Thank fuck for that. Big result all things considered
You can always rely on Aberdeen to give an underperforming team a shot of confidence.
aye but it’s rarely rangers 
Pie and Bovril is like open a door in Hall 4 of the SECC but it just full of folk in a particularly bad pub in a New Town.
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What an amazing game today at Love Street.
We could have been 4 up but somehow found ourselves 3:2 down at half time.
Then St Mirren could have easily added to their score but for a couple of great saves before Kanga scores an absolute beauty on his debut in the final minute of injury time.
A draw a fair result, but 6:6 would have been a more accurate reflection.
Great entertainment.
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Hi @shinymcshine . Occasional English contributor to this thread in peace.
I probably owe you, and everyone else who contributes to this thread, an apology for my posts at weekend.
You’ll probably know Burnley are my main team. I post here as I genuinely enjoy and quite closely follow Scottish club football, from Campbeltown Pupils all the way up the pyramid to the Old Firm. Even more so in recent years as though I sadly couldn’t make it to our Europa League tie at Aberdeen, I’ve got into groundhopping and had memorable trips to Annan, Hibs and East Fife, and (the more genial side of) the ultras scene, especially in the lower divisions, which seems to supply a certain soul and passion that even my club has lacked in recent years as the English Premier League and Championship have ramped up the Americanised all-seater sterility.
I also have great love and fascination for the folklore and humour around your country’s clubs, and their towns and communities. TBH I probably say the former about most countries, but few have given me more fascination than the Scottish league system, as it’s open all the way up from tiny island clubs with a few dozen fans to two should-be world superpowers who often win everything domestically, but so many clubs below them with an incredibly loyal core fanbase who - in spite of the astronomical gap in transfer funds and attendances - never stop competing, and never stop daring to dream.
Of course, just like, say, Arsenal, Man City or Bayern Munich, both Rangers and Celtic have huge sections of support - and definitely the majority who actually go on the match - who also understand the in-jokes, comedy, tragedy and sense of belonging of the national game just as well as any Kirkintilloch Rob Roy fan who posts here, let alone Motherwell or Partick.
I just sometimes play along with jokes about both the Hoops and Gers as it’s fun - and this applies in any country’s football scene and to most good comedy - to try and knock the big boys off their perch and bring them down a peg or two. I also only make those posts when I’m sure my Celtic and Rangers supporting Internet friends are in on the joke. But again, that applies to every country’s league on paper. I’m aware that I need to discuss the elephant in the room: sectarianism.
There are fewer unlikely people than me to post genuine anti-Protestant, or anti-Catholic, or British or Irish nationalist bile. I would say I identify as (civically) English first and British second, I don’t really have a claim to anywhere else recent enough in my family history to give anything else as a clear answer. I’m not a jingoist either. I do, and obviously the latter’s connotations are.. different.. on the island of Ireland, make a point of never getting triggered by seeing English flags flown in England or British flags flown in Great Britain - this forum of all forums will have a few who disagree, particularly with what’s happened in the last year or so - but it’s the intent of the person behind it. I have friends in my town who fly both outside their bakery who have absolutely nothing to do with the “far-right”; in fact quite the opposite and I wouldn’t be surprised if they did this to reclaim it from the dickheads, I’m not going to deny there is a pub next door that waves said flags with some questionable political affiliations. But you win some, lose some, back some, avoid some. This is exactly though why I don’t intentionally jump to hackneyed stereotypes here too. I did meet someone in a Clitheroe pub wearing a Rangers shirt in 2013 who was a racist cunt towards Poles and Pakistanis, but he wasn’t ever mentioning his footballing allegiance to frame his views as a cunt, the individual was just being a cunt. I am fully aware both Rangers and Celtic have sections of fans with unpleasant views, and most but I would never, ever meet someone in the street wearing an Old Firm top and instantly jump to some conclusion they possessed those, at all.
Not least as my surname’s one few would be more instantly recognised as originating from Ireland, and though I’m agnostic, my late paternal grandparents AFAIK were a very happilly married C of E woman and Catholic man.. but also his ancestors fled Ireland c. 1850 almost certainly to escape the famine, to Wigan, which has intense echoes with the current debate/tension about immigration, not least as the GB News lot who say “Why don’t people seek asylum in the first safe country next to them!”.. well hasn’t that satisfied you now?.. but also the very country that technically was causing their oppression. But as far as I know, ordinary English people working in mines and mills weren’t the ones doing the oppressing back then, never mind now. That’s why when I post on the Brits Are At It Again thread, it’s usually taking the piss out of the British aristocracy and their archaic imperial attitudes to Ireland, always making sure I punch up; millions who only see themselves as “British” would like to see that lot get toppled from their lofty positions too.
I might have a bit of generational trauma, I get pissed off when people who underestimate my intelligence and it’s probably rooted in all the you-know-what-about-Mick-and-Paddy jokes but I also think “nobody from back then is alive now”, and for life to have any meaning or satisfaction, I believe you can only live in the now. OK, I don’t exactly live in poverty and mostly have a good and happy life with my close family and friends, but I also have too many things going on in my life to bear any deep grudges that might sway me to (OK, it would have more likely been one side of) the sectarian divide anyway.
And with the Troubles, and its aftermath, when I go to Glasgow, and when I go to Ireland, or meet friends from there, I never, ever bring that subject up myself, as it would be grossly inappropriate, but I’m also the least helpful person to approach that as a partisan. If people want to ask me about that as civil debate, fine, but I’ll always say it isn’t really any of my business and the only meaningful thing I can do is respect peaceful perspectives on both sides.
The main reason I made a “Rangers’ best foreigners have been Catholics” slight nudge wink joke wasn’t targeted specifically at that club, it was more a general comment on the current national and cultural diversity of football squads across the world. And in a world where tolerance seems to be sliding worryingly backwards, the presence of people from varied backgrounds in cultural institutions - particularly ones who have backgrounds which are the centre of the less pleasant supporters of these institutions’ prejudices - if it makes the less pleasant people think twice and open their minds about those they used to bully, it can only be a good thing.
Indeed, this is from a personal angle and calling out the mistakes of my own mob. There are great things, past, present, and future, about the team, and town of Burnley. There are horrible things too, not least the BNP winning council elections in 2002. They were voted out some years ago too, and we have significantly more Asian fans who enjoy going to games but I’m not denying an element of nasty EDL types, never mind Reform, continue to sit, somewhere, at the Turf. They’re a minority, but they’re a vocal minority who can really fuck things up for the rest of us and the global impression of the club and area - we all remember the “White Lives Matter” plane controversy, and a sizeable element of people apparently continue to loudly boo the knee, especially in comparison to most other clubs, which is why I hardly went to any games between 2021 and 2025. But then again, from what I’ve read on billions of forums, our fanbase has shown nothing but love and admiration for, say, Anass Zaroury, or Hannibal, of North African heritage and who I’m pretty sure are practising Muslims; think the former was involved with a game where play stopped for fast-breaking during Ramadan, and some fans booed it initially, but mostly as they were never formally told on the tannoy/big screen what it was and mistook it for timewasting, when they were told what it actually meant, their response changed to at least respect and some applause. Think there was a very similar situation with Leeds last year. And their presence might have caused even people with somewhat Yaxley-Lennon esque views to at least confront and work on their prejudices. It’s also not the kind of town where people would meekly hold back about telling you their honest feelings, beautiful or ugly, this isn’t a “some of my best friends are…” smokescreen, something positive is genuinely happening there.
So yeah, long post but I’m glad I made it as I wanted to reassure you that I wasn’t meaning to be ignorant or facetious. And it was quite refreshing to have written something that wasn’t a daft pun or a picture of some random people with a tenuous resemblance to Black Country, New Road! Thank you for your time. Feels like I’ve just been for a really good workout, or swim.
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Like fuck am I reading THAT!! 
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You don’t have to read it all - though at least somewhere in it 
I say something nice about the ‘Well!
Fackin’ long innit. I don’t usually make posts that long, and don’t want to make a habit in the future of making posts that long every day, but @shinymcshine raised good questions and they deserved answers in detail and straight from the heart.
Normal service will resume shortly where I say “Stirling Albion legend“ about 1970s hamster wheels
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we’re going down!
Who’s going down?
The Killie pies.
(And Prince, to Alphabet Street)
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That’s a shame. Any club with good pies is a friend of mine
The Artisan Bakery Formerly Known As Prince
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leagues back on after our decimation of falkirk 
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That’ll end on Saturday when you play us!
We are somehow even better than we were last season!
Staunch 1 Motherwell 5
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However, I will add that the only 2 teams we didn’t beat last season were Hearts and, somehow, Falkirk. So McInnes does know how to set up to play against us
Bit of a statement of intent from Hearts
An absolutely pathetic situation to end up in.
It also highlights how inept the leadership is in Scottish football that they haven’t actively been forced to resolve this and allow adequate away allocations.
https://x.com/jhnmcgnly/status/2095849680294818032?s=46&t=ojy4UTCbtcgB9NRbAPTMYQ
A punishment that doesn’t affect either club’s income seems pretty on-brand for Scottish football tbf.
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