POSTING some two hours after the final whistle, I am perhaps writing too soon, but it all seems to have passed off peacefully enough. World War III has not broken-out, the Riot Act has not been read from the steps of the City Chambers and we can now settle down to watch the race to the (League) flag.
Rangers fans of the "glass half full" tendancy will point to their single point lead and remind the doubters that: "We've got the points". Those of the "glass half empty" tendancy will point to that game in hand which Celtic have. Meanwhile, across the city the positions are diametrically opposite.
My personal feeling is, we might have yet another helicopter Sunday, but I feel Celtic are perhaps the better-placed of the two contenders.
The peripherals have got way beyond sensible this week, let's hope things can settle down and we can concentrate on the football from here on in. But, Ah hae ma doots.
WELL said that man, was my response to big Martin Hardie's entirely-justified outburst concerning Sky's preference for Dundee United v Kilmarnock over the Fife Derby between Hardie's Dunfermline and Raith Rovers. This of course overlooks the fact that Sky's coverage contract is with the SPL while the Fife Derby was an SFL game. But, in terms of interest to the wider football public - I'd say Martin had a point. But this overlooks a basic fact of media life - the media as a whole decides what is the big league and concentrates their attention thereon.
As we see on a regular basis with the super-duper, all-singing, all-dancing, High Definition coverage of "the Best League in the World" - the product on offer is very often, no matter how the broadcasters dress it up - shite. I have, in the past, in one run of consecutive games covered matches in all four Scottish divisions and found that in order of entertainment value it was: 1, the SFL Third Division game; 2, the Second Division one; 3, the First Division one and 4, the SPL one.
Indeed, in my 40-years-plus in the press box, the most-entertaining game I ever covered was an Ayrshire Junior Cup tie; 2-2 at 90 minutes, 8-5 after extra time. Throw in four red cards and about 12 yellows and you had two hours of entertainment I'd happily have paid to watch.
SO IT'S Musselburgh who have been cast as this season's sacrifical lambs - set to face Auchinleck Talbot in the Emirates Scottish Junior Cup Final, at Rugby Park. It is impossible to envisage the Talbot not winning this one; but, that's one of the joys of football. Musselburgh have a chance, it will all come down to who plays better on the day, but, they will start at such long odds, I might even back them (usually the kiss of death to a team or horse) on the basis of it would be too-good an offer to miss in a two-horse race.
I well recall the last time a long-odds team from the Lothians travelled to Rugby Park to face one of the Ayrshire Old Firm in the Junior Cup Final. That team was Ormiston Primrose, who lost 1-0 to Cumnock in 1989. The match was over before the kick-off, Primrose were out on the park when Cumnock captain Bobby McCulloch charged out of the tunnel at the head of his team, the ball tucked under one arm, a ham-sized fist waving in the air on the end of his other arm.
The Primrose team collectively shat themselves. They were happy to be in the final, for them it was an occasion - Fat Boab was going to war.
As the teams were presented to the dignitaries that day, SJFA secretary Joe Black tried to warn Bobby - a man who would have kicked his grannie if she wasn't wearing the 'Nock's black and white: "Now Bobby, I hope we get a clean game today", said Black.
"Well jist tell thae Ormiston bastards no tae score first and we wull" was Bobby's reply.
McCulloch, of course, memorably pre-dated Real Madrid in severely damaging a precious trophy when - having been ordered-off in the 89th minute of a losing Ayrshire Cup Final at Somerset Park, for attempting to castrate Talbot's Bobby Dickson without aneasthetic and using his boot as a scalpel - Bobby drop kicked the precious 100-year-old trophy, which was standing on a plinth at the mouth of the tunnel, into the Somerset Park enclosure.
If memory is correct, it cost Cumnock £600 to pay for the repairs.
Another time, sent off in the 89th minute of a losing Jackie Scarlett League Cup Final at Rugby Park - after "assisting" Kilbirnie's Billy Muir to perform a two-and-a-half, backward, double-twisting, somersault, with pike, Bobby found an unlikely ally in Ladeside manager "Sconie" Davidson.
Asked about the foul in the post-match press conference, Davidson replied: "I've nae sympathy wi' Muir, ah telt him no tae wind big Boaby up; he's goat a bruised ego, nothin' else".
Would that more managers were as pragmatic.
I NOTICE we lost Allan Brown, one of the biggest Scottish stars of the 1950s this week. His obituaries made great play on his bad luck, which cost him caps and cup final appearances. I did notice, however, that he played in an East Fife team which contained five players who were then or would become full Scotland internationalists - George Aitken, Charlie "Legs" Fleming, Henry Morris, Brown and Davie Duncan. Brown won 14 caps, Aitken eight, Duncan three and Fleming and Morris one each.
Duncan, the first to be capped, was from Milton of Balgonie, Aitken from Lochgelly, Brown hailed from Kennoway, Fleming from Blairhall, while Morris was the sole "foreigner" being a Dundonian. What are the chances today of a Scottish provincial club finding five young players on their doorstep who would all become full internationalists.
East Fife got good money for Brown and Fleming when they went south, while Aitken, like Brown, fell-out with the club; he left for Third Lanark, who sold him on to Sunderland for a big fee for the time, £19,500.
Maybe if our provincial clubs would overhaul their research and development departments - their youth academies - and again work with the raw talent on their doorsteps, they could sell-on international-class players to English or even foreign clubs and, by putting this transfer income back into youth development and stadium improvements, help get Scottish football back to where it once was.
No, it's easier to pray for crumbs from the SPL table and do nothing much.
I personally witnessed no trouble inside or outside of the skull, one or two drink related incidents, the usual ned behaviour, but on the whole it was well behaved. I spent a lot of the time picking fault with the crumbling brickwork of the stadium, obviously not a Tim was on site when the structure went up. I was even more amused at the fact that the opposition had hung their Union Jack flags upside down, most appropriate for the forthcoming wedding we thought.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to see the R*ngers keeper consoling big Sammy at the end, a nice touch that was appreciated by those in green. A fair result, slightly unlucky missing the penalty, but hey, that's fitba. We deserved all three points, but will happily settle for the one. I couldn't swear to it, but I do believe that Manuel Pascali sat three in from the end next to my youngest boy watching the game. Let's hope he continues to follow the Celts and does us a favour on the 8th May.
Overall, a nice day in the sun, trouble free, and plenty to savour over the coming weeks.