans that make the club...a concept that seems to be alien to the current Chief Executive, Board of Directors and Chairman. I've said it before and I'll say it again - for all his faults, David Sutherland was the best Chairman this club has ever had. Not just because of what he achieved with the club in his time at the helm, but because he was upfront, honest and had the balls to stand up to the powers that be instead of bending over and taking whatever they had to dish out - those, Mr Savage, are the qualities that will earn you the respect of the fans.

The problem with Debenhams doing it is the fact that if they screw it up they can't simply place their hands on another top and re-do it, whereas they can because the stock Celtic shirts. JJB used to offer the lettering service, but only for tops they stocked for the exact same reason. The club used to have the facility to do it, so no idea what has changed on that front. They must have to get the teams shirts done and it would surprise me if they weren't doing it in-house.

Are our Stewards really so soft that they can't just shrug off a few chants from kids and instead have to turn it in to a major incident. I've done event security and worked as a doorman in the past and if I took offense and called in the police every time someone passed comment or shouted something in my direction then I'd never have been out of court and security companies wouldn't be going out of their way to have me work for them either as I'd be more hassle than I was worth. Some jobs require you to be thick skinned and Stewarding is one of them, whether they like it or not. If they can't hack a bit of ribbing then they should choose a different vocation. I could perhaps understand if they were throwing things at the Stewards or behaving in a threatening manner but that was not the case. This whole thing is something from nothing and I really do wonder how our Stewards would cope if they had real problems to deal with...oh no wait, I don't have to wonder, we see them turning their back on and ignoring the bile spouted by the OF on a regular basis, not to mention doing nothing when they choose to stand en-masse....and not even when they pack more people in to a stand than the safety certificate permits and some people have to stand as they don't have a seat!!! You see, when it suits them, they can ignore the rules and the etiquette without any issue....funny that.

Watt is still carrying a knock that he picked up in his last reserve game and Bayne and Hastings have only been back in training a couple of days, so can't see any of them starting (they may be on the subs bench though). McAllister, Paatelainen, Hart and Proctor are also on the injured list at present. With that in mind I don't think we'll see to many changes to the squad for Tuesday, but I would like to see us set up the squad to attack Gretna constantly for 90 minutes. I know it's a cup game, but when we were new to the SPL the mistake other "better" teams made against us was to sit back and let us come at them and we shouldn't fall in to that trap. 3 at the back, 5 in the middle to make best use of the width at TCS (include Black and Niculae and give them instructions to get forward as much as possible) and 2 up front.

IHE, I think you were correct in many of your observations, but I don't think your psychotic psychological approach to the issue has had anything to do with the improvements. Best you keep at it though as I may be wrong - it's happened before :015:

Just answered this on the Technical Forum - it's now fixed and you should be able to vote without any problems. Apologies for the inconvenience.

This club have no idea what it is to have troublesome fans. I said elsewhere that "some" of those involved in the events at the Arbroath game deserved whatever punishment they got, but I never thought for one second that the club would be dishing out lifetime bans, this kind of action is far too extreme, even if this lad was one of the many who chose to chant and swear at the Steward. We may not know the whole story, but to my knowledge, nothing more serious than the above happened. The club have to take action, but a lifetime ban is ridiculous. No doubt in my mind that this lad is being made an example of and that is wrong.

Because there's nothing in the SPL rules to say Pigeons can't sit there :016:

I think George might have been doing a bit of celebrating before getting on the phone :drinking10:

Not going to complain too much as McGuire should have been in the book far earlier than he was for mouthing at him, and possibly off for continuing after he got booked.

Even I could have scored the one that Denzil did today - that's taking nothing away from his game though as I think he was more effective than Niculae for much of the first half. I think the frustration is starting to take it's toll on Niculae and he really needs to get on the (SPL) score sheet soon or Brewster :023: will be unable to justify starting him.

Great result today and it's hard to criticise when you get a result (especially the first), but some things, IMO, need to be addressed. One or two players seemed to be starting to fold under the pressure today and it could well have cost us dearly. The fact that McGuire stayed on the park for 90 minutes is a miracle. It was obvious he was going to talk his way into the book and the moment that happened he should have been replaced as he was only going to do it again. The guys is talented but he's going to become the new Blackie if he doesn't get his mouth in check. Russel Duncan seemed to be losing his composure also and that was evident from him being booked for launching the ball away, even though he'd been given the foul. Hopefully this was just frustration at the fact we've been playing well for the last 3 games and (at that point) it looked like we weren't going to get just rewards for todays efforts, but it is something we need to keep a lid on or we're going to start finishing games with 10 men or have substitutions forced on us which will potentially do more harm than good. On the plus side we were, again, playing some nice football. From what I've seen lately there's not another team in the SPL that can match us for one touch football. Our link up play is improving week on week as we shy away from the "Hoof it up the park" tactics and we're playing smarter and harder now than we have in a long time. Brewster works the opposition defense hard and he should be starting EVERY game with the intention of doing that to the max until his legs give out and we should then be making changes. Who we start alongside Brewster is up for debate, I think Niculae played well with him at Hibs and they were simply trying to be too clever and walk the ball in to the net, but I also think that Deano, Wyness and Bayne are all worthy of an opportunity. I suspect this will be an argument that we won't all agree on and will continue throughout the season, but I'd rather be in that situation than in the situation where we were being forced to play players through lack of choice!!!

Would have been an easier win if brew had started. Great result, but still some issues.

Hastings hasn't been anywhere near the form this season that we saw last and was, IMO, responsible for more than his share of the goals we have lost this season when he's played. McBain has been solid at Left Back from what I've seen of him and I know many others would agree. I never said Hart would be missed, what I said was that we could do with having him available. IMO, he has a lot to offer this team and I don't think him not being a "contender" has had anything to do with football.

Didn't realise we had so many at present - Scotsman Hastings may get a good bit longer to recover than he had hoped for with McBain doing so well at Left Back. Of the rest I think the only one we could do with having available right now is Hart. Having him available to replace Wilson for the last 20-30 mins of any watch would be a huge boost.

That may be the case LG, but I don't think it sends out a very good message when the club run an event which may well reduce the numbers traveling to support the team. I'm sure I won't be the only one going to Gretna that would have loved to have gone to an event like this and I'm certain we'll have people that will go to this instead of traveling to support the team. Not only that, but we constantly see club officials and players in the papers asking fans to get behind the team and up our support and then they go and hold an event which we would have to forgo giving that support in order to attend. This could very well be an important game for us in terms of putting a bit of space between us and Gretna (or vice versa) and the team will need all the support it can muster. If this event stops even one person from attending the match then it is one person too many IMO. The club wonder why the fans get so disgruntled when they can't even look at the fixture list before organising an event!!!

Got really excited when I saw that the club were organising a Casino Night at the stadium as these things can be a good laugh. That was until I noticed it was starting at 7pm on 27th October....the day we are away to Gretna!!! :029:

We should be taking a leaf out of Hearts book.....12,000 kids being offered a free top and 2 tickets to use whenever they like during the season. That will be the best ?150,000 Hearts have spent in a long time.

I'd add team attitude to the list of positives. At the start of the season things weren't going well and the teams heads were down. No doubt in my mind that this was being reflected in the performance on the pitch. At the Hibs game we saw the players out there with heads held high, giving their all. Even though the result didn't go our way, they knew they had put on a show and given Hibs a run for their money. That positive outlook rubbed off on the fans who stayed at the end to clap the team of the pitch and the players acknowledged that by giving us a clap instead of just running away down the tunnel to hide. Regardless of whatever else Brewster may bring as a manager, that kind of attitude will, in itself, put points on the board before the season is out.

At least the highlights were a little less biased this week, unlike the p!sh they served up from the Hibs game which made it look like it was all against us and we had little to offer in return.

I honestly don't think he's been given enough time on the park for us to be making any judgment at this stage. He was out for a good while with the shoulder injury and has had sporadic starts when he was available. When he came on against Hibs you could see he brought something different to the front line. I often wonder if he is an out and out striker though as he seems to make more impact when he gets the opportunity to run at defenders. He may benefit more from being played as part of, or just in front of the midfield.