Anyone supporting England?????

[landmarker]

Actually, you give Mars more credit than they are due. Believe bars are alive and well in Wick.

The rumour I heard concerning the renaming of these bars is that it is because England will "Be Leavin" the tournament at an early stage ;o)

That would cause a few "Snickers" amongst the Braveheart community.

Very witty. Made me smile anyway.
I have a huge Braveheart poster in me house! Magnificnet Mel in all his glory.
Yes I know it was fiction, largely but he encapsulated a spirit. Summat to do wi'freedom I recall. Anyway my wife likes Gibson in his kilt.

[Chillie]

Any other team but England, I believe that The FA has already planned the winning tour route around London, as well as asking Buckingham Palace for permissiom to use the Palace for a planned 2-3 day winner's reception when they win.(note, not if ,but when)!!. Is this not enough to make us Scot's hope and pray that the English team Looooooooose big time.

[obiron]

im going with whatever team has the best looking players in it. shallow i know but it has to be done.

usually go for the underdog.

[Rheghead]

I believe that The FA has already planned the winning tour route around London, as well as asking Buckingham Palace for permissiom to use the Palace for a planned 2-3 day winner's reception when they win.(note, not if ,but when)!!. Is this not enough to make us Scot's hope and pray that the English team Looooooooose big time.

I get the impression that you think that the FA need to plan the route because you think they are so confident and arrogant that they are going to win the World Cup.

This is not the case. In the event of them winning (however likely or unlikely the case maybe), it will be a major unavoidable, public and English national event which will need the full cooperation of the police, London Council and other emergency services, not to mention anti terrorist measures.

All the other teams will have their victory routes planned as well.

[DrSzin]

All the other teams will have their victory routes planned as well.

Aye, I hear the arrangements in Port-of-Spain are at an advanced stage already.

[Rheghead]

LOL, maybe not all teams then.

[landmarker]

The last English 'sportsmen' to have a massive parade were the cricketers. They've been bobbins ever since.

England are now second favourites and I dreamt last night they beat Ivory Coast in the final - could this be an omen on this day of all days?

I woke up gutted, as I said, the Ivorians are my team in the works sweep.

[Chillie]

The last English 'sportsmen' to have a massive parade were the cricketers.

Well the English did'nt do very well at that either yesterday Sri Lanka beat them.

[DrSzin]

Would England support Scotland if roles were reversed?????

Probably. The roles were reversed in '74 & '78 and that is precisely what happened.

Well, I'm pretty sure it happened in '74 but I can't be 100% certain because I was still in Thurso, but I can speak from personal experience of '78 because I was a student in southern Engerland at the time. Not only did the locals support Scotland but those of us from north of the border were fêted as heroes for some bizarre reason. It was the second World Cup in succession that Scotland had qualified for as the lone representative of these isles, and the English media were right behind the Scottish team. Furthermore, they were on a real downer about their own national side. The fact that Liverpool had just won the European Cup (now the Champions League) for the second successive year was sometimes portrayed as being down to a trio of great Scots players, namely Alan Hansen, Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish - who scored the winning goal in the final. They were, of course, entirely correct in that respect.

Having said all that, the English (media and people) were relentless in extracting the urine when it all went wrong after the defeat by Peru and the timid draw with Iran, but then Archie Gemmill became a national hero with that goal against the Netherlands - the one that gave us hope of progressing beyond the first round - for almost a full 5 minutes. If you don't know why they were extracting the urine then read the words of our 1978 world cup song:

Ally's Tartan Army

We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,
We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team,

We're representing Britain,
And we're gaunny do or die,
England cannae dae it,
'Cos they didnae qualify!

We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,
We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team,

Oh, we were so modest about wer' national team's abilities back then!

Seriously, the team of '74 were very, very good and the team of '78 were pretty good at times. If Ally had picked Souness in the first two games it might all have been very, very different. Aye, right... But one can still dream...

And it was all great fun nonetheless...

[scrapydoo]

I'm SCOTTISH and i will be supporting england i hope they do well!!













Not

[landmarker]

All very true Doc.
The English love an underdog. Our own team would be feted more if they were plucky losers, than if they went on to win the damn thing. They's be flavour opf the month for a week and more but the press would soon start knocking them down.

Most English folk have never been anywhere near Scotland - pray it remains the same - but when the chips are down and the pies are in the fat then you can rely on us to cheer you along. I bet yer all dead chuffed.

Scotland had had many, many great players in the past and hoipefully will again. I'd like to see the auld annual matches between the two countries re-instated on a regular basis. Just don't demolish the goalposts.

THE FIRST GAME AT 'NEW' WEMBLEY SHOULD DEFINITELY BE AGAINST SCOTLAND in my opinion, which is humble indeed and counts for nowt down 'ere. You might have a good side by the time it's finally finished!

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

All very true Doc.
The English love an underdog. Our own team would be feted more if they were plucky losers, than if they went on to win the damn thing. They's be flavour opf the month for a week and more but the press would soon start knocking them down.

Most English folk have never been anywhere near Scotland - pray it remains the same - but when the chips are down and the pies are in the fat then you can rely on us to cheer you along. I bet yer all dead chuffed.

Scotland had had many, many great players in the past and hoipefully will again. I'd like to see the auld annual matches between the two countries re-instated on a regular basis. Just don't demolish the goalposts.

THE FIRST GAME AT 'NEW' WEMBLEY SHOULD DEFINITELY BE AGAINST SCOTLAND in my opinion, which is humble indeed and counts for nowt down 'ere. You might have a good side by the time it's finally finished!

Aye good idea,Landmarker.The only reason the New Wembley is taking so long is because the Scottish contractors have been burying all the Saltires under the pitch.

[connieb19]

but I can speak from personal experience of '78 because I was a student in southern Engerland at the time.

You're showing your age now Dr Szin!!!lol

[Kenn]

I will be up early Sunday morning to watch the match. Whoops wrong shaped ball but at least England holds The World Cup.
Now if the bunch of overpaid divas currently in Germany can emulate them I still won't be watching.
Any one got a list of non participating countries that are TV and radio free as I think I could do with a holiday.

[fred]

I think sales and distribution networks of companies like Mars are well geared up enough NOT to send 'Believe' bars to Scotland. Unless you know different?

They should have renamed them "Faithful" bars instead, sales would have gone right up :-)

[doyle]

Sorry moose and Lindsay! Not a footie fan! Was on holiday down in England last week and to be honest I was glad to touch down in Inverness! Everywhere we went it was ENGLAND, talk about "in yer face!" Couldn't get near any of the bars for banners. cars going around with flags flyin', every shop we went in had something with the England flag on it, from bags to flip-flops - you name it, they had it! Glad to get home to hear the SCOTTISH accent again! So answering your question - no I won't be supporting England!

[DrSzin]

Was on holiday down in England last week and to be honest I was glad to touch down in Inverness! Everywhere we went it was ENGLAND, talk about "in yer face!" Couldn't get near any of the bars for banners. cars going around with flags flyin', every shop we went in had something with the England flag on it, from bags to flip-flops - you name it, they had it!

I had a similar experience when I went to south-west Engerland for a couple of days in the middle of Euro 2004. The ubiquity of car-borne red & white flags was a little un-nerving at first but I soon got used to it. And I reckon Scotland would be much the same if we'd qualified and they hadn't. Maybe you don't remember 1978.

I "enjoyed" (part of) the 2002 World Cup final with a hangover at some unearthly hour on a sunny Sunday morning in Boston. The only incentive to get up that early was to enjoy my German colleagues' over-achieving team get well and truly gubbed by a half-decent Brazilian side. Yes, I'm afraid I can be as guilty of schadenfreude as some of the previous posters. Anyway, the scenes that followed in the streets of Boston were quite amazing. Dozens of cars were driving up and down the main drag, all honking their horns and flying Brazilian flags. It appeared that Brazilians with yellow shirts, painted faces and Brazilian flags were being generated spontaneously in every building in the neighbourhood. I'd only been there a week, but I couldn't remember having seen a single Brazilian prior to the final. But they were real. Well, the few that I spoke to had an accent that was discernably Brazilian. And the atmosphere was great, so I'm not averse to a bit of gratuitous flag-waving during World cups.

You're showing your age now Dr Szin!!!lol

Not at all. I was very precocious. I still am...

[porshiepoo]

Very witty. Made me smile anyway.
I have a huge Braveheart poster in me house! Magnificnet Mel in all his glory.
Yes I know it was fiction, largely but he encapsulated a spirit. Summat to do wi'freedom I recall. Anyway my wife likes Gibson in his kilt.

Your comments say more about the limited capacity of your pea sized brain than they do of anything else.
So nice to see and hear that uk solidarity and unity is so alive and treasured in a world full of ignorance and hate born of false, ignorant and one sided fairy tales!

Yes Braveheart was a great film but what spirit did it encapsulate exactly???
Freedom??? Freedom to kill, maim and torture (on both English and Scottish sides).
The film did nothing more or less than to give scots further reason to believe the horror stories of time gone by and build further resentment toward English - it was hundreds of years ago, get over it already! England has forgiven Scotland the atrocities they carried out, so who's the bigger country?

As far as Football - have to say I don't watch it but I'll be rooting for England of course, and if England were to lose and if Scotland had managed to be taking part I would have been rooting for them also, but as they're not in it (again), I won't!

[porshiepoo]

Sorry moose and Lindsay! Not a footie fan! Was on holiday down in England last week and to be honest I was glad to touch down in Inverness! Everywhere we went it was ENGLAND, talk about "in yer face!" Couldn't get near any of the bars for banners. cars going around with flags flyin', every shop we went in had something with the England flag on it, from bags to flip-flops - you name it, they had it! Glad to get home to hear the SCOTTISH accent again! So answering your question - no I won't be supporting England!

Oh don't tell me, if scotland were doing as well as England at the footie and they actually managed to win, Scottish fans wouldn't be doing the same?
Oh noooooo, they'd all be silently congratulating behind closed doors? Insisting nobody bears the flag? Celebrating quietly? Banning the win from the papers? Hmmmmm don't think so!

Heres a thought - why don't people such as yourself direct all that negative energy against the English and the England team, turn it around, be a bigger person, congratulate England for as far as they get and maybe, just maybe you'll find that all the hype doesn't bother you so much.
Jealousy is such an ugly attribute and saps a person of so much energy!

[Bulldog]

Oh don't tell me, if scotland were doing as well as England at the footie and they actually managed to win, Scottish fans wouldn't be doing the same?
Oh noooooo, they'd all be silently congratulating behind closed doors? Insisting nobody bears the flag? Celebrating quietly? Banning the win from the papers? Hmmmmm don't think so!

Heres a thought - why don't people such as yourself direct all that negative energy against the English and the England team, turn it around, be a bigger person, congratulate England for as far as they get and maybe, just maybe you'll find that all the hype doesn't bother you so much.
Jealousy is such an ugly attribute and saps a person of so much energy!

Couldn't agree more Porshie!! Blame the media every time because they cannot admit it's just plain jealousy. It's hilarious - no-one harps on about '66 as much as the green eyed Scots. I wish Scotland would qualify, then maybe they could discuss their own team rather than twitter on about a team who does NOT need or want their support.

COME ON ENGLAND!!