WELL DONE Wigan, a terrific result, beating the oil billionaires of Manchester City to win the FA Cup.
Now, is it too-much to hope for that the lesson is taken on-board by the other 11 SPL clubs. On paper, there was no way Wigan should have beaten City. And let's be honest here, did anyone in Scotland really think that Caldwell v Tevez was a fair fight? But, the Latics won.
On paper, there is no way any of the SPL should get close to Celtic, but..... See what I mean, a wee bit of belief, a lot more work on basic ball skills, fitness, team-work and everything else and Celtic might have to fight for the 2013-14 SPL title.
The future of Scottish football demands that the rest put up more of a fight than they have of late. Maybe if the men at the top of the game up here lifted their noses out of the feeding trough and demanded that their managers and players worked a bit harder, we wouldn't so denigrate the game here.
Well done Celtic, they deserved to lift that trophy yesterday. Poor show everyone else for not making it harder for them.
ONCE Neil Lennon's future is sorted-out, which I trust will be done swiftly; I presume it will be business as usual. I claim no great wisdom in the matter; I am no MYstic Meg or Russell Grant - but, I predict that Scottish football's longest-running comedy soap opera will continue to run throughout the summer, at Ibrox.
It has gone too-far, but, presumably for those people scrambling for power and influence inside the Blue Room, not far enough. And, at the end of it all, even if we get an early cessation to shareholder hostilities - Ally McCoist will still be recruiting bad players, on too-high salaries.
WELL Done Neil Lennon on his SFWA Manager of the Year award - but, he was always going to get that one.
League Champions, last 16 in Europe, Cup finalists -hard to argue against that CV. I just wonder, however, if there wasn't a case for someone else, doing well with a lot worse in terms of the basic ingredients, such as quality of players at his disposal, money at his disposal, etc.
I felt Allan Johnston lived up to his "Magic" nickname at Queen of the South, with the way they stormed through the league and won the Ramsden's Cup; while the way Ian Murray, in his first managerial role, turned Dumbarton around was also worthy of recognition.
Some years ago, whilst covering Ayrshire Junior football, I was involved in the discussions as to who should be the Ayrshire Junior Manager of the Year. The legend that is Willie Knox had had aother multi-trophy haul with Auchinleck Talbot, including the almost inevitable Scottish Junior Cup triumph, so, he won it. But, in-vain I made a case for th young manager of Irvine Victoria, who had taken a team which had barely won a corner the previous season to the top of the Ayrshire Second Division.
Knox had the well-oiled Talbot machine behind him, go sponsors, a 20-strong committee, a separate hard-working fund-raising committee, and a few players who would not have looked out of place in the senior game.
The guy at Vics had a committee of about five guys, no fund-raising to speak of, a virtual all-amateur squad of about 16 players, and the mighty (albeit under-performing at the time) Irvine Meadow half a mile up the road.
I feel, too-often the Manager of the Year isn't the guy at the top - more likely the over-achieving guy further down the food chain.
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