What A Referee

BEING a Kilmarnock supporter, I was not best pleased when I heard what had transpired at Rugby Park yesterday. Bad enough to lose to Aberdeen, but, to have three men red-carded, well, that's piling embarrassment on top of shame, or, is it the other way round.

Steven McLean upsetting Kilmarnock yesterday

Apparently referee Steven McLean “Had a Kazakhstan,” a performance so bad as to almost defy description. OK, officials, like players, are not immune from a bad day at the office. As our American cousins say: “Shit happens,” and Killie and McLean appear to have been caught in a shit storm yesterday.

Now, of particular concern to we older Kilmarnock fans is the fact, Steven's dad Stuart is a club legend, one of the all-time, long-serving greats of the club. So, maybe, we feel, as the son of a legend, Steven should also be a fan and ought to cut Killie some slack.

Sadly, unless of course his allegiance is to either half of the Bigot Brothers, bias, even sub-conscious bias is not allowed a Scottish referee. The unwritten code of Scottish football is: “Honest refereeing mistakes only ever happen in games involving the Old Firm.” For everyone else, it is a case of: suck it up suckers.

Having, as I have, spent a lot of time covering rugby, I am well aware of one of the differences in that code. Nearly every rugby referee has started off in a rugby club, so club affiliations are known. Indeed, until fairly recently, match officials were identified by their club of origin. The great Allan Hosie for instance was always: “Mr A Hosie (Hillhead HSFP), while the equally great Jim Fleming was always: “Mr J Fleming (Boroughmuir).”

Today, the top officials are identified as: “SRU” if they are on the Union's High Performance List, or by which of the Regional refereeing societies to which they belong. But, it always has been, and still is, possible for a rugby referee to officiate in games involving his home club.

Generally this works well, however, just occasionally, an official in-charge of a game involving his home club has appeared to perhaps over-compensate for that known allegiance. Indeed, two or three years ago, I suggested to one top Scottish referee that he ought perhaps to excuse himself if rostered to officiate at his home club, since I had detected what I thought was him offering the opposition a leniency around the breakdown, not afforded “his” club. To his credit, he has not officiated at the club since, and nobody holds this against him.

Perhaps this is the answer for Steven McLean; for him to tell the SFA not to schedule him for any Kilmarnock games. I say this because, I believe there may be an element of over-compensation in how he referees their games.

Certainly, I do not see anything happening – other than needless pain for the club, if Kilmarnock were to tell the SFA: “We will not accept Mr McLean as a match referee again.” In fact, knowing how their minds work on the sixth floor at Hampden, Killie would probably find Steven rostered to referee every game they played.

There is also a growing belief that Aberdeen are bringing the old Auchinleck Talbot tactic of .extreme intimidation into the senior game. Back in the Willie Knox era, Talbot were the masters of intimidating and winding-up the opposition until these opponents cracked and went too-far, in which case, the Talbot players did their dying swan acts, and the referee was surrounded by a lynching party of players in black and gold, demanding the immediate expulsion of the opposition offender.

Aberdeen are now getting that reputation and certainly, in their last two games, they have put it about a bit to good effect. Unfortunately for them, they picked on Celtic for one such display of aggressive behaviour, only to find, Craig Thomson was sticking to the script and having none of their nonsense, whereas, at Rugby Park, Steven McLean appears to have largely bought it.

What's the answer? Well, Steven Clarke could always try the old Jock Stein tactic of reminding his players, stay out of the bother and don't give the referee an excuse to make a mistake which might cost you.

WE ARE now at that time of any year which the churnalists and stenographers of the mainstream football-writing media love, when they can speculate ad infinitum on who is going to inherit a managerial vacancy.

Scot Gemmill - ante-post favourite for the Scotland job

This of course, is the third biggest job in management in Scotland – the National Team Manager/Head Coach role. I checked-out “The Sack Race” website, which offers a field of 34 potential managers, at odds varying from 6/4 out to 150/1.

One or two of these “runners” at big odds are, I would suggest, purely click bait. I do not see the likes of Harry Redknapp, Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Walter Smith or Neil Lennon being realistic candidates.

Similarly, I cannot wait for the reaction of the fans with lap tops to a return for Gordon Strachan, who is a 50/1 shot in the betting; given the part the fitba writers played in getting him sacked after he had overseen a definite improvement in our performances. In any case, the wee ginger one didn't exactly have the easiest of relationships with the scribblers.

Scot Gemmill – who is the identikit SFA insider, is the ante-post favourite at 6/4; second favourite is Killie boss Stevie Clarke at 2/1, followed by David Moyes at 8/1 and Slavan Bilic at 12/1, the same odds as Derek McInnes.

As I have said, often, it matters not a jot who gets the job, until we change the whole system, and start to promote native talent, we will get nowhere.

Who's Next For Mission Impossible?

ONCE AGAIN, as Alex McLeish joins the long line of sacked Scotland managers, the real culprits in the nation which gave football shape's plunge into insignificance appear to be getting off Scot free.

 Alex McLeish has gone - who's next?

The stumble bums, time-servers, numpties and clowns who make the big decisions in their sixth-floor lair at Hampden will assure us: “Lessons will be learned, we will scour the world for the right man to get Scotland back to where we want to be.....blah de blah de blah de blah. The reality is, not a lot will happen and we will continue to be among the also-rans of world football.

I have written this before, and will doubtless do so again, but, the fact is the overall FIFA rankings do not matter a jot, what does matter is our European ranking.

Right now, Scotland is ranked 44 in the world, 26 in Europe. Let me put it this way, Scotland is the Montrose of European international football, except, with the best will in the world, the Gable Endies have never been anything other than make weights and also-rans in our national game. Time was, we mattered in the game – this is no longer the case.

Results under McLeish were unsatisfactory, well, take a look at these tables:

Table One

Manager	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Wins %
Ormond	12	9	2	1	75
Stein 2	12	7	2	3	58.3
Docherty	12	7	2	3	58.3
McColl	12	6	3	3	50
C Brown	12	5	5	2	41.7
Levein	12	5	4	3	41.7
Strachan	12	5	4	3	41.7
McLeish 2	12	5	0	7	41.7
Roxburgh	12	4	3	5	33.3
MacLeod	12	4	3	5	33.3
Vogts	12	3	3	6	25
Beattie 2	12	3	3	6	25
Burley	12	3	2	7	25
B Brown	12	2	3	7	16.7

Table Two

Season	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Wins %
2009-10	6	2	0	4	33.3
2010-11	10	4	1	5	40
2011-12	8	4	2	2	50
2012-13	10	4	2	4	40
2013-14	7	3	2	2	42.9
2014-15	9	5	2	2	55.6
2015-16	8	3	1	4	37.5
2016-17	7	2	3	2	28.6
2017-18	9	4	1	4	44.4
2018-19	8	4	0	4	50
Decade	82	35	14	33	42.7

Table Three

Decade	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Wins %
1950s	67	32	16	19	47.8
1960s	63	29	13	21	46
2010s	82	35	14	33	42.7
1970s	88	37	19	32	42.1
1990s	89	37	22	30	41.6
1940s	17	7	3	7	41.2
1980s	88	35	25	28	39.8
2000s	85	33	20	32	38.8
Post WW2	579	245	132	202	42.3

Table One, above, is a league table of the results of the final 12 games (the number of matches Alex McLeish had as National Team Manager during his second spell in the job), those Scotland team managers who have been in charge for that, or a greater number of games.

In that table, McLeish is in joint fifth place when it comes to his wins percentage over that 12 game period. By the way, the average wins percentage for the 14 managers in he table is 40.1%.

 Willie Ormond

Willie Ormond comfortably tops that table, however, the first of Willie's last dozen games, was the 1-1 draw with Romania in Bucharest, in June, 1975. This game saw Willie Miller's debut and was our first match after: “Stewart Kennedy's Match,” the 1-5 Wembley loss to England. On the back of those two results, some of the “Fans With Typewriters” were calling for Willie to be sacked, and the SFA International Committee of the time is understood to have discussed the manager's position, before sticking with Willie.

Table Two shows Scotland's wins percentage over the past decade. McLeish has been sacked because we are having a poor season – a perception caused by two losses, to Israel and Kazakhstan, yet, it is our joint second winningest season (sorry to use that Americanism) in the decade. On that basis, sacking McLeish makes little sense.

Table Three shows our wins percentage over the eight decades since the end of World War 2, and looking at that table, the current decade, when we are supposedly a a low ebb, is actually our third-most-successful decade in those eight periods.

Sure, we were terrible in the first decade of this third millennium, but, we are turning the corner. Over the current decade, we have actually won more games than we did in the supposedly golden decade of the 1970s. We are winning more games than we did in the 1980s, when we qualified for three World Cup Finals, and in the 1990s, when we went to two European Championships and one World Cup Final tournaments.

The fact is, we have been average since at least the end of World War 2. But, we refuse to believe this to be fact. We continue to see ourselves as a great football nation, which we obviously are not, and have not been since before Germany marched into Poland in 1939.

Sacking Alex McLeish might be the right thing to do, but, I have my doubts. Because, there are no guarantees that whoever is next to pick-up the poisoned chalice of carrying the unrealistic football hopes of the nation, can lift us out of the slough of poor performances which have sucked us down for decades.

And, the best, perhaps the only means by which we can do this, is to renew things, beginning with a cull of the numpties along the sixth floor corridor at Hampden.

I said at the start of this post, that Scotland was the Montrose of European international football; that is maybe a bit unfair on Montrose, since they have been promoted in the recent past and have modernised Links Park to the extent of installing a 3G pitch. Modernising is something Hampden does not appear to do well. Also, in this, their 140^th year, the Gable Endies have promotion ambitions via the end-of-season play-offs.

Can we be sure there is any ambition beyond keeping their own noses in the trough, along that sixth-floor Hampden corridor?

Montrose's Chairman John Crawford and his fellow directors, manager Stewart Petrie and the players, and their hardy but small body of devoted fans all want the best for their club, but, in my honest opinion, with all due respect to them, is that clubs such as Montrose have no place in “Senior” football.

True 'Senior' clubs should meet certain standards as to:

• an all-seater stadium of a certain minimum size
  
  
• they should be full-time
  
  
• their coaches and managers should have minimum, industry-recognised qualifications.

Clubs such as Montrose should be 'Communiy Clubs' – concentrating on developing young, local talent to be fed into the 'Senior' ranks, but playing in a minor rather than the major Scottish League. There is maybe a case for an American-style system whereby clubs like Montrose are tied to a bigger club as a feeder side, where young talent can develop.

We need to be looking at the overall structure of our game, or, the guy who takes over from McLeish will – because that structure is wrong – be no closer to reuniting the Scotland support with the joys of being at the Big Show: World Cup and European Championships Finals, than any of the five full-time managers the SFA has employed over the 21 years, 11 qualifying campaigns and 102 qualifying games since 23 June, 1989, our last match on football's biggest stage, that bad loss to Morocco.

Six players: Kenny Miller, Gary Caldwell, Darren Fletcher, Scot Brown, Alan Hutton and Craig Gordon have all, during these fallow years on the outside looking in, amassed 50 caps, but never got to strut their stuff on the biggest stage of all.

They, and the fans who wished to go and watch them there were not so-much let down by various sacked managers, but by a system of governing the game and men at the very top who, quite clearly, were not fit for purpose.

It is past time for a change, not of manager, but of culture and top officials.

Scott Brown Is Innocent - Aye Right!!

SINCE NOBODY ELSE in the media, mainstream or new wave has so-far been bothered, I will step-up to the plate and say it:

NEIL LENNON – YOU ARE TALKING SHITE

I refer, in making this accusation, to his spirited defence of Scott Brown, after the Celtic captain was informed he would be dragged up before the Hampden beaks for his part in the shenanigans at Celtic Park on Sunday.

But, in what alternative.parallel universe has Broonie “Got nothing to defend himself for,” to quote Neil's widely-reported comments following the news of Brown being reported. You will surely not find too-many people outside the Celtic Family who will back wee Neil's assertion that Broonie is facing: “trumped-up charges.”

Neil Lennon

To bring “The Donald” into it is hardly surprising. Some elements of the Celtic Family, and, in the interests of fairness, the Capulets to their Montgues across the city - “Fake News” has been a staple of coverage of the Bigot Brothers for the past century and more.

I know managers tend to suffer from selective vision and recall when the handbags come out and their players are being accused of nefarious behaviour. Neil, in trying to defend Broonie, is sticking to the established protocol.

But, come-on, where is it acceptable to – as Brown did – click a notoriously easy-to-wind-up opponent's heels, thereby causing said opponent to whack him and get himself sent-off? Broonie's dying swan, clutching his face, after Alfredo Morelos' arm caught him under the chin was also, almost, but not quite in the legendary Rivaldo class, from the 2002 World Cup. Then, he had no need to get involved with Ryan Kent, later in the game.

He was certainly in the vicinity in the post-match flare-up. Now, Broonie might emerge from the whole disciplinary system cleared of all wrong-doing, but, he is certainly an accessory after the fact in terms of the bad behaviour, and he should at the very least be called-in for questioning, to help the SFA “police” with their enquiries.

Rangers didn't emerge from this latest shame game with much credit, however, it is clear, while the Ibrox club has accepted the sentences imposed on Morelos, Kent, Andy Halliday and manager Steven Gerrard and got on with things. There is wee Neil, doing him and his clubs no favours with his childish: “It wisnae us,” arguments.

What's that they say about Celtic: “Always cheated, never defeated since 1888.”

That club, and its temporary manager, really do need to grow-up. I would suggest, if Broonie had acted as he consistently has over the years, under Sir Robert Kelly's chairmanship of the club, or Jock Stein's term as manager, at the very least, he would not be Celtic captain. In fact, I suspect, he would have been moved-on, lang syne.

Of course, Neil Lennon's comments were aired in an interview with Celtic TV, a media outlet where he is never going to be exposed to the normal level of scrutiny and incisive interrogation – even in the goldfish bowl of Glasgow football coverage, where the first rule for journalists is still: “don't upset the Old Firm.”

Just a wee thought for referees and he guys running Scottish fitba:

When a player goes down clutching his face, as Broonie did following the Morelos clash, referees must insist the player goes off to undergo a rugby-style HIA (head injury assessment) examination. I reckon, that would quickly eliminate play-acting such as some observers believe Broonie indulged-in on Sunday.

IN A similar vein, big Craig Levein has been mouthing-off about Scottish Football “losing its competitive edge,” before adding: “We have to be very careful that we don't sanitise the football so much in Scotland that it becomes what the fans don't want to see.”

Of course, “get tore-in, rummel 'em up and GERRINTAERUM,” are familiar appeals from the terraces in Scotland. We like our fitba with a generous side dish of blood and snotters; we relish the hard men, and the wind-up merchants.

Craig Levein

Maybe if past National Coaches and SFA High Heid Yins, such as Craig Levein, had insisted on a bit less, sleeves-up, physical football; avoided 4-6-0 and asked for a bit more technical prowess, we would not be 21-years away from our last visit to the Big Show.

As I have been saying for years, “soccer” is the most free-form of the various brands of football: American, Australian Rules, Canadian, Gaelic, Rugby League and Rugby Union – to name the six most-popular. It demands the highest skills level of these six common forms of “football”, and is indeed, at its best: “The Beautiful Game.”

Well, in that case, naebody's braw with blood streaming from a wound. We ought to be demanding higher standards of on-field behaviour than we currently do. We ought to be doing more to protect the ball players. We can surely do that, without taking the competitive edge out of the game.

I HAVE in past blogs, sang the praises of the sports films which are available with a BT Sport subscription. The ESPN 30 for 30 series give a wonderful insight into American collegiate and professional sport.

Well, BT Sport is now beginning to assemble a good catalogue of sports films from this side of the pond, and with nothing worth watching elsewhere the other evening, I watched a fine BT production: Two Tribes, which looked at the Everton v Liverpool rivalry of the 1980s.

What a cast – Alan Hansen, Stevie Nicol, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Graham Sharp, Andy Gray and Pat Nevin from Scotland. Neville Southall and Ian Rush from Wales, Gary Lineker, Peter Reid, Trevor Stevens from England, just some of the names featured.

But the real stars were the fans – from the well-known such as Derek Hatton, to the ordinary Kopites and Goodison Parkers, they were just what you expect from Scousers, funny, knowledgeable, and committed to their club and their city. If you get the chance, watch it, it's a terrific view.

Different Games - Different Attitudes

IT IS one of the oldest cliches in sport: “Rugby is a game for hooligans, played by gentlemen; football is a game for gentlemen, played by hooligans.” Of course, it is pure pish – there are some genuine hooligans in the rugby community, and some absolute gentlemen in the football world, just a there are – to use the 'Chewin' the Fat' description, “Good guys” and “wanks” in all walks of life.

At the weekend, on Saturday, we had Munster's Tadhg Beirne being condemned – everywhere but in Ireland – for a massive piece of “gamesmanship”, during his side's Heineken Champions Cup clash with Edinburgh.

Tadhg Beirne - a real hard man, criticised for milking a foul.

Poor wee Tadhg, all six foot six inches and 17 and a half stones of him, had brushed against Edinburgh prop Pierre Schoemann, who is a mere six foot and half an inch tall, by 18 stones 8 lbs in weight. Neither was moving at maximum velocity, and it was hardly a catch weight contest, but, Beirne collapsed as if taken-out by a sniper, and, after having a look at the TV footage, with the TMO (Television Match Official) Eric Gauzins, referee Pascal Gauzere reversed his earlier decision, to award Edinburgh a penalty. Instead he yellow-carded Schoemann, reversed the penalty he had already awarded Edinburgh. to now favour Munster, who in short order thereafter clinched the game.

Edinburgh made no public comment about Schoemann, but, the word on the streets is, Coach Richard Cockerill did not miss the big South African and hit the wall when he reviewed the match afterwards. Sure, Schoemann suffered a “brain fart” when he stepped into Beirne's path, but, the big Irishman made a ten-course banquet of the contact and got a result.

Scott Brown - a faux hard man, lauded for milking a foul

Then on Sunday, Celtic's Scott Brown stepped across behind Rangers' Alfredo Morelos and had a wee flick at the Colombian's left heel. Morelos stumbled slightly, then lashed out with his left arm, catching Brown across the upper chest/throat area – to see the Celtic captain collapse, holding his face. Red card for Morelos. Job done for Brown.

Brown was later involved in a clash with Rangers' Ryan Kent, and, after the final whistle with another Rangers' player, Andy Halliday – who received a post-game second yellow card, which upgrades to red. Brown, why he was declared a hero by everyone in the Celtic family from the tea wummin right up to Peter Lawwell.

Throw-in an unseemly pitch invasion following Celtic's opening goal, then that melee involving the players post-match and I cannot help but feel, since that well-known member of the Celtic Family, James Kelly MSP managed to persuade the forces of Unionism and Green issues to unite to revoke OBFA (the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act), it would be Kismet, if Police Scotland was to use that once-popular catch-all of “Conduct liable to cause a breach of the peace” to nail Broonie, and one or two others who appear to have got away with - if not murder – certainly Offensive Behaviour at Football..

Scott Brown is Celtic captain; he is a former Scotland captain; he is already on the SFA's Roll of Honour of players with 50 or more caps. As such, he ought to be a role model for youngsters; he should be setting an example when it comes to behaviour and professionalism – I think, on Sunday, he fell a long way short of what might be expected of a man in his position.

To finish my comparison between the behaviour of Tadhg Beirne - who is a genuine hard man, and Scott Brown, who is labouring under the illusion that he is one too. The genuine hard man was roundly condemnded for his actions, the pretendy one was lauded. I know which brand of football has the higher standards. 

Still, the SFA Compliance Officer might yet decide, Broonie was far from innocent in the whole unseemly kerfuffle, but, I am not holding my breath on that one, or on both clubs – particularly Rangers – being called-in, heavily fined and told to get their employees sorted-out. Pronto.

This latest demonstration of unseemly behaviour from the fans and players of our two biggest clubs comes hard on the heels of the latest occurrence of public hand-washing from the guys who run our football – the announcement that only three of the 42 senior clubs were ready to accept “Strict Liability” for the bad behaviour of their fans.

That is a shocking dereliction of duty. If a public house was the regular site of unacceptable behaviour by its patrons, the Licencing Court would not be long in removing its licence and shutting it down – why should football clubs be immune from such sanctions?

At least, all the nonsense which has followed Sunday's game has fairly taken the heat off the SFA and Alex McLeish, which is a blessing.

MEANWHILE, elsewhere, real fitba carries on. Perhaps the result of the weekend, although it was perhaps only unexpected in the final result, but, Auchinleck Talbot already have one foot in the Macron Scottish Junior Cup Final.

In Saturday's first legs of the semi-finals, the Mighty 'Bot travelled up to face Lochee United, in Dundee, in what was a reprise of last season's semi. The result – a 4-1 win for Talbot and, effectively, game over.

Tabot's Tucker Sloan - his team are already half-way to this year's final

Aye Lochee might do a Kilmarnock and overturn a four-goal deficit. But, at Beechwood – if that happens, I will start supporting Cumnock. Talbot don't often lose at home, far less lose by the four clear goals Lochee will need.

So I suppose, Liddell's Coaches of Auchinleck can start to firm-up all those preliminary orders for coaches to the final, and the black and gold flags and bunting will once again be looked-out all round the village. Mind you, one or two flags never seem to come down, as I noticed when passing through Auchinleck on Sunday.

The 2019 final looks like being a repeat of last year's. Hurlford United, caught by the ultimate extra time sucker punch last year, will entertain Largs Thistle in the second leg of that semi on Saturday.

And, by taking a 2-2 draw back home to Blair Park, you have to fancy 'Ford to see-out the tie and give themselves a chance of revenge.

Mind you, in saying that, I might be prematurely writing-off Largs. This is, after all the 25^th anniversary of their only previous Scottish Cup win, when they beat Glenafton on a split decision after what is now known as: “The Battle of Ibrox”, or, “The Shame Game.” What better way to mark the anniversary, than by being in this season's big show-down.