GG Riva

Indeed, BPP. I also thought he might kick the arses of some underperforming players and we'd see enough of an improvement to stave off relegation. We'll saw how that turned out. I don't want to betray any confidences but he was disliked by almost every player in the squad. Peter Grant may have proved to be an equally poor appointment but at least he was a nice guy* - fat lot of good though that was. *A real gent according to some players, but not a good manager.

Aye, you might just have hit the nail on the head, Digs. You don't have to think too hard to know what the issue was - it was Hughes himself. The man is an arrogant R-sole and a complete dinosaur. With hindsight, he should never have been near our club.

I think McPake will want to win the game, but perhaps he and the players will want to ensure we don't lose it even more. A 0-0 looks a stick on and would be as good as a win for us.

Well done the Pars,too. Matty impressed James McPake the minute he arrived at EEP, getting some preseason work in when the other players were still on holiday. Richly deserved and well earned. It's not that long ago that a number of Pars fans dismissed him prematurely as simply not good enough. He's still very young and has proved his doubters wrong, showing what can be achieved with good coaching and a strong determination to succeed.

Aye, agree with that. When I started running, colleagues remarked that I was looking leaner and fitter and asked me how much weight I'd lost. They didn't believe me when I told them I hadn't, but it was true. I'd built up muscle, mostly in the legs but lost fat, mostly around my waist. Muscle is more dense than fat, so I looked thinner as my total volume would have been smaller. A word about weight gain. Females have an advantage over males as they tend to put it on their bums and thighs mostly, which is relatively harmless. Males tend to accumulate fat around many vital organs, not so good.

A world wide health survey, involving 38 nations, was carried out in 2018. Hundreds of thousands of children, aged between 10 and 15 were asked about their lifestyles in relation to health. A league table was compiled from their answers. The UK fared very poorly. England were 37th, Scotland came 38th...... The main reasons attributed to this were:- 1. Lack of physical exercise and 2. Lack of sleep. Scotland did come top in another table, which might explain the lack of sleep - screen time!

I think the medical definition of obese is someone who is overweight to the point where they are seriously endangering their health, so it will vary from person to person.

caught a local bus this morning and was stunned at the number of young, obese passengers who got on before I got off. 7 to be exact. All at least 20 stones or more and none were particularly tall. (1 male, 6 females, for the record.) Not one of them looked over 30, most were probably early 20s and 2 of them had mobility problems. I`m not condemning any one and I realise that this was a snapshot in time, which has perhaps given me a completely false picture of the real extent of the problem. I don`t have any stats but I`m fairly certain that we, as a nation, are getting heavier. Where has it all gone wrong?

I think you can get a cell for the night up there and it won't cost you a penny, EET.

The only slight flaw in your defence is that the words "finishing" and "post" do not appear to feature in your OP. 😃

Are you Kevin Keegan in disguise, min? 🤔

I've a mate who puts a fiver on 3-1 Pars before every home game. Says he makes a small profit.

I'm not so sure, Mr Adonis. Kelty will give us a tough game as always, so it's good to have a full week to prepare for it, as opposed to an extra game and long midweek trip, leading to tired legs and extra knocks. Win on Sat, a full week to prepare for Falkirk, take at least a point and then go up to Peterhead, with the league all but wrapped up, especially since Falkirk will be at Montrose the same evening, probably dropping more points. 🙂

A good match preview, as always from S'Ally, but I have to take issue with the opening sentence, in which he states that the title race is getting closer. If the number of games remaining is getting smaller and the points gap between the Pars and Falkirk is widening, how did he come to that conclusion? 🤔

Whatever rocks your boat, SP. Personally, I'd rather Clyde gave us a guard of honour and we collect the trophy then. 🙂

Aye, still fits 44 years on - how did ye ken that? Here's tae us, wha's like us? Gey few and they're all deid. 😃

You and me both, BPP. I hit a Biblical milestone last month - at it was gey sair I can tell ye. 😨 Anyway, back on topic. It's good to see that things have moved on a bit since I was a young man. I remember England playing a friendly v Brazil in the Maracana and winning (amazingly) 2-0. John Barnes scored a wonder goal, similar to Maradona's v England, at Mexico 86. They interviewed an England fan - who had travelled to Brazil on the same plane as the team - after the game for his thoughts. He said as far as he was concerned England only won 1-0 because the goal scored by ''the black guy'' didn't count. What a total moron! Here's the goal:- https://www.google.com/search?q=brazil+0+England+2&oq=brazil+0+England+2&aqs=chrome..0i512j69i57j0i22i30l2j0i390i650.17367j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:cd6861a2,vid:MBl9vNCJPxE

Well happy with that and well deserved for both James and Dave. They have turned things around completely from the disastrous nightmare that was last season. Several players who were here last season have told me the difference is like night and day both on and off the park. Training sessions are much more enjoyable and the players are far more comfortable with their roles and the tactics which are adapted for each game because the management team are very thorough in doing their homework on opposing teams.

When I was growing up, black players were as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth in Britain. A commonly held belief was that they had talent but lacked "bottle." It was more likely that they didn't fancy the vile racist abuse which they would be obliged to put up with - in some cases from their own fans. Nowadays, black footballers, while still relatively few in Scotland, are well established south of the border. This article claims that as many as 43% of EPL players are black. https://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/is-there-a-cap-on-the-number-of-black-players-that-can-play-for-the-england-football-team/#:~:text=The fact is that Black,in the English Premier League. This figure is much higher than that of the UK average, but it includes both British and non British black players. Black players also featured prominently at the Qatar WC and not just from African countries, so we can put the "lack of bottle" theory in the bin where it belongs. I wonder if we might see a similar upturn in the numbers of Asian footballers breaking through at the top level in the next 40-50 years?

No, your long term memory is spot on, BPP, but what did you have for your tea last night? https://dafc.co.uk/story.php?t=1965:_Athletic_Bilbao_2_Dunfermline_1&ID=11910 I'll just retire quietly now... Did Alex Smith not score with a header? That would have been a first for him. 😃

There can't be many on here who were at the home leg of that tie. They were a very good side, EEP was bouncing with a near capacity crowd and we edged it 1-0. We lost the return 2-1 but the away goals rule hadn't been brought in yet so it went to a play off. We lost the toss and returned to Bilbao and lost 1-0. The local papers said the Pars were the better team...

Neither do I. I said they're like Edinburgh in that they'll be hard to beat. They can't play for a point at home.

Montrose are a similar side to Edinburgh, so I expect them to be hard to beat. We have a chance, as they're at home, so unlikely to sit in and play for a point, but still think a draw is the most likely result. 0-0 or 1-1.

Not good for the ticker, buddy. Chill. I was over my disappointment before passing the Aldi car park. 😀

Hamstring not good, but McPake could either go for Otoo or Comrie to play alongside Bene. Not ideal, but needs must.