A Job For Television's Sewermen Perhaps

LIKE MANY a Scot, I have grown weary of the antics of Forces of Darkness within Scottish football, those followers of the two largest Glasgow-based clubs, who glory in the fact: “No one likes us, and we don't care.”

Two cheeks of the same erse

Of course, the largest and most vociferous of the two groups at making that ludicrous claim, have, quite rightly copped a good deal of flak for their antics at Rugby Park on Sunday. I mean, how big a bam do you need to be to bring down a roof on top of your own disable fans?

However, they immediately went to their default position - “a big boy or boys did it and ran away; it wisnae us Mr. It was all the fault of Kilmarnock FC, East Ayrshire Council, Police Scotland, the SPFL, the SFA, yon Nicola Sturgeon – everyone but the Rangers support. They are paragons of virtue and staunch, Protestant good behaviour, particularly on the Sabbath, and would never break the requirement to behave with dignity and propriety on the Lord's Day. Aye Right!! As we say in these parts.

The behaviour of the Ibrox Lunatic Fringe at Rugby Park immediately, in the course of the first game of the new league season, surrendered the moral high ground to their chums across the city, and the usual suspects in The Celtic Family, with The Donegal Blogger in the van, were quickly onto the story – like hyena at a kill.

These guardians of good order and football fans discipline, these paragons of virtue, however, have dragged their feet somewhat, in calling-out another, albeit less-serious occurrence of bad behaviour on Sunday, when a detachment of the Green Brigade apparently took themselves off on a wee day trip to East Kilbride, to thoroughly abuse the Rangers Women's team, following their game with their Celtic rivals.

Bad enough the poison surrounds games between male sides representing the Bigot Brothers, but, when that poison is transferred across to the women's game – it is maybe time for the SFA to issue a serious ultimatum to the two clubs: sort your fan base out, or, we will.

Hit them where it hurts, in their pockets, by bringing-in strict liability.

• The first time a club's support misbehaves, they have to play their next home match behind closed doors.
  
  
• The second time – it's a two-game fan ban
  
  
• The third time – it's a four-game fan ban
  
  
• Each subsequent occasion – the fan ban doubles in length.
  
  

I reckon, between the damage this would do to the clubs' finances, and the self-policing of their decent supporters, and they have many, then in short order, the bams would be removed from the game.

Of course bigotry and sectarianism does not begin at the turnstiles and end on the way out at time-up, it is learned behaviour, which starts at home. It is Scottish society's problem, and it has been around for a long, long time. It will take generations to wipe it out, but, at least, we can in a relatively short time, get rid of it from football.

Provided the will is there.

I knew there was a drawback.

SCOTT McKENNA has, in fairly short order, established himself in the Scotland national side. He has now played in 12 of our last 14 internationals, so, by any measure, he is a current first pick – and he is still only 22 years of age, a “baby” in central defender terms.

Scott McKenna - his head has been turned

But now, on the starting line of the new season, he wants to leave Aberdeen, to test himself in the choppier waters of English football. Old cynic that I am, I smell the malign hand of an agent on the make behind this one.

Right now, McKenna is “hot property,” maybe the agent feels he can get him a move before the English transfer window closes. However, you can bet, it will more-likely be to a Championship than a Premiership side, the top sides down south no longer raid Scotland when they need a good player: these days are past.

They do not rate our players, and Aberdeen will, albeit reluctantly, be forced to let go a guy who has proved himself in the international arena. I do not think they need to sell him, however, even with a new ground to pay for.

But, if they feel they do need the money, can I remind the Aberdeen board, Harry Maguire, a 26-year-old who has played just eight more internationals than McKenna, was sold for £80 million this month. That is now the going rate for British defenders with a proven international pedigree.

Now, I am not suggesting McKenna is worth that transfer fee, but, pro-rata, he has to be worth a bit more than any English Championship side will be willing, or able, to pay for him.

ONE OF the best operators in the field of Scottish Football Writing quit last week. After 27 years, Scott Campbell – Mr Junior Football – left the Scottish Sun.

Scott, pictured left, and his equally-talented wife Margret are, for me, the first couple of Scottish Journalism. Scott is dipping his toe into the sometimes turbulent waters of freelancing, but, while he is best-known for his years of covering the juniors, he has a skills-set beyond most of the mainstream media in Scotland.

Scott is an accomplished writer and sub-editor; he can cover multiple sports and he is an excellent travel writer and popular music critic. The Campbells will not starve.

However, the juniors will miss him.

Having known Scott and Margret since they were both setting-out in the business with what was then the Guthrie Group in Ayrshire, I wish Scott well in freelancing. He managed to walk the tight rope between Talbot and Cumnock – the Montagu and Capulet or Hatfield and McCoy of Scottish football. He will, I am sure, survive and prosper away from Uncle Rupert's fond embrace.

A New Season, But, The Same Old Same Old

MORE THAN 40 years have passed since my sports-writing mentor, the late, great Ian Archer penned the definite description of the Rangers support: “A permanent embarrassment and an occasional disgrace.”

Over-excited Bears

Sadly, regardless of whether you believe the current entity is the continuation of the club born in 1872, or a new club, born in 2012, one thing has not changed, that ability of its following to embarrass and occasionally disgrace the club they follow.

There a section of them were at Rugby Park on Sunday afternoon, “celebrating” their late winner against Kilmarnock, by wrecking the roof of the disabled fans' section – in the process endangering the lives of their less-fortunate fellow fans. And what will happen? Well the way Scottish football works, it will probably all be Kilmarnock's fault – it is never Rangers' fault.

The damage at Rugby Park

That disgraceful episode was not the only part of their behaviour at Rugby Park yesterday which was unacceptable. The Kilmarnock fans' chat rooms are awash with tales of Rangers fans, inside the ground, pushing stewards out of the way to open closed gates from the inside, to allow fellow fans entry – some apparently without tickets.

And, naturally, the sound track to the game was the time-honoured one: they still would prefer to be: “Up to our knees in Fenian blood...etc.”

Now, in this respect, this again is nothing new. I left the small Ayrshire village where I grew up back in 1962, to go to college in Glasgow. I lodged with an uncle and aunt in Springburn, and Uncle Bobby, on my first weekend in the city, decided to take my elder brother – a student at Glasgow University - and I to see Third Lanark v Rangers, at Cathkin Park.

Prior to the game, there was a delay in getting in. Fortunately we had arrived early enough to get in, but, it transpired that, still outside when the roar of the crowd told them the teams had run out, the Rangers support broke down the gates and stampeded in.

All the young boys down were taken down the front and seated on the track, then, when Rangers scored, they stampeded onto the park and police horses had to be deployed to clear the park.

That was August 1962, 57 years ago. Since then, off the top of my head, I can think of:

• A riot at a pre-season friendly with Queen's Park Rangers.
  
  
• A riot at the European Cup Winners Cup semi-final “Battle of Britain” with Wolverhampton Wanderers. (Although, on reflection that was actually in 1961)
  
  
• A riot at the Fairs Cities Cup semi-final with Newcastle United at St James's Park in 1969
  
  
• Barcelona
  
  
• A riot at a Texaco Cup tie in Cheltenham
  
  
• The Scottish Cup final riot of 1980
  
  
• Manchester
  
  

These were just the major rammies in which the Rangerrs' support has been involved over the last seven decades; there have been many other “minor incidents”, plus one or two fines for bad behaviour in Europe.

And, let us not forget, uniquely, Rangers were prevented from defending the Cup Winners Cup, because of their fans' bad behaviour in Barcelona – albeit that riot was not helped by the heavy-handed policing of Franco's foot soldiers.

During this time, “Rangers” has been owned by: the Lawrence family, David Murray, Craig Whyte, Charles Green, and now, Dave King.

Over the same period, Willie Allen, Ernie Walker, Jim Farry, David Taylor, Gordon Smith, Stewart Regan, and now Ian Maxwell have been Secretary or chief Executive of the Scottish Football Association, the SFA.

All these people, plus the many SFA council members and high heid yins have shown a remarkable ability to shrug their shoulders at these serial offenders, wring their hands and ask: “But, whit can ye dae?”

And, by the way, before the usual suspects accuse me of being a: “bitter wee Fenian bastard wi' an agenda;” I am not. Celtic too have a large – to use the time-honoured newspaper phrase - “lunatic fringe,” who seem to think they can misbehave at will. They too have had their issues, particularly in Europe, but, for all the best efforts of the risible “Green Brigade” etc., when it comes to which club has the bigger and more-putrid plook on the countenance of its support – Rangers have it.

And let us not forget, OBFA, The Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, a flawed but worthy attempt to lance the boil was largely brought down by the efforts of Scottish politicians whose allegiance is towards the club in the East End of Glasgow. To them OBFA was acceptable, for as long as it only captured the other side's misdemeanours, once it became clear some of the time-honoured match-day rituals of the guys in green were unacceptable, it was bad law, and had to be got rid of.

I have been saying since OBFA was first opposed, the answer is obvious, “Strict liability,” make the clubs responsible for the behaviour of their fans, but, for some reason, football in general, and the two clubs in particular, oppose this vigorously.

They will quite happily sell their fans replica strips, they will brand anything and everything with club logos and take the money, but, they absolutely refuse to be responsible for the behaviour of the fans they need to keep the clubs alive. This is a classic demonstration of power without responsibility.

There are benefits for the clubs from having a registration of their fan base, but, perhaps this would require them to allow a degree of fans' involvement in the management of the club, and that would never do for the high heid yins, I suppose.

But, look at the situation on occasions such as Rugby Park on Sunday. Rangers have some 40,000 season ticket holders, and their ticket allocation at Rugby Park adds up to about one-tenth of this. So, it is reasonable to expect, the fans who did get tickets for the away end at Rugby Park were pulled from the ranks of the season ticket holders, or at least the official supporters clubs.

Sdo, Rangers had a good idea who was there yesterday, supporting them. It doesn't take a degree in nuclear physics to work out:

• What section of the ground the bother took place in
  
  
• Which season ticket holders or supporters clubs had seats there.
  
  

From that information, you can work-out where the loonies came from. If any individuals were arrested, they could and should be immediately banned, otherwise, letters to the various supporters clubs telling them something like: “there is clear evidence the guys misbehaving came from the section where your members were sitting, please make your members aware of this. They are now on-probation, and any further bad behaviour in the sections where your members are sitting and your club will not receive tickets for away games.”

Make the clubs self-police, get rid of the bad apples and everything will be fine. However, I accept, it will take time to root out the bad guys.”

Also, as I have said before, with modern technology, it is possible to pin-point where the unacceptable singing is coming from. Same thing, warning letters, followed by suspension of season tickets and supporters club allocations and even Ibrox and Celtic Park on match days would quickly become sectarian-free.

However, it also needs the high heid yins along the sixth-floor corridor at Hampden to grow a pair and to start bringing the big two to heel.

• Give them a “clean up your fans' act warning.”
  
  
• If they (the two clubs) don't act – start deducting points
  
  
• And increase the deduction every time it happens
  
  

I am sure, within a season, bad behaviour would be a thing of the past. And, by the way, while they may have more loonies than all the rest put together, the big two are not the only clubs with fans who misbehave – the smaller clubs need to get their acts together too.

OK, I have had my rant, however, sadly, I am not holding my breath for anything worthwhile happening in the short term. After all, when they have been getting away with murder for over a century, the fans of the big two are not going to mend their ways any time soon.

And, the permanent indolence of the “blazers” in dealing with this, is also unlikely to change in the short term.

And, lest we forget, there is the duty of a free press to hold organisations which are not right to account> Aye Right! Apart from my old mucker, that fine Paisley Buddie Bill Leckie, the stenographers and cheer-leaders of the main stream media prefer to turn a blind eye to what goes on around the club, lest the be set upon by the evil emperor Big James T, and have their privileges withdrawn for wrongful hermeneutics.

Enjoy the new season.

Today's Killie Fans Are Doing More Bleating Than Ruby And Angus Ever Managed (and some will not even know who Ruby and Angus were)

THE SQUEALING, bleating and sense of entitlement which has been coming from some Kilmarnock fans since Thursday night's disappointing early exit from Europe, at the hands of Connah's Quay Nomads has been disappointing to an old Rugby Park hand like me.

The way some of the Rugby Parkers are behaving confirms that for some Scots, the wind is always in their faces.

Angus the sheep photo-bombs a Jackie McInally

autograph-signing session - today, some Killie

fans are doing more bleating than Angus ever did 

Can I offer a modicum of perspective to those who are calling for the Manager's head, and saying they will not be back. Those saying: “How dare those Welsh part-timers beat us, the Mighty Killie – have a look at the club's history.

Now, I do not intend to go back to the very start, but, I had a look at how Killie have done since the end of World War II – 74 seasons-worth of performances in the Scottish League. I have not looked at cups, since there is an element of luck involved in cup progress. However, the league is a more-level playing field.

When football resumed at the end of WWII, in season1945-46, Killie finished the first season in 15th place in the 16-club First Division, but, with no relegation that year, they stayed put, only to again finish 15th in season 1946/47 and this time, they did go down.

In 47/8, they finished 6th in the Second Division, 22nd-best in Scotland, before slumping to 12th in that division the following season – leaving the club ranked 27th in Scotland. This is Killie's lowest post-war placing.

The club's average placing in the four post-war seasons of the 1940s, football's “golden Age” in terms of crowds, was 20th. Interestingly, the average attendance over the club's 15 home league games that season 1948-49, there worst in post-war history, was 8902.

In the 1950s, Killie saw the decade split equally – five seasons in each, between the First and Second Divisions, their average finishing place being 14th. Only twice in that decade, in 1956-7 and 1957-8, did they achieve a top six finish.

The 1960s were, of course, Golden Years for Kilmarnock – the decade capped by that League Championship in 1964-65. The club in those years from 1959-60 to 1968-69 finished: second, second, fifth, second, second, first, third, seventh, seventh and fourth for an average finishing position over the decade of third; regular forays into Europe and to the USA, Golden Years indeed.

After that, the only way was down, and the seventies were a turbulent decade for the club, with three relegations and three promotions during the ten years – although, one of the relegations was due to re-organisation, when the Premier Division was introduced in 1975.

Over the decade, however, after a high of seventh in 1969-70, Killie settled down to finish the decade in an average 13th spot, and back in the second tier in Scotland.

Mind you, these were good years, compared to what would follow in the 1980s, as Kilmarnock struggled. The decade began with them back in the top ten, finishing eighth in 1979-80. The next three seasons brought relegation, promotion and relegation again, before the club settled for mid-table mediocrity in the First Division, the middle one of the three senior divisions in Scotland at that time.

They had gone part-time, the board were seemingly short of cash and bereft of ideas and it all came tumbling down in 1988-89, with relegation to the Second Division, the bottom tier of Scottish football. Over the decade, Kilmarnock's average finishing position was as the 15^th best club in Scotland.

But, with the arrival of the Fleeting brothers, Bobby to galvanise the fans from the board room and Jim to bring stability in the dressing room, the long road back began. The immediate priority, getting promoted out of the basement division was achieved. The next two seasons were spent stabilising things before, in season 1993-94, Killie were back in the top flight, ten seasons after leaving it.

Getting established was tough, but, by the end of the decade, Killie were a top four club, they had won the Scottish Cup, got back into Europe and, over the decade, climbed back to being, on average, the 11th best team in Scotland.

The early 2000s saw Killie became Premiership regulars, ninth, fourth, seventh, fourth, tenth, fifth, firth, eleventh and eighth in the ten seasons, for an average placing of sixth, the best since the Golden Years of the 1960s.

There has been, it is true, a bit of slippage over the last decade, with a couple of flirtations with relegation via the end-of-season play-off. However, after Steve Clarke's first-season miracle of finishing fifth, followed by last season's third, expectations are high. Over the past decade, Kilmarnock has on average been the eighth-best team in Scotland.

I ask any Kilmarnock fan – can we reasonably expect much-better? The Bigot Brothers, the two Edinburgh sides, the two Dundee sides and Aberdeen can all surely, with their bigger catchment areas for both fans and sponsorships, can reasonably be expected to do better than us. It might be argued, St Mirren and Motherwell are as well set-up, if not better, than us.

I could probably live with a top eight finish every year, the occasional cup, or European campaign – that is probably as-much as we dare hope for.

So yes, over the past two years, Kilmarnock has punched above its weight category, and, naturally, there is disappointment when things do not go as we had hoped they might.

But, I ask those Killie fans who are fuming at Thursday's result: where would you rather be, where the club is now, or where it was in the 1940s, 1950s, 1970s and 1980s?

Study your club's history, then enjoy today's good days.

Dry Your Eyes Killie Fans - We Have Been In Darker Places

I CAN close my eyes and across the years, I can hear him: “Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! Disaster for Kilmarnock,” because, that's how I imagine dear old, departed and much-missed David Francey might have reacted at full time at Rugby Park last night, as the sun set far-too-soon, on Kilmarnock's European Tour 2019.

David Francey would have had the correct words for last night

Some tour – Kilmarnock to Rhyl and back, exotic or what.

Of course, the troops were not happy, and rightly so, but, the reality is, this is how far Scottish football has fallen, that our teams can no longer treat sides from the Welsh League as mere speed bumps on the road back to being a major force in Europe – this is where we are, down among the barely-living in the European game.

But, I wonder how many of last night's crowd had been there back in the day, when things were really awful for Killie – when the club was part-time and only a handful over 800 fans turned-up to see the club stumble and fall into the bottom tier in the domestic game.

Then, along came Bobby (and Jim) Fleeting, the sinking ship was steadied, the “old” Rugby Park gave way to today's fit-for-purpose all-seater stadium. We had Tommy Burns and Billy Stark. Bobby Williamson won us the Scottish Cup, we have retained our top-flight status, and even won the League Cup under Kenny Shiels.

Some of us, being greedy bar stewards, whose first taste of Rugby Park came in the glory days of Willie Waddell, Frank Beattie, Bertie Black, Andy Kerr, the young Tommy McLean and Davie Sneddon, we want us back there, challenging the Old Firm and competing regularly for the big prizes, but, we appreciate, a 150-year-old escutcheon which bears only the following “battle honours”:

• Scottish League Champions – 1964-65
• Scottish Cup winners – 1919-20; 1928-29; 1996-97
• Scottish League Cup winners – 2011-12
• Tennent Caledonian Cup – winners 1979-80
• UEFA Respect for Fair Play Rankings – winners 1999

teaches us not to have great expectations, and, perhaps, to treat what Kipling called: “The twin imposters – triumph and disaster” both the same.

Of course, there are various other “consolation prizes” which have been claimed over the years, but, in 150 years as a club, a mere FIVE major Scottish domestic honours have come Killie's way. That's an average of one big domestic trophy every 30 years, so, anything before 2042, by which time, if I am still around, I will be 95, will be a bonus.

So, yes, last night was soul-destroying, it was a massive let-down. Yes, perhaps the new manager is already on his way to “losing the dressing room.” Perhaps all is not well at the club, but, we have a new gaffer, finding his feet as the main man, rather than, as before, as a Number Two. Changes always bring upsets.

However, while saying: “Well done” to Connah's Quay Nomads, we must realise:

• in both games, referees who were not fit for purpose allowed them to kick us off the park
• we missed enough chances to have won both games comfortably
• we are currently in a state of change
• we are still, realistically in “pre-season” mode
• Shite happens

We re-group, we roll up our sleeves and we go again. Yes, last night was very-disappointing, but, compared to where we were 30 years ago (in case you weren't around then, preparing to entertain Brechin City in the first game of a season which would end with us as Runners-Up in the lowest tier in Scottish Football) – going out to a Welsh club in the first qualifying round of a European competition is a world away.

It has never been plain-sailing as a Kilmarnock fan; and perhaps never will be.

In case you don't believe me, that Brechin City game to which I referred, at Rugby Park on 1 August, 1989, finished 2-0 to the visitors. The Kilmarnock team that day was: McCulloch; Wilson, Davidson, Jenkins, Cody, Flexney, D Thompson, Tait, M Thompson, Reilly, Watters. Not very-many Rugby Park legends in that line-up.

Robert Reilly - one of only four guys to see out a special season in the first-team

Only four of that starting XI against Brechin: Paul Flexney, Tommy Tait, Robert Reilly and Willie Watters were in the starting line-up for the promotion-clinching win over Cowdenbeath, the final match both of season 1989-90 and of the “old” Rugby Park. That is how quickly things can change in football.

So, dry your tears, all you miserable Killie fans – last night was not the end of the world.