The All New Scottish Football Predictions Competition

Dundee Utd 1 Dundee 0
Inverness CT 1 Dunfermline 1

Scorers: Henri Camara, Derek Young

Scorers: Scott Brown, Derek Young

Scorers: Craig Brewster and Dennis Wyness

Beattie, Jason Scotland

Scorer bonus results: Alan Archibald (Dundee Utd), Gary Wales (Killie)

aldo_cowpat 16
ailsa 9
Billy Dods 6
Onimo 6

Fixtures and bonus round for week 2 to be posted tomorrow.

Bonus Round: For 10 points, how many penalties will be awarded?

3 penalties, at least one for Rangers.

2 penalties.

Alex Rae ban for 5 European games - that's the rest of his life isn't it? :-P

One penalty (for Rangers, obviously)

Oh, and Brebner's sending off was a scandal btw - just thought I'd mention that to please aldo :-P

(Nae SPL show in Eng-ger-land)

(Nae SPL show in Eng-ger-land)
Trust me, this is a blessing. Surprisingly the Setanta coverage has been fairly good. Certainly as good as, if not better than, the Beeb's efforts last season.

I'm amazed, I'd have thought he was second favourite to reach all of them.

< investigates what Setanta costs >

You'd think that being a bit of a right-back in his day Bertie Vogts could get at least that position right. Gary Fucking Holt?! When the fuck did he ever play right back?

Total pish. It's so bad I've started nodding my head when Charlie Nicholas speaks.

I had to watch England in the pub (who were fucking appalling, frankly - as everyone at the bar agreed) so missed the spectacle thankfully.

All hate should be directed towards Andy Webster. He was rubbish.

Can I say in Scotland's prosecution that we did fuck all in the way of looking like scoring. Ever. Against Hungary.

Also, Marshall does have go go gadget arms (see UEFA Cup quarterfinal against Barcelona last season). They obviously don't work in rubbish weather though.

We weren't that bad in the first half, but there was no cutting edge. According to Sky-Stats-Man every Scottish striker apart from McFadden has gone more than 6 games without a goal. It's showing.

That said, should anyone get upset about losing friendlies? We haven't been beaten at home in a competitive match since England won the Euro play off in 2000. Is that a stat that says "Sack The Manager"?

No penalties

This week's now closed, cheers.

Apparently Gordon Strachan was asked on Football Focus if he would take the Scotland job and replied "I'm a Scotsman, how could I say no?"

Any top European spies watching that with a view to checking out possible opponents from the second-seeded pot for the Champions League will have been chuckling into their Parkhead pies. I may just go to the pub now and come back out in May when it's all over.

Channel Five's "excellent" coverage consisted of two former custodians of the Celtic managerial tracksuit talking pish, and a commentator so patronising to plucky little Celtic that they should have been on ITV during the World Cup. Grrrrrr.

Bah, I just tried to price it but the Celtic online store limits names to 10 characters.

Congratulations to the Murrayfield Maroons and all their supporters in stopping a wee team from "doing an Artmedia" (we'll never live that one down).

Congratulations to Archie Gemmell and his U19 team. Scotland in a final! A chance of a trophy to put next to the prestigious Kirrin Cup!

Oh well, anyone wishing to join in and prevent me from getting a hat trick of titles, get on over to the Predictor home page and sign up.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/predictor/index.shtml

Latest newsletter from the Predictor team (inlcuding predictable errors), seems it'll be a week or two before we get minileagues:

Welcome to the Predictor Newsletter for Week 1 - Friday 28 July 2006.

This week:

- a new season on Predictor
- prizes on offer: Win a trip to see any club, anywhere in the world
- fixtures for this week
- minileague issues

Make your predictions now at www.bbc.co.uk/predictor

New season:
We're heading in to another season on The Predictor and everything is set to go. Pass this email on to your friends an encourage them to sign up and join in.

Our winner last season, was none other than Richard Gordon with 210 points, followed closely by 'gordonrichard'.

The top pundit was also Richard Gordon, with Paul Mitchell hot on his heels notching up a respectable 210 points. Dougie Vipond bottomed out on 87.

The Sportsound team earned a collective 160 points in 307th position, whilst the 90 Minutes team earned a collective 90 points in 4359th position.

There are now 22,163 players registered to play The Predictor.

Prizes:
Don't forget, you can take part in Predictor any time and still have a chance of winning any of our amazing prizes.

Every week, the player who earns the most points on The Predictor will win a BBC Sport Scotland goodie bag, including a BBC Sport Scotland t-shirt and a Predictor ball.

The Manager of the Month will win two tickets, plus hospitality, to the SPL match of their choice - and a replica jersey from their favourite club, both subject to availability.

The Manager of the Season will win two season tickets to the SPL team of their choice for season 2006/2007, subject to availability.

However, the first user to predict the EXACT scoreline for each of the six SPL matches in a given fixture week, will win two tickets, plus travel and transfers to any club football match of their choice, anywhere in the world, subject to availability.

Prizes are courtesy of the Bank of Scotland Premierleague, and are subject to Game Rules, eligibility and availability.

Read the rules here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/predictor/rules.shtml

This week's fixtures:

Saturday 29 July 2006
Celtic v Kilmarnock, 1230BST
Dundee Utd v Falkirk
Dunfermline v Hearts
Hibernian v Aberdeen
Inverness CT v St Mirren

Sunday 30 July 2006
Motherwell v Rangers, 1400BST

Minileague issues:
Unfortunately, we have an ongoing technical problem with the minileagues, but we hope to have them up and running within the next week or so.

All the best for this season - and happy predicting!

Make your predictions now at:

www.bbc.co.uk/predictor

I have brushed aside the memories of last-minute Craig Beattie equalisers scraping us a draw in an eight-goal "thriller" this time last year, and have gone for the Celtic win. And, true to form, I've gone for Rangers for the 1-1 draw.

Have we not signed anyone yet?

Allegedly still incoming if you believe everything you read in the papers: Ivaylo Petkov (actual proper left back, it says here), Anatoliy Timoshchuk (midfield muscle) and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (big lad with a big name up front)

I'm allowing a large window of opportunity to let J-VoH put his full name to paper. I want to see a parade of new stars tomorrow. I do NOT want to see Alan Thompson or Adam Virgo.

Anatoliy Timoshchuk (midfield muscle)

No, I think you mean Anatoliy Timoshchuk, someone to stop Derek Riordan/Stan Varga being in a two-horse race for "worst haircut in the Parkhead dressing room".

It makes sense to start early if there's a world cup at the end of the season or if you want to have a winter shutdown, Neither of these things is happening this season so I've no idea why we're starting early.

Still a few niggles with the back four. Mark Wilson is looking like a snip at £400k (how much better than Wilson is Ashley Cole - 60 times? hahaha) but McManus and Caldwell were far from convincing in the middle. Mo Camara had a great 60 mins before a mistake in the second half seemed to destroy any confidence he had. If we sign Petkov and get Balde fit I think we'll be ok.

Petrov should not be sold. He is the best midfielder in the country.

League Name: ILX SPL League
Password: cowpat

Congratulations to Archie Gemmell's under 19 squad for a marvellous achievement and a short period at the end when I actually thought they might haul it back and go into extra time. Second best team in Europe. Yay.

(I love Mark Wilson, btw, and I'd already be backing him for player of the year if he didn't play in a totally unsexy position and it wasn't a Rangers player's turn this year)

I'm not sure how this is going to get better in this hellish qualifying group, but at least Walter Smith seems disposed to picking younger players (for the most part - we'll just ignore David Weir for the purpose of this argument)

Hahahahaahahahahaahahaahahahahahahahaha.

Scotland's attacking options look great at the moment, with Boyd, Maloney, McFadden, Riordan, O'Connor, Burke, etc. all fighting for 2 or 3 places. If Smith can keep them playing as a solid defensive unit the way we did in parts of the last campaign I'm hopeful we can improve.

I don't think we have any hope of getting out of the qualifying group for 2008 but hopefully by the time the next WC qualifiers come around some of these guys will have fulfilled their potential. Boyd, Burke and Maloney in particular all look like they could be world class (depending how you define world class).

THE CURSE OF BROON.

Possible appearance for Gers' new man (pictured this week in most of the papers posing outside the Celtic shop at the airport).

Will Gers fans be singing Wolverhampton Town?

Saturday, 05 August 2006
Aberdeen v Inverness CT, 15:00
Falkirk v Dunfermline, 15:00
Kilmarnock v Hibernian, 15:00
Rangers v Dundee Utd, 15:00
St Mirren v Motherwell, 15:00

Sunday, 06 August 2006
Hearts v Celtic, 14:00

Don't forget to get your predictions in.

What's with Falkirk actually winning at home, huh? Just when I'd decided to give up all hope of them ever doing so as well.

Also, Falkirk and St Mirren joint top of the SPL? WTF?

After that click 'Join A Minileague'
League name is ILX SPL League and the password is cowpat.

Radio Clyde "exclusive" today suggests Stephen Pearson is definitely off to Derby. Because obviously from the squad put out yesterday, we have plenty of strength in depth and can afford to get rid of him. Erm, wait a minute...

Anyway, he was brilliant before he (insert possibly libellous comment of your choice here), and he made my New Year's Day very happy indeed this year. And he looks a bit like Ally C.

I forgot in all my rage at how shite Celtic were at the back yesterday that their goal was very good indeed.

I live in hope.

Anything, anything would be better than this agony of mind,
this creeping pain that gnaws and fumbles and caresses one and
never hurts quite enough, no wut ah mean?

Scottish Football Predictions Competition: Thread 2