Ha ha …. Sorry mate if your comment was meant to annoy me it didn't. I was one of Stokes biggest critics, I was dumbfounded when Hibs re signed him from Blackburn … apart from having the game of his life in the 2016 Scottish cup final his previous time at Easter Road had been average at best. As another guy said 'a wasted talent' …. he signed for a Greek club after Hibs effectively sacked him and didn't last two months with them, did a moonlight flit back to the bright lights of Edinburgh with them fighting relegation and wondering where the hell he was lol. The fact is though that even if he was shown on the 10 o'clock news battering seal pups to death with a sack full of kittens he would still be a legend to us for what he did in that one single game.

Hibs and Hearts both averaged just over 18,000 last year with Aberdeen not far behind on just under 15,000, though I wouldn't blame anybody south of the border for being unaware of that in view of the fact that there is absolutely no mention of our game in the English media. Crowds are far lower for non big city clubs, but if you want context, if Gateshead was in Scotland it would be our 5th biggest town behind Dundee. You make a good point on wages, that's the real killer for Scottish clubs even more than transfer fees …. clubs in division 2 in England and even some 'non league' clubs can afford to pay more than most of our clubs outside of the bigot brothers and Aberdeen. Its an actual fact that the BBC pay Gary Lineker more to host MOTD than they pay for their entire coverage of Scottish football and our SKY and BT sport deals wouldn't pay Man City's subs bench wages for a week ….. In a world where TV money rules Scotland is miles and miles behind, which is why comparisons between our game and England is pretty pointless and I wish Scottish folk would stop doing it. It must be the same for fans of English clubs outside of the premiership …. the TV money EPL clubs get is insane and how long before the likes of Blackburn are left floundering with no way back as the rich get richer and richer …. for all that our game is dominated by one club your far bigger league is dominated by a handful of clubs, to the point where its only a matter of time before the clubs in the EPL between 9th and 17th will start to expect a trophy for not getting relegated because for some bizarre reason its celebrated like winning a cup final. Ha ha … sorry I love rambling on about this stuff …. Anyway, plenty of respect for people who stick with their home town clubs like Blackburn fans do, especially with Man Utd and Livepool just along the road … who knows, perhaps you will make it back up this season, good luck.

You aren't seriously judging Hibs or the Scottish league on that are you? It was a kick about in the sun against a Hibs team shorn of arguably its two best midfield players in Dylan McGeouch ( away to Sunderland ) and Scott Allan ( back to Celtic ) ….. our right back was playing his 2nd pre season match after being injured for 6 months and our forward Oli Shaw has played about 10 first team games, around 3 as a starter. Our first choice keeper is out injured as well. Compared to our normal performances that was utterly insipid from Hibs, have a look at Hibs.Net fans forum to judge what we thought of it ….. as for another poster saying we were well into our pre season … so far we have played the mighty Linlithgow Rose and Berwick Rangers lol. Hibs average crowd last season was just over 18,000 a high not seen in 40 years, to the point where we cut Rangers usual allocation to fit all our fans in … we didn't get that because of displays like Sunday. Besides that, how much did your squad cost compared to ours … money talks lads, Blackburn fans should know that better than anybody or did I miss the Jack Walker era? Anyway, good luck for the rest of the season.