Scottish Football Discussion Thread 2010/11

[bAzTNM#1]

It's a joke that police advised calling off the Celtic game so early. The forecast said their would be a thaw and that's exactly what has happened.

Yeah, the snow and ice is completely melted away. Some remnants are still on the pavements though. The snow must have melted overnight.

 

Quickest thaw ever.

[bAzTNM Fan]

Absolutely laughable penalty decision in the Inverness CT/Rangers game earlier on. At least Kenny St. Tropez missed it.

[The Cum Doctor]

Anyone seen Chick Young's top 10 November SPL goals?

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/9266336.stm

 

They are...

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

 

10. Nick Blackman ( St. Mirren vs. Motherwell )

9. Gary Hooper ( Celtic vs. Dundee United )

8. Stuart Duff ( Inverness CT vs. Motherwell )

7. John Rankin ( Rangers vs. Hibernian )

6. Michael Higdon ( Dundee United vs. St. Mirren )

5. Dougie Imrie ( Hamilton vs. Inverness )

4. Rudi Skacel ( Hearts vs. Hamilton )

3. Prince Buaben ( Dundee United vs. St. Mirren )

2. David Templeton ( Hibernian vs. Hearts )

1. Paddy McCourt ( Celtic vs. Inverness CT )

 

 

[close spoiler]

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[mikey]

The most non-radical radical proposals ever. So, they expanded the SPL to 12 because 10 teams playing each other four times was boring and now they're going back to it.

 

Just an opinion on Scottish football. I'm no expert and what I will say could be torn to shreds. I understand the SPL teams are between a rock and a hard place here. What they need is a 16-18 team top division but only a minority of pro clubs in Scotland are actually fully professional so it's completely unworkable. Going back to 10 is just rejigging a bad old idea. Pursuing a system of club mergers to create fewer, stronger clubs would be radical. Announcing a wholesale merger of the four separate governing bodies down into a unified structure and building a proper league system would be radical. What is being proposed is deckchair shuffling on the deck of the Titanic.

[Kenny McBride]

An 18 team league is viable. The yo-yo clubs would be fine with a more stable income and the two or three others that would need to make the jump are pretty much professional anyway. The first division isn't quite the backwater it appears. You don't really get into semi-pro until you get into the second division. The problem is that so many clubs rely on the big gates from the Old Firm games. That's why the league split exists. It's not so much a numbers game in trying to get the right number of games per season, but more about rewarding the successful clubs with an extra home gate against Celtic and/or Rangers. A bigger league would make the league much more competitive too. Over four games, the Old Firm are likely to win at least two or three. Over two games, a decent "other" side can hope to win the home game and draw the away game. The likes of Dundee Utd. have done that in recent seasons and there's no reason why the likes of Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen shouldn't be able to as well. With less concern about falling into the relegation zone, teams like St. Mirren, Motherwell, Caley and the like could afford to take a few more chances in their style of play too, which would make for more attractive football. A second tier of 18 teams would be fine too. At the lower reaches it might be pretty patchy, but they'd be making more money from getting a few games against some of the bigger sides that they don't get these days. Underneath that, a regional split has got to be worth a try, especially if we could get rid of the junior/senior split and bring the likes of the Highland League into the system. I'd set up a system where the best team in each region over a two year period would get a play-off against the worst side from their area from the national league set-up. The winner gets the national league spot. Knowing you're there for two years would enable them to invest the money they'd get from it rather more sensibly than if their only priority was to stay alive for one more season. It would also enhance the lower reaches of that second tier, since every game for a whole two seasons would matter, at least in competition with the other local teams. Peterhead and Elgin, for example, might be constantly struggling to get the edge over each other to avoid that dreaded play-off against Inverurie Locos.

[InvertedSmiley]

Sky Sports understands the association of British bookmakers have been alerted to irregular betting patterns following Motherwell's clash with Hearts.

 

The pair met in SPL action on Tuesday night with Hearts claiming the points courtesy of a 2-1 success at Fir Park.

 

The irregular patterns specifically relate to the red card market where one bookmaker was offering 8/1 odds on there being a red card in the contest.

 

It is believed a number of bets, which originated in the Liverpool area, were made in the region of

[The Cum Doctor]

12 disciplinary points for guessing where Steve Jennings is from...

 

The east end of Glasgow.

[InvertedSmiley]

You would think so, given his abusive language towards the official, but instead he is from Liverpool. The very same place as these bets were allegedly placed.

[Stylin_and_Profilin]

In fairness he had been having a running ding-dong back and forward mouthing with the referee for most of the match complaining about Kevin Kyle backing into him and not getting fouls when he felt he should have. O'Reilly looked delighted when he turned round and saw who it was tapping him on the shoulder; probably ripped the pocket of his shorts given how keen he was to get the card out.

[Kenny McBride]

Well yeah. If he was trying to get himself sent off, it makes more sense to call the ref a cunt than to half another player.

[Stylin_and_Profilin]

Indeedy.

 

Cynical head firmly on here but yellow then a straight red equals a much heftier score on the penalty points system. Possibly enough to put him over the threshold for a suspension so close to the festive period for a nice free holiday back home for Christmas and New Year ?

[bAzTNM#1]

According to the Daily Record Twitter, the Rangers vs St. Mirren match is off on Saturday because of significant water damage to Ibrox Stadium after the big thaw.

 

"The thaw following the recent extreme cold has led to significant water damage in various parts of the stadium."

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/2010/12/16/ra...86908-22788093/

[bAzTNM Fan]

According to reports from various sources, the roof of the Thorton Suite in Ibrox collapsed last Friday and is still in a state of disrepair. And Rangers fans accuse Celtic Park of being built on the cheap . If we had a game postponed due to the ground being a fucking dilapidated wreck there would be cries of bloody murder, fines and docked points.

 

5 star stadium, Timmy.

[GIB]

At least this means Boughie, Naismith and McGregor can't miss the OF.

 

Haha CONSPIRACY 3inarowrsc!

[Chaka Demus]

According to reports from various sources, the roof of the Thorton Suite in Ibrox collapsed last Friday and is still in a state of disrepair. And Rangers fans accuse Celtic Park of being built on the cheap . If we had a game postponed due to the ground being a fucking dilapidated wreck there would be cries of bloody murder, fines and docked points.

 

5 star stadium, Timmy.

 

Your stadium is a dump after 15 years. Some of ours has been standing for 100 years and has only recently fell into disrepair due to the skintness/tight arsedness of our club.