Scottish Football Predictions Competition: Thread 2

treefell  	14
ilx_onimo 	14
scotstvo 	13
aldo_cowpat 	10
ailsa_xx 	10
MCibula 	10

Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov today (Friday 18 August) hit out at comments attributed to Lee Johnson in Thursday's Scottish Sun.

Mr Romanov said: "I don't know whose puppet The Sun is. It is good though when the enemies and the jealous call my subordinates puppets. It would be bad if some day I become the puppet in the hands of my own subordinates.

"When I was on duty on the nuclear submarine K19, I was proud of being a puppet in the hands of my commander. I am still proud of it today.

"Before every match against the Glasgow teams, the Glasgow media puppets will attempt to disgrace our club because of their impotence.Because of this we enjoy every victory against them even more.

Mr Romanov continued: "I don't know what kind of experiment Graham Rix had in mind when taking Lee Johnson on. He did not manage to explain it. As a footballer he has no value. This was proved by the fact that nobody was prepared to pay a penny for him and we were even asked to pay money to get rid of him.

"Regarding 'pyjama man', that person is a great professional and we are awaiting clearance on a work permit for him so that he can come and work at the club. At the moment he is doing a great job in Kaunas.

"Perhaps Lee was jealous of Edgaras Jankauskas placing his finger in equipment to ascertain his health, however it would have been better for the man now at Bristol City to have placed his tongue there to ascertain his suitability to speak."

If Jose Mourinho had a similar sense of humour, we English might not detest him so much.

Strachan and O'Neill are indeed legends, incidentally. Whenever they're BBC pundits they outshine everyone else in the room with their unfailing OTM-ness, every single time.

Still, I got Rangers' 1-1 draw last weekend correct. (Observant viewers will notice that I've predicted 1-1 for Rangers every week for about two seasons. It had to pay off one day)

Onimo steals my text messages and posts them to ILE!

Paisley is full of happy people! yay! (including me because I had them down for the 1-1 draw)

Ivan Golac to thread. And hello everyone!

Also HELLO!!! (we're all going to a pub on Friday when Ken is here. Are you coming? I'm going to start a thread)

I will not be at Ken FAP but may be about in a couple of weekends time (wedding in Edinburgh, could be persuaded to go through Glasgow).

In the meantime, a thumping win takes us to the heady heights of eighth. Woo.

Still, at least we're not out of the CIS Cup to Queen's Park (i.e. let's all laugh at teh sheepfuxors)

In other news, here's the article that made the Sun get all cross with Paul Hartley, courtesy of some dude on a Hearts forum.

http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hartleywc3.jpg

Captions on BBC Scotland highlights. "Dodgy ref pt 1" and "dodgy ref pt 2" so far. Funnily enough they aren't criticising the ref for sending Neil McCann off for trying to sever some bloke's foot. Also what sort of tube gets booked for wearing an earring?

There's a bloke called Toszer in the AEK Athens squad.

hurrah

I'm booked up for Lisbon - anyone else going globe-trotting to see teh Hoops?

Song for Jan:
http://video.google.com/videoplaydocid=1303763839207630036&q=hesselik

Fed up looking at Man U tbh :(

JohnFoxxsJuno, did you get caught up in the "Celtic print wrong match date on website therefore loads of people book one-day trips and end up flying back home to Glasgow before the match even kicks off in Portugal" fiasco?

J-VoH looks teh biz, doesn't he? Compared to the headless chicken that is Kenny Miller at any rate. Naylor's going to be alright as well. Bring on Gravesen, wave bye-bye to Neil Lennon, and it's starting to look OK again.

Tickets for Old Trafford are available RIGHT NOW on Thomas Cook's site for those quick off the mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb9sj_wp3qM

Lots of lolz at Celtic fans (and I include myself in this) heralding the arrival of a big man to hoof it up to after spending half a decade moaning about MON playing 'hoof it up to the big man' football.

Bring on teh Gravesen!

Friday:
Scotland U21 v France U21
Rep of Ireland U21 v Belgium U21

Saturday:
Scotland vs Faroe Islands
Czech Republic v Wales
England v Andorra
Germany v Rep of Ireland
Northern Ireland v Iceland

Post your predictions here.

3 points for a correct result. 5 points for a correct score.

Bonus 1: How many penalties will be scored in total. 5 points for correct answer, 3 points for +/-1.

Bonus 2: Choose three Scotland senior or U21 players. You get 3 points for each goal scored by those three.

I'll buy the winner a pint if he/she turns up for aldoFAP next week. If I win I'll expect someone to buy me one.

1 penalty, England match.

Calum Elliot, Scott Brown, Kris Boyd

Saturday:
Scotland 2 vs 1 Faroe Islands
Czech Republic 3 v 1 Wales
England 3 v 0 Andorra
Germany 2 v 1 Rep of Ireland
Northern Ireland 0 v 0 Iceland

Bonus1: 0 penalties

Bonus 2: Kris Boyd, Paul Hartley, Steven Fletcher

I like that the Celtic web team named this "petrov_angry.jpg" and used it in a "So long Stan" article.

http://www.celticfc.net/graphics/news/top_story/petrov/petrov_angry.jpg

Bonus 1: 2 penalties

Bonus 2: Kris Boyd, Steven Pressley, Gary O'Connor

Glasgow, 8.9.1976

Scorers: Rioch, Masson, Dalglish, A. Gray (2), E. Gray

September 12, 1984 Hampden Park, Glasgow (H) Yugoslavia 6-1

Davie Cooper, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Paul Sturrock, Maurice Johnston, Charlie Nicholas

I've not a had a single point from the last nine games.
So I've decided to ignore sentiment for the quarters and I'm being as cynical as I can manage in my predictions.

I had a six point day in the second phase of matches, but have had more than one pointless day to make up for it.

Nice to see the numbers swell btw, will they all be up for the regular league version?

All the new people are from my work, and most of them are only in it for the euros as a laugh.
I might be able to persuade one or two of them to participate in the spl predictor league.

I have a friend. He might join in next season.

I have a friend
aw bless

I also have a friend who might be up for this for next year, since he's stuck in Sweden missing St Mirren something chronic.

Celtic have signed Pat McCourt from Derry City. Roddy Collins thinks he's better than McGeady. That'll be why we got him for less than £200,000...

lol @ eTims' Poxy Fule message:

Having a Sebo.
Please notify the System Administrator

Semi-finals up for predicting.

lolololol (don't listen at work without headphones on):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7XTBG7XFmQ

Celtic have signed Pat McCourt from Derry City. Roddy Collins thinks he's better than McGeady. That'll be why we got him for less than £200,000...

That's an eighth of an Adam Virgo, you know, or a tenth of a Kenny Misser. Anyway, remember Lubo Moravcik...

How much did wayne biggins cost?

£100k + Andy Payton (so £100k, ho ho). Why?

I just wondered. wasnt trying to make a joke.

I don't even remember Andy Payton. Did he play many games?

A few. He wasn't very good, in a team full of not-very-good players.

He was better than Wayne Biggins, but that's the very dictionary definition of "damning with faint praise"

TBH with yo I don't even remember who was in that team apart from Paul McStay. Were Aitken and Grant gone by then?

x-post
hehe yeah

Quality players to star that season included an ancient Charlie Nicholas, Mark McNally, Pat McGinley, Brian O'Neill, Stuart Slater etc.

Aitken was away, Grant was still there.

Pat McGinley, did he play for Hibs?

Yes.

A few. He wasn't very good, in a team full of not-very-good players.

Almost a goal a game for us, according to an Internet source I can't verify.

http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=6192

He still plays for Celtic according to that ;)

Congratulations to ailsa on winning the euro 2008 predictor league.

onimo, how many times have we had this "you can prove anything with statistics" argument :-)

also, i await my PREDICTOR CHAMPION beer at any time and venue of your choosing.

("hell, the day it freezes over" is not an acceptable answer)

congratulations to ailsa and all her supporter

I missed half the competition so I might buy you half a pint.

So long Adam Virgo. You were shite.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/brighton/7481069.stm

lolz @ BBC pic
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44790000/jpg/_44790630_virgo_203.jpg

I see the Record have been making up stories with fake quotes again (Bologna buying Naka).

I have stopped being surprised at anything the Record does. The apology will presumably be squeezed into a tiny box in the middle of the cricket news that no-one reads or something in about five weeks time when everyone's forgotten.

"That's why we're paranoid" part 29489450

Google search for "Sunday Mail" brings up this as first result:

The Sunday Mail - weekly Scottish news, sport, SPL news & moreVisit the Scottish Sunday Mail newspaper online for weekly Scottish news. Latest SPL news, other sport and great features covering lifestyle, ...
www.sundaymail.co.uk/ - 67k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Sport
News
Scottish Football
Scottish News Celtic Goalie Blasted Over ...
Horoscopes
TV & Showbiz
Jobs

Bolded bit is a link to a story from 2007 about Nacho Novo doing his nut over Boruc not shaking his hand after a match. Everything else is a link to this week's news.

SEASON STARTS IN 20 MINUTES

Good luck!

OH FFS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7495121.stm

Not content with not finding anyone at all anywhere to give them any amount of money to put their name to the Scottish Cup, Gordon Smith's bunch of numpties have now decided to ask the fans how much they are willing to pay to watch Argentina. I'm guessing this referendum will cost some dosh and will result in the match not selling out anyway if it goes ahead.

i wud pay the £40 but no to watch them play scotland. maybe spain or sumone good.

Odds on "first sacking of the new season", anyone?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/7500278.stm

poor wee hibs :-(

RIP Bob Crampsey - a total gentleman and one of the nicest and most enthusiastic people I have ever had the pleasure of talking about football with. So sad that Off the Ball's campaign to get him knighted for services to broadcasting never succeeded.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/7527655.stm

Arguably the only football write in the Sunday Post worth listening to. RIP Bob.

RIP Rangers in Europe (possibly)

Walter's devious plan of avoiding the fatigue of European football entirely nears fruition. Youse had better watch out...

Boring no score home draws were enough last season ailsa, I wouldn't be carving out headstones yet. I think Rangers are averaging a goal every two games in Europe for their last dozen or so games, so they're due one :)

Kenny was their best player apparently, though not entirely supported by the whopping 20,000 crowd there to see the team that 200,000 of them travelled to Manchester for...

My apologies, crowd over 30k.

First chance to see the Scottish Cup holders in action, game not on the telly...

Fuck yeah!

We've moved on.

Hearts won't win the SPL 2008/09