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Xenophon PCDGS

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I always look for some rather dramatic away wins in the very early stages of both the F A Cup and the Scottish Cup and three results on Saturday most certainly fall in that capacity:-

F A CUP ... EXTRA QUALIFYING ROUND
Bottesford United 2 ... Long Eaton United 8
Harrogate Railway Athletic 1 ... Whickham 10

SCOTTISH CUP ... QUALIFYING
Coldstream 1 ... Jeanfield Swifts 9
 

scotrail158713

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SCOTTISH CUP ... QUALIFYING
Coldstream 1 ... Jeanfield Swifts 9
That surprised me as well - I knew Coldstream weren’t great and Jeanfield were decent (beat Ormiston 4-0 and 8-1 last season :)) but such a heavy defeat was surprising.
More surprising was that a few games were postponed because of the weather - can’t remember the last time that happened in August.
 

gnolife

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I note that Hereford have followed Bradford's example and sacked their manager after 3 games - a win, draw and defeat.
 

JLUK144

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Celtic have crashed out of the Champions League.

They were playing Romanian side CFR Cluj at Parkhead. Last week’s first leg saw a one all draw. Tonight’s leg saw Celtic score three goals to Cluj’s four. The aggregate score is 4-5.

After good performances in the Scottish premiership, beating St Johnstone and Motherwell 7-0 and 2-5 respectively, tonight’s disastrous result will come as a huge blow to Lennon under whom Celtic were once capable of beating the mighty Barcelona. After being torn apart by Cluj, serious questions have to be asked about Celtic’s ability and how this will affect them in the Premiership.
 

Butts

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Celtic have crashed out of the Champions League.

They were playing Romanian side CFR Cluj at Parkhead. Last week’s first leg saw a one all draw. Tonight’s leg saw Celtic score three goals to Cluj’s four. The aggregate score is 4-5.

After good performances in the Scottish premiership, beating St Johnstone and Motherwell 7-0 and 2-5 respectively, tonight’s disastrous result will come as a huge blow to Lennon under whom Celtic were once capable of beating the mighty Barcelona. After being torn apart by Cluj, serious questions have to be asked about Celtic’s ability and how this will affect them in the Premiership.

The Scottish Premiership is sadly a "Mickey Mouse" league these days !!!

Beating St Johnstone and Motherwell counts for nothing in the wider scheme of things.

Even spending the £25 Million Tierney Wedge will not alter the current mediocrity of league standards in Scotland.

Celtic are miles ahead of everyone in Scotland but way behind the European Elite.
 

61653 HTAFC

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The silence from you about your team has been deafening so far this season. What is the mood down there about Siewert?
At the start of the season I was prepared to give him 10 games to show what he can do despite him clearly being out of his depth in the top flight. However I've seen nothing to suggest he can turn it around, the players don't seem to know what he wants from them, and he refuses to take any responsibility for the poor results. I'm now hoping that the board are thinking "let's not have the new guy start with the inevitable smashing we'll get from Fulham on Friday".

The wheels have come off spectacularly in the last 12 months, I'm just hoping that we don't go down the Bolton route in the next 10 years.

Last night was a case in point: we were out-fought and outplayed by Lincoln, who were more organised and professional than we were. In stoppage time our young reserve keeper was screaming at Jan for permission to go up for a corner, Jan completely ignored him. He seems like a decent bloke in interviews but he's so far out of his depth that he's gonna get the bends.
 

scotrail158713

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The Scottish Premiership is sadly a "Mickey Mouse" league these days !!!

Beating St Johnstone and Motherwell counts for nothing in the wider scheme of things.

Even spending the £25 Million Tierney Wedge will not alter the current mediocrity of league standards in Scotland.

Celtic are miles ahead of everyone in Scotland but way behind the European Elite.
However to qualify for the Champions League, as Scottish Champions, they had to play 3 qualifying rounds before getting a play-off to enter the group stage. In England though the 3rd place Premiership team waltz straight into the group stage of the aforementioned Champions League. Not much of a Champions League. I detest Celtic hugely but this matter annoys me.
 

DarloRich

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However to qualify for the Champions League, as Scottish Champions, they had to play 3 qualifying rounds before getting a play-off to enter the group stage. In England though the 3rd place Premiership team waltz straight into the group stage of the aforementioned Champions League. Not much of a Champions League. I detest Celtic hugely but this matter annoys me.

That is what you get for being champions of a minor nation. Sorry.
 

DarloRich

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I get that we’re not great but it really needs to be renamed from Champions League since it clearly isn’t for champions

it hasn't been for champions only for about 25 years and they cant call it the Europa league as they used that for the UEFA cup or the European League because the national associations will kick off! It is a fudge but we all know what it means

( plus the theme song wont work if you call it the champions, runners up from several nations and some third and fourth placed teams from the bigger nations league!)

If Scotland had a better, stronger, faster league and earned more "co efficient" points and had a better national side they would get more places. It would also help if, you know, Celtic actually did anything in Europe and didn't get knocked out at the first opportunity most seasons!

The SPL is, generously I think, rated 19th in Europe. it needs to move up to 15th ( Cyprus! ) to earn 2 CL places. There are some details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient
 
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61653 HTAFC

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it hasn't been for champions only for about 25 years and they cant call it the Europa league as they used that for the UEFA cup or the European League because the national associations will kick off! It is a fudge but we all know what it means

( plus the theme song wont work if you call it the champions, runners up from several nations and some third and fourth placed teams from the bigger nations league!)

If Scotland had a better, stronger, faster league and earned more "co efficient" points and had a better national side they would get more places. The SPL is, generously I think, rated 19th in Europe. it needs to move up to 15th ( Cyprus! ) to earn 2 CL places. There are some details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient
I still call it the European Cup, which served as a perfectly adequate name for decades. The irony is that the name of Champions League only came in when teams didn't need to be domestic champions or European champions in order to qualify. Even use of the word "league" is dubious: there's a group stage but the World Cup also has a group stage, it doesn't make it a league.

Also, that theme music is sh*te and makes me cringe whenever I hear it.
 

scotrail158713

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I still call it the European Cup, which served as a perfectly adequate name for decades. The irony is that the name of Champions League only came in when teams didn't need to be domestic champions or European champions in order to qualify.
Completely agree.
Even use of the word "league" is dubious: there's a group stage but the World Cup also has a group stage, it doesn't make it a league.
Yeah. That’s my Mum’s problem she finds with it - how can a “league” have a final?It doesn’t bother me really but I can understand the issue.
Also, that theme music is sh*te and makes me cringe whenever I hear it.
:lol: Me as well
 

JLUK144

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Also, that theme music is sh*te and makes me cringe whenever I hear it.
I utterly disagree with that. I think it’s excellent and far better than the claptrap the BBC used for this year’s Women’s World Cup. Why couldn’t have they used a french piece of music like ITV did when France hosted the Euros a few years back and when they famously used Nessun Dorma for Italia ‘90?

Furthermore, it is a rearrangement of the fantastic Zadok The Priest. Both are known universally and are instantly recognisable. Despite the issues over the qualification process, the music fits its role as the tournament’s anthem very well. It was composed for champions and their coronation. Would any modern piece fit such a role?
 

61653 HTAFC

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I utterly disagree with that. I think it’s excellent and far better than the claptrap the BBC used for this year’s Women’s World Cup. Why couldn’t have they used a french piece of music like ITV did when France hosted the Euros a few years back and when they famously used Nessun Dorma for Italia ‘90?

Furthermore, it is a rearrangement of the fantastic Zadok The Priest. Both are known universally and are instantly recognisable. Despite the issues over the qualification process, the music fits its role as the tournament’s anthem very well. It was composed for champions and their coronation. Would any modern piece fit such a role?
My objection is more that a sporting competition doesn't really need a signature tune.

The examples you give such as Nessun Dorma were great because they were for specific tournaments (and were only chosen by broadcasters, not by football's PR "gurus").

Imagine if every World Cup Finals since 1990 had been accompanied by wall-to-wall Pavarotti... we'd all be sick to the back teeth of it by now!
 

DarloRich

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Celtic need to get beat to get a mention on here i see.
Oh well, here we go to 10 in a row.

You are free to mention Celtic anytime you like. It is an open thread.

PS 10 in a row in a pub league with no opposition. Top effort lads. Darlo would just about finish 3rd in that league!

In the kingdom of the blind and all that!
 
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Xenophon PCDGS

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You are free to mention Celtic anytime you like. It is an open thread.

PS 10 in a row in a pub league with no opposition. Top effort lads. Darlo would just about finish 3rd in that league!

In the kingdom of the blind and all that!

To hark back to an uttering from the past in the style of Kevin Keegan.....

I'd just love it, if Fort William spent a season in the league with Manchester City, Liverpool et all.
 

Old Yard Dog

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Domestic football in Europe's smaller nations has been on the decline for decades as clubs from the big 5 leagues plunder their best players. These leagues have also become less competitive with the top clubs getting far more income from earlier rounds in Europe than the rest.

Scottish football has declined to such an extent that Connah's Quay Nomads got to the SCC final last season and knocked Kilmarnock out of Europe last month. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if Wrexham won the thing this year if they field their first team. Its very sad.

One of my happiest childhood memories was going to Elland Road in 1970 to see Celtic beat Don Revie's Leeds 1-0 in the European Cup semi-final. Jimmy Johnstone played a blinder and Celtic fans outnumbered Leeds by about three to one. The second leg was played at Hampden Park on the same night as I went to Workington to see Bradford's penultimate game as a Football League club. I caught an overnight Glasgow - Leeds train home at Carlisle but was too frightened to ask the Leeds masses what the score was. Happily Celtic had won 2-1. I also saw the Celts win 2-0 at Anfield in 2003 but that seems ages ago now.

Bradford famously modelled their green and white shirts on Celtic in the same way as Leeds and Juventus copied the colours of Real Madrid and Notts County. But annoyingly our powers-that-be have changed our colours back to red, amber and black to try attract a few Bradford Northern fans. The last time we made this change (1967), seven years of decline followed leading to ejection from the FL and bankruptcy. Truly Bradford's colours of failure. I will not be changing my avatar!
 
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DarloRich

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Domestic football in Europe's smaller nations has been on the decline for decades as clubs from the big 5 leagues plunder their best players. These leagues have also become less competitive with the top clubs getting far more income from earlier rounds in Europe than the rest.

Above The SPL in the UEFA rankings are the top leagues of such mighty nations as Greece, Denmark, Croatia and perhaps the biggest of all: Cyprus. I wonder why those nations are able to over perform despite having all of their best players pinched yet Scotland can't. Could it be that technically Scottish football is miles behind where it should be?

BTW - i quite like Scottish football and have watched quite a bit of it seeing St Mirren and away from the top of the SPL the standard is pretty much uniform so you get some good games. The lower leagues are of a fairly low standard but are competitive, physical and good fun.

What is illustrative to me is that i have seen mediocre players go form league 2 in England to the SPL and look good. Richie Foran is my go to example with Adam Rooney recently going to from Aberdeen to Salford
 
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Butts

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It's all down to the infusion of huge amounts of money since The Premier League started.

Prior to that Celtic and Rangers had capacity as big as most of the old 1st Division Clubs and a similar income stream.

A lot of big English teams had a core of Scottish Players along with a few Welsh and Irish. Think Man Utd, Leeds and Liverpool in the sixties and seventies into the eighties.

Once the money arrived so did all the foreigners restricting the opportunities for "home grown talent"
 

scotrail158713

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Above The SPL in the UEFA rankings are the top leagues of such mighty nations as Greece, Denmark, Croatia and perhaps the biggest of all: Cyprus. I wonder why those nations are able to over perform despite having all of their best players pinched yet Scotland can't. Could it be that technically Scottish football is miles behind where it should be?

BTW - i quite like Scottish football and have watched quite a bit of it seeing St Mirren and away from the top of the SPL the standard is pretty much uniform so you get some good games. The lower leagues are of a fairly low standard but are competitive, physical and good fun.

What is illustrative to me is that i have seen mediocre players go form league 2 in England to the SPL and look good. Richie Foran is my go to example!
Yeah I’ve given up following Dundee Utd like I used to - living just outside Edinburgh doesn’t help as it’s a pain of a journey. I now follow my local non-league team and there is definitely less quality, but the league is really exciting and close for promotion and relegation. That’s my biggest annoyance with the English and Scottish Premiership - the top 6 in England and Celtic in Scotland are so far ahead and make the rest of the league dull.
 

DarloRich

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Yeah I’ve given up following Dundee Utd like I used to - living just outside Edinburgh doesn’t help as it’s a pain of a journey. I now follow my local non-league team and there is definitely less quality, but the league is really exciting and close for promotion and relegation. That’s my biggest annoyance with the English and Scottish Premiership - the top 6 in England and Celtic in Scotland are so far ahead and make the rest of the league dull.

My mum and step dad live near Paisley so St Mirren are their local team. My step dad also works with a group of lads who are St Mirren fans so they kind of adopted him. I go along whenever i am in Scotland. He has now covered every Scottish league ground ( to go with the English ones) and I am not that far behind. I do like Scottish football and am happy to defend it against the clueless wibble you will often get from PL fans.
 

Butts

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My mum and step dad live near Paisley so St Mirren are their local team. My step dad also works with a group of lads who are St Mirren fans so they kind of adopted him. I go along whenever i am in Scotland. He has now covered every Scottish league ground ( to go with the English ones) and I am not that far behind. I do like Scottish football and am happy to defend it against the clueless wibble you will often get from PL fans.

Some of us on here remember your glorification of Scottish Defeats (easy target admittedly) and various references to "sweaty socks" - just as well we have a sense of humour :E
 

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