FORGIVE me if this is a continuity cock-up, I haven't seen the film for some time, but, in the Sound of Music, right after those swooping helicopter shots of Julie Andrews dancing across that Alpine meadow, then rushing back to Salzburg, the first set-piece song in the film has a bunch of nuns agreeing: "Maria's not an asset to the Abbey".
I hope the staunch, upright, douce representatives of 'Ra Peepul' will forgive the allusions to RC nuns, but, surely it is time that someone inside Ibrox concluded: "Coisty's not an asset to the Rangers'.
The man's status as the defunct club's all-time top scorer, his 50-plus caps for Scotland during his lengthy playing career, his present status as the living link between the former club and the present-day tribute act has, this far, kept him in a job. However, it has been obvious for some time - as coaches go, he's no better than a taxi.
For some time now there have been muted cries of: "Taxi for McCoist" eminating from some of the outer limits of the Rangers family. These cries have increased in volume since last night's loss to Hibernian.
I watched the first half on TV, it was car crash viewing. I was glad to get away to 'New Tricks' at 9pm, since I couldn't see Rangers pulling back more than the single goal the did get.
Mind you, the penalty Hibs didn't get for that handball from Lee McCulloch is just the latest in a long list of honest refereeing mistakes befalling visiting teams at Ibrox.
As a regular rugby reporter these days, how I wish football would embrace new technology and Television Match Officials as readily as rugby has. Rugby hasn't got it right, but, they are ahead of football in this respect.
A TMO would probably (unless he was the sort of "homer" the Welsh Rugby Union regularly inflict on Edinburgh and Glasgow) have looked at the footage and said: "penalty" - 4-0 to Hibs, cue mayhem.
When the tribute act was established in the old SFL Third Division, I argued this was a chance for Rangers to grow into the sort of Scottish team who would, in time, be able to get into the then SPL and immediately challenge Celtic. That club ought to have identified a solid central core of experienced players, for preference, "Rangers men", who could teach the youngsters around them good habits as they climbed through the leagues back to the top flight.
But no, McCoist was allowed to more or less continue the failed and discredited Murray model of buying cheap, shite players and bulldozing their way back to the top.
This worked for two seasons, when Rangers were a full-time club playing in part-time leagues. This season, however, they are just another full-time club in a league of full-time clubs, and, notwithstanding their good run of nine straight wins - the team was clearly not good enough and, last night, they were found out, big time.
Quite frankly, too-many of the squad are "Not Rangers Class"; that damning label applies, in my honest opinion, to the management team.
THIS week, I had to write an obituary to one of Scotland's relatively-unsung football heroes, the late Billy Neil of Queen's Park, who has died aged 75.
Billy was an Airdrie boy, who joined one of the smallest and most-elite groups of Scottish footballers, he was an Olympian, having played for Great Britain in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.
In the course of writing Billy's obit, I enjoyed an informative conversation with another Queen's Park great, Peter Buchanan, who was most helpful. Peter mentioned a Scottish victory of which I was unaware - when, in 1963, our Amateur international side won the European Amateur Championships, by beating West Germany 5-2 in the final.
That win alone would be worth celebrating, except, as Peter informed me, at half-time, the Germans were winning 2-0, only to be undone by five unanswered Scottish second-half goals; this made it an even-better win.
I knew about Scotland finishing as runners-up to Austria in the 1967 European Championships - the first to be promoted and run by UEFA; that was one of the more unsung feats of that annus mirabilis for Scottish football. However, although the 1963 Championships were not officially recognised by UEFA - beating West Germany 5-2 is a feat which ought to be celebrated more than it has been.
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