TPAFKA Jersey 2

I can only guess as to Oaky’s point, but I’m assuming it was simply that Kazakhstan used to be part of the Soviet Union and if we were happy for it to be considered Europe then, why would we not now as an independent country. Also for the reasons I mentioned, the geography argument doesn’t really fly either. I do know you were only half serious though.

Whilst you are indeed right to afford yourself a scoff at Dougie’s assertion , given that there’s parts of Russia that are thousands of miles further east than Kazakhstan, i have always wondered one thing, but always been too lazy to find out. How come Kazakhstan were so late to come to the UEFA party after the break up of the Soviet Union and also, why have none of the other “stans” followed suit?

I think there’s a fair few people on this thread who (a bit like me) are still desperately clinging to the idea of what international football USED to mean to players. Sure you’ll occasionally get throwbacks the likes Darren Fletcher who woud’ve crawled over broken glass to play for Scotland, but for me, players like him are a rarity now. In my view, if the national team start using the rules to throw their weight around, it’ll only backfire on them and if players are put in a “push comes to shove” situation, it’ll only end one way. So i don’t actually blame the national team managers for this phenomenon. I think their hands are totally tied. Also contrary to Cornwall’s earlier post, I think international football is becoming a bit like the Champions League (in as much that it can of course). All the big teams who are challenging don’t have the same level of issues as we do with call offs, therefore they continue to be successful as teams like Scotland continue to spiral. Sure you’ll get the odd wee blip here and there like Wales and NI qualifying for the last Euros, but they were both prominent by there failures to qualify for the last WC are their performances in the Nations League. Normal service resumed for another 30 years or more.

It’s the likely event, but bizarrely it isn’t guaranteed to work that way. ETA I think I’m talking bollocks. It is guaranteed that you play the same number of home and away games. I think what I was thinking about is that just because you might have played a team twice at home already, it doesn’t mean you won’t be playing them at home again after the split. Obvs knowing our luck though, that would only happen in the away sense.

Right Linwood, I’m gonnae come right out there and say it, but I think folk that don’t like a good wee karaoke night are killjoys. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve zero desire to go back to the mid to late 90s when it seemed to be ubiquitous in every boozer on every night of the week, but I love stumbling upon a wee karaoke night here n there and I’m still known to treat the patrons to a wee tune or two. The standard has to be average to brilliant though (obvs I’m on the brilliant scale)). Naebody has any appetite to listen to group off pished up would be Little Mixers screeching away on the Mike, but in my experience the majority of folk that get up tend to be alright.

If you were at the new grun, why did you call it the “Stadium in the Sky”? The new grun is in Torshavn and isnae in the sky. Naw but hod on. Were you at the one Maloney and Gary O’Connor scored? Coz that wasnae at the new grun. That was at the Toftir one tae. Incidentally, that was the one game I was talking about that I missed in those 15 years. Scotland havenae played at the new grun have they? Have I forgotten a game? Or are you just haverin pish? ETA Aye, Scotland have never played at the new grun (i.e. the one in your link above) so who the f**k did you go and see?

Ahem!!! Not to be pedantic, but Toftir, not Torshavn.

A perfect example.

So far all good and very familiar responses. The only thing I disagree with is the standard of the team issue. Jeezo fellas we’re St. Mirren supporters for Christ’s sake. Just as well we don’t employ that logic to our club team or SMP would be empty every week. Like many on here I grew up spoilt rotten through the 70s, 80s and perhaps to a slightly lesser extent the 90s as far as Scotland teams were concerned. Anyone who made it through the Berti years and is still standing proves my point. I absolutely refuse to believe we will EVER see such dark days again. If anyone is in any doubt about that, take a look at the starting line up for the 2-2 draw with the Faroes in 2002. Surely to Christ we could never ever contemplate having a team that bad again. I remember getting off the ferry from Torshavn to Toftir. When we got off, we had to scramble up a big hill (literally climb up a hill, no path or anything). By the time we made it into the ground we were already 1-0 down and it wasn’t long before we were 2 down. An utterly horrendous day, brightened only by the fact that the Buds beat Morton that day and one of the lads on the boat was a soapdodger. Think it might even have been the day of the Yardley mazy run. Someone might correct me on that. Anyway, the point is that anyone who made it through that period of utter turgid shite, isn’t about to give up due to the quality of the team. After all, we then went on to the relative high of the Smith/McLeish era and the wonderful Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. What a roller coaster that was and although it ended in heartbreak, I don’t mind heartbreak now and again, because t least it reminds you that you’ve genuinely competed and on that occasion we competed with some of the best teams in the world. I actually have (again relatively) high hopes for this current crop we have coming through. At least for once we appear to be going with younger players and I believe they have the makings of a decent team. We’re always missing something though. For years we were crying out for decent centre backs. Now it seems we’ve got a reasonable crop of young CBs and instead we’re crying out for any sort of striker. Even one of Kenny Miller’s previous standing would do. No, for me it’s about all the other reasons I gave, not the standard of the team or its ability to compete. As I I’ve said, f I took that approach to football in general, I’d never have been a S. Mirren fan. Really interesting to hear everyone’s views though.

To me there was definitely something a bit fishy about this game being postponed. f**ked if I know what it could be mind you?

That won’t happen. There will definitely be bottom 6 televised games which will need to be played at a different time. Only the very last round of matches will be played at the same time.

Is it just me, or is anyone else as close as they’ve ever been to giving up on International fitba? Players “retiring” while still at the top of their game. Players being told by their clubs that they cant play on plastic pitches. Ever increasing levels of call offs for at best dubious reasons. Players asking not to be selected in order to “receive treatment” during the international break. Nets being cast even further to capture players with increasingly dubious national credentials. Young players “undecided” about what country they want to play for?? The “week of football” rather than the guaranteed Wed/Sat games. I could go on and on. I’ve been an absolute Scotland nut since at nearly 7 years old seeing Joe Jordan score against Czechoslovakia to qualify us for the !974 World Cup. Once I got old enough for my circumstances and my finances to allow me to travel, I spent the best part of 15 years following the team and missing only one competitive away game during that time, right up until Craig Leven scunnered me in Prague and I vowed to travel no more. Even since then though I’ve still witnessed every game on the telly and been to 2 live. To put things into context, I think the only Scotland games that I haven’t seen since Joe’s goal in !973, would’ve been the odd game back in the old days that wasn’t televised live. This is nothing to do with the quality of the team. I’ve witnessed some fantastic Scotland teams and some utterly shite ones. That’s in the DNA of any Scotland supporter over 40. HOWEVER, I’m just about at the end of the road of caring. The Indyref result probably got the ball rolling for me and ever since then my interest has started to wane more and more. It’s hard for me to imagine a time when Scotland are playing live on the telly and I’d rather be doing something else, but it’s in the post. Anyone else feel the same. I’m not really after the thoughts of the handful of “West Coast Disease” punters we have on here who’ve been slagging off the national team for donkeys years. More the views of fanatics like me who have almost lost their faith. Or alternatively do you still have faith in international fitba and if so why

A superb post sir, right up until the last line. Whilst of course in reality it is indeed just a game, I hate that expression. If you feel that way, that’s fine but I don’t think you can project it onto others. Some folk take the team/sport they love very seriously indeed and there is nothing wrong with that. Hell without it, there would be no passion in the game at all. The seriousness with which I take the game has definitely dissipated with age, but I would never use the expression “it’s only a game”..............even tho it is!

I think they might just find out next time that we a now far better equipped to deal with a bit of roughhouse tactics, not to mention dish out some of our own.

Aye. It seems they don’t even try to hide the OF bias these days.

Oh my! I reckon that was potentially the best outcome for us in that game. Arguably (GD aside) better than them getting routinely pumped 6-0. An absolutely sickening kick in the stanes. Perfect.

As soon as we gave away the penalty on the half way line the writing was on the wall. It was inivtable. Despite some unbelievable defence you knew that unless they made a mistake themselves it was going to happen. The real crime was we had possession with a minute and a half to go. We should have just looked after the ball, went through a few phases and then booted it out the park. Very hard to be critical though after a comeback like that. What would have been interesting would’ve been if England had scored out next to touch straight away with a pushover from the line out. Imagine the pressure on the kicker on what would already be a really difficult kick. Farrell was already off the park, so I guess it would’ve been on Ford. He’d have been absolutely shitin himself.

Absolutely incredible match. I’ve never seen anything like it in 40 odd years of rugby watching memory.

Who’s the 3rd one out of curiosity.

If that’s the case, then it’s a no go for next Saturday for me.

Definitely not in the original squad https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/gemmill-names-scotland-under-21-squad-for-upcoming-friendlies/ and cant see anything on the official site about him being called up subsequently.

Is Kyle in the U21 squad? I’m pretty sure he isn’t. Not the original one anyway. Next Saturday would be ideal otherwise. Don’t know if the Fakes have any Internationslists?

Aye that’s normal though. Very rare for a Premiership game to get postponed for anything other than dangerous conditions.

Pretty frustrating. Decent chance of 3 points today which would’ve given us a massive psychological boost being 2 points clear of Dundee before we play them.

Yip been raining in Perth since after midnight. Think even SMP would struggle today. Fair enough then.