GG Riva

You could have fooled me. 🤔 In some places, like St Andrew St in old Brucefield, the pavements are much wider than the road and obviously designed to allow cars to park and still leave ample room for pedestrians. In others, like Woodmill Crescent, which is on a local bus route, cars often park in a way which blocks the bus, even with 2 wheels on the pavement. It's especially bad on Fridays, when many people are attending the local mosque on Woodmill Road.

I believe there are moves afoot to make it illegal to park on pavements in Scotland. While that may solve the problem of fans parking across the road from EEP, what about residents who have nowhere to park their cars? On street parking on a main artery like Halbeath Road is a non starter, imo.

It was obvious from the moment the car took off, from the pavement opposite Exit 1, at the West end of the main stand, that they were in a hurry to try and beat the crowd. I wasn't the only fan who had to get out of the way sharply. Being slowed down momentarily, by the cones opposite the Norrie, undoubtedly added to their frustration, causing the driver to accelerate and sound the horn at those walking between the Aldi car park and the mini roundabout. The guy getting out of the car to shout at us, asking if we wanted to get run over, really took the biscuit. 😨 Classy.

I exited EEP straight after the final whistle yesterday and joined the fans walking in the traffic free road. A car parked on the pavement, opposite the main stand then pulled out sharply onto the road, heading towards the town. I had to take avoiding action to avoid a potential accident. The car then proceeded in an aggressive manner, with the lady driver treating pedestrians to several angry blasts of the horn. There then ensued a number of angry exchanges towards the woman and her male passenger, who got out of the car and asked those on foot if they wanted to be run over. More angry exchanges before the car sped off towards Appin Cresc. Two folk in a hurry to get home?

A narrow home win for me, but I'm not overly confident, given we've failed to beat either of the teams below QOS at EEP.

You can't blame the Polis for pulling out all the stops to protect their relatives and friends from these dangerous papists lining the route.

I think I saw that one at the last WC but it's still just as funny now. 😃

The Italia 90 WC winner certainly ruffled the feathers of Alex Ferguson`s erstwhile assistant, currently managing Iran at Qatar 22. https://www.espn.com/soccer/ir-iran/story/4815492/iran-coach-carlos-queiroz-slams-jurgen-klinsmann-disgrace-to-football-culture-criticism?platform=amp A case of telling it as it is and the truth hurting, or the German being bang out of order with his comments?

I'm not a rugby fan but Doddie transcends all that. He wasn`t just a fine player but an inspirational human being, who touched the lives of so many people in such a positive way. A man of great courage and determination who never lost his sense of humour, he`ll be greatly missed by his family and all who knew him. R.I.P. Doddie

You can hate them both - double the satisfaction. 😃

While I fully get your utter contempt for that club and its fans, just think for a minute, who would you hate if they ceased to exist? 🤔 Your life just wouldn't be the same. 🙁

I wasn't pointing the finger at you or anyone in particular, SP - just a general observation that some seem to be revelling in what could yet turn out to be the final throes of our historic rivals. I'm not exactly squeaky clean myself - I derived a lot of pleasure when a certain entitled Glasgow club went under in 2012. As a feeble excuse, I can offer the fact that it pre-dated our own, near death experience. I could also add that there was no real rivalry between them and us - the gulf in resources meaning we only beat them 3 or 4 times in our entire history.

You're a very naughty boy, Keyser! Football fans need a rival club(s) to hate. If Falkirk were to go bust, we'd be diminished as we'd be missing the object of our ire. Years ago, Celtic and Rangers used to plunder the best players from other Scottish clubs (now they go for foreign players) and try to get them for derisory transfer fees. This served to widen the gap between them and us. They failed to do understand that football is not like other businesses, where weakening your rivals makes you stronger. Healthy competition is vital in football - a good number of strong sides makes for an exciting league. Now we have a top flight pond with 2 pikes and 10 minnows. ☹

No, but there`s a lot of unholy glee about the fact that Falkirk have the begging bowl out for a mere £600k and in the unlikely event that they somehow get that, they`ll still be £400k short of making ends meet. Seems like a slippery slope too me. I don`t doubt that many of their scummy fans took great delight when we went into administration in 2013, but two wrongs never make a right. What many short sighted fans fail to grasp is that rivalry is the very lifeblood of football. I want Falkirk to come up to the Championship with us because it will give us 4 exciting games to look forward to. I hope we hammer them in all of them, of course. I would only want to see them relegated from the Championship again if we are promoted to the Premiership.

Like many Pars fans, I dislike Falkirk FC and their scummy supporters with a passion. I don`t buy into all the schadenfreude though. I haven`t forgotten that we nearly folded in 2013, but for the generosity of our creditors. I might might be in a minority of one, when I say that not only do I not want to see Falkirk liquidated, but would actually like to see them promoted to the Championship, along with the Pars, at the end of the season. It`s that fierce rivalry which generates an atmosphere that fires up the players of each team, making games so much more enjoyable. Would you not rather have 4 games v Falkirk next season than either Hamilton or Arbroath who currently occupy the 9th and 10th places in the Championship? It`s a no brainer for me.

Brilliant, Digs. Thanks for that. After reading that, I feel like I was there myself. 🙂

There's no argument that he was a disaster as a manager. I never met the guy, but Ross McArthur said he was a very decent human being and I respect his judgement. John Hughes was also a disaster, even if his results were slightly better than Grants. He liked to portray himself as your avuncular funny guy, but the reality is that he was an arrogant bully, who liked to lord it over his squad. He was hated by those he humiliated and disliked by those he favoured.

No chance. The Never Do Walking Away fans would be in uproar. The absolute outrage on their forums when he left the Most Decorated Club in the World for a diddy wee Premier League club had to be seen to be believed. Michael Beale, was apparently the brains in that management team.

You probably won't thank me for this, but you did sort of ask - Stephen Kenny in 2007, maybe? We got to the final.

If Fife Council supports the TTRO and pays the wages of Police Scotland in Fife, how can it refuse to carry out the request? I think the Police were diverting traffic via Garvock Hill, in the early season games, so what's changed? If anything, it's more imperative now, given it's dark at 4.50 pm.

Peterhead were a very pedestrian team at EEP. I'm confident we won't lose if we score first. 2-0 Pars.

I'm not in any way being self effacing but it's the players who are the stars of the show. I derive a lot of pleasure from the fact that even the kids who have little or no interest in football really enjoy meeting the players and will remember their visit for a long time to come. Even if only 1 in 10 take the health messages on board and make some small changes to their lifestyle choices, it's well worthwhile. Another aspect which is very pleasing, is that the players recognise the worth of these sessions and totally buy into the programme. When Ross McArthur arranged for me to meet the squad for the first time in 2014, the coach introduced me with the words, "This is the guy I told you about and you're all doing it!" 😨 I'm sure it was well intentioned but perhaps not the best way to go about it. I explained to the players that the club wanted to use them as role models, to influence the health of primary school children in a positive manner and to build bridges with the local community, after the damage caused by administration the year before. We didn't want them to feel like conscripts, but to realise their was real value in actively participating in the programme. Happily, that's exactly how it turned out. I can only think of two players who gave the impression they'd rather be somewhere else during a school visit and they're both long gone from EEP.

The visits to local primary schools by Pars players started in 2014. After a two and a half year break due to Covid, the visits restarted last month. Four Pars players, Breen, Chalmers, Comrie and Mahon spent yesterday afternoon with the P7s at McLean PS. In spite of the monsoon conditions, which meant the games session had to be held in the school gym, the kids had a great time. Incredibly, more than half of them are Pars fans and they were absolutely buzzing with excitement. The players all obviously enjoyed themselves, too and stayed behind at the end for a good 15-20 mins, signing autographs on Pars tops or programmes the kids had brought in, as well as scraps of papers and forearms. 😃 One girl said "This is just the best day ever." Another asked the players when they were coming back again and the teachers thanked them several times for giving up their afternoon to visit the school. Dave Mackay, who organises the player rota, was delighted with the feedback and said that the current squad are great to work with and a real credit to the club.

I suppose this incident perfectly illustrates how difficult it is to referee a game. We've had the benefit of looking at it again and still can't agree. I thought it was a foul at the time and still do. Had the ref given a foul, I don't expect many of us would have been thinking we got lucky then. Still and all, the refs at this level are pretty pish. 😃

Mochrie is the one player who looks to play defence splitting passes. Unfortunately, when they don't come off the team loses possession and the fans get on his back but playing safe passes in front of defences rarely results in a goal from open play, unless a defender makes a mistake.