ironbrew

Tickets for almost every match coming up but most for only a few seconds Last week has only had same 3 matches as being available but when you log in other matches come up too. Looking for Paris QF-could swap for Bordeaux group matches (Wales v Slovaquia and Austria v Hungary) if anyone`s interested (hadn`t realised till yesterday that venue tickets can`t be resold as individual matches). Resale finishes at 6pm on Thursday but I suppose tickets will sold be sold from April (returned by sponsors etc).

What`s a "fail" in Australia? Less than 7.0?

Is the bottling bit statistically true in recent years? Any more than other teams? Won their last League Cup final, two of last three Scottish Cup semis and knocked out Hearts in both SC ties since 2012 final so not done too badly in their big games.

Where were Hearts that year?

4 interesting quarters. 3 possible Derbies in final-Glasgow, Dundee and Highland. Of 3 I reckon Highland is most likely.

When visiting places north of Aberdeen (between Aberdeen and Wick) in the 80s and 90s always got the impression Aberdeen were a strong second with Rangers having most fans. Presumably both clubs have lost support to ICT and Ross County as well as Celtic. With less support in the north and central belt than then, it`s hard for Aberdeen to match Hearts` support even though Hearts have little to show for their good years this century compared with Aberdeen of the 80s and have very little support north of Forth. On more general point, cup final crowds (both cups or 3 with Petrofac one) must include a very high % of neutrals. I remember a friend who supports Falkirk going to 1997 final with 7 friends, none of whom were Bairns. That was a long time ago but recent finals will have had an even higher number of neutrals (or folk who almost never watch football even on TV) than in last century. Hibs v Ross County will probably get about 40,000 fans with about 30,000 tickets sold by Hibs but I`d guess that at least 20% of total crowd would not be supporters of either side. If Hibs or Hearts play Ross County in Scottish Cup final the same but with a capacity crowd.

Andy Murray will hopefully be winning his first French Open in Paris day after Metz game. I`ve never been to Roland Garros but have been in Paris ay same time and seem to remember hotels being more expensive during tournament.

Great news but makes mistake of not having double track or electrification even harder to understand. Anyone know if double track is feasible for near future. Certainly hope line can be continued to at least Hawick.

Never been on a cruise (always been put off by thought of formal dress at meals, having to be sociable with strangers at mealtimes and above all seasickness) though took many ferries from England to France, Scotland to Ireland, to Scottish islands plus Newcastle to Scandinavian ports (pity these were stopped or couldn`t have been continued from Scotland)in past . Now got chance to go to USA by Cunard from Southampton to New York. Both directions by ship as some non flyers in group. Read some great things about Queen Mary 2 experience especially arrival at NY. have just seen alternative ship for westwards this summer (Sea Princess from Dover to NY via Ireland, Canadian port and Boston) which would mean 4 extra days to see USA and Canada instead of 16 days between Cunard ships. Read that QM 2 is well-equipped for Atlantic crosiings even in bad weather. Anyone know if crossing Atlantic in cruise ship like Sea Princess is likely to be bad in storms etc? Dover-NY is first part of their world cruise and is also what they call positioning I think. (when they need to take cruise ships from/to Med to Caribbean).

Very surprised this wasn`t mentioned before but may be an age thing with under 40s not hearing so many negative stories about dentists. Only need to look at international websites like dentalfearcentral.com to notice high number of Scots sending messages. Also no mention of flying? Surprised given many folk here travel to watch Scotland ususally by plane I suppose.

For cup matches I suppose both clubs have a say in pricing but home team will have more say since they`ll usually have more fans and certainly know more about match expenses. In case of Hearts v Hibs high prices are sadly to be expected since away stand won`t meet Hibs`demand and Hearts have to try to pay expenses (they announced publicly last year that they were relying on voluntary payments to pay bills so suppose it`s the same this year or worse since wages will be higher). For all clubs both cup competitions are I suppose considered as bonuses.

Town of Pottsdam is worth a visit and is easy to get to on local trains (covered by Berlin pass).

Any rumours for May? Saturday match at Hampden might get a reasonable crowd but maybe not permitted to play on same day as CL final and playing Denmark at Hampden maybe means no more matches there till October.

Exactly. Looks like a 3 team race in championship.

Agree 100%. Beautiful centre and now port area is good for a stroll with shops, bars and restaurants. Culture with Picasso and Pompidou museums and Arab castle and train trips to Ronda and El Chorro. Unknown maybe not since visitor numbers have grown a lot especially since AVE train to Madrid started 3 or 4 years ago. Great place for a weekend from Scotland. For car hire no idea but I know there are several companies with good offers for looking after cars including carwash.

Hard for people to keep interest if our last match was in October and we still don`t know what if any matches will be played till next September. We could have played 2 matches in November and could play 5 (2 in March, 2 in May/June and 1 before Malta match) so 7 matches would certainly have kept interest among regular fans and created interest among new fans (play in Dundee or Kilmarnock for example or bigger stadiums again but with lots of free/very cheap tickets for kids/youth teams etc). For home matches for WC 18 we`ll only have a big crowd against England and for 2016 we were lucky to have big away supports against Poland, Germany and ROI ( wouldn`t have been sellouts against teams with smaller away supports) so ticket prices will be crucial.

Think we`ll finish 4th but even if we scraped 2nd we`d then have to beat the likes of Spain/Italy in playoffs.

The three top players you mentioned enjoyed winning cup for small countries once but now don`t bother trying to win it again. Spain are down in 2nd or 3rd division because their best 5 or 6 players lost interest after winning it a few times. Will be interesting to see if Andy plays next year especially with Olympics being on. Not sure if Nishikori bothers with Davis Cup but if he doesn`t the ex Slovenian may be considered enough to get GB through to quarters.

Train from mainland to Sicily goes on the boat (like one from Germany to Denmark). See Malta sections of Railbookers or seat61

Back in 70s and 80s when we used to qualify for every WC (even when there were only 16 teams) but rested from Euros till 90s I seem to remember Hungary, Belgium and Poland usually being there too only to hit a bad run at end of century and early 21st century too. Belgium cohosted 2000 and Poland 2012 but mainly had bad qualifying record like us and Hungary even worse till tonight. Norway got to Euro 2000 but not sure if they`ve qualified since for WC or EC. I wasn`t at Morocco match in St Etienne so game v Norway in Bordeaux was last finals Scotland match I was at-got great memories but for a neutral it was a terrible game with 2 terrible teams and so subsequent qualifying record of both teams has been no surprise. Bulgaria used to qualify a lot too but apart from a terrible Euro 2004 i don`t remember them doing much either.

Jamie Murray beaten in doubles final in Basel. Andy with Colin Fleming in Paris doubles this week. Another doubles team we could have in Scottish Davis Cup team.

Get the general point that home games are expensive even if you live in the west but are you not exaggerating a bit? Accommodation and time off work obviously pushes the prices up a lot but how many fans spend more than 100 pounds on food, drink and transport for home games and shirt is hardly compulsory either. Apart from that I agree that ticket prices are ridiculous (SFA got off with it cause of big away supports at matches) at home matches.

Georgia away would be an obvious fixture if we want to measure progress. Top European teams seem to play each other now anyway so unlikely to play any of them. Potentially we could play 7 friendlies before Malta (2 in November, 2 in March, 2 in June and 1 just before Malta) but will be surprised if we play even 4. Are there any strng rumours of friendlies for us? Thought I read Budapest in November somewhere here.

Thought I`d read here before Germany game that our stats with Strachan were nearly as bad as with Levein so probably as bad or worse now. If Strachan goes no hurry to find successor, just have someone in for March friendly (or top manager who`s definitely available from May/June with caretaker for November and March).