Scott7

What a team! Lack of direction stymied abundance of talent. Here’s another good team that fell at the final play-off qualifier against Czechoslovakia in 1961. 2-4 after extra time. Connachan, Hamilton, Caldow, Crerand, Ure, Greig, Brand, White, St John, Law, Robertson. Eddie Connachan (Dunfermline) and Hugh Robertson (Dundee) were brought in for the injured Bill Brown and Davy Wilson. Had those two been fit, I’m sure Scotland would have won. Baxter was injured too so Greig got his place. Brand was in for Alex Scott also injured but at the peak of his form. Brand was a winger in his early days so his selection didn’t weaken the side too much. The Czechs went on to lose the Final in Chile 1-3 to Brazil.

Pneumonia. Out for the rest of the season.

Good effort by the Villa, just not quite good enough. Better than the scouse, though.

On the other hand, if they waken up they could win four.

It must be hard for these boys but it might be useful in their future careers to hire a tutor in Edinburgh, or Inverness or anywhere else a more readily understandable English is spoken. Actually that’s harsh. The two best spoken chaps I knew, a brother-in-law and a business partner, were both Glaswegians. There must still be some like them somewhere in the city.

“Rangers Snub Ulster Charity Ride” - great headline. I’m assuming they asked if Rangers would accept the “charity visit”. I don’t think the Club had any option but to agree. I’m not aware of any advance publicity from Rangers and with the utmost respect to an honest servant and scorer of goals that Dessers can only dream about, it’s only Gordon Durie he gets his photo with, not any of the A List. Neat ploy by SF. Damage limitation by the Club. It’s not all win for SF though. I expect a good few of the Faithful Through and Through will be exercised by any connection to Ibrox.

Mags 4, Mancs 1. This plus the Boat Race plus the Wolves hammering ‘Spurs, plus best of all robbing the Sheep - what a day! Would it be a bit much to ask the Good Lord if He couldn’t just have bent that free kick the other side of the post?

No doubt he’ll get a friendly welcome. Typical provocative ploy by Rangers to have journos foaming at the mouth. I can see Cortes, the young defenders, Pröpper and Bajrami being utterly overwhelmed but it’s right to rest the main men.

I hope Forest don’t run out of steam or worse, confidence.

Eddie Howe was admitted to hospital after feeling unwell for a few days. He is being kept for observation. The news article in the Daily Telegraph reports “he is conscious and talking”. The same article reports the assistant manager as saying Howe will be back in a couple of days. Quite a difference. One sounds serious, the other nothing much.

City 2-2 Palace Brighton 4-0 Leicester Forest 0-1 Everton Southampton 0-2 Villa Arsenal 3-1 Brentford Chelsea 4-0 Ipswich Liverpool 3-0 Hammers Wolves 0-2 ‘Spurs Newcastle 2-1 United Bournemouth 2-1 Fulham

But only after a guilty verdict.

Yes. Doesn’t mean you’re wrong, though.

That would be good but Bilbao will likely be on their game too and that should get them a win.

Did nothing happen before 1948?

I quote our own @Whosthedado in the EFL Topic the other day: “Results went in Leeds favour tonight. Still five games to go though so many many twists and turns to come. Two blatant offsides given wrongly against Leeds to deny them goals and breathing space. Strange that there is no VAR in the English Championship”

McCoist missed a good few but scored more than enough. It would be informative if his stats were available for comparison with CD along with those of Maxie Murray, another who missed plenty but scored a lot. Also interesting would be the stats of the craftsmen goal scorers, Brand and Forrest and possibly Jelavić too.

After his first few games I reckoned he was a decent enough ‘keeper but with a tendency to fumble low shots especially diving left even under no pressure. I wonder if he takes his eye off the ball thinking he’s got it covered while he wonders what to do next when he’s got it.

That’s generous of you, CF.

There’s the answer.

The Championship is unusual this season. Normally there’s a runaway winner with the occasional surprise getting the last playoff place. I’m only familiar with two other leagues, Scottish 2 and Highland League Neither is competitive in the sense of uncertain contest for the likely winners. I have the old fashioned view that every match is a contest.

I think that’s right. A current exception is the Championship in England. Great competition this season, it’s only now that four clubs are beginning to pull away.

Which is the reason “youth” and “development” and Rangers are incompatible.

No. The league champion team is the team with the most points in the league competition not the team that finishes fourth and gets a couple of flukes. If there were an end of season competition among the top four it would have to be called the Super Trophy or some other daft name with first against fourth and second against third then the final. Doesn’t appeal to me at all though I believe it may be quite popular in Rugby League. I don’t think they have as many games in their season as in the Premiership.

As usual.