Well Done Mr Lawwell

JINGS, crivvens, help ma Boab - wee Peter Lawwell has finally found his bravery pills. Sorry, that's a bit unfair, well done the Celtic CEO for grasping the nettle and giving the Green Brigade the skelp on the erse they have had coming for a long time.

 

He might well have banned more, acted with more harshness, but, as a shot across the bows of the Green Brigade,this was a cracker. Let's hope it works.

 

It will be interesting to see how "The Greatest Fans In The World" act in Barcelona this week. Let's hope wiser counsels prevail and the Bhoys behave.

 

Meanwhile, across the city the Silly Party and the Monster Raving Looney Party are still going at it hammer and tongs in the run up to the Rangers AGM. I somehow think the Spivs in the Sharp Suits and the Spivs in the Brown Brogues deserve each other. They really are like two baldie men fighting over a comb.

 

The lot currently in charge are spending their capital faster than even Viv Nicholson managed; those who would be the Kings, well - I don't think they've got the money they will need if Rangers 2012 are not to join Rangers 1872 in the dustbin of history.

 

You see, the thing which makes me fear that we might have to go through another dose of administration, liquidation, re-birth, demotion, demonstrations and financial jiggery-pokery is the fact - the Rangers fans have a long history of backing the wrong horse.

 

They put their trust in the old Unionist Party - which, some 50-years ago, sold-out to the English Tories. They put their trust in David Murray, who, as those who had followed his sporting involvement since his days in basketball and who kent his faither, had their fears that it would all, as happened with his father and his basketball teams, go pear-shaped. They put their trust in "a billionaire whose weealth is off the radar" - and we remember what happened there. Then, they put their trust in a blunt, plain-taling Yorkshireman, who told them what they wanted to hear. Now, apparently, they are putting their trust in a Gang of Four whose track record, such as it is, is sketchy and who, apparently, don't fancy putting too-much of their hard-earned personal fortunes into rescuing Rangers. Do I see a pattern emerging here?

 

Then there is the splintered state of the Rangers Family. The green Brigade may well be the black sheep of the Celtic Family, the spoilt little boys doing daft things int he corner and saying: "Notice us, please notice us". But, around Parkhead there is the GB and the rest of the family.

 

Across the city we have umpteen different lodges, all occupied by small groups, and all with their own agendas - between them, they appear to have just one mission in life - to restore Rangers to what they see as the club's rightful place - beating Celtic regularly and dominating Scottish football.

 

That's a long way from where their club is right now - and, I don't see them coming together and coming-up with a cogent plan designed to get them to where they want to be.

 

And, I fear, somewhere, perhaps in the ranks of the likes of the Sons of Struth, is a mirror image of the Green Brigade.

 

Now, as we stand on the cusp of 2014 - forward tho a canna see - I guess and  fear.

 

 

 

FINALLY, may I be allowed to put on my Ayrshire-made, Kilmarnock bunnet and say: "Well done Boydie", after Kris Boyd drew level with the Magnificent Seven as the most-prolific goal-scorer in the modern age in Scottish football.

 

As Kris quite rightly points out, as a footballer, he's not in the same class as the marvellous Swede, but, when it comes to putting the ball in the net - he's the best Scottish-born and trained scorer we've had in a generation or two.

 

In some countries a goal-scorer with Boyd's aptitude would be told: "Just hang around the opposition penalty area and put the ball in the net when it comes to you".

 

His team-mates would be told something like the  advice memorably given by the Army football team captain to his side, in George Macdonald Fraser's wonderful book: 'The General Danced At Dawn': "Just feed him, he's bewitched". (the team had a maverick winger who, when he was "on" was unplayable - in this game, he was exactly that).

 

But, not in Scotland. Boydie, apparently, doesn't track back, cannot tackle, is selfish - aye, but, he scores goals; let's celebrate him.

 

 

 

WHEN it comes to the vexed question of match fixing, I cannot forget a story once told by Ally MacLeod, during one of his four hours long, press conferences/post-match analysis sessions/ piss-ups involving the press corps in his pokey wee office under the stairs at Somerset Park.

 

It was around the time as the celebrated match-fixing case involving Bruce Grobbellar, and Ally told of the time, when he was a stripling with Third Lanarm, there were allegations of betting coups involving fixed Thirds games.

 

At training one night, as the implications of the case were being discussed, an indignant Ally spoke: "Well, I've never played in a match that was fixed  - I'm sure I'd have noticed."

 

One of the veteran Thirds defenders then spoke up: "Ally, you have, and you never noticed".

 

Ally always thought, to fix a match, you would need to nobble, both goalkeepers, one defender and a striker from the other side - and that wouldn't be easy.

 

However, these days, with in-play betting on such issues as whether or not there will be a booking in the next ten minutes - it is much easier for the bad guys to get the incident they want arranged - and, sadly, given the lack of cash in Scottish football, Scottish players will always be vulnerable to illegal approaches.