SpiritOfTheForest

Finally 109 hours later I beat the True Final Millennium Tower in Yakuza: Like A Dragon. My first Yakuza game. Great time was had but the grind for this challenge was real. Some tense moments on the final fight but I came in super-prepared and somehow did it in first go! 

Who would have known that we play much better when we let players play in their natural position instead of somewhat shoehorning them into the side. Started slowly but last night turned into a great performance. Thought Hickey played superbly. That season in Serie A has done him a world of good. Also nice to see all the subs coming on and the side not missing a beat. Ireland on Saturday night should be fun!

I find Twitter to be fascinating reading. I know it's bad for me to spend time reading all the unhinged individuals on there but I must be a glutton for punishment. In the case of Twitter in particular, it's important to remember that Twitter does not represent the real world or real life. It's a bizarre place where the most radical extremist voices on all sides shout the loudest and seem like the majority. Then you go outside and talk to a real person and remember how batshit it is on there.  Still, I can't look away. 

I pretty much came of age on Facebook so I have a soft spot for it. And there are a bunch of meme groups that are always an enjoyable diversion. 

On the subject of bands doing something radically different, this made me think of My Dying Bride's 34.788% complete. Utterly bizarre given the rest of their catalogue but I remember that one being pretty interesting. Haven't listened to it in years though, might have to see if it's as surprising as I remember. Also shout out to Amorphis for being the rare example of a band completely changing its style and remaining incredible. 

1 hour ago, WyattSheepMask said:

So there’s a chance the Funeral is to be held on the 19th, right at the time I’m meant to give a sample at the local Fertility Clinic.

To quote a great man, “that’s a challenging wank”

Anyone have any idea what will happen with the European football? Fully suspect all domestic matches will be off this weekend and likely next weekend too. Not sure how Celtic will be able to look Shakhtar Donetsk in the eye if we're not allowed to play because the Queen died when, in the meantime, the opposition are playing on whilst their country is being invaded and their families and friends are literally fighting a war. Would be quite funny if the only team playing a fixture in Scotland during the official mourning perod was Rangers though. 

Saw that even the live text on the BBC website for Hearts - Istanbul Basaksehir was cancelled for the second half yesterday as a mark of respect - which seemed a tad unnecessary, not sure Charles was tuning in. 

Proud of my team tonight. That first half we really spooked Real Madrid. Great chances from Abada, McGregor and then from Maeda early in the second half illustrating exactly why the old cliche about having to take your chances at this level is a true one. But that first half, you can tell Real knew they were in a game. Second half their quality shone through. However, Celtic can hold their heads up high as that was by no means a disgrace. Onwards to Leipzig and Warsaw (destinations wise).

Although Shakhtar beating Leipzig 4-1 away from home isn't one I foresaw coming! Still believe we have a fighting chance of getting through this group and a great chance of European football after Christmas. 

It was a glorious performance. For all of Rodgers' accolades and praise for his Celtic team being exciting to watch, this team blows that away. I love this team we have at the moment and they're an absolute joy to watch. Rangers were indeed fortunate it was only 4. Roll on Tuesday! I think we'll give Real a good game. 

I'm not normally one to post a photo of a new shirt but I thought all the lads on the UKFF would enjoy this one.

I had Popeyes in America a couple of years ago and I still think about it sometimes. It was glorious. Perhaps I'm being overly nostalgic about it but it was so so good. When I was in Madrid a couple of years ago passing through I made a point to walk for 30 minutes to go and find the Popeyes there (as for some reason they had expanded into Spain) and it was also amazing. The chicken is so much better than KFC, although I am basing this off a sample of 2. Also, I made a point to get KFC in Kentucky because that seemed a funny thing to do and it was easily the worse KFC I've ever had. Tepid and fatty and just dreadful. Popeyes though: top class. They also do Macaroni Cheese as a side which is something I wish was much more widespread!

Well, it's finally back! The Cinch is back and I could not be more excited for all the madness about to ensue. It should be an absolutely terrific season - Celtic have got two of the key players from last season tied down to long-term deals and Rangers have signed annoyingly well. Rabbi Matondo especially looks a player and not one I'm looking forward to lining up against.

So predictions - 

1) - Celtic

2) - Rangers

3) - Aberdeen

4) - Hearts

5) - Dundee United 

6) - Ross County

7) Kilmarrnock

8 ) - Hibernian

9) Livingston

10) Motherwell

11) St Mirren

12) St Johnstone

I'm only posting now but these predictions were made before the Sligo Rovers second leg so I expect Motherwell to sign a safe pair of hands like Yogi and finish relatively safely. However this is what my predictions were prior to that game. Random observations: I expect Aberdeen to prove far more competent than last season's calamity. Jim Goodwin knows the league, is a good manager and has had time to shape the team in his own image. They will be decent this year. Ross County will be just fine. Malky MacKay is an excellent manager and last year he crafted a highly exciting County team full of goals performing well above what one might imagine their station to be. I expect that to continue this year and be one of the season's surprise packages. Killie and Dundee Utd will be capable but dull as fuck under very knowledgeable but somewhat dreary management. Hibs surely have to do better than last year but this Lee Johnson character seems absolute shite and I can't imagine he will last long. St Johnstone and St Mirren are fucked and they will be battling it out for bottom spot. Motherwell, if they hadn't sacked Alexander, could well be candidates for going down but they sacked him finally and, while it all depends on who comes in, I reckon they're safe enough now. Nobody could have been worse than that eejit. Livi will do what Livi do....quietly under the radar, using their horrendous pitch to their advantage, surpassing expectations and taking scalps at the Macaroni and survive to fight again.

Top of the table and obviously I'm going to go for Celtic. Solid, settled squad, boosted in key areas. However, as alluded to earlier, Van Bronckhorst has signed remarkably well with some genuinely good players coming in. He also seems to have had Ange's plan figured out in the latter OF games of last season so hopefully we can see some tweaks implemented there. However, Rangers certainly looked creaky yesterday against Livingston -one game in be damned - and when Celtic hit top gear we are pretty much unstoppable (in Scottish football terms). Champions League beckons for Celtic which will be great for the money but I do worry somewhat as defensively we remain fragile to put it lightly. Ange's philosophy of all-out attack is excellent viewing and reaps rewards in the SPFL but in the Champions League it will lead to maulings and Joe Hart constantly at the half-way line playing the ball at his feet is never ever good for the blood pressure against St Mirren let alone against Bayern Munich. 

Finally, and I'm sure I will be mocked for saying this, but I want to post in this thread to talk about Scottish football, my national game, and the game I have had a love for since a boy. I like this forum in general and my reading of it has become a part of my everyday life since 2006. I find the title of this thread to be arrogant at best and downright racist at worst. Yes, yes I realise it is a Blackadder quote and I love that programme but it seems in this situation to be nasty and insulting for the sake of it. I would imagine that the individual who changed the name wouldn't use "The Wogs" as a title for the Cricket thread but then I remembered that on this very forum I was once referred to as a "porridge wog", a term that I cannot believe was allowed to be thrown about as acceptable. It actually still makes me furious even typing it again - a disgusting, classless and downright horrible thing to say. Anyway, I don't want this paragraph to derail from the rest of my post and how excited I am for the new season. Please let's have some predictions, hopes. dreams, worst fears etc in here and, can I respectfully request from the mods that we can just call this the Scottish Football Thread or something? I love my game and I would love to talk about it in its own designated thread without that shite bigotry. Yes, I'm only one man but I feel uncomfortable with it. 

Just finished Gris. Beautiful experience. Might get on the bandwagon and try Stray next.

Finally got the Platinum in Dead Island yesterday. It's one of the games that got me back into gaming after a few years break all the way back in 2015 or something. It's a ton of fun and has a surprisingly active multiplayer community. Dead Island is very underrated - I understand the developers subsequently made Dying Light which got more attention although I've not played that one yet. But aye, I'm proud of getting the 100% in this one.

Indeed! I moved to Cáceres to start a new job in February 2020 which was the worst possible timing as it was just before the strict Covid lockdown but that was a staggeringly beautiful little city which often goes under the radar a little bit. I'd recommend a visit next time you're over there. My favourite city in Spain has to be Cádiz though. I adore that place, it has such a unique vibe I can't really put into words. Either that or Sevilla - I could honestly spend months wandering the streets of Sevilla. Seems like there are inviting places for a tapa and a caña on every corner. 

I've travelled across Spain relatively extensively but the North has yet eluded me. I'm more familiar with Andalusia, Extremadura and the central regions; areas which contain some of my very favourite cities in the world.

Continuing the UKFFers on the continent theme, here's me at closing time at the Bosa Beer Festival in Sardinia 

And a marginally more civilised shot taking in the atmosphere of one of my local city's piazzas 

That said, I might live in Italy now but I think I'll always prefer Spain. I do miss life there sometimes. 

6 hours ago, Steve Justice said:

It's likely I'm getting the clubs wrong, but the scenario of being co-owned by and playing for 2 clubs is something I've always remembered. Most likely remembered it incorrectly though. 

Edit: Adriano was owned by both Inter and Palma. I think he played half a season for each or something like that. Not exactly what I was saying, but at least I know I'm not going crazy. 

Similar to this is the case of Rose Reilly, former Scottish women's international. In the 1978-79 season she won 2 different league titles in Italy and France, playing for Lecce on Saturday nights before flying to France to play for Reims on Sunday afternoons. Nice wee bit of trivia.

If it goes ahead I'll be flying home specifically to vote. I'm one of those who can't stand the SNP but has been a lifelong believer in Independence and self-determination so I have no hesitation in voting Yes. There are a distressing number of people who will vote No simply because they don't like the SNP but in an independent Scotland it stands to reason that the SNP will no longer exist in its current form and break off into a number of different parties. SNP will get us there and we will then be free to choose whatever train we deem best to take us to the next destination on our onward journey. 

For a while now I've seen Wales as almost a mirror image team to us: they have a team of jobbers with one world class superstar who drags the others to victory by the scruff of the neck. We have a very solid team but lack that superstar who single-handedly changes games and grabs results. If the team is having a poor performance, there's seldom somebody to step up and give us that wee moment of magic. Wales were very lucky too, getting through with a deflected goal and a stonewall penalty decision going in their favour, bafflingly despite a 2 nanosecond VAR check. Scotland had 14 shots to Ukraine's 15 on Wednesday while Ukraine outshot Wales 22-10. It makes our massive underperfomance last week all the more frustrating when we were beaten by the the better team on Wednesday yet Wales somehow fluked their way to victory against the better team yesterday. That's football though, a game of slim margins but it's still a sore one to take. 

I loved Doom Eternal's single player mode but the multiplayer was truly dreadful. Joyless grind boosting it to get the Platinum.

Shite performance tonight. It really seemed that the occasion and the narrative got the better of the team and Clarke too. It was a really disappointing way to go out after such a great campaign. Not with a roar but with a whimper and that's what makes it feel so much worse. It felt like we were playing to 20% of our potential. 

Ah well, the Arab Winter Blood Money Worker Slavery World Cup will be shite anyway and I'm glad my country is boycotting it! 😉

❌Liverpool (2022)
❌Liverpool (2018)
❌Juventus (2017)
❌Atletico Madrid (2016)
❌Atletico Madrid (2014)
❌Bayer Leverkusen (2002)
❌Valencia (2000)
❌Juventus (1998)
❌Colonia (1986)
❌Videoton (1985)
✅Aberdeen (1983)

Aberdeen remain the last team to beat Real Madrid in a European final!

Cameron Carter-Vickers has been absolutely immense for us and there's a big push from the fans to get him signed up. He's been a rock at the back. Carl Starfelt had a shaky start to his Celtic career but he and big CCV have formed a great partnership and only conceded 22 goals in the season. 

Edit: Seem to have made a very similar post to@Jonny Vegas simultaneously!

3 hours ago, stewdogg said:

Celtic fans are the absolute worst. How you can say winning the league was ‘against all odds’ is laughable. It was a travesty that you didn’t win it last year, almost to a man you have much better players than Rangers so don’t come out with that!

Last season we pissed away the 10-in-a-Row we'd been shouting about for years in the meekest and most embarrassing fashion imaginable. We finished 25 points behind Rangers. We had no manager and were led a merry dance by Eddie Howe. We lost our captain, a club institution in Scott Brown. We had an exodus of players. We lost the Chief Executive and then his replacement only lasted a month or two. We got in a manager from the other side of the world who was unknown by pretty much everybody in Scottish football. That manager didn't bring any of his own staff and barely had time for a pre-season. We lost 3 of the first 6 games of the season. 

In the background of all that, I would say it was indeed against all odds that Celtic went on to win the title. Nobody thought we had a chance, not even the most diehard of Celtic fans. Rangers had a strong, settled squad, full of order. Celtic were the very picture of a club in chaos. The job that Ange Postecoglou has done, there aren't enough positive adjectives in the world to give it justice. 

I'd like to take a moment to express how delighted I am with how the season went, the outcome of that match just finished there and, especially, the fact that it was Aaron Ramsey - the big glamour signing- who missed the penalty. They paid £300,000 a week or something daft to a man perennially injured who barely played. And he just cost them the Europa League. Absolutely glorious. Is there a German word for "enjoying the misfortune of others"? I'm feeling that a lot right now...

Rangers losing a European cup on PENALTIES, Aaron Ramsey being the one to miss the decisive penalty, Ange Postecoglou creating a revolution and against all odds winning the title after last season's shambles.....all so, so, so, satisfying. 

Now, we need them to lose against Hearts on Saturday. Imagine it.....after all their crowing, they win nothing. I'm over the moon this evening!

23 hours ago, SuperBacon said: