Rainbow

Always offside?

Few people know that the top referees from Luxembourg officiate in the second French tier, some also in the 4th German. Alain Hamer was even a regular in the Ligue 1 for 10 years or so.

The standard has been poor not only in Scotland. The reason is simply there are no better refs. Those who could be better either don't become refs at all or stay in lower leagues because they don't want to cope with the pressure by especially the media (like I did). Those who hunt the glory of being a top level ref are too weak to cope with it.

Not sure. Dave denied Vine the opportunity to get to the ball. Say he gets to it and unleashes a one-timer with no one but Reguero between him and the goal. Is that a clear goal scoring opportunity or not? So what is a clear goal scoring opportunity? Was OTJ's screamer against Hearts a clear goal scoring opportunity? Not according to the rules. But he scored from it. Had he, however, been fouled before that shot no one would have spoken of a red card. So I don't complain about the red but wouldn't have called merely a yellow wrong either. The thing I couldn't accept about the scene was that Thompson moved the free kick 10 yards forward!

Ridiculous red card. In my time as a ref I would have given a throw-in, nothing more.

4 votes to go...

That's correct Kingsmills, but according to the wee Ibrox boy's logic <sarcasm on> the arenas in Germany should be half empty and TV deals cancelled, alternatively the Bundesliga redcuced to 10 teams, one of which has to be 1860 Munich who are to be made owners of the old Olympic stadium by decree and given 500 million Euros to build a team that can rival Bayern for the title while all other arenas are to be reduced to 15 K seats to make sure no team outside Munich (which is BTW the captial of German media as well) will ever compete for the title. Oh and I forgot that Bayern Munich has to be turned into a Catholic club while 1860 must be Protestant. <sarcasm off>

I'm not getting involved in this but there's a few interesting points in here that are continually voiced by mainstream media. I have no opinion on the merits (or otherwise) of what happened to Rangers. What happened, happened and it may be that after CG's departure more information will clarify the true picture of what went on at Ibrox. What cannot be denied is that the SPL is a better place this year. People do tell me that its uncompeditive and that Celtic didn't have to try and that's why they won the league at such an early date. No one levels that criticism at Manchester United or the EPL, although Man Utd won the league the day after Celtic and may well finish with a record number of points amassed in that competition. Celtic's pricing for an end of season game, albeit one that promised a celebration, was entirely reasonable and mirrored pricing incentives that have been used by all the SPL clubs this year. The fact is that in times of economic uncertainty, entertainment industries suffer and football is just one of them. The quality (or otherwise) of the product is secondary but this has been the tightest SPL in years. Motherwell have been excellent and we could have been clear in second and close to Celtic if our early season run of draws had been translated to wins. From what I can remember, that wouldn't have taken much so it's not a flight of fancy to imagine. The standard of football has been better this year and that fear of losing that permeated previous seasons seems to have lessened. Celtic may win the League for the next however many seasons, but man United or City will win the EPL, Real or Barcelona will win La Liga and teams like Rosenborg will have a stranglehold on their leagues. Does it lessen the TV viewing public? No. Does it devalue the other clubs in these leagues? No. What will devalue it is continually talking it down. Tell a dog its bad for long enough and guess what? Bad it will be. Just as an addition, Bayern Munich have won the Bundesliga 3 weeks ago and now have a 20 point lead on Dortmund with 4 games to go which prompted the Dortmund manager to warn of Scottish conditions in the Bundesliga. But the arenas are full and TV income will be nearly doubled beginning this summer.

Good luck Andy. Hope to see you playing Switzerland or Germany with the Scottish team in the 2016 qualifiers

I don't think the posters drop Shinniesta because he will leave but because he had some substandard performances recently. As the same applies to Billy, I'd go for the following: Reguero Raven - Meekings - Warren/Devine - G. Shinnie Draper - OTJ Foran - Ross - Doran Sutherland Subs: Mathieson, Devine/Polworth, Hogg, Pepper, A. Shinnie, McKay, Taylor

Back to serious issues: Any news on Gary Warren's injury?

No real damage done. Beat Saints, beat OTB and the others can do what they like, even beat Celtic, DU and Well, and will remain behind us even if we should lose 0-10 to both Well and DU. I know, some here dreamt of 2nd, but Well are the stronger team.

But only if all the reds are issued to County players, I don't want suspensions at the start of next season. That said, I could live with those who leave being among the reds...

Josh. And TB for signing him for two more years that early!

Congrats to Ben, but I've never heard he's played for ITC before

IIRC, Nick Ross did quite well in the first few games of this season until he got injured against Septic.

A very good choice indeed

i think you might find there will be a Dundee derby and a Edinburgh Derby Isn't it ironic that Dundee blew up that derby by beating Killie?

Wonderful season, wasn't it? A real race for 2nd that's not over yet, interesting Cup semis and a boost for a region no one thought of. Did I forget anything?

Meekings Reguero Draper Ref was surprisingly good

Don't know what to think of the result. But to be fair, both keepers deserved the clean sheets.

True PMF, I just wanted to say that a border with China doesn't automatically disqualify a country to be recognized as European. Going with that, one could say that Turkey is only 3% European, Cyprus is somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea, Iceland somewhere in the Atlantic and not in Europe. Israel is completely surrounded by countries that play in Asia. Heck, even the UK is not on the European continent but a few miles off in the North Sea!

Just being nosey: How many Munros will you bag on the way?

Well, this list could change for two reasons: 1. UEFA ranking, the were shifts, especially Switzerland has climbed a few places. 2. Success in the first round, e.g. the Liechtenstein team was eliminated last year but could beat opposition from Luxemburg or Latvia this year

Interesting last sentence by Doran: Can't see why anyone would want to leave...