WTF Is A 'Bye Kick'?

And then there were two... Andrew mirrors Rangers' deletion from the title race at the weekend by going MIA for this week's record, but fear not as Laura Brannan and Findlay Marks are still here to act as your sherpas through the chaotic landscape that is Scottish football.

Livi's relegation was confirmed from the Premiership, as was Ross County's from the Championship, but there's still so much to play for as we reach the conclusion of the season in every division.

On the international scene, there were (obviously) a raft of new rules FIFA revealed that will be implemented at this summer's World Cup, including one loophole Scotland could implement should the final group match go south...

And what's your favourite Scottish football word or phrase? Bye kick? Shy? Sclaff? Or maybe even skite?!

RUNNING ORDER:
00:00: INTRO: Where the hell is Andrew?

00:58: FUNNIES: Clyde release an ear-splitting music collaboration, cult hero Efe Ambrose does some gymnastics at Cappielow, and what on earth is a "pre-match twirly"?

14:19: PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Claudio Braga and Derek McInnes takes the top awards, but is there more to come for the Jambos?

16:19: THE TITLE RACE: Are Rangers out of the running now after defeat at Tynecastle? And can the Jambos really go the distance, or will Celtic's muscle memory as champions take them over the line?

23:58: THE DROP ZONE: Livi are down, but still all to play for in the playoff relegation spot. Are Killie finding form at just the right time?

25:40: LOWER LEAGUES: Ross County are down, but Caley Thistle and East Kilbride as coming up, with plenty of madness still to come as the playoffs get underway.

28:45: NEW WORLD CUP RULES: Amidst a plethora of new rules announced for the World Cup this summer, are there any Scotland could be eyeing up to help us qualify out of the group stages for the first time?

34:36: OUTRO

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:02

Hello and welcome to this cut issued show coming up. It's a huge thing towards the title. Katie Garden, the former premiership side will be taking on Easter Break next season as the Sky East Brooklyn for the second time in as many seasons, and East Cook won't be for the second time in as many seasons. And more new walk up girls, but we've found a way to keep the gold difference down. Fun, it's just us two today. Andrew, I can confirm, did make it to the pub last night for the Hearts Rangers game. He is alive, he has been talking to us today, but it's got to that stage of the night where he has more than likely comped out on the couch and he's ignoring all of our messages and phone calls. So it's just a dilemma.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

One of the most mental bits of music in club collaboration I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_06 1:26

It's time for deletion.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

It's deletion time, Laura.

SPEAKER_06 1:30

Oh, this is unreal. This is up there. I think it's better, no, or worse. I don't know how to word this one. Um the Dead in Line, remember? What was it?

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Dead and Line.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

He's gonna do it because he's done Yeah, I was still one of my favourite things.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

He scored a goal for Shenra recently and injured himself in the process, but still every time he scores a goal, the commentator says, A goal for Sunra, bang, bang, daring line. Oh, it looks like he's sat himself there. Tremendous. So that's that's his full name now, bang, bang, daring line. But yeah, I think it's it's it's certainly um uh an addition to this. I don't I don't think it's anything close to the to the joy of bang bang darren line, or even um what was the Partic Thistle song where the guy spells it out? I don't think it's gonna reach those dizzy heights, but yeah, no, um if anyone needs it.

SPEAKER_06 2:46

This is like old school, the Archie's days of anyone who raved their way through the 90s, which uh even I'm too young for, but bloody hell, this is um headache inducing. Um, Andrew's gonna have a hard time listening to this whenever he does wake up. But it's working for Clyde as we're recording this. Um, the game has just finished first leg against Spartans and they've won 2-0. So, you know, it's inspiring them. Whatever floats your boat, whatever works for you.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Pump them up, pump them up. I feel like we've just gone straight into the funnies, but um, just keeping on the kind of like mental music/slash performance theme. Did you see Fie Ambrose doing bits at Morton?

SPEAKER_06 3:26

This this this guy is just in a tour of Scottish football, isn't he? He's he's back. Um I don't even know if he was ever away. I don't really know where where does he actually like what does he do these days apart from just what flipping down a pitch and somersault on his way through halftime breaks.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

He's still playing. He's been playing this season for Port Glasgow Juniors, which I think is the ninth tier of Scottish football. And at that, but at that stage you're playing for the love of the game. He's 38 years old, he's younger than I am, Laura, and I just I really respect that. What I I for anybody that haven't hasn't seen this, he was at one of his many former clubs at the weekend, Morton, out at halftime, and the fans were chanting his name. And apropos of nothing, dressed in jeans no less, he does like the backflip thing. So he does like, you know, the cartwheel into the backflip that Celestine Babayaro and a number of other Nigerian uh compatriots of his did back in the day. But um the thing that I was thinking, I was like, is he that much of a Morton legend? Well, because he played so I I had to look at the stats, but I was like, he played during the 22-23 season for Morton, he played 14 games in total that season after signing, you know, kind of almost halfway through the season. He's just he's one of those players that I think the fans took to him no matter where he was, Celtic Hibbs. I think I remembered a weird stint of Dunfermline.

SPEAKER_06 4:52

Yeah, did you know? Like he does something weird, like he got set off after like 10 minutes of his debut or something.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

There was some weird when it happened. There were other teams I totally forgot that he played for. So his full run is Celtic. Obviously, people know him from there. Celtic Hibbs Livy St. Johnston, then Fermon, Morton, Queen of the South. Then he dropped down to Glasgow United in the ninth tier last season, at which point actually, for his debut there, because he's got previous, he arrived late. So Glasgow United had to start with 10 men and uh ultimately ended up losing 3-1 in that game. And then this season he's uh he's been playing playing his trade at M Port Glasgow Juniors.

SPEAKER_06 5:29

So proper Scottish football cult hero.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Love it. I I I I love especially those guys that like come maybe relatively early on in their career and they just end up staying, like they make their lives here. The other one that I always remember is do you remember Jose Katongo played for hearts way back in the day?

SPEAKER_06 5:48

God, like what nineties, late nineties or something?

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Yeah, but he played for like a slew of teams and basically just kept playing, sliding down the divisions, but to the point where his sons both play football now, and uh, I think are we Scotland youth caps as well, like Jai Katongo at Morton and stuff like that. Fantastic. Just love those guys that come and stay and make this place their home.

SPEAKER_06 6:09

So good. I had to laugh at and I'm not laughing at what they were doing because we'll get on to Hearts in a bit and the game against Rangers, but the pre-match um the atmosphere before the game, there's no doubt and is incredible right now at Tynecastle. And what they were actually doing is not the the funny part because they were swinging their flags or their scarves around before the teams were coming out. But it was just a tweet that Hearts put out. The um the way they worded it was make sure you're in in time for your the pre-match twirling, which is just the quaintest thing I've ever heard. Because everyone was just like, sorry, what now? You're the pre-match what? Um, I haven't the the act of swinging a scarf around is not a new thing. Uh we've seen it, especially like during penalty shootouts and things like that. Um, so it's not the actual thing that's so it's humor, like it's it's funny, it's the just the terminology, what I've never heard of it called a twirly before.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

I just I I agree. I think it just blindsided everyone. Although, is it maybe because we all know what you know swinging your scarf around your head is? Has it ever had a proper name? I think is that why we were all blindsided, being like, we do this every week, but how's it not got a name? Like, what is it? But all of us innately were just like, well, it's not a twirly. Obviously, it's not a twirly. We don't go be like, all right, Jerem, you got your scarf for the twirly today. You don't you would never ever use that in the parlance of Scottish football going to the ground. But um, I mean, it's taking on a life of its own now because it worked, it worked, and we'll get into that. But man.

SPEAKER_06 7:44

I also saw there was a tweet going around. Um, it was actually the TNT sports commentator, Darren Fletcher, had admitted he didn't know what a by kick was. Um, and there was a tweet going around saying, Is this a Scottish thing? But then I don't think I've really heard of a by kick. I I think I know the term, and I think it's something that's just been ingrained in my mind. I've I've heard of it. I have never really given it much thought, and I've definitely never used it myself. Is this a common Scottish term?

SPEAKER_02 8:12

It was to me growing up, and I I remember using the term by kick before I ever learned what a goal kick was. Oh. So in the playground, that would be what we'd say. And also we would use the word shy instead of throwing.

SPEAKER_06 8:26

Yeah, I know. I I remember that being said like a lot of the radio growing up, and I didn't really kind of get on board with that. I think byline again sorry um like the the by kick because of the byline. And it the byline is a a normal term in our language, but I just I've never really pieced it together like that before.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yeah, and I never really questioned it growing up. I I think quite a lot of it is Scottish, but I wonder if it's odds now because like when we were growing up, certainly when I was growing up, maybe less so you, but when we were growing up, all football wasn't on the TV all the time, if that makes sense, and especially stuff outside. I mean, Scottish stuff was barely on TV outside of the Scottish Cup final and the odds, you know, like old firm game or something like that. But the kind of ubiquitous nature of football now, where it's like any night of the week, at any time of the day, you can watch any game from anywhere in the world. And I I wonder if part of that is like the unification of the language, which is we'll just pick up the broader terms, so now you don't get these regional variations of little things. Because I also remember it just it the whole thing made me think of like, well, what other words in Scottish football do we use that you kind of don't hear anymore or that are specific to describing our game? Like, I've never heard the word rasper anywhere else, other than in the context of football. Like, oh, it's an absolute rasper I go.

SPEAKER_06 9:51

I write good strimash, a stramash, yeah, or a sclaf, he sclaffed it into the net.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

It's it's so perfectly descriptive because you know exactly what a scraft effort is. But trying to describe that to somebody who's not Scottish, it's the same. Do you remember Bob Crampsy? Old, he I mean, he was old when I was a boy, but he used to be on BBC Radio Scotland, and he was one of the summarizers. He was like an author and a journalist.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

And he had a very effective accent when he was talking like that. Um, but I remember one time Bob Krampsy uh describing the ball running out of play, and he was like, and the ball just skited out of play, and it was so out of keeping for that accent to be using a word like skite, but again, you know exactly the motion of the ball when it's skiting out of play.

SPEAKER_06 10:42

God, I just don't even think twice of using the term skiteed. That's brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

One extra thing, there was something that you put in the in the script. Both of us obviously haven't worked for football clubs in our career, York City, so it's not Scottish football, but York City, who are I think they just won the National League in England. But anyway, at the end of that, they've shut the entire club down, basically, in order to embrace the festivities. And both of us are just like, that's a good laugh. That's as if that would ever happen for any.

SPEAKER_06 11:14

So they put they put a tweet out. What was it? The tweet said something like, Hold on, let me get it up. The tweet said, just a quick heads up, as well as the players, every club employee is going to Ibiza. So the club shop and offices will be shut until Wednesday morning. Fair play, by the way, because the clubs that we've worked at Finn, I don't think that's ever going to have happened. But the fact that like I've always said, the smaller the club, the better the experience of uh working, working there. Because out of my own personal experience, it's it's cosier, it's tighter, everyone is is in it together. Um, but I still still wow the sentiment there to just include everyone as an equal is is brilliant, and I think more should do that, more should aspire to be like that.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Going to Ibiza though for winning not even an actual English league title. Just winning promotion, just they're just gonna up.

SPEAKER_06 12:05

Hey, that's why it's only they said only till Wednesdays, they're only going for a couple of nights. They're they're toning it down a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

That's mad. It just speaks to the money that's in the English game. But I remember like you would have been the same as well. Uh last season when I was working at Melbourne City, you ended up winning the championship. So, like the A League's Weird, you have the league season, and then this like mini tournament, and that's like the winners of the real quiz, right? If you win the championship. Anyway, Melbourne City won it. But we were like literally going from the stadium, Amy Park, to a bar where everybody was going for beers and to celebrate, but all taking our laptops so that we could keep making the content as we were like having a beer and like passing the trophy around, and we're like, Yeah, but we need to get this out tonight. Everybody's going to be watching tonight. You need to get like these dressing room moments, and the manager got fed with champagne, so we need to get that in there. It's like all that stuff.

SPEAKER_06 12:56

See, after the when when West Ham won the conference league final, I mean the the game started later because it's on European time for a start. So it was either like uh an hour or two ahead of where we are. Well, sorry, where I am, not where you are. Um, you watched in the future. So there was a later start. So we were still in the stadium past midnight. Once all the celebrations have died down and stuff, you are not leaving the stadium until about at least one o'clock in the morning. Then you've got to actually turn the content around because West Ham fans are obviously going to be lapping this up. You have to get out as soon as possible. We ended up staying up to about five, six o'clock in the morning, cutting that footage, and then going straight for a flight home to go home for the victory parade, which was another day of new, fresh content. So you had to get it all done beforehand. There was no time to celebrate, there was no time to even join in the celebrations. So while the actual players and everyone are laughing out, the staff are still hard at work all through into the small hours.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

And there's also because the adrenaline's also going through you. I don't know if you experienced this, even if you have like a beer on the side, you don't feel it because it's just the adrenaline just cancels it out. So you're like, oh, that was nice, and then you're the straight back on it.

SPEAKER_06 14:09

I'm just so dry, I need something, and it doesn't matter what the liquid is at that point. No, honestly, it's uh a very different experience in your part of the celebrations for the football club. Let's rattle through some news. Let's not deal on it too much because there's a lot of good other stories to get through. But Player of the Year. Yeah, okay, I know. Nowhere near the end of the season right now, but player of the year got awarded. So Claudio Braga, one player, Mikey Moore, one young player, and Dennett McKinnis, manager of the year. I mean, there's not really much to argue with, there is.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

I don't think so. No, I was literally just about to say the same thing. I think they'd probably be the three first choices. There's obviously room for debate, and we were having a little look last week. Uh, the likes of Shanklin or Mass Winese, or was it Elliot Just, I think, was that was the fourth nominee for player of the year. Any of them would have been worthy winners. And I think we were all like, oh, maybe not Shanklin because he's not played the whole season. Still, if he's just about to become a Harts title winning captain, and for the role that he's played, not just for this season, but for the last number of years for that Harts team, he would have been a worthy winner too. Um, I don't think there can be any doubt it's Derek McInnes, whether or not it gets to the conclusion that most of Scottish football wants to get it to now, and they win the league and they do it. I think regardless, like it has to be McInnes. The job he's done this season is incredible. We haven't seen the like for 40 years. Like it's it's just it's that simple. And and I think as well, like Mike Mikey Moore, there's been a couple of really good young players that have been going strong this season, but I think in still what's been uh a stop start Rangers team, he has been a bright spark for a lot of that game and also just quite an exciting player to watch for a neutral as well. The types of goals he does, he never stops running. Like he's just he's a good player to watch. So I think all three of those are are pretty good value.

SPEAKER_06 16:19

Look, let's just get into it. Let's let's let's jump straight to it. Let's talk about the game, let's talk about the weekend and what is actually going on at the top of the table right now. Because obviously there was this massive game with the Hearts Rangers fixture, um, which was probably one of the the key fixtures in this entire run-in. Um you're pretty much written Rangers off now. I think most people have, to be fair. I think it's still all in the balance. Am I a little bit clinging on to the hope of it going to the last day? Am I being silly here?

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Um I mean, it's still possible, obviously. Like the mathematically, they're not out of it. I think I just I don't want to just speak about this from a Ranger's point of view. I want to so I'll come on to hearts in a wee second, but just because you've asked the question now, are Rangers out of it? My feeling is yes, because uh historically, this is what they do. And what's really strange is different players, different managers, and even different owners, it doesn't seem to matter. It's the same result every time. As soon as they get to a point of and they've done brilliantly getting themselves back into a title race this season, the bed. This is what happened. There were some mad stats, like which kind of blew your mind given that Rangers obviously haven't been too successful in recent seasons that with that one league winning season aside. But the last two matches, it's the first time Rangers have lost back-to-back games in the league since 2018, and Graham Murray was the manager. Like that's astonishing.

SPEAKER_06 17:44

That's wild. And what was it? There was something else as well. It was like the first game where they took the lead, the first league game in 40 that they took the lead and did not win the game.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

There was something quite interesting after the game where Danny Rule, and I get it, because he's trying to protect his players, was obviously questioned about the mentality of his players, and he said that's not mentality. And I'm like, if you've only lost two league games all season up to the split, and then you get to the split, and then you lose two games back to back, I'd totally disagree. That's mentality. That is not the mentality of a title-winning team. And I think to bring this back to hearts as well from that game, and it very much was a game of two halves. I think Rangers were very good in that first half, and hearts were made a tactical change at halftime. Yeah, completely different halves. But in terms of mentality, there was really only one team during that game where I'm like, they believe that they're going on to win a title here, and it wasn't Rangers.

SPEAKER_06 18:40

I think when you bring up the mentality, I think that is such a key thing this entire season. Um, I don't think hearts have been outstanding, but they have been consistently good and they've had the mentality, which is exactly what Celtic and Rangers have both lacked this season. They have come together at such a good time and coupled that with both other teams not being at the races, and that is why it's all kind of came together for them.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

I think so. I I I I would I would argue only slightly, and I still think Celtic have had it in a bit, not as much as we're used to. But that's why they're still in a title race, because it's pretty much whenever there's been a big challenge for Rangers. I think I remember seeing that they've they've now played 14 matches against sides in the top six, and they've only won six of them. That's not championship winning form. Like basically, whenever there's been a massive ask of them hold out for 10 minutes against 10 man motherwool, you're already winning, can't do it. You're you're smashing Celtic at halftime in the league, just see it out now. You can't do it. Celtic didn't register a shot on target in the Scottish Cup game, still couldn't find a way through. Gift Motherwell a 2-0 head start in a league game, show mentality and desire to get back into it, then chuck it away. Like you can't, all of these things you can't do, that's not mentality. On the flip side, how many times this season or have you and I joked about Celtic being like they'll get the winner? They'll get the winner because they always do. And it hasn't happened every game, but a vast majority of games still they have that muscle memory of champions. But what's great is hearts as well. Like, how many times have you and I said as well, I think they'll drop away, I think they'll drop away because history tells us that the smaller teams do, and they haven't. Every time they've been questioned, pretty much they've had little blips here and there, but every time they've been questioned, they are like, We've got the answers for it. And the game against strangers was just another example of that.

SPEAKER_06 20:31

Honestly, I I do still believe this has still got twists and turns to come, though. I I actually do think that Mother will play a big part in deciding this. Uh, they still took the hearts at home this weekend coming, and then they've got Celtic away the following midweek, the second last game. And I genuinely think they can beat the both of them, coupled with also beating Rangers last week. If Mother will take points off all three of them, especially if you look at the old farm derby next weekend, if Rangers win that, they've got no pressure on them now, they they go into that with less pressure on their shoulders, which is actually when they tend to turn up. Um, so you put all this together by the end of Sunday night, we could be talking about an entirely different table right now. And yeah, I think there's still a lot of twists and turns left out, to be honest. And I had to also laugh at the weekend. The Hibs fans must be losing their minds right now. They were celebrating Celtic scoring at Eastern Road against them. Some of the people I saw talking about this on Twitter. You should be ashamed of yourself. Come on, you've got Europe to go for as well. Wave.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

In fairness, I I don't know if that was potentially Celtic fans that had snagged tickets in uh in that.

SPEAKER_06 21:48

Same colours, all right.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

That's one of the biggest dilemmas, right? What what do you want? Because you'll never hear the you'll never, honestly.

SPEAKER_06 21:54

Never it's a bit like asking going, we don't want England to win the like the Euros or the World Cup or something. Because Never hear the end of it, it would just be painful.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Yeah, totally. And it's been you know joyous watching Euros over the last number of years when Italy and then Spain have um made our summers very enjoyable in the end, but it's all you know, it's that way that you can really enjoy the tournament. That's why um was it Euro 2008 was the best tournament that I can remember because England didn't qualify. So I was like, I can I'm starting this tournament knowing that my summer can't be ruined.

SPEAKER_06 22:25

Yeah, but we were also not there.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

So you talk about the you talk about uh the twists and turns still to come, and you're absolutely right because even I mean I'm if if you'd said Mother Wall will win at IBOX and be excellent in that game, but then they'll go to Fulkirk and lose, where Rangers scored six goals there, like you just none of that kind of really makes sense. So there's still I think the the ability that all the all the teams will still take points off each other. I also you're absolutely spot on given Rangers' track record, and that the pressure's kind of off now because they've messed it up so badly going into the split. I wouldn't be surprised if they went to Celtic Park and won now, because that's the kind of thing they do. Um I play football midweek here, and it's mostly with you know, kind of like British or Irish and and European expats that are all out in Melbourne want a game of football. And there is one other Rangers fan uh that I play with. So we were talking uh at the end of the game, and both of us were just like, you know, that scene from The Godfather where Pacino's just like, just when I think I'm out, hey, pull me back in. And I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what it feels like every time being a Rangers fan. So we'd be surprised if we do it again, but yeah, just in general, I feel like they're right. I think it feels like a two-horse race now, and um, only speaking from a personal point of view, I just I've got to be fully on board. If Rangers are right, I'm fully on board the heart strain because just what that will mean for Scottish football, and I'm sure we'll get into that closer probably next week. But it's just science mic, it's incredible. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 23:58

Like, it's not finished yet. It is finished though in the lower leagues. Uh, we're into the playoffs, and this in fact, even before that, it's it's finished at the bottom of the table as well in the premiership because that's Olivia officially down now. Yeah, Kelly had a massive win at the weekend, so it's looking like St. Mirin are kind of struggling now for the playoff position.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

I would back St. Mirin against whomever it would be coming up from the championship in the playoffs. I think just because of their strength and longevity, and I think we've seen, to my mind, worse teams stay up via the playoff. Like the Ross County team from two seasons ago against Thistle that almost went out. I think the St. Mirin team is a far better team. We've actually won a trophy this season. But um it's it's it's interesting how it sums up this season, doesn't it? When you actually think of it like that. What but it's it's interesting the way that form matters coming into it, and I just see so that was Kelly have been in in kind of like ninth most of the sorry, 11th most of the season uh in that kind of like relegation drops, but with this victory against Ender United, it's the first time they've moved out of that in 2026. And I just think, especially at home, like Neil McCann's, I think, done quite a good job, or as good a job as could have been hoped for or expected in the circumstances. And to me, it just seems Kelley are hitting form and momentum kind of at the right time when St. Mirren's really seems to be going the other way. And I think it was a St. Miran Livy game the other week.

unknown 25:24

St.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Mirrin battered him and couldn't get away through, and Livy got that. I mean that was only their second league win of the whole season, so yeah, it's not looking good for Saints fans at the moment. But um, I mean anything can happen. I I would back them to stay up overall, even if they are in the playoffs.

SPEAKER_06 25:40

I'm gonna rattle through the lower leagues because we've got 10 minutes left in, and I really want to go into some of the World Cup news that has came out of this week. So let's go through this quickly. Um, championship, right? Look, it we talked about this, we touched on this a week or two ago, but Ross County officially down now, back-to-back relegations, first time in the third tier since 2007, eight season. I did find it quite funny though that the the next day they confirmed that Stuart Kettlewell was awarded with a permanent contract. Uh timing, guys. Um, a little bit awkward there. Wasn't exactly I saw the meme, the Anton Deck meme, you know, when they're like um mic'd up in the other room going, God, God, God now announced that he's got a full-time job. He's staying the manager staying. It was just the perfect meme for that moment. Um but yeah, so Ross County Down. It's obviously Don Ferlman are both are in the first playoff because obviously the premiership playoffs are different to the other ones, um, because it's obviously skewed to help the premiership club stay up. The winner of that will play a party at Thistle, and then the winner of that obviously we're touched on will play 11th place in the premier premiership. But um, Thistle, what an unbelievable um run they had this season.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Amazing. Um ended the season unbeaten at home, which might not sound that impressive, but uh when you read it in the context of uh there was a uh stat that somebody had put out in the entirety of Scottish football history, so we're 160 odd years or whatever it is of Scottish football, only Celtic and Rangers are have achieved an unbeaten home league season more often than Partic Thistle. They're quite far ahead, Celtic of 25, Rangers of 22, Thistle of 6. But for them to be ahead of any of the other clubs, and clubs that we know had fortresses like Dundee United, uh Tanadyser or Aberdeen at Petodre for long periods of their history in like the 80s or whatever, or you had like these great sides like Dundee or Coldnock or whatever in the 60s. I find that astonishing. So fair play to them, and again, they're looking good. I think for playoffs potentially, it could be Thistle making it uncomfortable for one of the premiership teams. So yeah, it's an amazing achievement.

SPEAKER_06 27:48

Um, Kelly Thistle secured League One, amazing accomplishment considering they were also deducted points earlier in the season. Okay, it was only five, uh, but still wasn't as many as Hamilton. At the other end of the table, there's a really good anomaly where if Clyde and Hamilton both win their respective semi-finals, this is for safety in League One, however you want to look at it, between Clyde and Hamilton. Clyde will host Hamilton at New Douglas Park in the first leg, and Hamilton will host Clyde at Broadwood for the second leg. That is the uh we don't even have time to go into why that is peak Scottish football, but if you know, you know it's brilliant. Um, and just quickly on league two East Co Bride, we won, uh, going up again, and um, yeah, well done to everyone involved. Fantastic. And even Super Alley was at East Co Bride celebrating all the all the town legends were out, aluminum, my mum and dad celebrating. Um, what a great day it was. But yeah, as I say, um, I'm not even gonna let you give your reaction here, friend, because I want to get straight on to the World Cup chat because this is fun. Being more developments, because there's just the latest silly stories every week, isn't there? It's like which one is uh the next one? I mean, we we barely even touched on Trump wanting to bring Italy into the tournament at the expense of Iran, um, purely based on their previous achievements and nothing to do with World War III brewing ahead in the coming months. Um, this new role though, red cards, Finn, if you cover your mouth when you're talking, when you're confronting opponents, this is stemmed from like the kind of racism rouse, isn't it? Because there's been lack of evidence before when players have said this they've been called certain things. What do you make of this?

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Um potentially a good idea. Because I think transparency with stuff like that. I mean, it's sad if this is the driving factor behind it, that there's clearly such a volume of abuse that players can experience that they feel they need to introduce this role. I just worry about the enforcement. What do you do? Like that that's obviously the worst, the worst thing you can do in covering your your mouth like that would be racially abusing someone. But most of the time it's it's tactics, or you're trying to say something about like, you know, make sure that you're marking him coming into the box because he looks like he's got to start picking up it's it's things like that.

SPEAKER_06 30:12

Like I say, we live in like the world with social media now where everyone wants to pick up on everything, on the little little details and and make it go viral. That if you're caught saying anything like tactically, that's gonna that's gonna get shared so much. And now it feels like that is retrospectively also going to be banned as a symptom of we just see you covering your mouth, and it's just gonna be like kind of a natural spin-off of it. Doesn't matter which player in the pitch you're talking to, it's just gonna be not you're not allowed to do that full stop.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Yeah, yeah. I I I've seen some of the suggested role changes, just getting away from from this one in particular. I I I think some of them could be really good for the game, you know. The ones on on play acting, I think that they've trialed in the MLS and everything like that. To me, that seems like a completely brilliant idea because it's one of the most annoying things. It's also I obviously live in a country where football's not the biggest sport. Um, it's AFL and actually rugby and cricket are probably ahead of it as well. So the one thing that's always leveled at soccer, as it's called here, as a sport, is like just like oh, they just stay on the ground, like you just roll over, like they touch and then you roll over, and you like that's not what it's like. I I think players are players are smart as well because they know how to not break rules, but like get just enough out of something where it's like, well, that's not illegal, but obviously it's something that's an advantage to your team. So why wouldn't you do it? It's like if you go down in the penalty box, if you feel contact, why wouldn't you do that? It's not diving, it's like there's contact. So it's it's all of those kind of little fringe things. I'd I'll be happy to see that one come in and hopefully that's that's that's implemented well. I always kind of feel like with a lot of these rules, you know, like do you remember the one about like you couldn't hold on, the goalkeepers couldn't hold on to the ball more than six seconds, I think it was. And then like one player got punished in a Premier League game, and then the refs are just like, Ash, this is daft, didn't it? And then they just didn't do it again after that.

SPEAKER_06 32:05

You're like they also brought in um the only captains are really to approach the ref, but I feel like that's been relaxed quite a bit as well now. I don't feel like that's been got stuck to quite strictly again in in principle.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

I think that's a good idea, but in practice that's not gonna work. If players a whole bunch of players feel aggrieved, they're just all gonna swarm the ref. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 32:25

The other one I find quite funny is that um if a team decides to leave the pitch during a game, and I don't know if this stemmed from the AFCON final and the whole fallout with Senegal and Morocco, but they'll get if a team walk off, they'll get punished by red cards and an automatic 3-0 defeat. So if it comes down to goal difference and we are get hammered by Brazil in the third game, and we need to only lose by three goals as opposed to six, can we rely on them walking off the pitch?

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Yeah, we could have done that with uh in in the last year or something we were playing Germany. It's like just just once Portius got sent off, it'd just be like, Right, lads, half half time, we're not coming back.

SPEAKER_06 33:09

Yeah, less embarrassing. We'll just accept it early.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

It does actually happen more than you think. Um it's a one of the Australian youth teams was playing at a tournament recently, and um, I think they were playing, was it North Korea or Vietnam, one of the women's teams? And it happened in that game as well, where North Korea felt that a call that the ref had made was really unfair, so they all walked off, and then there was like a bit of aggro, and then they came back on and they finished the game. I think it's for stuff like this. I think some some in some footballing countries or cultures or whatever, it's actually potentially seen as a way of like gamesmanship again. So it's just if it's something that eradicates that, then great.

SPEAKER_06 33:48

Yeah, absolutely. Like every week there's another story. There'll be about four more by next this time next week that we can talk about. It's all part of the fun. Got your panini sticker book yet, Finn?

SPEAKER_02 34:00

No, I've not. No, I haven't remortgaged my house to take out uh uh enough money to buy them, as we were moaning about the other week. So, no, not got that yet. There was something this week about, you know, the I think it was in Colombia or something like that. There was a video of somebody, it was like an official Panini bit of content, and it was like this wee kid coming out with like a news agents in Columbia or whatever. And somebody was just like, All I can think of is some wee kid in like Bogota saving up his pocket money and coming back with Grant as a sticker. An amazing thing to think about.

SPEAKER_06 34:34

What a lucky boy! Right, let's go and see if Andrew's alive. He might be back next week. Let's uh let's wait and see. Maybe no promises.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

You never know. Depends what happens to Queen of the Scythe in the playoff, I think.

SPEAKER_06 34:48

Right, see you later, guys. You can now go and listen to something else.