Entire staff of Gretna FC made redundant

News has just reached me of the likely demise of Gretna FC as their entire staff, yes EVERYONE at the club, have been made redundant. I presume that this is also the reason why their website seems unobtainable at the moment. A sad, sad day for football in general and for Scottish football in particular.

A week is a long time in blogging

Blogging hiatus for the last week as I've been up in Aberdeenshire with the boss and relaxing over the bank holiday weekend so have been away from the net for much of that time. (The photo is of part of the 17,000 acre estate we visited)

Whats happened since I last blogged? Well there has been a round of local elections in England & Wales where Labour got absolutely trashed by the electorate across the board, Tories had a fantastic night and we had a better than expected night ending up with a net gain of 30 odd seats - personally I'd been expecting a loss of anywhere up to 100. Londoners have shown themselves to be political plonkers by electing Boris "blethering idiot" Johnstone as their Mayor and putting a fascist scumbag into their Londim Assembly in the shape of a BNP member. Ken wasn't worthy of re-election but I was very disappointed that the stand out best candidate, Brian Paddick, came 3rd.

On the fitba front Rangers made it to the UEFA cup final in Manchester whilst Manchester United and Chelsea made it to the Champions League final in Moscow - wonder if Abramovich manages to turn up to that one? sadly Irvine Meadow lost two nil away to Pollock which put our title hopes in serious jeopardy :(

Up here in Scotland wee Wendy has done a scorching U-turn on the question of an independence question in a constitutional referendum. Time for our Scottish Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen to also have a change in heart methinks. It is well worth remembering that our Scottish Conference has not debated this position and that the Leader announced the policy off his own bat during last year's election campaign. Methinks I feel a conference motion coming on.

Other news: a crane collapsed at the BAE systems shipyard in Govan this morning causing damage but fortunately no serious casualties; A typhoon in Burma has killed thousand and made hundreds of thousands more homeless, thankfully however, the Junta has said that it will accept assistance from international aid organisations; It would seem that our "Big Brother" state of millions of CCTV cameras has failed to cut crime - no surprise there then. Obama and Clinto are still going head-to-head in Indiana and North Carolina - go Barack go!

Finally the Labour whips in the Commons have failed to suitably honour the memory of Gwyneth Dunwoody MP, the recently deceased member for Crewe & Nantwich, by calling the by-election even before her funeral. Very, very distasteful sharp practice.

Glasgow's Merchant City - Barcelona's new Barrio?

Working in Glasgow City centre, indeed within the Merchant City area, can have the odd entetaining distraction especially as George Square sits beneath the office window.

Today is a Champions League matchday and Celtic are home to Barcelona in the 1st leg of the First knockout round (round of 16) and the streets are hoaching with Catalunians sporting their colours and singing their football and "National" songs. George Square has been playing host to numerous impromtu games of football and pubs are packed with noisy and friendly visitors.

All in all on a grey and gloomy Glasgow February day the Barca supporters cheer up the city and make it feel a little more cosmopolitan and a little more European - which can only be a good thing to my mind.

This is akin to watching a car crash in slow motion

As a Scot I am happy to support England at Fitba', unless they are playing against us or Trinidad & Tobago. Watching England tonight is turgid, depressing and actually embarrassing.

Everything went England's way on Saturday so why are they playing as if they are scared of the ball tonight? Possibly they are having a "big stage freeze" match, possibly they are not up to the job.

C'mon guys - get your finger out and win the bloody game!

STOP PRESS: England have just got a goal back to make it 1-2 to Croatia.

Well that's over then and none of us will be there. How about getting the Home International idea going then?

Why Meadow won't play Caley Thistle

The magnificent mighty Meadow won their Scottish Junior Cup 4th round replay against Lochee Harp on Saturday by a comfortable 5-0 margin. We now face a last 16 home tie against Pollok. As predicted I saw none of it, being in transit between Edinburgh, Perth & Irvine, not arriving home until nearly nine pm.

For clarity it's probably worth explaining why Irvine Meadow will never play Inverness Caledonian Thistle, or Rangers, or Celtic etc. Here in Scotland we have two entirely seperate Football Associations with members of each association being barred from playing the other's teams unless in a "friendly". There's the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and the Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA). The SFA, as I'm sure you'll be aware, is the Scottish Equivqlent to England's FA. The SJFA is nothing to do with under 16's or anything of that ilk and the players are paid professionals, mostly part time. Many, many famous footballers and managers started or ended their careers in the Juniors with, probably, the most famous being Bill Shankly who started his football career with the, now sadly defunct but wonderfully named, Glenbuck Cherrypickers. Local rivals to "The Glens" were the equally wonderfully named Rankinston Mountaineers. The penchant for unusual names continues to this day. Here's a selection: Linlithgow Rose, Jeanfield Swifts, Craigmark Burntonians, Lads Club, Hermes, Hill O'Beath and Auchinleck Talbot.

If you would care to know more about the Meadow, who were founded in 1897, why not have a look at their website www.medda.co.uk