Scott7

An ancient cutting from Private Eye won’t cook anybody’s goose. Shifty only has to deny saying it. I doubt there will be proof. There may be a more effective rabbit to be pulled from the hat in the Court of Session today but I’m not confident. On past form, Rangers’ lawyers must have bought their box of tricks from a Tommy Cooper surplus sale. Has the legion of timmish lawyers rubbished the Partick opinion yet?

Can Partick afford litigation?

Learned Counsel for the Theeesssell must be very confident if they have consented to publication of their Opinion.

***** Ineligible. Already signed for selic. So’s shifty if I think about it.

No reparation for early termination I hope.

We’ve been laughed out of Court literally and metaphorically too often in recent years. It’s the advice Park’s been getting that worries me.

Interesting. I haven’t seen it that way. I’ll look more carefully next time whenever that will be. Hard to judge from the telly because you don’t see the whole field.

It had better be good. It had better be devastating. A losing battle is not worth fighting. The named persons might be looking at defamation if they are not destroyed. Would we be bothered so much if this was number four instead of nine in a row? Not many among us hadn’t conceded the title by the the third week of January. Park is presumably a sensible man but what sort of advice is he getting? I hope there is an affidavit from the whistleblower.

Ross-shire is Rangers but County has never been slow at dancing to a bigger club’s tune.

That’s 24 players who would stroll into the current Scotland team and there are many more.

Players who had all or a significant part of their careers in England. Bill Brown, Dundee/‘Spurs Alec Parker, Falkirk/Everton George Thomson, Hearts/Everton Billy Bremner, Leeds Ian Ure, Dundee/Arsenal Dave McKay, Hearts/‘Spurs Alec Young, Hearts/ Everton John White, Falkirk/‘Spurs Alan Gilzean, Dundee/‘Spurs Denis Law, United Billy Liddell, Liverpool Every top side in England had a couple of Scotsmen often the main players. There were umpteen others,Cormack, St John. Yeats, Gemmill, Souness and more. Now we pick unknowns from the Championship most of them Englishmen with Scots grannies.

I was wearing full PPE. Thom was a decent player right enough. Long range last minuters.

With Sword and Bible to hand, I trust, 26th? I would use ear defenders myself but for once it seems you have heard something decent. Mother, Father forgive me but well done the Caley.

From my master class for weans about a year ago. The old ritual lineup at the kickoff was GK 1, RB 2, LB 3, RH 4, CH 5, LH 6, OR 7, IR 8, CF 9, IL 10, OL 11. No names or numbers on the jerseys in early times. The formation was more fluid than that during the game. The centre half in the three was really a centre fullback so the backline was RB, CH, LB. As play developed with a team attacking on the right, the RB advanced but rarely beyond the half line. The CH also came forward but not as far as the RB and the LB dropped back so there was a diagonal across the pitch. If the attack was on the left the diagonal swung the other way, pivoting on the CH, hence the description of the CH as the pivot, usually in journalese “the big pivot”. The weakness of the system is obvious. A clearance out of defence into the space behind a RB in an advanced position for a pacy winger to run onto caused problems unless Eric Caldow was there with his speed of thought and foot to come across to the rescue. Willie Telfer was the last of the old pivots. Bill Patterson was the nominal CH in a four man defence of RB, Shearer, RH, Davis, CH Patterson, LB Caldow. Davis played between RB and CH and slightly forward of the line. The half backs were theoretically defenders but one usually was more forward going and the other defensive eg Davis and Billy Stevenson. The inside forwards were attackers but one was often a fetcher and carrier - Sammy Baird, perhaps - and the other a craftsman to unlock the defence and unleash the wingers - McMillan the prime example. Rangers in the last of the fifties and the sixties played 4-2-4 before it was invented. Hearts were the first team to officially play that system with Danny Ferguson wearing 7 on his jersey playing RB. (“Gerrup yer wing, Fergyssunn”, cried the Gorgie afficionados.) If a team was very lucky and had John Greig, the defensive/forward distinction for the half back didn’t matter because he could play both in the same game. Is the spectacle better now? Yes if you’re watching City or Barcelona but for the most part, because of its flaws, the nominal 2-3-5 was more exciting and less predictable

The All England XI, footer togs at the ready. Gordon Banks (Leicester) (My big brother says Frank Swift, City) Jimmy Armfield (Blackpool) Terry Cooper (Leeds) Duncan Edwards (United) Billy Wright (Wolves) Bobby Moore (West Ham) Stanley Matthews (Blackpool) Jimmy Greaves (‘Spurs) Bobby Charlton (United) Colin Bell (City) Tom Finney (Preston North End) I didn’t see Edwards or Wright except in very old film but their reputations demand inclusion. I should have had Lofthouse for Charlton but sentiment ruled. Again, Wayne Biggins just misses out.

If you mean not going back to Ibrox, then you are helping the rancid crew to finish the job they started in 2012. Where Rangers play, we must follow.

Simpson McGrain, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark Johnstone, Moravcik, McBride, Larsson, Lennox. Not bad, I suppose. Gutted for Wayne Biggins that I couldn’t find a place for him.

And Cove Vipers.

Too true. I’ll do an England team on General Football.

No. Otherwise Elgin City would have been lording it in Div 2. For about a decade it took a Div 1 team to put them out of the Scottish Cup. Having said that, Ally McLeod’s Ayr United didn’t manage it.

Not with Scotsmen Brown, McKay and White, Welshmen Medwin and Jones and Ulsterman Blanchflower. Only five Englishmen in that ‘Spurs team.

Correct. For a few seasons after the war there was a Division C, the top leagues being A and B. Leith Athletic played in it.

Queued for hours for my ticket. Brown, Baker, Henry, Blanchflower, Norman, McKay, Medwin, White, Smith, Greaves, Jones. No wonder we lost.

Something we will never know is the conversion rate. i.e. how many did they miss?

44 in 57 gives Greaves an average of 0.77, well ahead of Rooney, 53 in 119 @ 0.45 and Charlton, 49 in 106 @ 0.46 and comfortably ahead of Lineker, 48 in 80 @ 0.60. Tom Finney got 30 in 76 @ 0.39 but he got most of his from the wings. Greaves doesn’t do as well as Nat Lofthouse. 30 in 33 @ 0.90. Of these only Lofthouse and Lineker were true centre forwards. Greaves was the classic inside forward, auxiliary striker (Ralph Brand) Charlton played both inside and centre, latterly midfield. Rooney is a mid-fiielder. How many would they have scored as centres only? Perhaps not as many because their talents of coming onto chances created by others would have been stifled in one to one battles with centre halves. How much does a striker’s average diminish the longer he plays? Did Lofthouse get out at the right time? Never mind the stats. Old @compo was probable right - again.