Snapperone

I suspect "free shuttle service" is inaccurate. "Onward shuttle service for those who've paid for a train ticket from Tel Aviv to Ben Gurion" would probably be more accurate. I'm staying in Haifa tomorrow night (I'm there now) and will be purchasing a train ticket from there to Ben Gurion on Friday morning. I expect the first part of the journey to be made by train and then transfer onto a bus in TA once the train terminates. I'll double-check at Haifa rail station tomorrow that this is how it'll work. I presume there'll be a few buses to meet each train, as the service has about five or six carriages in each. If they're all full then one bus per service won't be enough.

So much for the plonker posting on his Tartan Army facebook page that we were playing Senegal in London on the 26th March. That's what you get for trying to pretend that you're in the know....

He's probably stalled a bit and I imagine he'll leave us when his contract expires at the end of the season. He reminds me a bit of Scott Arfield. Brilliant at times, but maybe getting a bit stale due to being too many years with us. Hopefully he'll get a good move to England and then kick on from there, just as Scott did.

Interesting quote from MacKay in that article: "Kids playing against kids all the way right up stops the flow of an 18,19 year old ending up in a first team and playing 200 games before he's 21". You mean like Craig Sibbald? Who was an ever-present in the Falkirk first team at 18 and completed over 200 appearances earlier this season, at 21? He should be a perfect example to support the argument of the new Performance Director. He ticks all the boxes in that he made his debut at 16, has been playing against men ever since and has smashed through the 200 barrier. There's only one problem. He couldn't get near the Scotland Under 19 or Under 21 sides. Why not? Because regardless of his form, he was continually snubbed in favour of Old Firm players who'd never played a competitive game for their clubs. You couldn't make it up. FTOF.

International fixture dates are usually about a week long. There are spaces for two internationals in each date. Strachan has NEVER played an away friendly in the same week that we’ve had a competitive game. For example: · November 2016 competitive game V England. No friendly. · October 2016 doesn’t count as two competitive games V Slovakia and Lithuania. · September 2016 competitive game V Malta. No friendly. · End May 2016 no competitive games. Away friendlies V Italy & France. · March 2016 no competitive games. Friendlies V Denmark & Czech Republic. If you look through the historic fixtures, the same pattern was repeated in 2015, 2014 and 2013, right back to his first game in charge against Estonia. He played a home friendly against Northern Ireland four days before a competitive game against Gibraltar in March 2015 and did the same against Qatar 8 days before a trip to Ireland, but has never done an away friendly in the same week as a competitive match. The reason I bring this up?? We have competitive games in each period of international fixtures dates next year: Slovenia in March & England in June. Which means that while we might slip in a home friendly before one of those games, it's unlikely the TA will be going abroad again until we play in Lithuania in September.

Why would you have a 90 minute wait? Here are all the bus connections:- http://www.viennaairport.com/en/passengers/arrival__parking/bus_connections The Slovak Lines ones shows buses running hourly to Bratislava. That's the connection I plan to use as the bus station it comes into is in Bratislava is only a short distance from my hotel.

After leaving Malta I had a few days in Frankfurt and travelled from there yesterday. The German trains were fine but they cancelled the cross-border one so I had to get a bus. Once I got into France, the Forbach to Metz service was running as normal. Result! I'm feeling very lucky when I read all the tales of woe on this board. Normally I go everywhere by train, but I have a ba'heid mate who booked a bus for Sunday morning and I reserved that a few weeks back, so hopefully I should have no travel problems. Good luck to the rest of you. Maybe the team will give us a performance to make it all worthwhile. You never know, if we're really, really lucky, we might even get a shot on target this time.

Arrived late yesterday. It was gorgeous last night but was stating down at 6am this morning. Currently it's grey and overcast with the hint of more rain to come.

I stayed near the ground. Found a wee bar full of local students and paid 32kc for a pint. Don't know what their licensing hours are, but I went in at 2330 on the night of the game. If that were Falkirk on a Thursday night the door would either have been locked or it would have been last orders when I walked in. The place was still going strong when i left at 0130.

Sure you'll be fine. I'm flying from Glasgow via Amsterdam on KLM later today. Both my flights are showing "scheduled" as normal. As long as nothing else happens I reckon the only problem would be if your planned aircraft was trapped at Brussels, and even then they do have spare planes available.

The more air strikes on France the better. 'Mon the Luftwaffe!

Falkirk's Kevin O Hara called up to the Under 19s. Amazing what setting up the winner against Sevco can do for your career.

Get both of them in. The more Falkirk Bairns in the Scotland squad, the better.

Warsaw was fine as I recall. Whereas Serbia the year before wisnae. Definitely wisnae.

Aye, he was so mediocre that he played in the first Falkirk team to win at Pittodrie in over 50 years.

BBC Radio Scotland just announced it as an away game in Prague on the 24th.

Effin hope not. I see Internationals as an additional treat over and above club football and I hate when I have to choose one over the other. 3pm Saturday KOs are fine only when there is no club football on.

Inclined to agree. If the OP has any information to back up his claims then let's hear it.

If we're playing a team in white (like England, Slovenia or Slovakia) would the ref deem our sleeves to be a colour clash? Two players go up for a high ball, one of them does a Joe Jordan V Wales, and all the ref can see are two longsleeved white arms. Who does he penalise? Dark blue and black socks are too close together as well. I can see us having to use different socks like red or white for some of the games.

No, that was the tagged price.

For those of you who're as stingy as I am, now is a good time to be buying the old strips or training gear. I got the pink and yellow away top today in JD Sports Falkirk for £20.

Nothing wrong with anti-Paisley threads. We shouldn't be playing there anyway, as it's a proven fact that in 2015 the home team never win in Paisley.

I just had a wee gander at various online images of the Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica. It looks a dump. It wouldn't have wanted to go there tonight so I'm glad we didn't finish third. Really I am. Honest guv.

I'll be glued to the telly watching every single game I can, because I'm a sad b****rd, a football fan and that's what I do every two years. I don't really care about the other home nations so will be neither for nor against them. With one exception, obviously.

Probably his lack of pace. He frequently ties an opposition player - or two - in knots when they try to take the ball off him, but unless he can release it quickly they're tackling him again a few seconds later because they can often outrun him. He used to be easy to knock off the ball when he first started playing, just after his sixteenth birthday, but he's bulked up substantially in the last few years. He's quite a stocky wee bugger now, which helps because he gets kicked up and down the pack most weeks. I think everyone at Falkirk is surprised that he's hasn't gotten a move yet. He's (IMO) better than his fellow midfielders of McGrandles and Fulton, who we sold to Norwich and Swansea. I'm planning to attend the Ukraine game so I'll be interested to see how Jay plays - assuming he gets a game, of course.