buster.

A judgement call/decision from the coaching staff is fair enough. Onto the game.........

We'll find out soon enough how prepared we are.

I wouldn't count a closed doors game against the equivalent of non-league opposition and a training game amongst ourselves.

What makes me wonder is we've only played one friendly prior to our first competitive game.

Interested hatred and relatively scant regard to professionalism has helped Scottish fitbaw secure it's niche !

Let's hope we can see the reaction on gameday.

Sometimes I think that Scottish fitbaw is a particular sport that time forgot.

No value at the bookies. Bet365 have us as 1/14 odds on. It's as if they are rating the Macedonians as East Fife, which I'd guess isn't very fair on them.

Third place play-offs have tended to produce goals. The last four have seen an average of 4.25 goals (5, 4, 5, 3)

France (4) and Croatia (1) semi-final starting line-ups featured 5 players from the EPL. England (11) and Belguim (10) featured 21 players who started their respective semi-finals. The extra quality that some of the players from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletico Madrid and PSG seems to have made a difference.

It certainly was important (not to win) and England, by 'accident' or design managed to get beat and have the easier route in the competition in front of them. So whilst technically, they had been behind in the scoreline and beaten by Belguim...the pragmatic view has to be they were actually ahead and came out of the game as victors wrt the a 'bigger picture'. As you say, "savvy". -------------- Two Belguim v England matches in a WC and both have a strange feel about them that will feature mucho rotation

Aye, Gazzer in his pomp would have made a big difference. Some of the previous England sides that failed might well have done better than the 2018 team, if they had benefited from the same route to the Final. The better teams in the EPL tend to bring foreign players in to fill that type of role instead of playing and developing younger English players (other than sending them on the loan circuit). The prevailing footballing culture that has seen the UK relatively short on gamechanging numbers 10's could be starting to undergo change but it'll take time to work it's way through.

When it came down to it, England weren't good enough to take advantage of a relatively straightforward route to a WC Final. They have a solid team who are excellent at set-pieces. Their team spirit was also evident. However, they don't have the level of creative abilty middle to front to excite, entertain or take advantage of a golden opportunity. Southgate will stay in the job and if the creative talent develops in the coming seasons, then they'll be a really good team.

Thanks lad's ! An hour is fine if the content is interesting, there are varying views on X and Y and you offer a little bit more than standard Bear chat, eg. the vew on Flanagan from Liverpool fan recently. Conversely, 45 minutes is long if the show is medoicre. ie. concentrate on quality

Spending 2M on an Iranian left-back with a year left on his contract when we curently have three left backs on the books........ I doubt it.

Belgium 4 - 2 England France 3 - 0 Croatia

Team with a population of just over 4M reach WC Final

'They're coming home....................'

A similar tone would see him accused of bridge building by some on our messageboards The statement is excellent, btw.

Belguim reached their ceiling in the first half of the Brazil game, who IMO were easier to play against than the French. Wrt midfield creativity, I think Griezmann often drops back and alongside Pogba helps link middle to front. All things considered, the French, IMO have been the best all round side at this WC. They've got a good mix of ingredients that is proving to be effective.

It was basically 'The Hazard Show' (what an effort plus a sackful of ability) , very little from the rest. De Bruyne was poor and they couldn't get decent service to Lukakua. France have a very strong midfield and this helped keep the Belguims at bay.

You asked me a question on another thread about SDI. I'll break a habit and make an effort not to take threads into off topic areas and p it in here Your question.... How can the SDI thing possibly have a negative financial effect when the only way SDI get to invoke their rights is by offering a deal at least as good as JD ? ---------------------------------- Firstly, any (further) delay because of legal fighting will mean lost revenue and a vacum that fake tops will partly fill. It will also mean significant legal costs. To go into the legal arguments re. what has to be matched (whole/parts) and potential outcomes is pretty pointless at this stage, especially when it has been deemed complicated enough to go to trial. Best to see what actually transpires when it goes to court again. Regarding the logic of your question, equally if there was to be no negative financial effect then why would Rangers contest the matter (incurring significant costs) and have the injunction put a hold on preparing the ground for the retail set-up ?

MR JUSTICE ROBIN KNOWLES Hopefully this Justice will have done his homework on Ashely like his colleague Justice Peter Smith had a couple of years ago and Know.es that SD are Rob'in ...........I'll get ma coat

SDI matter is better parked until we see how it develops in court today. Interesting take on TOP issue,..... can't agree with it though. Celtic sowing up much of the political influence in Scottish football is something they've done as part of a wider plan that sees them esconced in pretty much every way as the establishment club with a finger in just about every pie in the country. We have finaly reacted because of charges brought against us by the SFA.....when that and more should have been part of a wider strategy several years ago. Bottomline, the boardroom have perfomed well in putting up cashflow but don't seem able to get a handle on a holistic medium to long term strategy. Until we do, it'll be reactions to X and Y, soundbite statements that amount to little and continued dominance by a club who do have a strategy with competence in place to carry it out. We don't have a strategy, nor a cohesive boardroom and we don't have a competent CEO figure.