KirkieRobRoy

Letting the Evil Two youth teams in helps the Evil Two and no one else. So at some stage it will probably happen. The whole game in Scotland has been badly run - and run in the interest of the big two - for so long that there was no way it could cope with the disruption of Covid. Whatever you think of English moneybags football (and I loathe it) their authorities were clear about what they wanted to do from the off. The SPFL and SFA are making stuff up as they go along. Every poll of Scottish fans makes it clear we are fed up with playing teams 3/4 times a year. Everydicussion of change makes it clear the authorities and the broadcasters want to keep four league Domestic Abuse Derbies a year above all else. In many ways I don't see any hope for Scottish club football. We just must cultivate our garden - fllow your team wherever, whoever they play, at whatever level. I accept what some have said about the dead wood in League 2. Assuming the clubs and syste survives there needs to be a wider exchange of clubs between L2 and the Highland and Lowland (and, now, West and East tier 6) Leagues. That'd freshen things up and bring fresh interest. So it'll never happen.

What an utter mess our game is. SPFL and SFA incompetent, nothing new there, but the clubs are now being shown to be venal and backbiting and self-serving. I thought there was a lot of good in our club statement but I'm worried about being linked to Sevco 2012. The media are already saying we 'support' their campaign. Some of the usuals on the club Facebook site going on about how the whole thing is a Central Belt plot. I suppose they don't know where Hearts or Plastic Whistle play...

Oh, and Jordan White for Murrawell? All the best to him, and all that, but is he really likely to get a game for a third-place team?

Hearts are an absolute shambles and their only advantage will be the anger at being relegated by paperwork rather than football. Caley have to cultvate an anger at being kept down by edict, too. Reconstruction won't happen. 14-team-leagues would be rubbish and 12 is the way they'll choose in order to guarantee four domestic abuse derbies a year.

5-2 utterly flattered Hibs who were quick and direct but that was it. The Walsh shot, the penalty shout, lots of might-have-beens. But they're a league above us, we've nae money, we've had a decent run, now for promotion. But if we do get promotion, many of this team not good enough. Last dig at Hibs. My pie was like burnt leather.

Once they leave Ibrox because Sevco have splurged millions of funny money on expensive signings leaving no place for them, I hope some of that Sevcolts team find their way to TCS.

Get Rossco out of the commentary box and on the pitch.

Offside? Aye, right. Refs and assistants serving their OF masters today.

Yup, I'd say so. I don't like VAR but it would've egged that ref's coupon

Union flags behind the goal are giving me a migraine.

Oh, title long gone, Untied are over the hill and far away. Annoying thing today was Practical Bristle were quite clearly not very good but didn't need to be. And, aye, the triple sub; don't often see that outside July friendlies.

Heading hame freezing. Enough to say McCall's half-time talk was better than Robbo's.

Think that's true throughout the division, United and County too.

Glad we are in the promotion race and not the relegation race. That is looking absolutely brutal.

Unlucky with the goal, yes. Chalmers' free kick was a cracking strike dealt with by a terrific save, that's all. No luck about it. It did miff me that after the game the BBC online stats had Caley with no shots on target. Chalmers' certainly was.

At least Aaron Doran kept one of his poorest games for the biggest showcase game... I think any team who might go up - County and Downdee Untied included - will need to upskill hugely. The evidence suggests this season that there's a huge gap between even the lower end of the top tier and the second tier. Look at how St Mirren have struggled.

Didn't notice the Mulraney touch at the game, but it was certainly suggested on the radio afterwards. DIsappointing. Fourth cup semi at Hampden we've been at and we've only won the one when we've been a top-tier team. Even first half, didn't respond to Hearts being up a gear after the break but even so it needed the second goal to kill it off. Players like DOran and White just not quite at their best yesterday. Main lack is someone to stash it away. I bet George Oakley wished he was playing at Hampden rather than preparing for Accies' next defeat in front of 2000 people at New Douglas... In short, better team won but they weren't that good. Good show from the ICT support, and the game was proof that the ony real problem with Hampden is the West and East ends. Even with just the north and south part-filled the stadium channels the noise. Atmosphere I thought was good. Oh, one passing thought - did Nathan Austin get a touch of the ball after he came on?

Poor reffing for sure. Austin for Walsh didn't really enhance the team - Austin's first three contributions were to lose possession.

Count me with the corner-flag-theory haters. Teams can dispossess you there and break away and score too. We gave up a couple of promising attacking options to try to kill the game that way. Happily, it paid off this time.

Utterly daft time, agreed (even Embra-based Hearts supporters lose their Saturday lie-in) but booked anyway. But it's hardly 'baffling' - we know how the SFA think and it's never in the interests of paying supporters unless they're Old Firm. And we're also already booked that night for Matthew Zajac's 'Tailor of Inverness' at Cumbernauld Theatre. I wonder if he'll make it to the game.

By jings, that was a miserable afternoon of weather. Memories of that are probably why I still shudder at the thought of ICT in penalty shoot-oots.

El Paso Locomotive? No a bad name that. You don't get them here. Except in Inverurie.

At a loose end, went to see Queens Park 0 Raith 3 yesterday. Playing for Raith, Nat Wedderburn. Started clumsily, gave away several fouls, lucky not to be booked, but had a good second half as Raith took control of the game. They also had Liam Buchanan. Do I remember rightly - aeons ago he was due to sign for us and at the last minute went to Firhill or somewhere?

Admittedly we're in the West but we're the same latitude (or is it longitude?) as Livingston and while we had frost last night, by the time I got up (7.30am) it was bucketing rain. Must have been similar there and surely the pitch will be playable long before 3pm?

In SFL days they used to try to find a current SFL ground. Now that everybody's in the SPFL, I suppose that means there's no objection to McDiarmid. Going by our previous Challenge Cup finals, we surely need more than 3000 capacity?