I Thought Hibs Would Lose - but - That Was Embarrassing

BIG country Sweden; they may have twice our population, but, they have many things in common with we Scots. Mind you, I've yet to meet a Swede I didn't like - but there are a few Scots whom I give plenty of body swerve room (and I suppose who reciprocate).

 

My favourite Swede was actually Norwegian, but, that's enough about Annafried, the red-headed one out of ABBA. Sweden is one of those countries we Scots tend to think we should beat more-often than they beat us, whereas the reality is somewhat different - some supposedly good Scottish teams have lost to Swedish opposition and, internationally, their record is a lot better than ours, with frequent tournament appearances at the sharp end.

 

So, I for one, wasn't at all surprised when Malmo dumped Hibs our of the Europa League last night. That said, I was a wee bit surprised at the aggregate score line. The fact Hibs were, in effect, still in pre-season training mode, while Malmo were in mid-season has to be taken into consideration, but still - a two or three-goal win for the Swedes would have been acceptable and understandable, but nine goals.

 

Wake-up up there in Hampden's sixth floor - we're going down the stank even faster than we seem to realise.

 

Watching up there in the celestial Easter Road, Lawrie Reilly's soul must be asking, have I come to heaven or hell? Or maybe thinking - phew! just got out in time.

 

 

 

BUT, well done St Johnstone. Apparently they were running on empty by the final whistle, however, they saw off Rosenborg and are into the next round. Norway, then Belarus - ah! the glamour of Europe. Let's hope they and Motherwell can salve the gaping wound of Hibs' exit.

 

 

 

I looked in on my native village this week, the first time in a long time I have walked the streets - usually I drive through, wearing a hat and dark glasses, as rapidly as scant regard for the speed limit will allow. I stopped because I saw one of my boyhood friends standing outside his house and we had a nice wee chap.

 

My friend is a Rangers fan, an Ibrox season-ticket holder these past 30-40 years and he is not a happy bunny. He launched into a tirade about how "They" had it in for Rangers; that Rangers had done little or nothing wrong and were being unjustly punished.

 

I left saddened. If this guy, who, until his retirement was one of the top men in Scotland in his trade can think like this - it is clear: they still don't get it.

 

 

 

AS well as touching again the green, green grass of home, this week I made a pilgrimage to Glenbuck, cradle of footballers, not least Wull Shankly - that's what my Uncle called him and the fact they worked as a pair at the pit surely entitles me to use the name as well.

 

Glenbuck is still on the map; there is a sign-post on the A70, about 200 yards on the Ayrshire side of the county line with Lanarkshire which indicates the road to the village. Only, the road stops about 200 yards later, just past the one-time entrance to the long-demolished Glenbuck House.

 

At the gate the Shankly memorial stone stands, festooned in Liverpool scarves, left by "pilgrims", lovingly cleaned each week by a Muirkirk resident who walks or cycles the two miles out there.

 

Fifty yards further on, there is a massive gate, padlocked permanently to deny the curious entry to a now derelict opencast coal site. I ducked through the gate and walked the half-mile uphill to where Glenbuck is, or was.

 

Today, apart from a couple of walls and some crumbling kerbstones, and a tarmaced road rapidly being won back by the weeds, there is nothing to indicate that a village which has attained almost mythical status in Scottish football history even existed.

 

Burnside Park, home ground of the legendary Glenbuck Cherrypickers always had a reputation as a bit of a bog - today, it is a bog, whereon, hopefully, the ghosts of the five Shankly brothers, of Sandy Brown and the other Cherries kick a ball around in the night.

 

My native Ayrshire is festooned by derelict and in many cases vanished mining villages - Baryta, Burnfoothill, Lethanhill, Darnconner. Re-instating the worked-out opencast sites will, we understand, cost some £60-90 million, and that's before they start to some of the old pit bings, which have blotted the landscape since even before the National Coal Board was formed in 1947.

 

They will, hopefully, eventually, return Glenbuck to green fields, except, as has so-often been the case, they will do the cheapest possible job in the shortest-possible time. 

 

Glenbuck deserves better, but, I doubt if it will get it. Shanks thought football was more-important than life or death. reinstating our countryside apparently isn't.