Sneckboy

Once the pyramid system gets going next season, hopefully some of the Junior sides will be attracted to the Lowland league. Time will tell. In 10 years time, the make-up of the SPFL could look very different!

Saturday 10th August Championship Bryan Prunty (Dumbarton 1-1 Falkirk) League One Ian Black (Rangers 4-1 Brechin City). Scored the rebound from his own missed penalty! League Two Bryan Gilfillan (Peterhead 2-2 Annan Athletic) Highland League Graeme Stewart (Buckie Thistle 2-1 Fraserburgh) Andrew Greig (Nairn County 0-2 Brora Rangers) Zander Sutherland (Nairn County 0-2 Brora Rangers). Penalty kick

A guy I know who knew someone at the game (!) thought it was Calum Ferguson who scored for us! But that's just word of mouth!

I was curious as to how Gala Fairydean came to have "Rovers" at the end of their name, but it seems that they merged with amateur side Gala Rovers this summer. Just out of interest, did anyone else here make it to Netherdale for any of old Caley's Scottish Cup ties? Must have been around 1984 that we won 2-0 there after Gala missed the chance to go in front when their penalty hit the post, and then around 1990 it was 2-2 before Caley comfortably won the replay. I was at the reply game vs Gala Fairydean and seem to remember the Gala 'keeper making an absolute howler at a Caley goal by completely miss-kicking a clearance! Yeah, as you correctly state, Fairydean merged with local amateur side Gala Rovers just a few weeks ago. Rovers are/were the current Borders amateur champions and defeated Fairydean in a 'bounce' game recently. With Gala Fairydean about to embark on the Lowland League - effectively a promotion of 2 divisions - they realised they needed to be stronger. I believe it was decided by the Galashiels footballing community that the 'best way forward' for the town would be to merge the clubs. Fairydean's manager resigned after this decision! The article I read suggested that John Collins (ex-Scotland international and proud son of Galashiels) was 'instumental' in suggesting/implementing/forcing the merger through. And I can't for the life of me find the said article! Anyway, come time, I think they could become one of the stronger sides in the Lowland League although it will be difficult as Gala will always be predominately a rugby town.

Yeah, Wick reckon they'll lose around £5,000 playing the tie! They'll have to stay overnight on the Friday, maybe in Edinburgh, (or maybe not if the Festival's still on!) Nairn have a real tough one away to Linlithgow Rose, but Brora will be pleased with a home game and a very winnable one vs. Vale of Leithen. Lossie v Culter is interesting as it pits the North's top Junior club against a struggling Highland League side. Was looking for Cove but then remembered they've got a bye! (Along with Formartine, Dalbeattie and Whitehill Welfare*) *Mantis's favourite team!

Has anybody got BT Sport? If so, would you recommend it. I'm thinking of changing my ISP and I understand that if you're a BT broadband subscriber, then you can access the new sports channel for free. It may sway me!

I still don't think we'll be in that draw! I started a thread on this topic last month.

Filipe Morais netted a penalty for Stevenage in their 2-0 win over Ipswich in the League Cup.

Inverness City's new home ground, within the Bught, will be called Lister Park. Named after the club's former President, Ian Lister.

As widely speculated yesterday, Walter Smith has stepped down from his role as chairman at Rangers. It seems that the return of Charles Green has triggered a catalogue of events at Ibrox culminating in In-fighted and disharmony at boardroom (and pitch!) level. There are rumours abound that Ally McCoist may follow and indeed will 'walk away'!! If that were to be the case, then obviously Terry would inevitably be linked with the job. I genuinely believe that the only Scottish team that could turn Butcher's head are Rangers so I'm firmly hoping McCoist stays! I can't go through another 'Barnsley' episode!

Is this the first time we've actually been at the very summit? Obviously, last season we were 2nd for a long spell. I seem to remember us winning 2-0 away to Falkirk on opening SPL day when Brewster was manager - I think he scored too, but I'm not sure if that put us top for one week.

I'm sure the Belladrum festival would have had a small effect. I know 4 folk who attended the concert who would normally have gone to the game! But in all seriousness, I think we can all bang-on about our attendances all day, I just feel that we've pretty much got what we've got. The average attendance has plateaued at around 4,000 - 4,500. It's unrealistic to expect it to increase - it would have happened by now. I blame the ground's location and the merger refusniks!

Torbjorn Agdestein confirmed as being allocated squad shirt number 23.

Unfortunately the picture was 'snapped' about thirty seconds too early before it was fully unfurled to reveal the word 'Thistle' below!

Must have been some helluva sized hole (and fence!) to squeeze through from Broadstone Park! That bit of road's Broadstone Avenue....pedantic? Me?!

I would love to know how your 'current location' is pronounced! I'm assuming It's a real place and you weren't simply annoyed at being asked where you currently reside?!

The SPFL have got a website up and running - just in time for the opening game tonight! The previous SPL site www.scotprem.co.uk obviously won't be updated anymore. The new site looks like a work in progress and I'm sure they'll develop it over time, to include things like squad lists etc. http://www.spfl.co.uk/

I really can't see them having too much difficulty winning their league this season and getting up to the North Superleague for the first time. The regionalisation has helped them. They've only got 9 opponents and none of them are particularly formidable. Inverness City Nairn St. Ninian Forres Thistle Fochabers Dufftown Buckie Rovers Burghead Thistle Whitehills Islavale Portgordon Victoria I'm expecting a 20 goal return from you, lukemackay!!! No pressure. Apologies if you're the goalkeeper!

'the likes of Deveronvale, Huntly, Buckie and co.' are very much considered also-rans by bookmakers Ladbrokes. Interestingly, they have 4 teams as joint favourites...one of which is Brora!! Ladbrokes odds Brora 10/3 Cove Rangers 10/3 Formartine United 10/3 Nairn County 10/3 Wick Academy 9/1 Clachnacuddin 12/1 Forres Mechanics 16/1 Deveronvale 20/1 Inverurie Loco Works 20/1 Fraserburgh 25/1 Buckie Thistle 33/1 Keith 50/1 Turiff United 50/1 Huntly 66/1 Rothes 100/1 Lossiemouth 150/1 Strathspey Thistle 200/1 Fort William 500/1

Yeah, it's ironic that despite having an unprecedented 4 signed goalkeepers this season, it may yet be our problem position. Reguero may even prove to be a bigger loss than Shinnie!

Or we could go with Aaron (Doran), Curtis (Allen), Danny (Williams) and Conor (Pepper)......AC/DC!!!

He (Tokely) was one of (I think) NINE ex-ICT players in the Brora squad last night!

Foran TWICE!!

Inverness CT team was: Cameron Mackay Jay Cheyne Matthew Cooper Daniel Devine Joe Gorman Adam Evans Conor Pepper Jason Brown Torbjorn Agdestein Ryan Christie Ben Greenhalgh

Yeah, he also got on the scoresheet at Arbroath in pre-season so hopefully Meekings can open his competitive account for us this season. I wonder if Butcher is one of those managers who sets every player a target number of goals for the season? If so, it would be fair to set Josh a target of 2 or 3.