I Do Not Think Brendan Rodgers Will Be Missed

ASKED whether or not they wished to remain inside the European Union, the people of Scotland voted by almost two to one to do this. Unfortunately, the people of England, by a smaller majority, opted to leave the EU.

More than two years on from that decision, and after some of the worst negotiating in the history of politics, Scotland is set to be dragged out of Europe and into an uncertain but certainly poorer future, on 29 March. And, on the day when the beleaguered Prime Minister of the United Kingdom made yet another effort to defend the indefensible – while ignoring Scotland's wishes – what was the biggest story of the day on the BBC Scotland News?

The fact that a man who had: “lived the dream” as Celtic manager was leaving the club, for a higher-paid job with a lesser club in England. You could not make that shite up. Only in Scotland would a self-indulgent move by an over-rated football manager be given top slot in the national news.

Rodgers is quoted as believing: “I have taken Celtic as far as I believe I can.” Well, if that is true, then he doesn't have a great deal of belief in his own ability, and, Celtic are well rid.

Allow me to explain; football is evolving, albeit slowly. For the first 75 or ore years of Celtic's history, all the managers in that time: Willie Maley, Jimmy McStay and Jimmy McGrory – all former players – were asked to do was be the best team in Scotland. This amounted to little more than being better than Rangers, because, for most of that time, Scottish football, then as now, was essentially a two-horse race.

Gradually, however, from 1955 on, Europe began to become an issue. Certainly it took Celtic a long time to get into Europe. They first qualified in 1962-63, when they played in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, then the third European tournament in order of importance. Indeed, Celtic were slow starters: Hibs, Rangers, Hearts, Dunfermline Athletic and Dundee had all played in Europe before Celtic got going.

That first season, they lost their first tie, to Valencia and were probably ranked around 78^th in Europe. The following season they were in the Cup-Winners Cup, reaching the semi-final, which probably ranked them 36th in Europe. They dropped back into the Fairs Cup the following season, losing to Barcelona in the second round, a result which probably ranked them around 79^th in Europe.

[How I ranked them in the above – you take the number of European Cup entrants – then usually around 30; they are ranked 1-30. The Cup-Winners Cup entrants then fill places 31-62, followed by the Fairs Cup entrants, from 63 on. So, as first round losers in the Fairs Cup, by two goals in their first season, Celtic could reasonably be ranked the 25^th team in that competition that season. With 28 European Cup entrants, and 25 Cup-Winners Cup entrants ranked higher, then Celtic are ranked 78^th.

So, in February, 1965, Jock Stein took over a club ranked 79^th in Europe that season. In his first full season as manager, he secured the League title, to take Celtic into the European Cup for the first time, while in the European Cup-Winners Cup, he guided them to the semi-final, which ranked them third in that tournament, and 34^th in Europe, behind the 31 teams in the premier competition – the European Cup proper.

Then, in season 1966-67, he guided Celtic to the club's first domestic treble, but, more-importantly, he won the whole shebang, the European Cup, to see the club ranked Number One in Europe.

Did he, at that point, tell the assembled press: “My work here is done, I have taken Celtic as far as I can.” Did he Hell, the Big Man wanted more trophies, domestic and European, more glory, and before he left in 1978, he had broken Rangers' long dominance and made Celtic the Number One team in Scotland, and major players in Europe.

Stein never won the big one again, but, he took Celtic to one further final, two semi-finals and two quarter-finals, before he left the club in 1978. Indeed, in his final season as manager, Celtic were still ranked among the top 16 clubs in Europe.

In fact, even allowing for a couple of bad seasons, during Stein's 13 years as manager, Celtic were consistently one of the top 20 clubs in Europe - that's a far cry from today.

Rodgers leaves them ranked 45^th in Europe – and he says he cannot take them any further, he cannot restore the glory days to a fan base, happy enough with domestic dominance, but, desperate to see the swashbuckling Celtic of the Stein era back as a major European force.

“Aye, but, these days are gone – never again will the European Cup be won by 11 Scots, all raised within a 40 mile radius of Celtic Park.” That, any rate, is what we are told. I say that is absolute bullshit.

Nobody will ever convince me: Simpson; Craig and Gemmell; Murdoch, McNeill and Clark; Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Auld and Lennox are the only 11 men, ever born in the same era, in the same small part of Scotland, who will ever be capable of winning the European Cup.

The Celtic scouting plan, which took Craig, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, Chalmers, Auld and Lennox to the club as unpolished diamonds, cannot be replicate – RUBBISH.

That level of talent will never again emerge at a single time – MORE RUBBISH.

There will never again be a Scotsman with the managerial magic of Stein, or Busby, Shankly, Ferguson or McLean – STILL MORE RUBBISH.

Of course, football today is different from back in Stein's time. The riches of the English Premiership will, until the full effect of Brexit kicks in, and the whole edifice implodes and collapses, always have an impact on Scottish football.

We have been losing our brightest and best to England for 140 years, that will not stop – even if an Independent Scotland, properly husbanding its vast oil and other riches for the good of the nation, flourishes as poor, wee embittered, friendless post-Brexit England struggles, I dare say there will still be Scottish footballers taking the high road south.

But, our football will, I am sure, rise again. I believe in Scottish football, I believe in Scottish talent, and if we can, somehow, get rid of the stumble bums and idiots who hold our game back, we can again see a Scottish team ruling Europe.

That's where Brendan Rodgers, if he had been the Celtic Man he claimed to be, should have been aiming. No Celtic boss, unwilling to have a go at surpassing the Stein Legend and Legacy, can be anything but a time-serving, self-serving chancer.

Brendan Rodgers is five foot seven inches tall. To six foot one inch Me, that makes him a wee man – he clearly was not, at the end of the day, big enough to truly succeed the Big Man. I do not think Celtic will miss him.

Today In Football - You're Only A Loyalist Until Money Talks

'THE CELTIC SONG' claims: “If you know their history.....etc.” Well, if their fans are as well-up on their club's history as many claim to be, they will not be surprised at Brendan Rodgers' speed in seeking to swap Paradise for the King Power Stadium. Was Rodgers not hailed as: “A life-long fan, living the dream,” by managing the club?

Brendan Rodgers - living the dream until a better offer came along

Well, Celtic was the only team Mo Johnston ever wanted to play for – and we all remember what that led to. I am afraid, the decision of Mr Rodgers to exchange managing the 45th ranked club in Europe, one almost guaranteed European football every year, for the 70th ranked club in Europe, one with just one European campaign in the last five years, demonstrates just how much of a football backwater Scotland is these days. It is apparently not only Scots who see the High Road to England as leading to a pot of gold.

Personally, I give Rodgers about 18 months at Leicester, then he will be looking for a new job. Again personally, I think City went for the wrong Scottish manager. Had I been them, I'd have gone for the perhaps more-able but less high-profile option: Kilmarnock's Stevie Clarke. I reckon Clarke would have been the better fit.

Apparently, Neil Lennon is being lined-up to succeed Rodgers, at least until the end of the season, after which, who knows. I dare say, even as I type, the churnalists and stenographers of the two Glasgow-published red tops are sitting down together in some Merchant City cafe-bar or coffee house, discussing how they will spin it regarding Celtic interest in Stevie Clarke, before deciding which improbable foreign coaches names they can throw into the click bait mix.

This situation is tailor-made for the red-top rottweilers, they can let their fevered imaginations run riot, and it will save them focusing on the realities of what a shite hole Scottish football currently is.

But, spare a thought for wee Jamesie Traynor, who now has to really up his game, to stop Celtic dominating the back pages for the remainder of the season. Still, it might stop somebody really looking into the impending disaster of Rangers' finances under the Glib and Shameless Liar.

CAN I suggest, you search out the You Tube footage of Auchinleck Talbot's 3-0 Macron Scottish Junior Cup win over Pollok, at Newlandsfield Park, on Saturday.

It will be worth the browsing time, to see two goal of the season contenders in one game. I refer to Talbot's opener, fairly whacked home by full back Gordon Pope, and their clinching third goal, knocked-in from just inside his own half, by Stephen Wilson.

 Stephen Wilson - his goal at Pollok is worth searching out

The 'Bot machine is revving-up nicely as we approach the end of the season, and I reckon they will again be seen in the final this season.

That win at Pollok took them into the semi-finals, where they were joined by Largs Thistle, who crushed Kilwinning Rangers 5-0, and Lochee United, who won 2-0 at Troon. The fourth quarter-final will require a replay, after Hurlford United and Clydebank drew 1-1 at Blair Park on Saturday.

I think I shall write to Tom Johnston, the SJFA Supremo, and suggest he adopt an old idea from the Wimbledon tennis championships. Back in the day, the championships went ahead as usual, to produce a winner. Only, that winner was not declared Champion, until he had beaten the reigning Champion, in what was called the Challenge Round. The reigning Champion was not back then required to actually defend his title from round one, merely to wait for a Challenger to emerge.

Why not do that in the Junior Cup? Play down to a winner, who would then challenge Talbot for ownership of the big trophy.

WHAT ABOUT that over-rated, over-paid Chelsea goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalga, refusing to be subbed on Sunday? I can just see really strong characters such as Harry Gregg, Ray Clemence, Peter Shilton, Peter Schmeichel or Hamish McAlpine having tried that with Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson or Jim McLean.

They would have found themselves, as Jim Leighton did, doing the loan rounds of lesser clubs until they had got themselves a transfer, banished to football's equivalent of that old Outer Mongolian power station, to which fallen Soviet politicians were sent.

 Kepa Arrizabalga - lucky he's dealing with a weak manager

Football's balance of power between players and managers has now surely swung too far in favour of the player, if he is not summarily dropped. Money has ruined the game, but, we knew that any way.

With any of the legendary bosses I have named, the game would not have resumed until the goalie was properly benched. I just wonder what the correct protocol for the incident was. If the manager insisted to the referee: “I wish to make a substitution and that is the guy I want off;” then the goalkeeper still refused to go.

Might the referee then have to red card him – probably by cautioning him for delaying the game; then cautioning him again if he still refused to go – thereby triggering a second yellow and a red card. The manager would then, however, have to haul off an outfield player to put-on his second goalkeeper.

That would be an interesting subject for the old: “You are the referee” column.

JOHN VALENTINE died this week. If you don't know the name, you should. John was the unfortunate Rangers centre-half who carried the can for “Hampden In The Sun,” Celtic's 7-1 League Cup win in 1957.

The late John Valentine - icture courtesy of Easton Thain

As such, he is along with poor Frank Haffey – who carried the can for Scotland's 3-9 loss to England, at Wembley in 1961, one of the two biggest victims of being in the wrong position, in the wrong game.

Valentine, who had won Amateur Scotland caps as a member of the last Queen's Park side to grace the top flight of Scottish football, was bought by Rangers to replace the retired George Young and the sine die suspended Willie Woodburn as their centre-half.

His first game for Rangers was in the 1957 Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup final, at Hampden, in which he helped his new club beat his old one. His tenth and final game was that League Cup Final, back at Hampden.

After it, he was banished to the Reserves and quickly off-loaded to St Johnstone, whom he would captain to the Second Division title.

Valentine was a graduate of Glasgow University, and on graduating, he joined the Civil Service, in the Department of Agriculture, eventually moving back to his native Moray First area, and retiring to Inverness.

Rangers treated him badly, I interviewed him once – he was a total gentleman.

Ending Sectarianism – Part Two

YESTERDAY, in part one of my thinking on this serious issue, I brought up the thorny subject of banning the bigots. I repeat what I said then, Rangers know who 86% of their home attendance are – the 43,000-plus season ticket holders.

Celtic, with 52,000 season ticket holders, also have the names of 86% of their fans on-file. So, if unacceptable behaviour starts at either ground, both clubs should be able to identify most of the miscreants.

But, to really be able to enforce “Strict Liability”: holding the clubs responsible for the bad behaviour of their fans – the big stick seen by many as the best means of ending bigotry and sectarianism in football - I believe the clubs (and not just the Big Two, there are pockets of loonies elsewhere) have to come-up with a different relationship with their fan base.

Strict Liability is seen as the golden ticket in ending sectarianism and bigotry. It is certainly a means to this end, but, while I believe it would help, SL is not the only answer. To get rid of sectarianism and bigotry from Scotland, will need government initiative and leadership, which will not be forthcoming in the short term.

I live in hope of Independence and a Scotland, freed from the malign influence of Westminster, becoming an open, outward, more-equal society. I fear, however, we will need to wait for Independence and the inevitable sort-out which will follow this. Ending sectarianism will not, however, be a priority in setting-up this new, Independent Scotland.

Three Hundred Years and more of being treated as an English colony, rather than as an equal partner in the United Kingdom has left a few more-serious problems than eliminating sectarianism to be sorted our first.

We frequently see, cited as something which would help, would be the ending of segregated schooling, whereby, Roman Catholic children are educated separately from Protestant, Muslin, Hindu or other children.

This was certainly a good thing, perhaps, 100 years ago, but, 21^st century Scotland is different from 20^th century Scotland. Perhaps it is time for education to be secularised – ie, religion is not mentioned other than perhaps in the context of History.

If parents wanted their children to have an upbringing, based around a particular religion, then such religious education ought to be done in the home, after school, and paid-for by the parents and their chosen religious organisation.

That might help, but, let's be honest: “bitter orange bastards” and “plastic Paddies” would still exist and still spread their particular religious poison.

So, back to the fitba, and Strict Liability.

We hear a lot about: “Fan Ownership”, or, at the very least, the fans – the people who buy the replica shirts and merchandise, who spend their spare cash following their team around, at home and abroad. But, I often think football pays lip service to this, until the excrement collides with the air circulation apparatus, then, when all other avenues have been explored and dismissed, they (the “blazers” running the clubs) will, with utmost reluctance, turn to the fans for help.

Sport's ultimate example of fan-ownership is the Green Bay Packers of American Football's NFL. The Packers are owned by their fans, in their case, all 360,760 of them,who together own the 5,011,558 shares in the team.

Each share, in reality worth 3 cents, is valued at 250 dollars. They cannot be traded or sold at any price other than face value; no individual share holder can own more than 200,000 shares.

The reality is, there is no value in owning more than one Packers' share.

• You get your share certificate, to hang on your office or living room wall.
  
  
• You get the right to attend the annual stock holders-only Open Day at Lambeau Field at the start of each season.
  
  
• You get access to the “stock holders-only merchandising.
  
  
• You get to participate in the annual election of the governing board
  
  
• You get to ask questions of the Chief Executive Officer, the guy who actually runs the Packers.

But, the reality is, he runs the show and is free to take on-board or ignore your suggestions, and, so-long as the Packers are doing well, his job is safe.

American business and sport is different from business and sport in the UK. Could a Packers-style club work in Scotland? Would it be allowed to work in Scotland?

But, if the real fans, the season ticket-holders and so forth, were able to buy into a team, they could be “persuaded”, by possibly losing their stock holder's privileges to be better behaved. If clubs were to be subject to Strict Liability, it stands to reason, so too should the stock-holding fans.

There is, naturally, deep scepticism if “self-policing” of fans would work under the current situation, but, I reckon, if the fans were stock-holders, subject to being part of the concept of Strict Liability, self-policing would work.

Unless the fan base is brought inside the overall club “tent”, subjecting them to Strict Liability cannot work. Give them benefits, involve them, but, make it clear, these benefits and inclusions come at a price, and it will work.

The Celtic fan base let themselves down at Rugby Park last Sunday. I insist, given the limited number of away fan places available at Rugby Park, Celtic MUST know which of their fans were there. If the club held photograph backed membership details, identification of those who invaded the park, threw that coin at Kris Boyd and tossed that flare onto the park would be simpler.

The club surely also knows which body of fans, or supporters club, had its seats in which part of the stand, so, if particular individual fans could not be easily identified, particular groups of fans could be. These groups could be temporarily banned: pour encourager les autres.

A few bans for groups, and the lunatic fringe would quickly be cut back, because the responsible fans would soon become tired of missing matches, and tell the loonies to get lost.

Sectarianism Could Be Quickly Ended - If The Will Was There

THE BACKGROUND noise in Scottish football this week has been the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the usual suspects – as they defend the indefensible – the disgusting sectarian abuse which Stevie Clarke, the Kilmarnock manager, was forced to endure at Ibrox on Wednesday night.

 Stevie Clarke - was right to speak-out

Why, we even had the unedifying spectacle of Rangers supremo, Dave King – you know, the man described by a South African judge as: “A glib and shameless liar,” glibly and shamelessly assuring the compliant stenographers and churnalists of the tame Glasgow media that: Rangers will do all they can to stamp out this kind of behaviour. Aye right.

I first set foot inside Ibrox in 1960, a section of their support relished being: “Up to our knees in Fenian blood,” and described everyone not of the blood red, white and blue as: “dirty Fenian bastards,” back then. There was nothing remotely new or original about the abuse Clarke suffered.

What is new and unsettling is, the current regime at Ibrox, like the one before it, presided over by Charles Green, appears to the non-aligned, to be pandering to the lowest common denominator among Ra Peepil, and almost encouraging such sectarian misbehaviour.

Given that, nearly 60 years ago, when I first entered Ibrox to watch football, anti-Catholic institutionalised bigotry was far-more prevalent in mainstream Scottish society than today: for instance, the likes of the young Paul McBride QC, would have found it far-harder to get into the College of Advocate than he eventually did some two or three decades later. So, maybe we have come some ways down the road in that sectarian bigotry is now more-obvious around Ibrox than in general life Scottish life.

Of course, the GASL (Glib and Shameless Liar) knows he can say what he likes about rooting-out and ending bigotry around his club, he will never be held to account by the supine Scottish press. He might bewail how difficult it might be to end sectarianism, but, he would be glibly and shamelessly telling lies.

Rangers could end sectarianism and bigotry at Ibrox fairly quickly, if they genuinely wanted to. And here's how.

Rangers claim to have over 43,000 season ticket holders – which is equivalent to 86% of the capacity of Ibrox. If we assume, having made the commitment to support the club, these are the fans most-likely to turn up at every game, we have to assume – 86% of the fans at every game are season ticket holders, and known to the club.

Therefore, Rangers may not know the identity of every fan inside the ground on any given night – but they know who 86% of them are.

These fans have paid for their seat, so, whether or not they turn up, Rangers have the cash. So, whenever there is an outbreak of sectarian singing or abuse at the ground, the club simply says, something like: “Following the outbreak of unacceptable behaviour at the game between Rangers and X, the following ten per cent of our season ticket holders will lose season ticket holder privileges for the next three games,” this is followed by a list of the suspended season ticket holders being published.

I don't think it would take too many matches, before sectarian singing was a thing of the past at Rangers. Even if, in fact more-so if, you were one of the season ticket holders who didn't engage in sectarian singing – and, let's be honest, from the noise levels, many do – you would not be too-happy if you were banned for three games, while perhaps, the guy behind you who was singing but, because of the luck of the draw wasn't banned, got it.

I reckon, in very short order, the Rangers support would self-police, single-out the real hard-core bigots who would not shut-up, and they could be permanently banned. The club could also go further and ban some of the “Party” songs.

Of course, singing about being: “Up to our knees in Fenian blood” is totally unacceptable, as is the old FTP chant or add-on to the songs. But, in all honestly, what has 'The Sash' or 'Derry's Walls' got to do with Scottish football, or Scottish history for that matter? Get shot.

An Gorta Mor – the Irish Famine of 1845 to 1849 is held up as the reason so-many Irish left the Emerald Isle, many to settle in the East End of Glasgow. From the ranks of those displaced persons, arose Celtic Football Club in 1888.

Paddy left Ireland as a babe-in-arms, in 1849. By 1888, when Celtic was formed, he was 39, perhaps married and living in poverty in the East End of Glasgow, he is still pure Irish. His son, born that year is first-generation Scots-Irish. His son, born say in 1918 is second-generation Scots-Irish; his son, born in 1949 is third-generation Scots-Irish; his son, both in 1979 is fourth-generation Scots-Irish.

His son, perhaps a member of the Green Brigade, is therefore fifth-generation Scots-Irish, far-more Scottish than Irish. He was born in a Scottish National Health Service hospital, he has grown-up under the welfare state and enjoys a quality of life which his great-great-grandfather, that babe-in-arms who arrived in Glasgow in 1849 could never have imagined.

Scots wonder, why does he chant “Up the RA,” in support of a terrorist organisation vilified even in Ireland? Why does he so-lustily sing Amhran na bhFiann (The Soldier's Song)? Only a small percentage of him is “Irish”, is it any wonder so-many Scots, and not just Rangers supporters call him a “Plastic Paddy”?

The Celtic club management trade shamelessly on their Irish heritage, and, while there is nothing wrong with remembering who you are and where you came from, come on:

• Celtic, your ground is in Glasgow.
  
  
• The vast majority of your fan base is Scottish.
  
  
• You play in the Scottish Professional Football league?
  
  
• You are under the authority of the Scottish Football Association.
  
  
• You are not an Irish club – you are Scottish.

In part two of this blog – I will expand on what I think can be done to end sectarianism.

The Grass v Plastic argument will probably never end

TERRY VENABLES is now one of football's “Yesterday's Men,” but, back in 1970, he co-authored, with Scottish writer Gordon Williams, one of the few believable examples of football fiction.

Terry Venables - was ahead of the game 40 years ago

'They Used To Play On Grass' was a world away from Roy of the Rovers, or Nick Smith and Arnold Tabbs, or “Limp Along” Leslie – some of the staples of football fiction in the DC Thomson comics of my youth. It is up there with the likes of Bob Crampsey's fitba novel: 'The Manager,' a terrific tale, well-told, except, and it almost seems blasphemous to say this, Bob was a gentleman, and sadly, his attempt to write a sex scene was a rare failure; Brian Glanville's two full-length efforts at the football novel: 'The Rise of Gerry Logan,' and 'Goalkeepers Are Different,' also a stand-out in a fairly thin field.

They used to play on grass was written at a time when Venables was still playing – with Queen's Park Rangers, who were the first senior British team to introduce a plastic pitch, and it forecast the day would come when every pitch was an artificial one.

Now, as we know, the Loftus Road pitch was pretty ropey and was dug-up, to be replaced by a grass one, but, that was nearly half a century ago, and, technology has moved-on somewhat since then.

Allan Massie, best-known as a writer of historical fiction, writes a very erudite Saturday rugby column in The Scotsman. A decade or so back, he introduced me, when reading his column, to an old Borders tradition which, up to then I was unaware of. This was “Aye Beenism,” which can be explained as someone suggests an innovation, only to be told:

“Naw Son, ye cannae dae that, it's aye been and aye will be done this way.” This is particularly true in Borders rugby.

But, events this week have convinced me, Aye Beenism is not restricted to rugby – it happens in football too. That's the only reason I can come up with for PFA Scotland's petition to try to force Hamilton Academical, Kilmarnock and Livingston to rip-up their state-of-the-art 3G and 4G pitches and revert to grass – for what looks to me to be no other good reason than: “It's aye been and aye will be grass we play on.”

ONE AYE BEEN which I am certain Aye Will Be is that we will always be stuck with bad behaviour from a minority of Scottish fans – and, and not only because there are more of them – the majority of these unsavoury incidents will involve followers of the Bigot Brothers.

Equally certainly, even when confronted by pictures, such as those on social media of those broken seats at Rugby Park on Sunday, and the video footage of Kris Boyd being struck on the elbow by a coin, flares being thrown from the Celtic support, and pitch invasions you will find the Celtic Apologists attempting to cling onto the moral high ground and playing down the incidents.

James Kelly MSP, led the campaign to get rid of OBFA - and how have his fellow Celtic fans thanked him?

Remember, it was the “Celtic-minded” MSP James Kelly, who led the ridiculous decision to get shot of OBFA (the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act), without replacing it adequately. Kelly, I have to admit, comes across as an idiot, but, I doubt if he is as daft as those Celtic fans who misbehaved at Rugby Park.

Of course, the self-styled Greatest Fans In The World, will ignore these “minor” incidents and insist: they are not as bad as the other lot. A plague on both their houses.

I have said before, and will surely say again – until the SFA grows a pair and calls the Big Two and their fans to account – there will always be bad behaviour at football.

Strict Liability will go a long way to curing the cancer. If clubs lost points for fan misbehaviour, they would actually start to treat the fans well, give them a bit of a say in how the club is run, and I would suggest – benefit financially and in other ways.

For instance, given the season ticket numbers of both clubs are higher than the maximum capacity of every other club ground in Scotland, Celtic and Rangers HAVE to operation a rationing scheme for tickets to away games.

It stands to reason, season ticket holders and members of official supporters clubs have a far-greater chance of getting tickets for away matches involving the two clubs. Therefore, the clubs have a fairly good idea of which of their fans and supporters clubs are at any game.

So, they must know which season ticket holders and supporters clubs were in the vicinity of the areas from which the flares and coin were thrown and the seats wrecked.

It the clubs tell these clubs/season ticket holders: you were in the vicinity, you're on-suspicion, so, you're not getting into the away ticket ballot for X number of games – the knock-on effect would be on these individuals and clubs to self-police, start identifying the hooligans and getting them banned.

That's what would happen with Strict Liability – and, I am sure, before ere long, Scottish football would be a far happier and safer place.

However, there would need to be a pay-off. Registration of official supporters, allowing the clubs to target their market with offers etc, surely discounts on admissions, club merchandising and so forth would be a bonus for the fans as well.

The clubs accept a lot of love from their fans, without being too giving in the opposite direction. A wee change there might give our clubs a big boost.

MIND you, expecting any kind of meaningful change for the better to come out of the Hampden sixth-floor corridor is asking a lot. That lot up there definitely could not run a menauge.

Scott Brown got a second yellow, then a red for this celebration, but, should have been red-carded earlier

I have yet to hear of any action being taken on Scott Brown's straight-leg take-out of Greg Taylor on Sunday. That challenge was, to me, an even-clearer straight red card than the Allan McGregor challenge on young Ferguson in the Aberdeen v Rangers game. Maybe it's because I'm a goalkeeper, but, unfortunate though the contact was, I saw nothing wrong with McGregor going for and getting the ball as he did. Yet the compliance officer, who has never been closer to the field than the spectating areas, landed him with a two-match ban.

The Brown assault on Taylor was a red card every day of the week, but, nothing happened. Nae wonder Scottish football is in a mess, when assaults like that go unpunished.

I appreciate SFA special by-laws 16.90 and 18.88 ensure, normal rules do not apply to the captains of Rangers and Celtic, but, come on – enough is enough.

Banks Of England Has Gone

ANOTHER of the all-time legends has gone, as, inevitably, time caught-up with Gordon Banks overnight. The tributes have been lengthy and fulsome, and, as a former goalkeeper, albeit of less-stellar status, I felt I had to add my twopence worth.

Gordon Banks OBE – goalkeeper

Born,Sheffield: 30 December, 1937

Died,Stoke-on-Trent: 12 February, 2019, aged 81

GORDON Banks, who was diagnosed as suffering from kidney cancer in 2015, has died after a short illness, is best-known for making: “The Save of the Century,” when he kept out a Pele header during the England v Brazil World Cup game in Mexico in 1970. He may not be the GOAT (Greatest of All-Time) when it comes to goalkeeping, but, he is on the short leet along with Lev Yashin, Dino Zoff, Gianluigi Buffon and Peter Shilton – the man who succeeded him for club and country. And, none of them pulled off a stop to equal that one from Pele.

He back-stopped England's World Cup victory in 1966, when he was named as Goalkeeper of the Tournament, confirming that, at that time, he had overtaken Yashin as the game's leading active custodian.

Banks was born in Sheffield, the son of an illegal street bookmaker. Gordon left school to work in a coal merchant's, a job which he credited with building-up his upper body strength. He had played for Sheffield Schoolboys, but this cut little ice with professional clubs and, as a 15-year-old he was playing non-league football for Millspaugh FC. Alan Hodgkinson was a near-contemporary, but, while “Hodgie” was quickly picked-up by Sheffield United and went on to become a club legend, neither the Blades, nor local rivals Sheffield Wednesday showed any interest in signing Banks.

He was still with them, working as a hod carrier and playing on Saturdays, when he was spotted by Chesterfield, who gave him an extended trial, then put him on a £3 per week contract as a part-time player in 1953.

National Service with the Royal Signals saw him taste success for the first time, as they won the Rhine Cup, and, then, back in England, he helped them to the 1956 FA Youth Cup Final, where they lost to a team of “Busby Babes” which included future England team mate Bobby Charlton.

Chesterfield's Scottish manager, Doug Livingstone, gave him his first team debut in November, 1958, against Colchester United and, after just 26 appearances, in the close season of summer 1959, another Scottish manager, Matt Gillies of Leicester City, paid £7000 to take him to Filbert Street, where he was competing for the first-team slot with two Scots, the long-serving Scotland cap Jock Anderson and Dave MacLaren. By the end of that first season, however, Banks was first-choice.

Many people point to Banks as the founder of Chesterfield's legacy of great goalkeepers. Maybes aye maybes naw. He was not the first England goalkeeper to emerge from the Spirerites, but, his predecessor, the great Sam Hardy, was strutting his stuff for the club half a century before Banks, prior to going off the glory with Liverpool.

Since Banks, Scotland's Jim Brown, capped just the once, against Romania in 1975, has gone on to win a full cap, and, while he never played for the club, Bob Wilson was raised in Chesterfield, while several other former Spirerites, such as Steve Osgrizovic have gone on to have food careers.

Banks went on to play 356 first team games, in eight years at Leicester, during which he was twice a Wembley loser, in the 1961 and 1963 A Cup finals, in which they lost to double-winners Tottenham in the first final and Manchester United in the second. He did, however enjoy League Cup success over Stoke City in 1964.

With Leicester challenging for honours, he began to be spoken-of as a potential England player. He made two Under-23 appearances before Alf Ramsey handed him the first of what would become at that time an England record for a goalkeeper of 73 caps, for the 1963 game against Scotland. Ironically, his final cap was also against Scotland, at Hampden in May, 1972.

Jim Baxter beat him twice as ten-man Scotland won, but, Banks would go on to quickly establish himself as England's undisputed number one for the remainder of the decade and beyond. He faced Scotland 11 times, and, after losing three of his first five games against us, he was never again on the losing side, finishing with a record of: p.11 - w.5 - d.3 - l.3 - goals conceded 13. Mind you, 11 of goals went past him in those first five England v Scotland games. After 1967, we only beat him twice in six games.

He even, in 1967, survived being dropped by Leicester, in favour of the teen aged Peter Shilton, a set-back brought on when Shilton, who always had a firm belief in his ability challenged City to play him or sell him, so the directors decided to keep Shilton and cash-in on the established Banks, who was sold to Stoke City for £50,000.

In retrospect, this was a bargain, since around the same time, West Ham paid £65,000 for Kilmarnock and Scotland 'keeper Bobby Ferguson who, good though he was, was no Banks.

Tony Waddington the Stoke boss built a “Dad's Army” squad of experienced professionals, which proved hard to beat, but, as with Leicester, Banks, at club level, had to be content with just one winner's medal, when they beat Chelsea in the 1972 League Cup final.

The move to Stoke in no way harmed Banks' England prospects as Ramsey continued to see him, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton as the spine of the side which, although they lost to Scotland, at Wembley in 1967, finished third in the 1968 European Championships, went to Mexico for the 1970 World Cup as one of the favourites.

 Gordon Banks makes that save from Pele

That save from Pele in Guadalajara was the highlight of a difficult tournament for Banks, who struggled with the heat and humidity, and was then knocked-out by a bad attack of “Montezuma's Revenge,” and executing the “Mexican two-step between his hotel bed and the toilet as West Germany knocked-out England in an epic quarter-final.

If the Pele save has defined him, it allegedly brought the comment from the watching Bobby Moore: "You're losing it Banksie - at one time you'd have held that," he was also guilty of at least one grave mistake, when, having noticed a peculiarity of how Banks cleared from hand, George Best nicked the ball off him and scored in a Northern Ireland v England international. However, the referee rescued Banks, by deciding Best's foot was dangerously high when he stole the ball off him.

Stand-in Peter Bonetti had to carry the can for England's loss in Leon, and, to this day there is a belief in England, had Banks not been laid low by that stomach bug, they would have won.

The 1972 European Championship qualifiers, in which England again lost to the Germans, would be his final international tournament, as, in October, 1972, returning home from treatment on a shoulder injury, he was involved in a car crash, sustaining injuries which included the loss of his vision in his right eye. He formally retired in the summer of 1973.

He played 250 games for Stoke and when later cameos in the US and Ireland are included, in his 25-year professional career between 1953 and 1978, he played over 750 games.

He did not convert well to coaching, or management, unlike the likes of Hodgkinson or Wilson, he never cashed-in on the fashion for specialist goalkeeping coaches, and, after being sacked by non-league Telford United he largely turned his back on the game.

If playing honours largely eluded him, one World Cup winner's medal (which he later sold for nearly £125,000), two League Cup winner's medals and 73 caps seems a small return for such a great player, he garnered off-field honours.

In addition to his OBE, an honorary doctorate from Keele University, the Freedom of Stoke-on-Trent and being appointed Life President of Stoke City in 2000, in succession to Sir Stanley Matthews, he was an inaugural inductee onto Sheffield's Walk of Fame and won the following honours: FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year: 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971; member, FIFA World Cup All-Star team member, 1966; Daily Express Sportsman of the Year 1971 and 1972; Football Writers Association Footballer of the Year 1972; Football League 100 Legends, 1973; North American Soccer League Goalkeeper of the Year 1977; the FIFA 100, 200; PFA Team of the Century 2007.

There is a statue of Banks outside Stoke City's home ground. It was unveiled by Pele in 2008, but, ignore what you read in many newspaper obituaries, it does not depict THAT save, instead it shows him holding aloft the Jules Rimet Trophy (the World Cup) in 1966.

He met his wife Ursula while doing his National Service in Germany, she survives him with their three children,Julia, Wendy and Robert.

Gordon Banks never had a goalkeeping coach, he worked-out the special needs of the position on his own, and did this very well indeed. Arguments about who is the GOAT will continue, but, when it comes to goalkeeping – Gordon Banks will be a contender.