Grand Prix Rejects

Still, in general, a *slightly boring* champion. Admittedly this game was less boring. Not a real surprise either, France was the only favourie that didn't screw up, so they won, football logic respected.

as a consolation prize, croatia and belgium have sharpened their record with one place and england overcame their penalty trauma.

Two of the ten teams in the Irish top flight are facing financial ruin. Fun times.

Regenmeister94 wrote:Two of the ten teams in the Irish top flight are facing financial ruin. Fun times.

Still not as worrying as the state of football in Romania these days...

My FIFA go-to team in career mode, SD Huesca, made their debut in La Liga with a BANG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8r3saUfeVk

The first major Europa League stunt has happened, Luxembourgian champion Dudelange have somehow got themselves into the group stage. This is an even greater surprise than those times that Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers made it.

This wrote:The first major Europa League stunt has happened, Luxembourgian champion Dudelange have somehow got themselves into the group stage. This is an even greater surprise than those times that Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers made it.

First time since 1995 that someone from Luxembourg has reached a group stage. That said it looks like they earned the right after winning their play-off round 5-2 with the 2 conceeded coming after they scored 5. They also knocked out Legia Warsaw who in recent times had a 3-3 draw with Real Madrid in a Group game. In the spirit of the forum I'll be watching them closely as well as Hungarians MOL Vidi (Videoton)

giraurd wrote:I would not bet on Latvia, after their 2004 glory run Latvian football has mainly crashed down and burned due to clashes between the native Latvians and Russians in the country.

IMO: Safe bets would be on the solidish Georgia & Belarus, secondary picks on the high-investing Azerbaijan & Kazakhstan, and the dark horse choices on the giant-teasing Luxembourg & of course the low-experience but high-potential Kosovo team full of youngsters in decent European clubs.

I'll just use this moment to bask in glory in front of the gravely mistaken Latvia aficionados on here and order every Reject fan to henceforth listen to my wisdom when it comes to predicting Nations League D.

Obviously I'm mentioning this before Macedonia gets the chance to spoil my one man party.

What we remember is that Gibraltar scored two wins!
Also as the iceland-hype stopped, the Faroer-hype also seemed to stop, they're no longer the midfielder-beating team they were last campaign.
San Marino still couldn't get a single point.
Exciting fight between Belarus and Luxembourg!
Scotland for once didn't embarass themselves.
Belgium did embarass themselves against Switzerland.
The less said about Germany the better.
And the dutch are back!

Which of these trends will continue into the qualifiers? Who will win the division D play-offs? Belarus, Macedonia, Georgia and Kosovo seem evenly matched. Can the dutch win the whole tournament?

So the Libertadores final will be held in Spain, what the censor bleep is going on?

https://www.realmadrid.com/en/news/2018 ... final-2018

FullMetalJack wrote:A former American Football coach buys a football club and makes himself manager.

Don Pentecost, is that you?

FortiWinks wrote:

FullMetalJack wrote:A former American Football coach buys a football club and makes himself manager.

Don Pentecost, is that you?

Unsurprisingly, Chester City finished in last place under the ownership of Terry Smith, and dropped out of the Football League.

Turns out there's a whole documentary on their 1999/2000 season.

Not quite Doncaster Rovers in 1997/98, but a good watch nonetheless.

I know it happened yesterday, but congrats to Qatar on winning the AFC Asian Cup, now they have some more footballing achievements to celebrate, in addition to... three Gulf Cup titles. In any case, I'm pleased for them. Even if they're a questionable and controversial choice as hosts for the next World Cup (to say the least), they won this tournament fair and square with 16 goals scored and just ONE conceded in 7 matches. Perhaps their role as host nation in 2022 won't be as ceremonial as we'd think. With the form they showed in the last month, Qatar will surely be capable of reaching at least the last 16 in three-and-a-half years time. But this is me in praise of Qatar with regards to their football team, not their human rights and government. Really, the 2022 WC should be hosted by another country.

I'm having the time of my life. It's well known how much i dislike Anderlecht, and 6 days before the end of the regular competition they are standing 7th, and only the top 6 will be able to play the title play-offs.

This wrote:I'm having the time of my life. It's well known how much i dislike Anderlecht, and 6 days before the end of the regular competition they are standing 7th, and only the top 6 will be able to play the title play-offs.

Can confirm, this is a very good development.

As we come towards the last two months of the football season, I was reminded of this exchange from 13 pages and almost four years ago:

Barbazza (4 May 2015) wrote:Delighted to see Orient go down, solely because I hate Barry Hearn. Even more delighted that Plastic FC Mk 2 (Crawley) went as well. Gutted that Plastic FC Mk 1 (MK Dons) went up.

Freeze-O-Kimi (16 May 2015) wrote:I'm just glad Fleetwood didn't make the playoffs. Plastic MK 3 in my view because you don't win 6 promotions in 10 seasons without a bit of cash.

Ataxia (16 May 2015) wrote:Nah, Fleetwood are run by a local businessman who's mad about the club. Their midfielder Nathan Pond, who's been at the club since 2003, has been with the team through all of those promotions. It's nice to see proper "Football Manager" style clubs who have rocketed through the leagues, but at the same time have shown prudent financial management.

So, AFC Fylde, then. They've been rocketing up the divisions in recent years, from the North West Counties League a decade ago to (as it stands today) fourth in the National League, in the play-off places, and with the possibility of them being the latest all-new addition to the Football League being very real. According to The All-Knowing Oracle, in 2007 they had an AGM with a 15-year plan to reach the National League by 2017 (bang on target if they meant the top division) and the Football League by 2022 - all of which sounds like they knew something the rest of us didn't even back then. In short: Plastic FC Mk 3 or a series of hard-won promotions done properly - what's the story with this lot?

Meanwhile, I'm looking through the divisions all the way through to the murky depths once again to see if I can find season-long performances that are so spectacularly cack that the team's been relegated already (not counting any clubs who have resigned from their league or been given the boot). Already I think there should be a special Reject Of Recent Years Award for North Ferriby United who are 23 points adrift of safety at the bottom of the Northern Premier league Premier Division and are on course for a third successive relegation.

And finally, for England at least... is Hashtag United the single most rejectful idea in the whole of football history, ever?

MEANWHILE IN ITALY...

It seems that even the most rejectful performances in England's nether regions, and even the -7 points scored by perennial Highland League strugglers Fort William north of the border, are nothing in comparison to what's been going on in Italy's Serie C. Our Glorious Leader, fanatical follower of Italian football that he is, will no doubt tell us the entire Italian football system is rotten to the core, as every year, without fail, club after club after club goes to the wall and is reconstituted under a suspiciously similar name in Serie D or the Eccelenza. I could even see his blood pressure rising from afar as Rubentus' under-23 squad was admitted into Serie C for this season, with no other Galactico-level club given that option (even to put their reserves or juniors into Serie D).

Two of the four clubs unceremoniously kicked out of Serie C for this season were Vicenza and Reggiana, who I remember as being former members (if not for very long) of Serie A in the time I've kept one eye on what's happening in Italy, and they're far, far from being the only former top-division club I've seen that happening to. I wondered what had happened with another short-lived ex-member of Serie A, Piacenza, when a second club - Pro Piacenza - appeared alongside them. The newer club, by the looks of things, was more successful for a while but their fortunes have nosedived to the point where news of their 20-0 shellacking by Cuneo in the northern Girone A made the front page of the BBC website (no, not just the football pages, not just the sports pages, I mean the front page).
The end result is that they've been thrown out of the league mid-season with all their results wiped - which is annoying, because until that happened, the All-Knowing Oracle kept a record of several other matches in which they'd taken a double-figures leathering, and the "previous versions of this page" doesn't help because the league table and results are automatically updated. Looking on the Italian version of the page, the implication is that every match in the league versus Pro Piacenza will be credited as a 3-0 win to their opponents, which will be trouble for Cuneo - they've also had a massive 23-point deduction and although they'd retain their victory over Pro Piacenza, they've been penalised 17 goals as well for something they didn't do, whatever infraction (probably financial) caused them to lose those 23 points in the first place. And, likely as not, they''ll be relegated.

Pro Piacenza's missed fixtures and fielding of a team entirely made up of teenagers has some terrible parallels with the fate of Woodford United that I'd been reporting on a few seasons ago. Thing is, this isn't the tenth tier United Counties League Division One we're taking about here, it's the third tier of a supposedly respectable football powerhouse nation. And, further south in the parallel Girone C, much the same has happened to Matera - thrown out of the league for failing to turn up for four successive fixtures, though if they'd been on the receiving end of the same on-field punishment as Pro Piacenza, I don't blame them for staying at home (in a city where the old town looks like it comes straight out of Game Of Thrones). Oddly, both Pro Piacenza and Matera have had points deducted after their expulsion, so they're sitting on -16 and -34 points respectively, with that deduction making absolutely no difference to the remainder of their non-participation in the rest of the season.

dinizintheoven wrote:So, AFC Fylde, then. They've been rocketing up the divisions in recent years, from the North West Counties League a decade ago to (as it stands today) fourth in the National League, in the play-off places, and with the possibility of them being the latest all-new addition to the Football League being very real. According to The All-Knowing Oracle, in 2007 they had an AGM with a 15-year plan to reach the National League by 2017 (bang on target if they meant the top division) and the Football League by 2022 - all of which sounds like they knew something the rest of us didn't even back then. In short: Plastic FC Mk 3 or a series of hard-won promotions done properly - what's the story with this lot?

Well...I am in a position to comment on this as I have from the start of this season been co-commentating on Solihull Moors for Switch Radio as well as doing my own radio show. I picked a good season given how unexpectedly well the Moors have been doing, They don't play the best football in the division but Tim Flowers has done a great job and they are very hard to beat.

The most 'plastic' team in the league is obviously Salford City, however AFC Fylde aren't that far off. I only go to the home games, and even then I've missed some. However, I have seen both of those teams and I would say that Fylde are probably a better team. They also have an extremely annoying commentator from their equivalent community radio station who turned up about 5 minutes before kick-off, proceeded to nick my team sheet and anything else he could lay hands on and bellowed his head off at the players at the end after they won. So I think it's fair to say that I would gladly never see them turn up again.

MEANWHILE IN BONNIE SCOTLAND:

This prediction didn't age well...

dinizintheoven (25 July 2016) wrote:I predict East Stirlingshire will continue to take the walloping in the Lowland League that they've become used to over the last decade or so in the Scottish Third Division.

In short, they didn't.

East Stirlingshire finished second in the 2016-17 Lowland League, behind champions East Kilbride who came within a gnat's whisker of doing to Cowdenbeath what Edinburgh City had done to East Stirlingshire (but lost 5-3 in the play-off final on penalties). 2017-18 saw East Stirlingshire finish fourth, and this season they're sixth as it stands... with East Kilbride leading the way (who, incidentally, were second to Spartans in 2017-18).

This raises another question: if Milton Keynes Dons, Crawley Town and Salford City are Plastic FC Mk. 1, 2 and 3 in England, are East Kilbride an equivalent for Scotland? I've heard it said about East Kilbride that "it is unacceptable for such a large urban centre not to have a league club", very similar to Milton Keynes before Wimbledon were frogmarched out to the National Hockey Stadium - and there was a similar plan to move Clyde out of the sectarian shadow of Rangers and Celtic, move them to East Kilbride under the name "EK Clyde" and see if the wool could be pulled over the locals' eyes. And yes, I know, Livingston... though I wonder if their previous pre-relocation identity as Meadowbank Thistle wouldn't be considered equally "plastic".

I stand by what I said about the Lowland League being very difficult to get out of, though. Whatever amounts of extra cash might be thrown at East Kilbride to get the town a League club "legitimately", Edinburgh City remain the only club to have escaped either the Highland or Lowland Leagues so far, and it's not as if they found their first two seasons easy. Looks like they've got the hang of it now, though.

dinizintheoven wrote:As we come towards the last two months of the football season, I was reminded of this exchange from 13 pages and almost four years ago:

Barbazza (4 May 2015) wrote:Delighted to see Orient go down, solely because I hate Barry Hearn. Even more delighted that Plastic FC Mk 2 (Crawley) went as well. Gutted that Plastic FC Mk 1 (MK Dons) went up.

Freeze-O-Kimi (16 May 2015) wrote:I'm just glad Fleetwood didn't make the playoffs. Plastic MK 3 in my view because you don't win 6 promotions in 10 seasons without a bit of cash.

Ataxia (16 May 2015) wrote:Nah, Fleetwood are run by a local businessman who's mad about the club. Their midfielder Nathan Pond, who's been at the club since 2003, has been with the team through all of those promotions. It's nice to see proper "Football Manager" style clubs who have rocketed through the leagues, but at the same time have shown prudent financial management.

So, AFC Fylde, then. They've been rocketing up the divisions in recent years, from the North West Counties League a decade ago to (as it stands today) fourth in the National League, in the play-off places, and with the possibility of them being the latest all-new addition to the Football League being very real. According to The All-Knowing Oracle, in 2007 they had an AGM with a 15-year plan to reach the National League by 2017 (bang on target if they meant the top division) and the Football League by 2022 - all of which sounds like they knew something the rest of us didn't even back then. In short: Plastic FC Mk 3 or a series of hard-won promotions done properly - what's the story with this lot?

AFC Fylde are bankrolled in the same way Crawley, Salford, Forest Green and their neighbours Fleetwood are. However, unlike other similar clubs, them and Fleetwood are more likely to be sustainable as they'd have both nicked fans from Blackpool; who's fans were understandably staying away whilst those scumbag Oystons were trying to kill the club. It does look like Blackpool are finally be rid of the Oystons though, and I couldn't be happier for them.

Relating to what Ataxia said about a club rising through the divisions with prudent financial management; there can be no better example than Burton Albion. A model club for any non-league outfit to look up to, the owner hasn't been chucking much money at the club; from the sounds of things they're profitable nearly every year! I've also watched Birmingham lose to them three times in four league matches we played against them, enjoyed visiting their ground though.

Barbazza wrote:Well...I am in a position to comment on this as I have from the start of this season been co-commentating on Solihull Moors for Switch Radio as well as doing my own radio show. I picked a good season given how unexpectedly well the Moors have been doing, They don't play the best football in the division but Tim Flowers has done a great job and they are very hard to beat.

I would love for Solihull Moors to win promotion this season, due to our close links to them. I've only been once this season, when they lost 1-0 to former Football League side Barrow.

FullMetalJack wrote:I would love for Solihull Moors to win promotion this season, due to our close links to them. I've only been once this season, when they lost 1-0 to former Football League side Barrow.

That was the game just after they'd (unjustly) been knocked out of the cup in the replay and their performance was understandably sub-par so you picked a bad one really. I've not seen them play as badly as that in the league (though they were wretched against Telford in the FA Trophy)

dinizintheoven wrote:As we come towards the last two months of the football season, I was reminded of this exchange from 13 pages and almost four years ago:

Barbazza (4 May 2015) wrote:Delighted to see Orient go down, solely because I hate Barry Hearn. Even more delighted that Plastic FC Mk 2 (Crawley) went as well. Gutted that Plastic FC Mk 1 (MK Dons) went up.

Freeze-O-Kimi (16 May 2015) wrote:I'm just glad Fleetwood didn't make the playoffs. Plastic MK 3 in my view because you don't win 6 promotions in 10 seasons without a bit of cash.

Ataxia (16 May 2015) wrote:Nah, Fleetwood are run by a local businessman who's mad about the club. Their midfielder Nathan Pond, who's been at the club since 2003, has been with the team through all of those promotions. It's nice to see proper "Football Manager" style clubs who have rocketed through the leagues, but at the same time have shown prudent financial management.

So, AFC Fylde, then. They've been rocketing up the divisions in recent years, from the North West Counties League a decade ago to (as it stands today) fourth in the National League, in the play-off places, and with the possibility of them being the latest all-new addition to the Football League being very real. According to The All-Knowing Oracle, in 2007 they had an AGM with a 15-year plan to reach the National League by 2017 (bang on target if they meant the top division) and the Football League by 2022 - all of which sounds like they knew something the rest of us didn't even back then. In short: Plastic FC Mk 3 or a series of hard-won promotions done properly - what's the story with this lot?

Meanwhile, I'm looking through the divisions all the way through to the murky depths once again to see if I can find season-long performances that are so spectacularly cack that the team's been relegated already (not counting any clubs who have resigned from their league or been given the boot). Already I think there should be a special Reject Of Recent Years Award for North Ferriby United who are 23 points adrift of safety at the bottom of the Northern Premier league Premier Division and are on course for a third successive relegation.

And finally, for England at least... is Hashtag United the single most rejectful idea in the whole of football history, ever?

I remember that conversation quite well. Of the clubs we mentioned as being "plastic" the whole footballing world rejoiced when it became official that AFC Wimbledon were staying up in League 1 combined with MK Dons going down to League 2 last season making it the first time ever that the new Wimbledon had gone above the franchise. Sadly it may only be temporary for now as MK fight to go straight back up with Wimbledon looking destined for relegation. We can never have nice things can we?

Crawley look like they've stalled in League 2 since likewise Fleetwood in League 1. As a side note I wonder if Fleetwood's attendance swelled with disgruntled Blackpool fans staying away from the Oystons. A great victory for Blackpool that was though. I was shocked to discover he'd been in charge in 1987.

If there's one team I despise more than any other it's Salford who are only relevant for 2 things: The class of 92 and the fact that the BBC is based there. I remember back to the 2015/16 FA Cup and Salford were featured quite prominently over other non-league teams with BBC having you believe it was a fairytale. Always makes me smile seeing they've lost at 5pm on a Saturday. Finally as I'm Liverpool based I can't be too complimentary of most things Manchester

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:I remember that conversation quite well. Of the clubs we mentioned as being "plastic" the whole footballing world rejoiced when it became official that AFC Wimbledon were staying up in League 1 combined with MK Dons going down to League 2 last season making it the first time ever that the new Wimbledon had gone above the franchise. Sadly it may only be temporary for now as MK fight to go straight back up with Wimbledon looking destined for relegation. We can never have nice things can we?

Crawley look like they've stalled in League 2 since likewise Fleetwood in League 1. As a side note I wonder if Fleetwood's attendance swelled with disgruntled Blackpool fans staying away from the Oystons. A great victory for Blackpool that was though. I was shocked to discover he'd been in charge in 1987.

If there's one team I despise more than any other it's Salford who are only relevant for 2 things: The class of 92 and the fact that the BBC is based there. I remember back to the 2015/16 FA Cup and Salford were featured quite prominently over other non-league teams with BBC having you believe it was a fairytale. Always makes me smile seeing they've lost at 5pm on a Saturday. Finally as I'm Liverpool based I can't be too complimentary of most things Manchester

Wimbledon beat Doncaster 2-0 on Saturday, who to be fair are one of the better sides in the division. Their results are starting to improve, so there's hope yet.

Fleetwood's attendances have definitely been helped by the Oystons, probably to the point that they could be sustainable. They're not going to switch back now. Were it not for that, they could have well gone the way of Rushden and Diamonds further down the line.

As for Salford, couldn't agree more. The way the media act as if it's a fairytale annoys me more than anything. Macclesfield Town winning that league last season was much more of an achievement than if Salford win it this time.

2015 FA Trophy winners North Ferriby United have folded, they were looking certain of a third successive relegation before officially being wound up.



From the sounds of things, it was always only a matter of time. To think, less than two years ago they won 1-0 away at Forest Green in a league match, a side that could well be playing League One football next season.

It's a real shame. I used to pass their (admittedly tiny!) ground when I travelled up to Hull for work. I know that the sport doesn't owe anyone and a living and their businesses like any other but it annoys me that proper non-league sides like them are going out of business while sides with delusions of grandeur like AFC Fylde - I have now seen what their ground looks like and it's ludicrous - and Salford might be in the league soon.

Barbazza wrote:It's a real shame. I used to pass their (admittedly tiny!) ground when I travelled up to Hull for work. I know that the sport doesn't owe anyone and a living and their businesses like any other but it annoys me that proper non-league sides like them are going out of business while sides with delusions of grandeur like AFC Fylde - I have now seen what their ground looks like and it's ludicrous - and Salford might be in the league soon.

North Ferriby weren't sustainable by the sounds of things, although the most recent owners were doing the club no favours at all.

As for clubs rising through the divisions, could we see South Shields in the Football League in a few years time? Money behind them, and a very strong fanbase for the level they play at. 1,500 average in the seventh tier.

Could be on for a fourth successive promotion as things stand, but the National League North will be much much tougher for them.

So anyone willing to take bets on Ajax winning the CL?

Avoid defeat on Monday and we're safe, nice boring final day for a change will do nicely after surviving relegation on the final day in three of the previous five seasons.

This wrote:So anyone willing to take bets on Ajax winning the CL?

Nope. I'm shite at betting and really really really want them to win it. I'll take bets on anyone else winning it.

I actually think Ajax will be finalists, but it comes down to the eventual other finalist. If Barcelona, Ajax have no chance, but if Liverpool, then it depends...

But regardless, I think Ajax are the team of the tournament this year.

MatthewFirth wrote:I actually think Ajax will be finalists, but it comes down to the eventual other finalist. If Barcelona, Ajax have no chance, but if Liverpool, then it depends...

But regardless, I think Ajax are the team of the tournament this year.

I think it's the opposite, have a chance against Barcelona, have no chance against Liverpool.

I suppose at some stage I should present my somewhat-annual dredge through the nether regions of English football to find out if we have an official Reject Of The Year.

Usually I'll come up with several nominations, but this season hasn't been particularly spectacular for teams who ended their season with a single digit in the points column - this year was more about a worryingly large number of resignations from the leagues operating at levels 7-10. These resignations were: North Ferriby United (Northern Premier League Premier Division, L7); Thamesmead Town (Isthmian League South East Division, L8); Blyth (Northern League Division One, L9); Witheridge (South West Peninsula League Premier Division, L9); Bicester Town (Hellenic League Division One East, L10); Carterton (Hellenic League Division One West, L10); North Leigh United (Hellenic League Division One West, L10); St Francis Rangers (Southern Combination League Division One, L10);Appledore (South West Peninsula League Division One East, L10).
A special dishonourable mention goes to AC London (Combined Counties League Division One, L10) who were forcibly removed from their league, rather than resigning... no idea what they did to deserve that, mind.

Really, all the teams who ended with one digit in the points column can be the honourable mentions for this year - though this is still not an exhaustive list of the teams who ended the season with a goal difference of minus three figures (a few of them scored points in the early teens). Anyway, here are the single-figure teams:
Wellingborough Whitworth (United Counties League Premier Division, L9): 9 points, GD -125
Shortwood United (Western League Premier Division, L9): 9 points, GD -103
Sticker (South West Peninsula League Premier Division, L9): 8 points, GD -109
Chinnor (Hellenic League Division One East, L10): 7 points, GD -47 - each team only played 24 games in this division so they might have scored double digits elsewhere...
Budleigh Salterton (South West Peninsula League Division One East, L10): 5 points, GD -115
Liverton United (South West Peninsula League Division One East, L10): 3 points, GD -149
- neither of these two were relegated, probably due to the resignations and the restructuring of the South West Peninsula League
Tytherington Rocks (Hellenic League Division One West, L10): 3 points, GD -94
New College Swindon (Hellenic League Division One West, L10): 3 points, GD -142
- neither of these two teams were relegated, probably because of the two resignations from this division.

A further dishonourable mention goes to the perennial whipping boys of the Southern Combination Division Two, Ferring - who scored six points from two wins, and kept the number of ten-goals-or-more beltings down to two, which is a significant improvement on the last time I reported on their fate. However, as their league is at level 11, they should not officially feature in this round-up - the only reason they do is because this is the only level 11 division that is featured on Wikipedia...

But the winners of Lower Division Football Rejects Of The 2018-19 Season are: Ludgvan, from the South West Peninsula League Division One West. The only team not to have won a single game all season in the top ten divisions of English football, they couldn't even manage a draw either; their record reads 28 fixtures, 26 losses... and two failures to turn up, for which they were deducted two points each time (even if the results show a 0-0 draw). Twice they shipped ten goals or more at home, and five times they did that playing away, with a 20-1 shellacking at eventual champions Liskeard Athletic the low point of the season. Their final record reads: -6 points, GD -185 and there is absolutely nobody who can touch that this year. Maybe I should have a look in the Scottish leagues and see what's been brewing north of the border... other that 80-shilling oatmeal stout.

Also, my local team, Dunkirk FC, were relegated. They couldn't hack it in the level 9 Midland League Premier Division, so will be playing in Division One next season... against the reconstituted Hinckley.

Meanwhile in Bonnie Scotland The Noo, as I threatened to take a look to see if there were any performances as miserable as Ludgvan's... there is.

The South of Scotland League is usually considered the weakest of the Scottish senior leagues, but it's the one without the catastrophe (at least on the part of the regular teams, seeing as bottom of the table with 2 points was Annan Athletic Reserves).

So, in the East of Scotland League Conference B, Eyemouth United lost all their 24 games, conceded 142 more goals than they scored, which included a double-figure opposition score four times (including a 15-1 battering at second placed Bo'ness United) and had three points deducted for fielding an ineligible player, hence they finished with -3 points... but even that isn't the worst points total in Scottish senior football, because perennial Highland League whipping boys Fort William managed a total of -7 points. They drew two of their games (at home to fellow strugglers Clachnacuddin and Strathspey Thistle), and lost the other 32 - scoring 21 goals, conceding 245 (and had ten or more goals scored against them ten times) - and they managed to field an ineligible player three times, costing them three points each time and a grand total of £150 in fines (which, at this level, is a lot).

Fort William is a strange case - the town is isolated from all the other Highland League teams at the wrong end of Loch Ness, and there's very little interest in football around that part of Scotland where most sporty types prefer shinty instead. They'd probably still struggle in the non-pyramid North Caledonian League, having to travel the entire length of the Great Glen Fault just to get to their closest away game (and don't mention the potential fixture against Orkney FC). They don't really fit in anywhere there they'd be competitive.

And as Scottish nationalism may go, prepare to paint your faces blue and white, shout "FREEEEEEDOOOOOOOM!" and believe that every positive story ever told about William Wallace was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Because, in the play-off for membership of the Scottish League, Cove Rangers are 4-0 up after the first leg - against the only English-based team to compete in the Scottish League, Berwick Rangers. Barring a miracle, they'll be leaving the Scottish League in six days. And the only other club in the Scottish pyramid based in England, Tweedmouth Rangers (also from Berwick) finished bottom of East of Scotland League Conference A - with two massive defeats along the way, 14-1 and 16-0. And to think it could all have been so different - Albion Rovers (who aren't English) were bottom of Scottish League Two for most of the season and it looked like they were odds-on to be joining East Stirlingshire in the Lowland League.

At least Cove Rangers got this chance to dump Berwick Rangers out of the Scottish League rather than their Lowland League rivals, East Kilbride. For far too long in Scotland there's been the same "but why doesn't East Kilbride have a Scottish League team?" moaning as there was in England with Milton Keynes. We all know how that played out, and there was a chance that Clyde - who'd already been turfed out of Glasgow and shifted to Cumbernauld - would move again to East Kilbride and rename themselves "EK Clyde" - thus creating a second Scottish Franchise FC (the first being Livingston). Once this fell through, East Kilbride's fortunes started taking a turn for the better, and I can't help but wonder if they're a Plastic FC in the same mould as Salford City, AFC Fylde and the like...

dinizintheoven wrote:Meanwhile in Bonnie Scotland The Noo, as I threatened to take a look to see if there were any performances as miserable as Ludgvan's... there is.

The South of Scotland League is usually considered the weakest of the Scottish senior leagues, but it's the one without the catastrophe (at least on the part of the regular teams, seeing as bottom of the table with 2 points was Annan Athletic Reserves).

So, in the East of Scotland League Conference B, Eyemouth United lost all their 24 games, conceded 142 more goals than they scored, which included a double-figure opposition score four times (including a 15-1 battering at second placed Bo'ness United) and had three points deducted for fielding an ineligible player, hence they finished with -3 points... but even that isn't the worst points total in Scottish senior football, because perennial Highland League whipping boys Fort William managed a total of -7 points. They drew two of their games (at home to fellow strugglers Clachnacuddin and Strathspey Thistle), and lost the other 32 - scoring 21 goals, conceding 245 (and had ten or more goals scored against them ten times) - and they managed to field an ineligible player three times, costing them three points each time and a grand total of £150 in fines (which, at this level, is a lot).

Fort William is a strange case - the town is isolated from all the other Highland League teams at the wrong end of Loch Ness, and there's very little interest in football around that part of Scotland where most sporty types prefer shinty instead. They'd probably still struggle in the non-pyramid North Caledonian League, having to travel the entire length of the Great Glen Fault just to get to their closest away game (and don't mention the potential fixture against Orkney FC). They don't really fit in anywhere there they'd be competitive.

And as Scottish nationalism may go, prepare to paint your faces blue and white, shout "FREEEEEEDOOOOOOOM!" and believe that every positive story ever told about William Wallace was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Because, in the play-off for membership of the Scottish League, Cove Rangers are 4-0 up after the first leg - against the only English-based team to compete in the Scottish League, Berwick Rangers. Barring a miracle, they'll be leaving the Scottish League in six days. And the only other club in the Scottish pyramid based in England, Tweedmouth Rangers (also from Berwick) finished bottom of East of Scotland League Conference A - with two massive defeats along the way, 14-1 and 16-0. And to think it could all have been so different - Albion Rovers (who aren't English) were bottom of Scottish League Two for most of the season and it looked like they were odds-on to be joining East Stirlingshire in the Lowland League.

At least Cove Rangers got this chance to dump Berwick Rangers out of the Scottish League rather than their Lowland League rivals, East Kilbride. For far too long in Scotland there's been the same "but why doesn't East Kilbride have a Scottish League team?" moaning as there was in England with Milton Keynes. We all know how that played out, and there was a chance that Clyde - who'd already been turfed out of Glasgow and shifted to Cumbernauld - would move again to East Kilbride and rename themselves "EK Clyde" - thus creating a second Scottish Franchise FC (the first being Livingston). Once this fell through, East Kilbride's fortunes started taking a turn for the better, and I can't help but wonder if they're a Plastic FC in the same mould as Salford City, AFC Fylde and the like...

I wonder if Berwick would consider moving to the English leagues, and if so, where would they enter? Northern League (Level 9) would make sense, but from the sounds of things Gateshead could be dropping into that division as a phoenix club.

A World Cup is almost over with no posts to show for it! Though it wouldn't have helped that the defending champions have never looked unlikely to take it all again....

Norway are, well, back to where they should be, and Sweden nearly made it to the final despite never looking that great if I'm being honest.

The Netherlands aren't undeserving of their place, but I don't see them beating the US. I hope they do, because it would be less boring. And because there would be a few people in the winning country who care about what they just won.

yeah media coverage is poor, especially with the mens U21 euro cup , africa cup and copa america also all being at the same time. (at least it gets more coverage than then north and central american cup)

Congrats to Finland making it to their first european cup without needing playoffs!

Thank you! Was such an indescribable feeling in the stands at the final whistle. It felt like living the ending of a movie when the aptly-named Finnish classic "Via Dolorosa" (which had become the fans' theme song during all these years of failure) started playing on the loudspeakers as people were storming to the pitch in a fever, hugging each other, crying our hearts out as all the emotion broke out after we finally officially unrejectified ourselves after lifetimes of struggle.

Yes, Finnish people.

Bear in mind - we're still the all time world leaders in the "most games lost" stat (404 - over 50 more than runners up Switzerland) as well as "most goals conceded" (1592, nearly 200 more than 2nd place Hungary) but I think this achievement now leaves Luxembourg, the leaders in the other two rejectfulness-stats ("most attempts to qualify for a major tournament without ever making it" - in other words, every time; "worst goal difference", where we're trailing them by 150) as the uncontested all time kings of football rejectdom.

Hey, i respect Finland, Belgium almost never wins against Finland, not even with the current generation, that shows you guys are made of the right stuff ^^ I look forward to some giant-killing performances!

Achtung! This post is not about football. Well, it is in a way, just the kind of football invented by a naughty schoolboy in 1800-and-something and played with a ball that Don Pentecost's fat aunt has just sat on, that's kicked through some goalposts shaped like the symbol on Arnold Judas Rimmer's head.

Saracens have, in recent Premiership Rugby seasons, been doing the same kind of hatchet job on the competition that Rubentus have done to Italian football - there's a sense of numbing inevitability at the start of the season about who will win it. And now, they've suffered the same fate as Rubentus after failing to prove they haven't breached Premiership Rugby's salary cap. They've already been stripped of 35 points this season and are sitting firmly at the bottom of the table, despite a results record that would otherwise have placed them second - but even if they haul themselves out of their self-imposed mire on the field, it will all be in vain, as they'll be relegated anyway. Apparently, they chose relegation rather than open up their accounts to an independent financial audit with the finest of fine-toothed combs, so either they knew they were as guilty as an Andrea Moda mechanic sitting next to a snapped steering column, or they have something even more damning to hide.

Rubentus started the 2006-07 Serie B season on -9 points and still thrashed the immaculately-designed Versace pants off the competition by six points, despite losing some of their players who could not possibly lower themselves to playing outside the top division. I suspect Saracens will view relegation as a minor and temporary error in their fortunes; they'll lose some, though by no means all of their star players, and will still grind the 2020-21 RFU Championship teams into the deep mud, before returning to the Premiership as if nothing untoward had happened, and before we all know it, it'll be normal service resumed.

It might even be worth putting a bet on Saracens running up a three-digit score against one of the RFU Championship's weaker teams. Earlier today, Ealing Trainfinders, who I'd never previously heard of, scored 77 points against newly-promoted Ampthill, and had already scored 66 against The Team Formerly Known As Leeds. And if that's what they can do...

And now, in a break from what I'd usually put on the football thread: the BBC asks "Where do Manchester City go from here?"

Expect a mass exodus of the players who were only there because Manchester City are winning everything in sight at the moment, as well as the Johnny-come-lately fans who have only ever known them as a successful club guaranteed a shot at the Premiership title and Champions' League football every season.

Who remembers Manchester City playing the 1998-99 season in the third tier?
Who remembers that Stockport County, Grimsby Town, Oxford United and Tranmere Rovers - all of whom have had a spell outside the Football League - were playing in the division above them, along with recently-deceased Bury?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.

dinizintheoven wrote:And now, in a break from what I'd usually put on the football thread: the BBC asks "Where do Manchester City go from here?"

Expect a mass exodus of the players who were only there because Manchester City are winning everything in sight at the moment, as well as the Johnny-come-lately fans who have only ever known them as a successful club guaranteed a shot at the Premiership title and Champions' League football every season.

Who remembers Manchester City playing the 1998-99 season in the third tier?
Who remembers that Stockport County, Grimsby Town, Oxford United and Tranmere Rovers - all of whom have had a spell outside the Football League - were playing in the division above them, along with recently-deceased Bury?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Could be a good thing for the finances of the other clubs, they'll take thousands to the likes of Barrow and Halifax Town next season.