I ENJOYED Monday night's BT Sport coverage of the Hamilton Accies v Dundee United game at New Douglas Park. I have to admit, at 2-0 for United, less than half a minute into the second half, I thought it was game over; so, fair play to Martin Canning's Accies for their great comeback to square the game. Only to be undone by Shaun Dillon's late winner for the Arabs.
In truth, the quality of the football on view was every bit as good as what I have seen in recent English Premiership clashes. There is life yet in Scottish football, it's just, maybe we are not selling it too-well. How frustrating to see some excellent football being paraded in front of rows and rows of empty seats. This level of play deserves better.
That said, would you go out on a bitterly cold night like Monday, to watch a fitba match - I know, in my seventh decade, I wouldn't, unless bribed by a nice commission from a media outlet. And there's the rub - Scottish fitba has aye been a winter game. Note those two words: "aye been", the two most frustrating words in the Caledonian lexicon.
For a nation which resolutely refuses, at Westminster elections, to support the Conservative and Unionist Party, Scotland is a strangely conservative country, more-so when it comes to sport.
I recall an aside from a Junior Football honcho some years ago, when a mid-winter shut-down was being discussed for the senior game. My mate, with campaign medals and mentions in despatches from years of Ayrshire League Derbies remarked: "Ach, we've had a mid-winter shut-down in the juniors for years, the trouble is, we never quite know when it will occur, it all depends on when the bad weather arrives."
That's the rub, the uncertainty of the Scottish weather. We can be snowed-off in November, then flooded-out in March in one season, the next could see no disruption, followed by a total shut-down during January and February - we simply don't know what the weather gods will chuck at us.
The Scottish women's game has successfully switched to summer football. The men's game is, however, unlikely to follow suit - aye beenism and all that. However, maybe it is time we did, seriously consider, re-scheduling our game towards the better weather months. For a start, we might get a better TV deal when we weren't tagged on to the end of the all-pervading English game.
Better pitches might offer us a higher level of on-field skills on view; it would be easier to attract the fans out to games - although we also have to seriously look at the Scottish game's pricing structure and some of the facilities at grounds.
We are not helping Scottish fitba by continuing to be wedded to the aye beenism gospel. Scottish fitba isn't working as we would wish it to - so: CHANGE IT.
So, it is Real Madrid 1 Barcelona 0. That's the result of this year's Ballon d'Or voting, with CR7 getting the nod ahead of little Lionel Messi, We are really lucky to have these two great players at their peak at the same time; I would not have complained had Messi got the nod, the pair are that good. Mind you, as a former goalkeeper, I would have loved it had Manuel Neuer won, he really is one hell of a 'keeper.
I was disappointed that Stephanie Roche, the Irish girl, didn't win the Ferenc Puskas Award, for Goal of the Year award. In all honesty, I feel her effort, filmed on a camera-phone, was superior to the winner, Jamie Rodriguez's effort, which was captured in glorious Technicolour, dynamic Cinemascope and Stereophonic sound during the World Cup.
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