2009/2010 season thread.

[delboy]

Blatter is a senile old buffoon, the sooner he retires or dies the better for the game.

I cannot understand why video technology hasnt been introduced in footy, surely the cunt handball henry incident should have been the final straw on the matter.

One thing I saw in tonights thrilling 1-1 draw against conference leaders Oxford got me thinking though. Danny Crow was clean through on goal and pulled down by Anthony Tonkin. Tonkin sent off, it was a clear foul but surely in that kind of situation it would be fairer if the attacking team were awarded a penalty as opposed to a free kick just outside the area? It was a clear goalscoring opportunity and had Crow beaten Tonkin then it would have just been him against the keeper.

Yet penalties are given for a lot of incidents where there is no clear opportunity on goal just because they're in the area. Am I talking shit here?

[The Ghost Of Fudge]

i'll go further, Del. how about every red card comes with an automatic penalty? or one of those run-from-the-centre-circle-10-seconds-to-score type affairs? far more exciting (although clearly a bit of a handicap for AFC this season).

but it'd make the likes of Nacho Novo a liability, so fair's fair.

[ca_gere]

Blatter is a senile old buffoon, the sooner he retires or dies the better for the game.

I cannot understand why video technology hasnt been introduced in footy, surely the cunt handball henry incident should have been the final straw on the matter.

One thing I saw in tonights thrilling 1-1 draw against conference leaders Oxford got me thinking though. Danny Crow was clean through on goal and pulled down by Anthony Tonkin. Tonkin sent off, it was a clear foul but surely in that kind of situation it would be fairer if the attacking team were awarded a penalty as opposed to a free kick just outside the area? It was a clear goalscoring opportunity and had Crow beaten Tonkin then it would have just been him against the keeper.

Yet penalties are given for a lot of incidents where there is no clear opportunity on goal just because they're in the area. Am I talking shit here?

this would eradicate the professional foul which I'm not sure is a good thing. Sometimes players knowingly take one for the team. It's a last ditch tactic like handballing off the line. There's something quite dignifying about commiting the foul and not waiting for the decision, just walking off before the card is shown. I wouldn't like to see that go. Automatic pen would put players off. Think about if Cambridge were in the final of the johnstone's paint trophy (even hypothetically they're not getting into a champs league final ), last minute, nil nil, opposition player tearing through the defence... You'd want someone to take the fucker out before he reached the box.

The penalty system should be overhauled I agree. All this diving and playing for a pen is unhealthy. Benayoun the other week typified this. Everyone was saying he should have gone down... No he shouldn't have! Hitting the deck shouldn't be a choice ever!

[Guest Gladstone]

I wasn't saying that you had said the league was won or lost on Sunday. Lol.

You're probably the only Celtic fan I've heard have a rational view. Some of the radio phone ins are just becoming silly!

Every team this season has had dodgy decisions!

There's definitely nothing special about Rangers, but when Walter Smith came back he knew what he needed to sort, and getting the core of the team stablised he's managed to get some consistency from them!

Walter Smith is Rangers best manager ever I reckon.

[Guest Gladstone]

this would eradicate the professional foul which I'm not sure is a good thing. Sometimes players knowingly take one for the team. It's a last ditch tactic like handballing off the line. There's something quite dignifying about commiting the foul and not waiting for the decision, just walking off before the card is shown. I wouldn't like to see that go. Automatic pen would put players off. Think about if Cambridge were in the final of the johnstone's paint trophy (even hypothetically they're not getting into a champs league final ), last minute, nil nil, opposition player tearing through the defence... You'd want someone to take the fucker out before he reached the box.

The penalty system should be overhauled I agree. All this diving and playing for a pen is unhealthy. Benayoun the other week typified this. Everyone was saying he should have gone down... No he shouldn't have! Hitting the deck shouldn't be a choice ever!

One of my brother's finest moments as a footballer would have been ruined if that rule was in force.

He was playing in a league decider for Ellon U18s against King Street U18s (his old team). 1-0 up in the dying minutes. Bear in mind, my brother was a striker. Opposition striker beat the offside trap and latched onto a through ball about 40/50 yards out. For some reason, my brother had read the danger (from up front!) and sprinted back. Probably about 35 yards out, he caught the striker, but was never going to get back into tackle him, so just wiped him out. Got up, took the red card, and walked off, safe in the knowledge he'd just won the league for his team. What a fucking hero.

[Murrr]

I'm starting to get caught-up in promotion mania. 8 points clear of third with a game in hand, 13 games still to play. I know that if any club in the world is going to fuck this up then it's Newcastle, but surely we're not going to be caught now? Win our game against Forest and our game in hand and we're as good as back in the Premiership.

I've said a few times this season that I don't really care about winning the title, and as long as we get promoted I'll be happy. Now that we're in a pretty solid position, sod that. Let's finish top. I'm too young to vividly remember the last time we were promoted and the Championship isn't exactly a major trophy, but it'd be absolutely fantastic to win something, especially after the horrors of last season. We'd be going straight into a relegation battle next season, but seeing Alan Smith lifting a trophy at St. James' Park would be so worth a season of dogging it out in the Premiership's danger zone.

Heading down for the Blackpool game on April 10th. It's the 5th last fixture of the season. Promotion day? Hope so.

[Lemonade]

What do we think of the new Scotland strip?

[Lemonade]

I quite like the style of it but I'm not sure about the Lion Rampant or the white bits on the sleeves.

[Alan Cynic]

If they removed the pinstripes it'd be ok. I don't like the 'gap' in the sleeve stripes, and the ones on the shorts & socks look ridiculous. But it could be a lot worse, I suppose!

[Woodsinho]

I'm starting to get caught-up in promotion mania. 8 points clear of third with a game in hand, 13 games still to play. I know that if any club in the world is going to fuck this up then it's Newcastle, but surely we're not going to be caught now? Win our game against Forest and our game in hand and we're as good as back in the Premiership.

I've said a few times this season that I don't really care about winning the title, and as long as we get promoted I'll be happy. Now that we're in a pretty solid position, sod that. Let's finish top. I'm too young to vividly remember the last time we were promoted and the Championship isn't exactly a major trophy, but it'd be absolutely fantastic to win something, especially after the horrors of last season. We'd be going straight into a relegation battle next season, but seeing Alan Smith lifting a trophy at St. James' Park would be so worth a season of dogging it out in the Premiership's danger zone.

Heading down for the Blackpool game on April 10th. It's the 5th last fixture of the season. Promotion day? Hope so.

First football match I ever went to was in that promotion season of 92/93, saw Newcastle beat West Ham 2-0 at St. James' Park. Julian Dicks got sent off, made it pretty memorable. I could have ended up a Newcastle fan but seeing Middlesbrough lose at home to Everton later in that same season made my mind up.

I'm clearly an idiot.

We're relying on a couple of the teams in the current play off positions really fucking up to have any chance of making it back up this year. If we don't do that I can see us being a Championship side for many years to come.

[Soda Jerk]

I'm starting to get caught-up in promotion mania. 8 points clear of third with a game in hand, 13 games still to play. I know that if any club in the world is going to fuck this up then it's Newcastle, but surely we're not going to be caught now? Win our game against Forest and our game in hand and we're as good as back in the Premiership.

I've said a few times this season that I don't really care about winning the title, and as long as we get promoted I'll be happy. Now that we're in a pretty solid position, sod that. Let's finish top. I'm too young to vividly remember the last time we were promoted and the Championship isn't exactly a major trophy, but it'd be absolutely fantastic to win something, especially after the horrors of last season. We'd be going straight into a relegation battle next season, but seeing Alan Smith lifting a trophy at St. James' Park would be so worth a season of dogging it out in the Premiership's danger zone.

Heading down for the Blackpool game on April 10th. It's the 5th last fixture of the season. Promotion day? Hope so.

Aye, winning the Championship would be a meaningless feat. Man City won it a few years back, yet they are still being baited for not winning a trophy for 30-odd years. It just doesn't count, for some reason. Isn't it still the same trophy that was used for the old Division 1 when that was the top flight?

Also, the team that wins the league seems to always go back down. Is there a statistic for this? I would be interested to see out of the 3 that get promoted, which position stays up or gets relegated the most often.

[Guest Gladstone]

BBC Sport - Football - James McFadden to miss Czech Republic friendly

Fuck sake. No McFadden tonight. I hate watching Scotland without McFadden.

[Soda Jerk]

I thought that said John Madden on first glance.

FOOTBAAAALLLLL!

[Scorge]

I remember Stuart Campbell wrote an argument in TF about 15 years ago in favour of scrapping offside, and managed to find it on the web:

TF - OFFSIDE FEATURE

PS: Any Sellick fans whinging about pish officials should have been at Links Park last night. Scandalous.....

[Guest Gladstone]

I remember Stuart Campbell wrote an argument in TF about 15 years ago in favour of scrapping offside, and managed to find it on the web:

TF - OFFSIDE FEATURE

PS: Any Sellick fans whinging about pish officials should have been at Links Park last night. Scandalous.....

Haha.

3. NO OFFSIDE IF YOU PLAY FOR RANGERS - This system has been undergoing a trial period in Scotland for the last 105 years, although the SFA are still "collating information" before deciding whether to expand the plan to include other teams.

Magic.

[delboy]

maybe not so well known in Scotland but very well known in the lower leagues in England, Macclesfield manager Keith Alexander died last night.

BBC Sport - Football - Macclesfield manager Keith Alexander dies

[Jeanette]

What do we think of the new Scotland strip?

I'm starting to like it.

But I really don't like the number on the front, which I believe has to be there, but it just seems too high up and too big!

[Hugh_Jazz]

1-0.....brown.

Seriously, how the fuck are we winning this?

Watching Scotland play just makes me cringe with embarassment. Basic skills are non-existent compared to most countries, yet we somehow still get results. Odd.

[stuartmaxwell]

i thought they did well in 2nd half. as you say though, rotten skillz but with the odd flash of nice.

paul hartley just ran around with his arms out like a mummy trying to push any czech player within a 15 yard radius

any other day that woud have been a defeat. the czechs didnt bust much of a gut in last 20 mins and scots were still first to/held up the 2nd ball, wouldnt have happened normally.

well done to the players/levein/houston though

[Scorge]

Decent start for the new regime then, though the first half was pretty rubbish viewing. Not anything to get over excited about, although this was probably not Levein's ideal first 11 playing tonight.

fairly

[Alphas]

A winning start anyway. Not pretty stuff but I think that game maybe showed Levein a few things. A serious lack of pace in the midfield and not much in the way of width with the team he put out. However, I liked the look of Dorrans as he was always involved in play and got stuck in. Him and Faddy could cause problems. The second half at least showed we still have some graft about us and I thought Boyd brought other players into play well. I certainly prefer that to the pestering that Miller does. Hopefully after a few more friendly games we may be in a competitive position for the Euro qualifiers.

But seriously, Darius singing the national anthem...just wrong.

[ca_gere]

I was at hampden tonight. Decent enough atmosphere/turnout for a friendly. 1st half was so negative from Scotland it was quite frustrating. Rosicky bossed the game at a canter, oozed class. Something clicked after half time and we looked more up for it. That suggests a good team talk and therefore a good manager. Fingers crossed that's right.

Robson is a boaby. Hutton was clearly wanting to bomb it down the wing at any opportunity instead of having to pass it to him.

Dorrans looks a prospect. He was trying a few things which didn't come off but at least he was being inventive.

Boyd's movement was great when he came on. I really hope he can become our goalscoring talisman, mcfadden can do for us what he does for Birmingham playing behind the striker and fletcher can sit back and be a pivot instead of trying to do too much at once.

[Swingin' Ryan]

Not exactly an inspiring first attempt from Levein but beating Czech is nothing to be scoffed at, even if it was a friendly. Some shite performances, some ok performances and a couple of really good ones.

On a side note, Craig Gordon is a fucking great keeper. I can't think of many keepers I enjoy watching more. He deserves all the praise in the world. Fast, smart and unbelivably gutsy, he just throws himself full throttle into everything. I don't think anybody can underestimate quite how important it is having a keeper of that calibre in the Scotland team.

[Stichman]

I was at hampden tonight. Decent enough atmosphere/turnout for a friendly. 1st half was so negative from Scotland it was quite frustrating. Rosicky bossed the game at a canter, oozed class. Something clicked after half time and we looked more up for it. That suggests a good team talk and therefore a good manager. Fingers crossed that's right.

Robson is a boaby. Hutton was clearly wanting to bomb it down the wing at any opportunity instead of having to pass it to him.

Dorrans looks a prospect. He was trying a few things which didn't come off but at least he was being inventive.

Boyd's movement was great when he came on. I really hope he can become our goalscoring talisman, mcfadden can do for us what he does for Birmingham playing behind the striker and fletcher can sit back and be a pivot instead of trying to do too much at once.

I was there too. Mainly being infuriated by the boy infront of me, who just kept going on about how amazing Hutton was, despite the fact he was having a pretty terrible game. I thought he was just mince; first half especially.

Depressingly, I can't really think of anyone to pick who played well, it was just a big blue wash of mediocrity. Still, it's important to get the foundations righ, and the first thing any international manager has to do is make his team hard to beat. I think better football will follow. Agreed that Boyd looked tasty when he came on. I hope he gets played from the start in our home gamed, where he could be a massive threat.

Anyway, if we win all our qualifying games 1-0 but play poorly, I'd obviously take that all day long.

[Guest Gladstone]

The game last night was pretty shit, but how good does it feel to actually win a game? Czech Republic, albeit a bit under strength last night are a decent side, and Scotland managed to beat them 1-0. We only really had one chance that I can think of and we took it.

Like Ewan says, I don't think anyone really stood out with a good performance.

Scott Brown just looks a shadow of his former self at the moment. That's what playing for Celtic does to you. He needs to move clubs I reckon, although I fear it may be too late. All the hype surrounding his big money transfer to Celtic, followed by underachieving at Celtic, combined with his sister dying seems to have all culminated in him just not having the same appetite that he used to have. In the McLeish era, Brown was fucking magic for Scotland - just absolutely everywhere. He's not a massively skillful player, but he does have some nice touches etc, but it was his limitless energy which made him so effective, but he just doesn't seem to be doing the same running as he used to. Remember him against Ukraine? He was just everywhere, all at the same time. Him and Hutton were awesome down the right hand side. I wish Hutton would find his form again too - he was a real prospect before he moved to the Premiership. He could have been doing with staying at Rangers for another couple of seasons to be honest.

I think Dorrans was the worthy man of the match for Scotland - didn't do an awful lot, but probably did more than anyone else. He was always willing to take the ball into feet, and can't remember him ever giving it away. The little reverse pass for the goal was great.

Kenny Miller was pretty pish. He just doesn't have a touch. If Miller's going to play, we need Boyd alongside him because they work well together. Miller up top by himself just means the ball barely ever sticks. The amount of times it was just coming back at us last night was ridiculous. Not all Miller's fault of course - for most of the first half he had zero support. We were seriously lacking attacking midfielders last night, and absolutely fuck all width. We really need someone like McFadden to sit in front of the centre midfield - someone with a bit of spark. We don't get much of that from Fletcher / Brown / Thompson. Hartely just looks too slow these days. He'll do a job in there, but he'll always be a liability.

I thought the central defenders all did well enough. There wasn't an awful lot of threat in the first half, but second half, Berra and Caldwell dealt pretty well with most things thrown at them.

All in all, a pretty good first outing. The confidence must have been so low amongst the players after the last few internationals, and beating a team like Czech Republic will do wonders for them. A clean sheet, and scoring a fucking goal. Hard to beat is how Smith started out with Scotland, and that developed into the best Scotland team we've had for over 10 years under McLeish, so hopefully more of the same.