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Pyramids in the sand.
July 6, 2008
Last year someone was commissioned to build three pyramids on the sand. The boys loved them and the bike and scooter were thrown asunder as they raced each other in a climb to the top.
The SFL application process is over and our good friends Annan got the golden ticket. I’d like to comment on the whole episode from our entry into the race until Annan burst through the tape but I’d better not. I don’t think Hutch’s heart could take it.
The world has moved on. The Sunday’s are full of tennis finals, motor sport and some big golf events coming up. Oh! and there’s a wee bit here and there about Annan’s future in the SFL and the push for a pyramid system. The cynic in me thinks the talk of a pyramid is there just to appease the vanquished and it will soon drift into the memory banks.
If I was looking at the last month without my Spartan’s glasses on then the biggest disappointment for me was that there wasn’t an application from a junior side. Unless the juniors show an interest in senior football there’s not a snowballs chance in hell of a pyramid happening. Now I know they now take part in the Scottish Cup but that was always going to be a false dawn. “Once they play against senior teams they’ll get the taste for more” was the cry on letting them in. Well the taste couldn’t have been good enough for any of them to consider staying for lunch.
Last year my fan club pillared me for coming out against letting juniors into the Scottish Cup and it helped motivate Lithgow against us. Stevie Tosh took the pressure off me but he obviously didn’t motivate them enough.
Back to a pyramid. I used to think the juniors lacked ambition but one of the more coherent writers on our favourite Forum put me in my place. Juniors are happy with the product they have so why should they look for change. That’s it in a nutshell and I have to agree with him.
It is obvious that a large proportion of those outside the SFL are happy with where they are so why should they change?
Inside the SFL it’s the same. It’s a self preservation society and I’m not blaming them for that. At present there’s nowhere for teams to go should relegation from the Third Division ever happen. If I was at East Stirling, Albion Rovers, Cowden, Dumbarton etc I wouldn’t be looking to change the status quo, not as things stand anyway.
We have spoken to David Taylor and Gordon Smith about changing the structure of Scottish Football and they are (were in David’s case) in favour of promotion to and relegation from the Third Division. David Longmuir gives out the same positive message in the papers today but he and Gordon Smith are merely employees and it is an almost impossible task for them trying to get everyone on board.
I go back to the disappointment that no junior team tried to get into the Third Division. I’m afraid a pyramid system is a million miles away.
For teams like Spartans, City, Preston and Cove it’s another 2, 5, 10, 20 year wait until another unfortunate falls by the wayside. I’ve been there so it aint such a big deal to me. Craig, Derick and Hutch might be around whenever another opportunity arises in the future but what of Cloudie, Dan, Danny, Donal and Stewart. They could all grace the SFL but it looks like they will never be given a chance.
Remember the pyramids on Portobello beach. They were made of sand but the pyramid was built using sandbags. The sandbags held the whole thing together.
Without the juniors interested in playing senior football building a pyramid system in Scotland wont get any higher than a sand castle.
There you are boys - plenty ammunition today.
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