Gladstone

Good running dude. Just remember to not go out and try to kill it everytime. Every run isn't a race - it's really enjoyable to go out and run at an easy pace. Looks like I'll be giving the Clachnaben Hill Race a miss - will need to wait until next year to break the course record. The calf injury is still playing up. No running since Friday - plenty of stretching and out on the bike for 30 minutes today. It's getting better, but don't want to risk it by doing a fucking ridiculous hill race next Saturday... Disappointing as I was looking forward to that. Next "race" will probably be Parkrun at the end of April. PB guaranteed.

Well, this is weird: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26849392

Always with the hilarious puns.

I don't think I said it wasn't a foul. Maybe I did - I maintain it was a dive though. It was clever or "cute" play from Rooney. He saw the challenge coming, poked the ball away and threw himself over Schweinsteiger's legs, knees bent, feet up in the air, snapped the head back. The sort of shit that (as someone earlier pointed out) Robben would get lambasted for. Rooney doesn't have to hurdle him, nor does he have to run straight into the challenge. It would have been as easy to hurdle him as it would have been to go down like he'd been shot in the head as it would have been to "ride the challenge" and go down naturally, rather than as if he'd been shot, and just take the free kick, but he made the absolute most of it possible in an attempt to get Schweinsteiger sent off (in my opinion). Everyone does what Rooney did these days and I don't have a major problem with Rooney doing it. It's just a tad embarrassing to be honest and I think Rooney looked embarrassed by it himself. It's just the hypocritical nature of the thing - when someone English (or British, whatever) does it, nobody seems to bat an eyelid (I'm talking commentators / pundits / etc).

I once scored a goal in front of Eoin Jess. Patsy Kensit refused to sign an autograph for me. Carl Kennedy from Neighbours watched my band at Moshulu. I met Brian Irvine in the church at New Deer when I was a kid. Nothing lame about that - Brian Irvine is a footballing legend.

I really can't see Hibs finishing second bottom. Looking at the league table, over the course of 6 matches, Killie would need to get 2 more points than Hibs, Ross County - 4 more points, Partick 5 more points and St. Mirren 7 more points. All of that would have to happen before Hibs land in the play off place. Can't see it. They may well drop a couple of places, but they'll surely pick up some points in the last 6 matches.

I hadn't thought about that actually (i.e. Hearts and Rangers in the same league next season). Hibs aren't really in danger of going down though are they? 6 points ahead of St Mirren just now.

Hearts are so fucked. They're getting ever closer to liquidation apparently.

As my predictions are so fucking woeful, I'm predicting that Hearts will beat Aberdeen tonight 10-0. That should ensure that the Dons safely see them off.

The other thing possibly worth noting here is that there seems to be a big generational difference. Similar to what ca_gere mentions above re: his Granda being completely anti-gay, I was speaking to a 72 year old lady the other day who is probably fairly liberal in her views for that generation. She said something like, "I'm not homophobic in the slightest and I have nothing against gay people having the same rights but I just think that gay marriage is a step too far." I completely paraphrase, but her view was that civil partnerships are absolutely fine because it gives gay people equal rights but marriage is a more "sacred" thing - a religious ceremony if you will - by design, meant for a man and a woman and to be the basis for starting a family. I tried to tell her that by denying gay people the right to marry, they do not have equal rights. Civil partnership is a different thing - it's sort of treating the "marriage" as a contract, rather than an act of love or commitment. There was no shifting her though. It's an old fashioned kind of thing and I can sort of see where she's coming from, but I think that demonstrates that you could be against gay marriage but not necessarily be anti-gay / homophobic / whatever you want to label it.

Take off the Rooney tinted glasses for a moment. He could have jumped the challenge and kept running, but instead he saw an opportunity to get a foul and I genuinely think he noticed it was Schweinsteiger and saw an opportunity to get him sent off. It was a dive.

It was a bit of both really. Man Utd did a good job of stifling Bayern, but I expected more from Bayern. Fellaini is absolutely fucking terrible. Rooney totally got Schweinsteiger sent off too. If Rooney had just fallen down like a normal human being it would not have looked even remotely like a yellow card tackle. Valencia's challenge in the second half was worse than that and the referee looked genuinely not to give a yellow because it would have meant sending him off, but for some reason was happy enough to go straight for the yellow for that one. He never touched Rooney. I know he hurdled the tackle, but Schweinsteiger was pretty close to getting the ball, it was nowhere near as reckless as Rooney made it look. Still that's the sort of thing that players from the continent have been doing to British teams for decades. Doesn't make it ok, like, but having a couple of their players suspended for the second leg helps. Still think Bayern will spank them second leg. A bit like that time the Dons hammered Bayern 2-2 at home, then got a lesson in the second leg. I'm fucking shit at predictions - good job I don't get paid to do it - I'd have been sacked a long time ago.

Fuck: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/mar/28/allan-mcgregor-hull-goalkeeper-out-rest-season-kidney-damage Not good.

That's good - I think he'd be a good fit at Aberdeen actually, but I just imagine that he'd still be able to command higher than SPL wages. Happy to be proven wrong though. He was a top keeper before all his injuries. I hope gets back to somewhere near his best. How's Macgregor? He wasn't doing too well the other day after getting hoofed in the kidney.

Despite all of Gordon's past woes, I imagine he'd still command fairly high wages. He'll probably get signed by an EPL team (or Rangers). I was only half serious when I suggested he could be the Dons' next keeper.

Fair enough. To be fair none of me or my mates there really had a clue about the acceptance or otherwise of gay culture etc. it just looked like they were bleaching the streets to rid them of any tainting by the marching homosexuals the second they could...!

Craig Gordon should be back next season by the looks of it. New keeper for the Dons...?

I think there will be more goals in Spain - 3-2 Barca... And think Man Utd will score but still get absolutely bummed. 1-5.

Everton being my BOYHOOD HEROES (obviously) - have been great this season under Martinez. He's the boy. Well, Rodgers is probably the boy really but Martinez is far more likeable. Good couple of seasons for him (relegation aside obviously).

We also seem to have ignored the fact that Liverpool smashed Spurs to go top of the league. Their fate is IN THEIR OWN HANDS. All they need to do is win their last 6 games which happen to include home games against City and Chelsea. Piece of piss. Seriously though, it's looking very interesting and I find myself actually wanting Liverpool to come out on top. It would be good to see someone other than City or Chelsea win the league. I'd rather it was Everton or Arsenal or even Stoke but Liverpool have been very impressive this season and deserve to be where they are. They'd have secured the trophy by now if Charlie Adam still played for them though.

It's a known FACT that the only reason Wes Brown isn't now the Man Utd captain is because his hair is so shit.

Spain's in Poland. You idiot.

PAndroid - just because you posted in a gay rights thread and you live in Spain, it reminded me of this... When I was in Madrid a couple of years ago (to play in a work related footy tournament) we were walking to our function in the centre of Madrid and landed up at the back of a gay rights procession/march/carnival type thing. It was massive. We got the impression though that the Spanish weren't particularly keen on gay rights - would that be accurate? There was a very heavy police presence and the streets were literally getting chemically cleaned about 5 feet behind the the end of the march. Compare that with the following evening when Spain won the Euros and people were going mental, steaming drunk, pissing and spewing all over the place, smashing beer bottles etc. Nobody gave one fuck about that. On the Mozilla thing - I disagree with the guy but don't use Firefox so can't boycott it even if I wanted to.

Just heard that Rafael could be out for the Bayern match. United are going to get ripped apart on the wings...