The Original 59er

A ghost writer he would be!

NO, most definitely not. Someone who roams the Scottish hills for a living! I don't think SD remotely fits that fitness image

I suppose we could ask Stevie T if he can use his influence...................................!

I read a really good summary of someone who withdrew from a social media page / forum as a considerable number of people castigated him for his pretty reasonable opinion, which in truth wasn't that provocative or outlandish, but sufficient to get a number of people really 'hot under the collar'. He described it as follows: "It is impossible to wrestle with chimney sweeps and stay clean, so I shan’t bother" I have previously said, and been criticised for saying, that the opportunity for debate hasn't improved with the internet, it has become a battleground of over-opinionated personalities. The writer went on to say: "What I find most disconcerting of all, though, is the way in which debate, however reasonable it may be, is getting more and more difficult if you have an alternative point of view. Any casual observer of the political scene will know what I’m talking about. If someone disagrees with what you say they will shout and harangue you. They will resort to abuse and to invective. Over the last 5 to 10 years there has been a noticeable breakdown in civility in this arena. There are many reasons for this, which are too long and too numerous to outline here. Suffice it to say that I find it depressing." I suppose you could well apply this to many of the topics on B&W! P.S. - I find it very strange sometimes when a post takes a completely different direction and entertains a series of posts completely unrelated to the core subject; e.g. "Welcome Adam Hammill"

I fully appreciate video clips of "The Best Bits" are supposed to make you (and Managers) drool at the mouth, but a left sided two footed winger with some skill and the ability to see the space and put the odd shot into the net leaves me scratching my bald pate................ why has he been let go and without a club at this stage in the season?

So you honestly believe that all the SNP representatives at Hollyrood will simply disappear or melt back down to their base core beliefs be that Labour, Lib-Dem or 'Conservative' (that would be interesting!), or do you think they might want to hold on to their cushy little number and still hold on to a SNP whip? My problem is that they are making such a hash of it at present with the powers they have, and our lives are simply getting no better, hence having the same old, same old again, however with actual independence frightens the life out of me. The fact is that a large majority of SMP's are re-cycled regional politicians who at that level never managed to impress me, so I suppose, why should I expect much better at Hollyrood?

FIFA don't really help as I understand they allow some countries to participate in qualifying competitions by playing on artificial pitches. They should be banned at the top level of the game in all leagues and never allowed at International or European levels in any competition and if countries or clubs only have artificial pitches available, then they should be asked to play away from home and keep a level playing field.

Here is my tuppence worth.................................................. Independence is a fanciful idea and one that does little to gel the people in our small country. The idea of being an independently thinking person who likes the concept of being Scottish, is a vastly different thing to wanting some half-baked ideas being forced on us by a party that has a one-track mind and fails to understand the principle of what it takes to properly govern a country and set us on a true path to becoming 'richer' in all aspects of our lives. The SNP regularly holds us up as a country that can stand alongside the various Scandinavian models in terms of development and opportunity to benefit our citizens , but it conveniently forgets to mention the poverty, the state of the health, the questionable education standards and historic chronic hangover in terms of housing and industry from our past which still hangs over our country all these years later. No Scandinavian country ever has had any of these problems to fix. So basically they are trying to compare a pomegranate with an orange and say that it is the same thing. In addition, many of the SNP so-called benefits that have been introduced have generally been populist moves to 'win over' a vast number of floating poorer voters, especially from a Labour Party that has for a number of years, lost its way. The concept of free prescriptions is exceedingly wasteful and leads to a false sense of entitlement which, once provided is hard to turn around. At least in England a £7 charge might make you think twice before going to ask your doctor for a prescription for paracetamol or aspirin (only a minor example), which can be bought readily and cheaply over the counter. I used to think that it would take maybe two to three generations of elections in Scotland to start seeing some politicians beginning to appear at Hollyrood that could start to make a real difference. I now fear the worst. They are very thin on the ground and the standard is such that I now fear we will never get a quality of politician that has either business, or trade union experience and bring some much-needed gravitas to the assembly. Most are Councillors made up from the ranks, or career individuals who set out from school and study politics at Uni so that they can enter a well paid position in Edinburgh, the majority have no life experience that allows them to influence the real changes that are required in our society to really make our lives better throughout the country. What has Brexit done? It has deeply divided the country (and I mean the UK) and gives the SNP an opportunity to snipe from the outside and appear righteous that little old Scotland is such a great place because we voted to stay. What they conveniently forget, is that it was national vote and not a regional vote to remain in bits and pieces. That doesn't make the vote right or wrong, but if we had a national vote to say go to war, would they argue to stay out of the war if Scotland voted 51 to 49% to not get involved and the rest of the UK said vociferously in a vote to protect our shores? - A bit extreme I know, but referendums are quite rare in our country and as the politicians have learnt, often true democracy has a habit of kicking a government in the teeth when they least expect it. I still haven't yet seen a fair, cogent and justifiable argument for independence.

The problem for Dundee was the three J's and their slow demise and then a failed Scottish Enterprise adventure into trying to replace them with industries that really were short term tarts who were drawn to the attraction of cheap money and facilities before they moved on to the next cheap, government aided location. All that plus when you arrived at the town by car you were immediately hit in the face by the ring-road and and if were going farther north you made every effort to miss going into the centre of Dundee and get out of it as quickly as possible. Lastly the City / Regional Council had a terrible reputation for some really dodgy malpractices and many developers and builders who had a modicum of respectability () purposefully kept well away from the place. Big physical changes in the city over the last ten to fifteen years and coupled to these changes is a really vibrant University / further learning base. Dundee Uni has a great medical and also architectural school and also has developed a reputation in forensic anthropology which is world famous. That coupled with research in the medical field makes it one of the best locations in the UK for advancing medical investigation.

If I remember rightly, a pint of Light was 1/8d and a pint of heavy was 1/10d. Fowler's Wee heavy was a drink I would have liked now, but in these days you were never drawn to a bottle that had less than half a pint in it! My pocket money, or should I say my paper round money whilst much more than 2/6d, I wasn't drawn to Export...................... probably thinking that if I stretched the principle of asking for a stronger alcoholic beverage I might have been asked to show some form of age proof! Yeah, lager was like p*sh at the time, usually Tennents, and pretty warm as the bars usually didn't keep it at the right temperature.

I will add my tuppence worth. I remember Jim Clunie coming back to the club and whilst he wasn't as good as his first stint he added that bit of dependable stability at the back Anton did the same on Friday. If he stays fit, then a great addition to the squad

I'll tell you after my walk round and as I say if allowed to take photos - full technicolor will be available.

We could always try and find 10 players who are 6'3" or more and slightly wider than your average footballer and pack the goalmouth...... oh and the goalie would need to add agile to that list of attributes!

I'm persuaded to the UK version of events, especially after the searching RT 'interview' with the two suspects yesterday. I just loved the facts they threw out on the exact height of the church spire, and the oldest working clock around and then when it came to explaining why they were in Salisbury at exactly the same time as the attack it was just a "extraordinary coincidence". Oh yes that would be the extraordinary coincidence of them flying in to the UK a couple of days before and then flying out a day after and they came all that way just to see a famous church spire in the west country of England.....................

I am lucky enough to have been invited to a 'private' walk-round in mid-October. Reports and photos (if allowed) will be posted.

Hopefully by the time it gets to 9:00 pm there will still be something else worth watching!

So you utilise the increased amount from the TV companies to lower the admission prices, and at the same time the club(s) make no financial gain or added income to compensate them. I accept the argument that dropping the prices should see an increase in numbers, but there will be a balancing point where the decrease in cost will bring less benefit to the club as opposed to being a status quo. If the club essentially gets no benefit financially, what merit is there in them dropping the prices!

Shull, you are a well worn record on this point and I agree with your sentiments, to a degree. My question would be; if you dropped the admission cost at what stage in the supposed increase in crowd numbers does it start being viable? I doubt very much if a 50% drop in admission costs wouldn't see a doubling of the crowd numbers, so where do you think the line sits for cost against numbers attending?

Aye, 8,000 with the equivalent of machine guns compared to the claymores!

In the NORTH & CENTRAL AMERICA: CONCACAF Nations League - Qualification, St Kitts & Nevis (population 54,821) just beat Puerto Rico (population 3.337m) 1-0 I think I have just found my new underdogs to support

Apparently pitchforks aren't much of a defence against muskets, and to use present day football analogy, disorganised rabble generally all at sea with instructions and lost the dressing room.

I believe TF said something along the lines "we wanted and went for a Manager with First Class experience of the Premier Division" - or something to that effect! Googled it...........................: “He’s a leader, plays exciting football and his recruitment is very good when you see the quality players he brought to Hibs. He knows the Scottish game inside out and he’s a brilliant coach who can get the best out of the academy boys. “Alan has real stature and made history by winning the Scottish Cup with Hibs.”

Where I had my first under-age pint - a Pint of Light at 1shilling & 8d ...................... Aye these were the days!

Is that where Prefab Sprout got their name?

Delighted that someone has managed to get this back on topic!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ever since I started supporting Saints and that is a long time back ()............. I watched scores of buses heading along the Glasgow Road towards either Darkheid or Ipox and initially wondered why they dragged so many people out of Paisley when there was a wonderful football club in their own town. Then I learnt of religious divides and bigotry and even then could maybe understand why some of them went east, but not all. You then realise they were generally glory hunters or they just plainly followed their father's ideological mistakes . Even when we were at our best and challenged the OF by staying at the top end of the top league until Christmas we might have got 15,000 or even 18,000 at an OF match - I remember a particularly foggy game against Rangers at Love St when I think Hughie Gilshan scored the winner, and also attending a Celtic game when you feared that a beer can full of p*ss would be poured down your leg or sprayed all over you as it was tossed from the back of the vile mob that stood behind you. Even in these days a crowd of 6,000 for a 'run of the mill' match was good going at LS and it really summed up our problem, in that no matter how well we played and no matter how competitive we were, the ugly sisters drained our town of mistakenly potential misguided supporters. Even in Fergie's days when he went round the housing estates with a tannoy attached to the top of the car and urged supporters to come along and see his young exciting team it didn't manage to encourage much more than 5 or 6,000 to a game. Also we are considered a stepping stone for players and we have as long as I can remember, (e.g. Tottie Beck, George McLean, Frank McAvennie, Tommy Bryceland, Billy Thomson, Tony Fitzpatrick, Billy Stark, Frank McGarvey, Ian Ferguson, Lewis Morgan etc, etc to name just a few), we have managed to hold on to them for a short while until they attract the attention of the OF or someone down south who snaps them up and gives us some financial breathing space for a season or two more. So, I wouldn't hold your breath in this day of multi-TV matches and alternative attractions on a Saturday, but for those who enjoy the UPS and downs of supporting a local team, we at least offer our merry band an occasional exciting visit to the National Stadium, or a season to remember to stick firmly in the memory bank for another few years. Good luck OK, I personally wish your tenure at St Mirren to be as long and fruitful as possible.