The Talking Is Almost Over - It's Action

HAVING ENDURED disappointment at World Cups since 1954, I am refusing to get carried away by our 4-0 victory over Bolivia on Saturday night. Yes, I know it's rare for us to score four goals in an entire game, far less one half, but, I honestly don't think that win tells us too much about how we might go when it all gets real at the end of the week.

We all know, with Scotland, particularly at World Cup time, it's the hope that kills. This 2026 campaign is our 20^th crack at the game's ultimate prize. We have only qualified for 10 finals: the SFA spat the dummy and didn't go to Brazil in 1950, perhaps taking the not entirely wrong view: “Look, if we cannot beat a poor England team at home, what's the use of going to South America and facing some good teams.” That self-inflicted disaster apart, we have only qualified on 9 other occasions – a less than sterling 45% qualification rate.

When we have got there, our record makes equally dismal reading:

• p 23 – w 4 – d 7 – l 12 – 17% wins

Courtesy of some research on the Planet World Cup website, I have been able to work-out where we actually finished in those tournaments for which we managed to qualify – it does not make great reading:

• 1954 (Switzerland) - 15^th of 16

• 1958 (Sweden) - 14^th of 16

• 1974 (West Germany) - 9^th of 16

• 1978 (Argentina) - 11^th of 16

• 1982 (Spain) - 15^th of 24

• 1986 (Mexico) - 20^th of 24

• 1990 (Italy) - 18^th of 24

• 1998 (France) - 28^th of 32

We have NEVER managed to get out of the group stages in any of the nine finals we've participated in, but, being Scotland we always convince ourselves – this time it will be different. My belief in Scotland, battered by having witnessed a long series of losses and still mindful of my confidence in my fellow Ayrshireman, Sir Stephen Clarke – Ah hae ma doots.

I am, however, confident this might prove a good World Cup for the Scottish fans via our normal interest in the sharp end of matters – waiting to see when will They trip-up. You know them, the nation next door we never mention. Apparently, their 2026 vintage is finally going to end what is now Sixty years of hurt! Aye Right!

They've got a quality goalkeeper and a great centre forward, but, those two aside, it's the usual collection of over-rated journey-men, who will crash and burn via the usual monkey on their backs – English over-expectation.

This time, it is not a case of us having too-great expectations. We have an experienced, battle-hardened squad; getting out of the group and into the knock-out stages is the very least we ought to expect. How far we go thereafter is down to us.

However, after 28 years and six straight failures to qualify – we're back in the Big Show, you have to be in it to win it, so, why not? Let's buckle up and hope for a thrilling ride.

 

Coos' Erses And Banjoes

LEE-ANNE CRICHTON was of course a midfielder; one who didn't score that many goals. But, I wonder if, as she watched her Rangers play Celtic off the park right up to the 18 yard line, then repeatedly fluff their lines in The Red Zone, she maybe thought of putting on a strip and showing them how.

I know the main problem with the Rangers Men's team is – none of the current lot,(I except Lawrence Shankland and Findlay Curtis) is remotely Rangers Class. I don't know enough about Women's Football to make the same judgement on the Women's team, but, as I watched them huff and puff and squander chanc after chance on Sunday, I just knew the ten Celtic girls were going to pull off a great escape.

The vast ranks of Ra Peepul are again suggesting that in Scottish Fitba, the V in VAR stands for Vatican, after that penalty which Rangers didn't get. If you watched that game, either live or on TV, you have to ask yourself: Is there any evidence that Rangers might have scored from any penalty awarded them?

Perhaps agents of Celtic FC are putting something in the water at the training ground which nullifies Rangers' efforts on goal. Watching the Girls become as bad at finishing as the Men's team has been at times, I had thoughts of Coos' erses and banjoes.

But well done Celtic, that was a cup win forged in adversity.

I WAS UNABLE to get a signal from BBC Alba on Sunday afternoon, so I missed Auchinleck Talbot lifting the Scottish Junior Cup (or Communities Cup as it is now known), at Broadwood.

I copped some flak before the semi-finals, when I forecast a Talbot v Largs Thistle final and the near-inevitable Talbot triumph. But, that's how it happened. Scoring two late goals to turn a game around is typically Talbot. I've seen that video before. I wasn't surprised when, inside the final ten minutes, 1-0 Largs became 2-1 Talbot, you can never write-off Tucker Sloan's Troops.

I now eagerly await the day when the Scottish Football Hall of Fame wakens up and inducts Tucker, and his esteemed predecessor, the late Willie Knox, into their ranks.

There was a suggestion post-game that, now they have been promoted into the new Lowland League West for next season, Talbot would be denied the opportunity to defend their crown. However, I understand, they can still enter, but, the Lowland League is not prepared to re-schedule league games if there is a clash with a Scottish Communities Cup date. Talbot Secretary Henry Dumigan's well-known negotiating skills could be in for a serious test in the coming season.

I understand there was a suggestion that the Communities Cup should be restructured as a truly national competition for those clubs outwith the Senior ranks; however, the Highland League clubs didn't want to know. More fool them, in deciding to stay in their own wee kailyard, they are missing a real chance to grow the game.

I can see the likes of Talbot by-passing the Highland League clubs and gaining entry to the Senior ranks in very short order, leaving the Highland League as even more of a backwater than it currently is.

WITH THE obvious exception of poor wee Billy Gilmour, the guy who has missed out on World Cup selection I feel most-sorry for, might just be Jack Fletcher, the Fletcher Twin who has opted to play for England. Because, while twin brother Tyler is in Scotland's World Cup squad and already in the USA preparing for the tournament, Jack is back at home, watching on TV.

Tyler's selection, to replace the injured Gilmour, has not gone down well in some parts, particularly among the ranks of Ra Peepul who follow Rangers. OK, Connor Barron has had his injury woes this season, but, if you cannot, when fit, be a guaranteed starter in the worst Rangers team this century, how can you have international aspirations?

The teenaged Fletcher is not the first left-field pick to go to a World Cup with Scotland. In 1954, with regular Sammy Cox unavailable, the untried and almost unknown Jock Aird of Burnley was taken to the 1954 tournament.

Four years later, Stuart Imlach of Nottingham Forest was the “bolter” who came from nowhere into a World Cup Finals squad. In 1974, Tommy Hutchison was the surprise pick for the squad, so Tyler's selection does not set a precedent.

Selection is different these days. We now have a full-time Manager who picks the team, but, back in the days of the old SFA Selection Committee it was not unknown for a selector to be despatched down to England to check on one of the international regulars, only to have his head turned by an unknown Scot playing in the game and, lo and behold, that unknown would be capped soon after. Mind you, to be fair, a lot of these surprise choices only boosted the ranks of the One Cap Wonders, I am fairly sure that dubious distinction will not befall young Fletcher.

 

The Almost Lost Art Of The Protest

REGULAR READERS of this pish will know, I have a very-low opinion of the intelligence levels along the sixth-floor Corridor of Power at Hampden, where reside the High Heid Yins of the Scottish Football Association, the Scottish Professional Football League and the various other governing bodies who are charged with running our game.

Thus, I fear, for all the sound and fury raised by the SFA's Review Panel deciding the crucial penalty awarded via a VAR intervention, to Celtic at Motherwell in the penultimate game of their season should not have been awarded.

Cue the usual amount of sound and noise, split, as ever, along party lines. We have the grievously-offended Celtic Family, pointing out, this review panel has no real power and their finding means nothing. On the other hand, we have the usual suspects from elsewhere, insisting that since a clear mistake has been made, Celtic should lose that victory – the result ought to be back-tracked to the draw it would have been but for that late penalty.

This would mean, Celtic being docked the two points, leaving them and Hearts tied on 80 points – with the Edinburgh club winning the league on goal difference. This would seem, to those of us with a feel for Scottish Football history like karma, the Gorgie men winning the league on goal difference, having lost it to Kilmarnock, on goal average, back in 1965.

Unfortunately, for those wishing to see Celtic lose this league title – I don't see this happening. Can you really see the wilder elements of the Celtic Family accepting the loss of the crown? When things do not go their way, they have a history of panning-in windown and civil disobedience which suggests, they might sack Hampden and make millions of Pounds Sterling worth of improvements.

No way will the game's High Heid Yins give those wilder elements the chance to make their lives difficult.

Of more danger to Celtic's 2025-26 title is the ongoing investigation into the chaotic conclusion of their final home game, against Hearts. Of course, some might conclude that the High Heid Yins of Fitba in this country had already put in place an authorised version of the events, designed to ensure, the title goes to Celtic, regardless of the sanctions available to the governing body to address the unsavoury end to that game.

There is an old tradition which has long held great favour in my home God's County of Ayrshire. Down here, it was said, your local team was never out of the Scottish Junior Cup until their protest had been dismissed by the Scottish Junior Football Association panel.

I reckon, Hearts have a strong protest going around that last game – plus the VAR decisions from their and Celtic's games against Motherwell. VAR wrongly it seems came down in favour of Celtic, while wrongly coming down in favour of Motherwell in the other game.

All Hearts need is the cash to hire the right Advocate to plead on their behalf and the determination to take the case all the way to the Court of Arbitration in Sport if necessary.

Most People Would Agree With Olive

SOME 30 YEARS ago, the great Graham Spiers termed my then regular opinion column in the newspaper which funded my mortgage etc at the time: “hermenutically-challenged”. Unlike “Britney” I never had the advantage of a place in the Divinity Faculty at Glasgow University, so I had to look-up hermenutics - “the theory, methodology and interpretations” mainly of the Gospels and other religious texts.

Fast forward to this week and I find myself, in my 80^th year and lang syne off the tools on a full-time basis, still hermenutically-challenging the Gospel according to the Sixth Floor at Hampden.

It's bad enough the mainstream media in Scotland being totally under the spell of the management of Celtic Football Club, but when, as with the Scottish Football Association's statements in the wake of Sunday's Celtic v Heart of Midlothian game, you see blatant cheating, on the basis of “we cannot upset the Celtic Family”, then, we may as well close down Football in Scotland.

Let's be quite clear on this – Celtic quite rightly won Sunday's game. There can be no disputing that fact, thus, given the circumstances, they were deservedly crowned Champions.

BUT

The wholly-unsatisfactory manner in which the match was ended gives serious cause for concern. Under the rules of the Scottish Professional Football League, there are grounds for an enquiry into the circumstances surrounding the invason of the field by some Celtic fans and whether or not Referee Don Robertson acted properly in the way he concluded the game.

Under the rules and regulations of the SPFL, thee are various sanctions which the governing body must consider in the wake of the carnage at the end of Sunday's game – none of these possible sanctions would be acceptable to Celtic FC, so, can you blame those of us who are not of a Celtic persuasion, for believing a pauchle is being worked.

The SPFL has a duty of care to the game, to either have their board mount a full investigation into Sunday's events, or appoint a commission to carry-out such an investigation. But – will they? - Ah hae ma doots.

We all know that the 12 Premiership clubs are supposed to be equal; we also all know, this is pure pish – two of the clubs, Celtic being one of them, are more equal than the other ten combined.

We all know, the High Heid Yins of the game up here are scared shitless at the prospect of offending the Big Two – they know, if they offend them, sections of their support will make life awfully-difficult for them.

SOME 50 YEARS AGO

Ian “Dan” Archer wrote, on 11 October, 1976 in the then Glasgow Herald:

“As a Scottish football club, they are a permanent embarrassment and an ocasional disgrace. This country would be a better place if Rangers did not exist.”

The great “Dan” penned that opinion following a riot at Villa Park, Birmingham, when, with Rangers losing 0-2 early in the second half of a “Friendly” against Aston Villa, some of their travelling support rioted, forcing the abandonment of the game, injuries, arrests and vandalism.

The longer version of the Archer Opinion dwells on the club's then policy of only employing Protestants; he also mentions previous riots involving Rangers supporters in places such as Barcelona and Newcastle upon Tyne.

Sadly, the club's fans have, in the intervening half century or so, received further “battle honours” in places such as Manchester. However, the club's “Nae Tims” policy has been consigned to history. This has not stopped the fans from singing songs commemorating a battle fought in 1690 – which was highlighted in Archer's piece.

Events such as those highlighted in the Archer Opinion served to give The Celtic Family occupancy of “the moral high ground”, however, this year alone, their pitch invasion at Ibrox in January, their pitch invasion at Celtic Park on Sunday and their rioting in the Trongate post-game has helped harden the conviction held by those of us who follow any one of the other 40 “Diddy Teams” in the SPFL: that these two clubs are - “twa cheeks o' the same erse.”

Back then, in October, 50 years ago, the (Glasgow) Herald had the moral authority to allow its Chief Football Writer to censure one of the city's two biggest clubs. Today, that greatly-diminished newspaper's Chief Football Writer is viewed across Scotland as a self-confessed Rangers supporter – who lacks the authority to have the same sort of go at Celtic, in the wake of Sunday's events, that Archer – himself a self-confessed Partick Thistle fan, could write back in the day.

The diminished mainstream media in Scotland is seen as shit-scared of offending these two clubs, just as the power brokers of the SPFL and the SFA are seen as shit-scared of offending them.

When you see the Celtic support, rioting and fighting with each other – after they have won the League – just think what they might do if the SPFL was to drecide, after reviewing the events of Sunday, to anul the game, or punish Celtic for the pitch invasion by awarding Hearts a 3-0 win and consequently, the League title.

It would not be pretty.

The SFA released video and word footage of events on Sunday, in real time.

• The Celtic support invaded the pitch with some 30 seconds of the eight additional minutes to go.

• Before those eight minutes had concluded, Hearts Manager Derek McInnes, already concerned at threats to his players' safety, was calling for the premature blowing of the final whistle.

• Surely, there has to be a commission of enquiry into the events.

I cannot definitely say Celtic should lose the victory – however, there is a case for witholding the League title this season because of the bad behaviour of the Celtic fans and some of their substitutes and backroom staff.

Maybe, in the absence of anyone with a wide enough platform being brave enough to call-out Celtic's poor behaviour, they might learn their lesson.

I leave the final word on the fall-out from Sunday's match to a Glasgow lady – Miss Olive Actory, of Kelvinside:

 

Sir Stevie Has Spoken

WELL – WE KEN NOO; Stevie Clarke has revealed his 26-man squad to cross the Atlantic this year in search of World Cup glory. No left field bolters, Clarke has always been a manager who goes with the tried and trusted, the only question now is – which player will be very-unlucky and pick-up a daft injury which costs him his place – it always happens.

The squad is:

IT SAYS MUCH about the desk jockeys running the Sports Desks of Scotland's failing mainstream media, that that eternal punch bag – the SFA – is copping some flak following the carnage in the East End of Glasgow. Fair enough, functioning brain cells are in short supply along Hampden's sixth floor Corridor of Power – and in a few newspaper offices I could name, however, sorting out Saturday's mess isn't an SFA problem.

The game was under the control of the Scottish Professional Football League, so, it's their job to smooth over the hurt feelings and deliver any sanctions which might follow. In particular, it falls to the SPFL's Board of Directors: Group Chief Executive Neil Doncaster, Chairman Murdoch MacLennan, Independent Non-Executive Director Karyn McCluskey, Malcolm McPherson (Hibernian), Phyllis Carroll (Kilmarnock), Patrick Stewart (Rangers) – representing the Premiership clubs; Willie Houston (Ayr United), David Cook (Dunfermline Athletic), representing the Championship clubs and Andrew Allan (Alloa Athletic) and Alternate Director Iain Dougan (Stranraer), representing the League One and Two clubs.

These ten officials will need to puruse Match Referee Don Robertson's official match report, the report of the SPFL Delegate at the game, the report from the Match Commander from Police Scotland, plus any comments submitted by the two club's involved – then, they decide what action, if any, will be taken.

Go into any pub or club in Scotland, go anywhere where Scttish football fans are congegrated, then ask the question: “What do you think will happen in the wake of Saturday's carnage?” - the chances are the answer you will get will vary between: “nothing”, via “a slap on the wrist for Celtic” to somewhere between “Swept under the carpet” and “two coats of whitewash”.

The dogs in the street know, while on the face of things, the SPFL is run for the benefit of all 42 member clubs, the reality is, two clubs are more-important than the other 40, and these two must never be embarrassed by the rest, since they do such a sterling job on their own.

The Celtic Family - will insist their club should not suffer any injury from the over-exuberant passion of a tiny minority of their following.

Ra Peepul – who follow Rangers – will be convinced, since Scottish Football is run for the convenience of Celtic FC, no action will be taken against that club.

The rest of us, including the bitterly-disappointed Hearts fans, are just wondering exactly how the High Heid Yins of the League will cover-up this latest example of bad behaviour from one half of the Old Firm and announce what will be too-little censure, while keeping a straight face.

My forecast? Well, the wheels of justice grind slowly, evidence has to be gathered and pored over, questions need to be asked, television footage reviewed. This will take some time, I would reckon, 24 June might be a good date on which to announce the SPFL's enquiry findings – then the whitewash will get lost in the furore over the Scotland v Brazil World Cup game.

WHILE, AT THE top level, we are still functioning somewhere around 1689 – 1690, elsewhere, Scottish Fitba is slowly moving into the 21^st century.

The SPFL Premiership is Level One in our game, The Championship is Level Two, League One is Level Three, League Two is Level Four, while the Highland and Lowland Leagues are Level Five.

When hostilities resume in late summer, the Lowland League will be split into East and West divisions, with some of the great names in Junior Football, having upgraded their facilities to meet SFA requirements, joining the new set-up.

The Lowland League (West) cast list for the new season is:

Albion Rovers

Auchinleck Talbot

Beith

Caledonian Braves

Celtic B ("guest side")

Clydebank

Cumbernauld Colts

Cumnock

Dalbeattie Star

Gretna 2008

Johnstone Burgh

Kilwinning Rangers

Largs Thistle

Newton Stewart

Pollok

Renfrew

Troon

The line-up in the Lowland League (East) for the new season is:

Berwick Rangers

Bo'ness United

Bonnyrigg Rose

Brechin City

Broxburn Athletic

Civil Service Strollers

Cowdenbeath

Dunipace

East Stirlingshire

Gala Fairydean Rovers

Hill of Beath Hawthorn

Linlithgow Rose

Lochee United

Musselburgh Athletic

Tranent

University of Stirling

This change offers an opportunity for giants of the former Junior game, such as Auchinleck Talbot, Cumnock and Pollok to perhaps advance into the Senior ranks. But, what about those clubs who haven't made the cut?

The likes of Glenafton Athletic, Irvine Meadow, Kilbirnie Ladeside and Arthurlie have lost lucrative local derbies, those neighbouring clubs, against whom they were competing to attract talent now have an advantage, they will be playing at a higher level.

And what of the fans, I was discussing the new set-up with some fellow coffin dodgers last week and one or two were complaining about the way admission costs had risen as the clubs have had to upgrade facilities in order to advance through the ranks. Some were also complaining of the additional costs of travel to away games. But, I suppose this the cost of progress.

 

Pitch Invasions - Disorder - Dummy Spittng. Must Be Scottish Fitba

WHERE DO I begin in reviewing Saturday's disgusting scenes at Celtic Park. I'll begin with a What If?

• What if, back in May, 1967, UEFA had decided that pitch invasion at the National Stadium in Lisbon had been grounds for taking the European Cup off Celtic and handing it instead to Inter Milan – might that have prevented the grandsons of those fans in Lisbon from their unacceptable behaviour on Saturday?

We will never know, but, in commenting on Saturday's carnage, we have to accept, the Celtic support has what is known in legal circles as: previous – a lengthy charge sheet of unacceptable behaviour.

Before the Celtic apologists pile in with: What about the other lot? This is not another chapter in the second oldest game in Scottish Football – Old Firm Whataboutery – on this occasion, it is the Celtic Family which is in the dock.

In writing this blog post I dug up a copy of The Scottish Professional Football League Rule Book, all 300 pages of it. Saturday's game was under the jurisdiction of the SPFL, so, it's their rules which apply around the scenes at the end of the game.

The first rule to come into play is Rule G68 – this calls for:

• The Match Referee submitting, within 24 hours of the game ending, his official written match report.

What Don Robertson writes in that dictates what happens next.

The events at the end of the game – the pitch invasion and the carnage which followed are covered by Rules H28, H29 and H30 – Unacceptable Conduct.

Any neutral watching those scenes on television might reasonably conclude, after reading the relevant rules, that Celtic are guilty of a breach of Rules 36 and 37.

Consequently, they are in breach of Rule 38.

It would then fall to the SFPL to implement Rule H42 – which calls for consideration of a Police Report, the Match Official's Report and comments from Hearts.

It would then fall to the SPFL Board to decide on any action. They could adjudicate themselves, or they could form a Commission to look into the affair. They could perhaps decide:

• to anul the result (Rule J16.4)

• Deduct points (Rule J16.6)

• Anul the match (Rule J16.7)

• Withdraw the title from Celtic (Rule J.16.13)

All these possibilities – except, this is Celtic we are talking about, there are only two conclusions we can come to:

1. Is there enough whitewash in Scotland to cover everything up?

2. How big will the heap be after they've swept it all under the carpet?

Let's not kid ourselves, the Celtic Support has a long history of misbehaviour – which they added to yesterday, look at the social media clips of their behaviour post-game on Saturday, as they “celebrated” in their time-honoured style in the Trongate in Glasgow: throwing missiles at the Police and fighting among themselves.

The craven club board will shrug and say: “nothing to do with us”, before happily accepting their season ticket money and selling them their club merchandise – and Scotland and Scottish Football's image around the world suffers.

And yes I know, if it was the other lot, there would be little or no difference in the behaviour.

A line has to be drawn, but, under the current regime at Hampden and across at Holyrood, it aint gonna happen. We simply don't have the leadership with the balls to do something about this disgrace.

The league title was affirmation of the managerial genius of Martin O'Neill, to take that piss-poor (by Celtic standards) squad to a possible League and Cup Double is an amazing feat. But, O'Neill will never admit, they rode their luck along the way, in particular benefitting from a few Honest Mistakes from officials on VAR duty.

It is hard not to conclude, this was yet another Tainted Title.

O'Neill is unlikely to be in-charge next season, but, whoever succeeds him, they will need some serious rebuilding if the club is to defend their crown, far less make an impression in Europe.

FINALLY – since we are apparently not allowed to mention one cheek of Scottish Fitba's bigotry and bad behaviour alliance without a nod to the other – here's my take on this week's other stairheid rammy:

IN THE Partheon of Great Rangers Captains James Tavernier gets nowhere near the top shelf. No way does his escutcheon compare to that of the likes of George Young, John Greig, Jock Shaw, Davie Meiklejohn, Richard Gough, Sandy Jardine or Eric Caldow.

I rate Tavernier as a 21^st century Bobby Shearer – a player of limited ability, in many ways lucky to have enjoyed such a stellar Rangers career. Shearer, however, for all his limitations was A Real Rangers Man – he was a Fan on the Park, if he had not been wearing the strip, he would have been on the terraces cheering-on the club. That can not be said of Tavernier.

With reference to Tavernier not getting the send-off he felt he deserved, I think of Young, for my money the club's Greatest Captain. Young's final Rangers appearance, the end of a 16-year club career, came in front of 35,000 fans in a Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup semi-final, a 2-0 win over Clyde, at Ibrox, on 4 May, 1957. Young is not even mentioned in The Glasgow Herald's match report on the game.

Young's last-ever match was in a 2-1 Scotland win over Switzerland in a World Cup Qualifier in Basle, later that month. He was then rested from the national team which played World Champions West Germany, in Stuttgart, but was looking forward to bowing out following Scotland's World Cup Qualifier against Spain, in Madrid's Bernabeau.

The SFA Selectors, however, had other ideas; they didn't recall him for this game, a decision which caused a minor stooshie at the time but was quickly forgotten. I reckon the fuss over Tavernier being left out against Hibs on Wednesday will no last half as long as did the furore over Young's omission from the team in Madrid.

Jardine was quietly allowed to depart to play out his career at Hearts, Caldow ended his Rangrers career in the Reserves, before being quietly freed. Shaw was allowed, without fanfare, to retire and join the club's backroom staff. No big send off for these legends.

Compared to the Rangers Captains I listed in the opening paragraph, Tavernier has to be rated as a journeyman of limited ability. Given the state of British Football today, I would say, had he been any good, a mid to lower level English Premiership side, or perhaps one of those yo-yo teams who drift between the bottom half of the Premiership and the top half of their Championship would have taken him back south years ago. The fact nobody bid for him demonstrates what an average talent Tavernier was.

The fact his non selection and his dummy spitting made such headlines, also demonstrates how the Scottish media has dumbed down this century.

VAR - Victims Are Raging

LET'S GET straight to the meat of the controversy – three things:

1. Where did the additional nine minutes come from?

2. Maybe I've been watching Rugby for too long, but, in that game, when the TMO – their version of VAR – gets involved, they are looking for “clear and obvious evidence” that the referee has missed something. I do not think, in real time, John Beaton missing the hand-ball was clear and obvious.

3. In addition, there is evidence of the collision between the Motherwell defender and the Celtic attacker contributing to the hand-ball. Again, mitigation for the defender.

I would add – that penalty would NEVER have been given at the other end – we all know, the Old Firm get the benefit from these sorts of calls and always have.

This blog has been advocating for years, that a major change be made to the Laws of the Game. Instead of ruling that a game last 90 minutes, with the timing of those minutes left to the Referee, who has other issues to deal with, it is, in my view, long past time for IFAB – The International Football Associations Board – the game's principal law-making body, to make a major change.

• I would suggest:

• They rule that each match lasts 60 minutes “ball in play time”. i.e. when the ball is in play, the clock is running, when it is out of play, or the game is stopped for any reason, the clock stops.

• To ensure the game flows, when the ball does go out of play – or the referee halts the game to award a free kick, the side re-starting play has ten seconds to do so, or they lose possession.

• For free-kicks or corner kicks, they have 30 seconds to take it, ditto to re-start play following a goal – unless VAR is involved.

• Injured players who require the attention of a physio or doctor must leave the field for 30 seconds.

• Look at introducing something like rugby's HIA (Head Injury Assessment) rules, with temporary substitutions while the assessment is carried out.

• Another Rugby initiative I would introduce would be that play continues until there is a natural break at the end of each half.

• There should be a dedicated time-keeper in each game, with an assistant timing the dead ball breaks to ensure no time-wasting.

• Something needs to be done regarding the shirt-pulling and Cumberland and Westmoreland wrestling which now goes on at every corner – all suggestions as to how we remove this blight on the game are welcome.

I am not, by the way, suggesting John Beaton and Andrew Dallas are corrupt, but, since there is a wide-spread belief that both favour Rangers, the fact they have been involved in a number of controversies this season which have favoured Celtic, it might well be – they are over-compensating and favouring that club in an effort to avoid these suggestions of bias against Celtic.

Or – it could be FIFA got it right – our officials are shite and that's why none are going to this summer's World Cup. And, by the way: all you Rangers supporters moaning about pro-Celtic bias, I've, over the years seen just as many examples of honest refereeing mistakes/bare-faced corruption favouring your team – we all remember the top Scottish official who, on retiring, spoke of his pride that Rangers had never lost a game in which he was the referee.

Any way, it will all be sorted-out on Saturday. I have a feeling I could do well on the day, I've got the 23^rd minute in the pub sweep for the Celtic v Hearts game – the sweep is based around when Hearts cop their first red card on the day.

There is also a subsidiary sweep as to how many minuts of time added-on are allowed, should it be all-square at 90 minutes.

I also fancy a wee punt on Craig Gordon saving Celtic's 97^th minute penalty, but the Hoops scoring on the re-take to win the league.

It is a pity John Banks and Freddie Williams are both deid, these giants of Scottish bookmaking would surely have come up with some stonking one-of bets around Saturday's Celtic Park showdown.

ALL IS far from well across the city, after a fourth straight defeat for Rangers. I am not surprised, it has been obvious all season, this is the worst Rangers squad in the post-Souness years, indeed, I reckon this is the poorest Ibrox squad I can remember, and I can go back to the last years of Mr Struth as manager.

Much discussion in midweek over the dropping of James Tavernier for the game against Hibernian on Wednesday night. This was going to be the Club Captain's final home game, except, he was quite rightly dropped after his poor display in the Old Firm game at the weekend.

He could still, and probably would have, been granted a cameo off the bench – as happened I recall, when, after missing most of the season with injury, John Greig was sent on for a short cameo in a treble-clinching game, some 50 years or so ago.

But, Tavernier decided to spit the dummy and not play – further proof of my belief, he never was Rangers Class.

The calls for Danny Rohl to be sacked are growing, in spite of the great work he has done in salvaging the club from where it was when he took over. Of course, sacking a manager is always the cheaper option – what Rangrers actually need isn't a new Manager/Head Coach as much as a totally revamped squad, but, that's the more-expensive option.

ELSEWHERE Auchinleck Talbot have one hand on the West of Scotland League title – amazingly, this is one prize that has never landed at Beechwood Park.

With 29 of their 30 league fixtures played, Talbot have a three-point advantage over Cumnock at the top of the table. They also have a 20 goals cushion overf their great rivals.

Saturday's final league fixtures see Cumnock entertaining second-bottom Rutherglen Glencairn, while Talbot travel to face third-bottom Shotts Bon Accord. Now, Shotts have a bit of history as a bogey team to the 'Bot, but, I honestly cannot see them winning on Saturday, and Cumnock scoring enough goals to overtake that 20-goal Talbot cushion.

Should Talbot win their league, it will have involved a remarkable run-in. They have played five league games in the past nine days, winning four and drawing the other – away to Cumnock.

OK, playing a lot of games during May has been in the Talbot DNA since the days of Willie Knox and nobody has as much experience in guiding a club through a fixture backlog than Tucker Sloan, but, what the 'Bot has done this month is remarkable, even by their standards, given the pressure they were under.