Well yes this will always b the case until the leagues are changed to summer leagues as it is clear the weather always gets the best of even the better parks like ours !! Or all scottish cup ties must b played on 3g otherwise ! And to add to the disadvantage talk !! Biggest lot of p*** av heard ha !! U organise ur team right theres no advantage !! Until then use the junior rule or just stop yur moanin hahaha !!!

Two games then switch. If week one is off teams would need to try harder to get second week on if possible ie book 3g IF they are lucky enough to get one.No replays. Ties straight to penalties like the Sunday Trophy (allows 3g games within 2 hour slot available). As for 50% of ties off rule, bin it. Its Scotland and the weathers never great!

I can't believe that anyone who knows a thing at all about football can honestly say that it's not of any advantage to play against a side who only play on grass and train on grass when your team train and play on 3G . It's a whole different ball game altogether bounce , pace of the ball , tackling etc . I a purest of a kind and believe you can't beat a good grass pitch to play on . The introduction of summer football is a must in my opinion . Most teams ( my own included) don't have the luxury of having the funds available to play and train on 3G when we pay around £60 for a two hour booking and £40 for an hours training slot down here in deepest darkest Ayrshire .

The truth comes out in the end... It's more about u can't afford 3G.

I didn't disagre that there isn't an advantage. If u re-read my post I said the advantage works both ways. By that I mean, if you always use grass, and take a team who always use 3G to a grass park then your team will enjoy the same advantage as if the roles were reversed and you were took to a 3G park.

If its good enough for the professional and junior ranks, it's good enough for amateur.

Dougie the truth is football should and always has been played on grass . I do agree with you on the home advantage scenario it was the muppet from cockerhill who commented that I was talking pi-- and that " u organise your team right their is no advantage " that's a comment that is pi-- to everyone that's kicked a ball themselves

Calleyboy

Football has been played on grass, blaze, ash and several variations of artificial surfaces. You can forget about moving to summer football - in my opinion it's just not going to happen anytime soon if ever. I know there are problems with 3G/4G but they are not going away and clubs can now use them as their first option if they want to. As time goes on there will be more 3G pitches and you will probably find teams wanting to play on them. I don't think we will be turning the clock back on this so it looks like everybody is going to have to accept that at least some of their matches will be on 3G/4G. You might not like it or agree with it but its going to happen.

Interesting that the Summer Football scenario has reared its head again - wont go into that in too much detail at the moment as this may well be a topic which Dougie will use as another poll question . However as a one line answer - keep the winter football

Well said!

FYI - I am happy to accept suggestions for poll topics via PM's guys. This is your forum!! If no suggestions are submitted I will just come up with my own!

Remember - they can be serious or 'fun' polls... we here for a laugh as much as anything else!

New poll.
How many hours a week does Dougie spend of forums????

Too Many!

Surprised you find the time to play for Aitkenhead!!!

Interesting. I would keep 3 strike rule. I think its fair also if most games are off because most of the country is having rubbish weather. If you get home advantage in the draw and can do nothing to get a game on because of the weather you shouldnt lost the home advantage you got in the draw. I also like replays but would go for penalties after 90 minutes in the replay Get rid of extra time. Both teams then have had a fair crack with home advantage. Penalties in some bear pits can be intimidating. Ifyou call organisers clowns does your club care enough to turn up at the scottish agm to vote for what you want. if not maybe its not them in charge thats clowns.

1 day to go for the poll ladies and gents. If you havent done so - cast your vote! Tell others!!

Cheers

Goodview : the idea of having replays in the District Cups (West, East, North of Tay etc) alarms me! At the moment these matches are played to a finish. Trying to schedule District Cup matches is already complicated enough. The Scottish Cup takes precedence over a District Cup so we can only schedule District Cup matches if both clubs are not playing in the Scottish. If you have a load of postponements in the Scottish these matches get rescheduled for the following week and hey presto half your pencilled in District Cup fixtures disappear! The same thing happens if a Scottish Cup match is drawn with the replay getting scheduled for the following week.

If we had replays in the District Cups that would result in about 30 to 35 extra matches in the West of Scotland Cup. I'm not sure we can cope with that bearing in mind the number of postponements we already have. Last season we only just made it to the two semi finals with four teams through. If you add another 30 or 35 matches to the schedule I'm not sure we can cope with that. It might mean starting the competition earlier than October but that would only cause more problems for the leagues who are having a hard enough job completing their domestic cups and leagues.

Interesting views. 36 votes is hardly a convincing sample of the 500 plus clubs there are especially when you dont know if those voting have a connection with a club or like me just a lover of amteur game. 3G pitches are going to be the way forward but theres not nearly enough of them to use them as the basis for changing the 3 strike rule. As folks have said if games are called of late in the week and you dont have time to get a 3G should you really lose the advatnage of the hime draw when its not your fault. Some teams wont ever be able to get a 3G very easily. Have they to be punished. I'd keep the position the same but encourage teams to use 3G whenever possible.

Any West of Scotland Cup game should go straight to penalties on 3g and any Replay on a 3g Scottish Cup game should go straight to pens, in the event of a draw. That would resolve any problems.

Having 2 attempts on a Scottish Cup game before a reverse fixture would also reduce the amount of backlog in fixtures near the end of the season.