Micky

At the start of lockdown I tried to pick up some books to help my wee lad. The History of Scotland For Children by Fiona MacDonald is a decent book. Covers most periods and nicely illustrated. No great depth to it obviously but it’s just about capturing their interest at that age.

Fucks sake everything about tonight is wrong. I didn’t go as I couldn’t bring myself to support Taylor…..he’s continually proving he’s a horrible wee ned wank. I figured I’d still want him to win when the fight started..Scotland vs England and all that. I was wrong ..when JC chinned him early I went “YES”. After R4 I put a fiver on Caterall to win on points. Not a doubt in my mind by then that Taylor was going to lose. By the end of R5 I was thinking he might even get stopped but I didn’t bet again. The decision..ffs. One of the worst hometown decisions since..erm…Ricky Burns got an outrageous draw with Raymundo Beltran…also in Glasgow. I can’t be the only boxing fan who sometimes just wants boxing to fuck the fuck off.

It’s a scoosh mate. Clark St or Murray St would probably be your best bet. If you’re there early you’ll be able to park even closer on Craigielea Dr or Drums Cres. Loads of away fans park on McFarlane St down next to the dual carriageway for a quicker getaway but it’s a bit of a bottleneck with traffic lights. I say go for Clark St…and when you leave head for Greenock Road and turn left to avoid the bottleneck on McFarlane St. Check Google maps before you go..you’ll see what I mean.

Really?..what I see is a polling firm that might as well shut its doors on Saturday. Survation has a poll out today with SNP/Indy improvement again and far more in keeping with YouGov, Panelbase polls and the Sky one the other day. Sevanta Comres have at every stage shown a much lower level of support than all the others. Come Saturday they will either look like geniuses or a shambles. Given their commissions have been coming from such impartial outlets as the Scotsman and the New Statesman I think the odds are with the latter. (He who pays the piper etc). On the other hand..in an election like no other I’m not going to invest any money on the outcome.

Very odd.....I can see it in Lee McGregors timeline ( and he said it was disgusting). Can't see it in Josh Taylors though. I'm not actually 'on' twitter - I just view it through the net. I got a mate of mine to check too in case there are things I can't see if I'm not signed in. He can't see anything on Josh's timeline either.

You sure about this Dairbee? I was a shocked when I saw your post. Can't see anything in Josh's timeline at all. I did notice a tweet in Lee McGregors (Aberdeen boxer) timeline where he quoted the Proactive Patriots - and said it was disgusting !!

I didn’t expect the fight to be competitive so didn’t stump up the cash for PPV. Listened on Radio 5 instead. Pretty much as I expected..a fast start from Bellew but broken down by far superior boxer. Ive changed my opinion of Bellew many times over the years. He seems to go from salt if the earth Mr Nice Guy to a loudmouth bawsack regularly. Hope he jacks it now. His interview on radio after was cringeworthy. Seemed concussed as he repeated the same lines over and over. Kept thinking he should be talking to a doctor not doing an interview. Was totally magnanimous in defeat though...raving about Usyk. In fact he was raving about him so much I’m not entirely convinced he doesn’t want to ride him.

I know what you mean Robbo. Certainly a fair number of bams at most shows. The worst one I attended was when Ricky fought Mitchell at the SEC. There were way more fights in the stands than in the ring. My mate fought MMA for a while and I went a fair number of MMA shows round Scotland supporting him. What struck me was there was hardly a crossed word between rival fans and not a hint of bother at the shows I was at - despite the drink flowing freely. I wondered why there was such a difference in crowd behaviour. I suspect it's because a good percentage of the crowd at small hall MMA bills are competitors themselves - and everyone knows this - so there's plenty of respect/fear. Boxing is still the 'bigger' sport with the wider appeal to non competitors and more p*ssed up neds attend. Of course I could be talking sh*te. MMA might be rife with crowd trouble and I've just got lucky so far.

Aye - I realise the punch might not have been obvious to anyone in the arena. I was in the cheap seats for the Postol fight and while you 'think' you have a good view it's amazing the amount of detail you miss from that distance. On Saturday I was on my couch watching on the WBSS website. Very good stream. Couldn't make it to the hydro. If the Barancyk fight is in Edi/Gla I'll almost certainly go. Should certainly be more competitive than Saturday but difficult to see who beats Josh at 140. Punch picking is getting better and better, fast hands, vicious to the body. A new hero in the making......but he's not exactly getting the marketing his displays deserve. He must look with envy at the support the top Irish boys get.

Good write up Morrie. I thought wee Ryan was boxing well again Donaire. Nonito was looking v big in comparison and put him on the back foot when he opened up but Burnett has lighting hands and caught him with some great counters. Josh was different class. Martin will have been pishing pink all week after the battering his body took. I said to my pal after R6 that it'd be over soon. The high guard was dropping fast to protect his battered body and it was only a matter of time before Josh would have been able to go head hunting. Pretty sickened by the ending though. Punch behind the head was pretty clear. Even if it wasn't the guy was on his feet quickly and looked ok to continue. He should have been given time to recover from the illegal punch and fight on. At worst a standing count. I used to love Victor Loughlin. He was like an oasis in the desert of UK refs/judges. Think I went about 2 years without agreeing with a single Ian John Lewis scorecard but I always seemed to agree with Victor. In the past year or so though he's produced a fair few poor refereeing decisions and dodgy scorecards.

I'd second the shout for Brea. The wife and I were in a wee while ago and it was first class. Had mixed reports from other people. Some love it - one or two have moaned about the service. Location wise it couldn't be any better. Next door to Brewdog if that's your thing. Across the road from No 2 Baker St who usually have bands on. Nicky Tams and Lawsons are just up the road. Couple of young folks bars round the corner but they are sh*te. I'd stick the Kilted Kangaroo on the list of watering holes. (Previously it was called Outback and before that it was All The Jazz). Aussie pub with decent tunes usually, beer garden with heaters and good quick staff. Food pretty good too if you fancy pub scran over a restaurant. Enjoy your night oot Slasher.

Excellent performance for me and 2-0 didn’t do us justice. 4 or 5 would have been a better reflection of the game. High tempo , closed them down and won possession in their half over and over again. My worry, as always, is that we won’t take that high tempo approach into the away games. For 20 years a succession of managers have tried to convince us that a draw away from home is a good result , no matter the quality of opposition. We then play half paced, half arsed ‘containing’ games and regularly get our arses handed to us as a result. See Tbilisi twice for the best examples. Approach the away games like we did tonight and we’ll walk this group.

By a remarkable stroke of fortune I had hospitality on Saturday. Booked ages ago - couldn't have worked out any better. Sadly had to take my old boy up the road after they kicked us out of hospitality. He barely drinks these days and was struggling after the complimentary bar. Missed the celebrations in the Paisley pubs - but saw numerous videos getting posted online. Bankhouse especially looked fantastic.

Airbourne tonight at the Academy. I've got tomorrow off to allow me to recover from moshpit mayhem. ROCK!

Good call with your late stoppage prediction morrie. When Josh started upping the work rate from 6 onwards there was only going to be one winner but I really didn’t see a stoppage in the cards. Fortunately Josh goes to the body like those old school Mexican pros and broke him down. Softened him up with a couple of sharp ones before slipping under the elbow with that finisher. As we’d discussed before the fight Vazquez was awkward and full of old pro tricks. It took Josh a good few rounds to work him out. He’s impressively clinical once he’s got the opponents measure though. Going to enjoy watching him in the coming years. Btw...Jason Easton’s fight...wtf was he fighting? It wasn’t a man..it must have been some kind of terminator. What a hard b*stard.

Hectic spell for me morrie or I’d be there. Josh does indeed look the business and they seem to have a lot of faith that he can go right to the top. The performance against Davies was a masterclass and one of my favourite Scottish sporting performances of the year. (It helps that Davies is such a total tosser). Been a while since I’ve seen Vazquez. Always mind him as a really awkward customer so a cracking ‘learning experience’ for someone so new to the pro ranks. Think Josh will win by a handy margin over the distance. Might invest a few bob to that effect.

Difficult to say Jacques. He's been on a different planet for many games this season(off the boil in the last two right enough). However he's been up against Scottish championship defences..not international class defenders. Counter that with excellent displays against both Holland and England U21s. Id love to see how he operates in a couple of friendlies but doubt he'll get a chance unless he gets a big move either in January or the summer. Potentially wonderful player for the future though..two great feet (so much so I'm still not sure what his 'real' side is), great pace and a good finisher.

Aye mate - If we are going to have any chance of promotion this year we need to hold on to him. I think Jack and the board know that too. We all know everyone has a price though...I just wonder what the magic number is for Saints.

Genuinely interested in the opinions of any Arabs fans who made the trip to Paisley today. What did you think of Lewis Morgan? I can barely recall a time he DIDN'T beat his man this afternoon. He's roasted any number of full backs in his short career so far but that was just outstanding. 2 great goals and a quality assist. Sadly he's out of contract next summer so we may lose him either next week or in January (which might scupper our promotion dream) but I'm just trying to enjoy it while I can. A good move to the right team and international football beckons sooner rather than later.

Indeed Manolo is indeed a bit of a character. For the abandoned friendly game at the Levante ground a good few years back we took a couple of taxis down to his place. The bar was closed as the kitchen was getting a facelift. Our taxi driver knew about this but called him and the big man opened the bar for us anyway. Gave us a couple of beers each (which I don't think we paid for) and we got the tour - showing us all his framed photos and telling us stories. One of our guys was a fluent Spanish speaker fortunately. He gave us a bunch of Manolo 'branded' stuff to take away with us , piled us all into his massive car (dangerously overloaded) and drove us back to the centre. When he dropped us off he gave us his card and assured us if we have any 'problems with the police' we just had to call him and he'd fix it. Bit of an ego obviously but a good guy for going out his way to help some travelling fans. I loved my 2 or 3 days in Valencia. The dried river bed and science centre / aquarium was bizarre - hope they've found the money to finish it. It was a strange combination of ultra modern/futuristic and horrible building site when we were there. Nightlife was excellent. I've no idea where it was exactly but I recall going through wee streets with little squares and lots of bars. Streets were hoaching with student types all drinking and having a good time and v welcoming to the kilted stragglers still standing in the wee sma' hours.

He got Man of the Match Marky. I didn't see the game so no idea if it was deserved or not.

Deserved win for united I reckon. Second half they were well ahead. We created a few good chances in the first half and got back into it v quickly after Andreus fantastic strike. Seemed to lack confidence in the second. Mallan gave away possession to often when we needed him to control the game. Anyway..distractions over....the league struggle is to come and Ayrs win was another kick in the plums. Ayr and Dumbarton up next. Doesn't get any more 'must win' than that.

I'm not the type who shouts for a managers head early on but this season has been so shambolic it's difficult not to be pleased. Didn't think things could get worse after Tommy Craig's erm..remarkable ..season but somehow Murray managed it. There is more than enough quality in the squad to be comfortable in this league(if not playoff contenders) but we have been dreadful. V disappointing as I was genuinely hopeful after an ambitious appointment. Hopefully now we'll get a wee boost and get ourselves out of danger. A full time team should never be under threat in a league with three or four part time sides.

Aye - a wee square box room right under Central Station. Overpowering smell of damp. However - I like it. Was there to see Kadavar (German metal band) last month and thought the sound was great. I guess the cider/ rum I'd been drinking might have influenced my opinion right enough.

Eisern UNION !!!!