Common Sense And Scottish Fitba's Ruling Elite - Strangers In The Night

WITH my big Kilmarnock bunnet firmly planted on my head, I am prepared to say – the very late postponement of yesterday's scheduled Hamilton Academical v Kilmarnock SPFL Premiership game, leaves a nasty aroma hanging around. The Killie fans' chat room forums and facebook pages are already chock-a-block with disgruntled fans screaming: “foul.”

 Karen wasn't the only person from Ayrshire who wondered at the late call-off on Wednesday

For my part, I do not see why the League had to schedule last night's round of matches for midweek in midwinter, but, when did common sense ever have a role to play in the administration of Scottish Football? Wednesday, 27 December, 2017 was NOT a public holiday in Scotland, but, Tuesday, 26 December, 2017 was – why didn't they play the games, on Tuesday, with afternoon kick-offs?

Sure, maybe the New Douglas Park pitch would still have been unplayable, but, with an afternoon kick-off, the go or no-go decision could have been made earlier in the day and the considerable disruption which hit the Kilmarnock support would have been avoided.

After their terrific win over an admittedly piss-poor Rangers team at the weekend, the Killie Klan were raring to go, they are not happy at the call-off, and its lateness.

NO SUNSHINE on Leith from the Edinburgh Derby, with the green and white half of the city decidedly unimpressed by the non-award of what seemed, from pictorial newspaper evidence, a perfectly good goal.

 Neil Lennon - Had EVery Right To Be Upset At The "No-goal" Incident

Of course, such decisions going against him are meat and drink to Neil Lennon, who was in full righteous indignation mode – for once, it seems to me with justification. I wonder, will we ever see goal line technology and what Rugby calls Television Match Officials in play in Scottish Football? Probably, by the time the SFA has held meetings about meetings, formed a special sub-committee to discuss the issue, failed to agree on its findings, formed a second special task force, and talked about bringing it in – something else will have been discovered.

Rugby has had TMOs for a few years now, and, they still make the occasional mistake – you see, where there is a human element to new technology, you will always find argument and dissent. I can hardly wait for the first TMO adjudication on was it or was it not a penalty in an Old Firm game. They had better put an armed guard round the television truck wherein the TMO sits, just in case.

SEVENTY-FIVE MILLION POUNDS for Virgil Van Dijk. That whirring sound you hear on Merseyside is the syncopated burlin' of Wullie Shankly and Bob Paisely in their graves.

 Shankly and Paisley, maybe burlin' at the thought of spending all that money on a defender

Mind you, if the big Dutchman plugs the holes in the Reds' rearguard, he will be cheap at twice the price, but, that figure, for a defender, is further proof of how the English game has lost the plot totally. If Van Dijk is worth £75 million – what price Hansen, Lawrenson, Thomson, Smith or Yeats, genuinely good, no, make that great, Liverpool defenders?

Still, I suppose the £8 million Celtic are due from Southampton as a sell-on fee will come in handy.

THE Guardian published their alternative 2017 Sports Personality of the Year list this morning, and, disgracefully, Rangers' Dave King was overlooked – apparently, there are worse club owners/chairmen that the Glib and Shameless Liar. Must try harder in 2018.