The RTA Got Off Lightly

HAVING taken a firm decision NOT to get involved in forecasting what might happen at Hampden this afternoon - I always stood by old "Sollie's" (James Sanderson's) dictum: that only a fool would try to predict the outcome of an Old Firm match, I am happy, now it is over - to give my view.

I thought the Rangers Tribute Act got off lightly. Had Celtic won by four or five goals, it would not have been unwarranted. "Rangers", to put it bluntly, showed just why I am among the commentators who consider that,  though they wear the same colours, play out of the same stadium and although their fans continue to sing those loverly old Ulster-Scots folk songs of blessed memory, the team in blue weren't "real Rangers", but, a tribute act.

Celtic played all the football; they were more of a team, better organised, more-skilled, more-committed. It was men against boys.

The RTA has an awfully long way to go to get back to being competitive.

And, welcome though the challenges they face in the Premiership are, a Treble is Celtic's to lose.

I was assured, more than a week before the game, by an old Rangers stalwart, who knew what it took to win Trebles, that the RTA was so poor at the back and so lacking in guile in midfield, there was no way they could win. He was correct.

I am old enough to remember Celtic's wilderness years BS - before Jock Stein returned as manager, 50-years ago next month. The RTA are in the wilderness just now - even further in there than Celtic were back then.

The thing about Stein returning to the club was, every Lisbon Lion except Willie Wallace was already there; the first Celtic team which Stein sent out included six of the men who would be in the tea.m in Lisbon, some 26-months later.

No matter who gets the Ibrox gig in succession to Kenny McDowall, you cannot see six of the current staff being good enough to get the club into the Champion's League, far less as far as the final, inside a 26-month timescale.

We all know the Ibrox club has serious and severe off-field problems. Today's match demonstrated, they are far from healthy on the field as well.

WELL done Dundee United, in beating Aberdeen in the other League Cup semi-final.

I appreciate the Dons have some concerns about decisions not going their way, I can see where they are coming from.

But, no use complaining about the Rooney goal which was chalked-off because the dons' striker pushed his marker before heading home. He clearly did commit the foul - Aberdeen can have no complaint about the foul being punished, except, such fouls are not picked-up often enough, although they occur in every game.

I would love to see such control of the free-for-all shoving matches which take place at every corner kick of set piece into the box being shown in every match.



THE Hampden pitch, quite properly, came in for a lot of criticism after the weekend's two matches, which set me wondering.

We have come a long way in lots of areas of football. Compare today's boots and balls with the heavy Manfield Hotspurs and Thomson T-balls which were still in vogue when I began playing competitively.

Pity the pitches have gone backwards. for instance, I was brought-up to believe Rugby Park had the best surface in Scotland. Tales were told of the magic which the Killie groundstaff worked on the pitch each close season.

I heard of some amazing, but highly-effective, old-school tricks which the ground-staff used. What was never mentioned was, the old Rugby Park, and indeed, so-many pitches of the old days, were located in the middle of wide-open stadiums.

Today's pitches are hemmed-in by high stands. The pitches don't get a chance to dry-out as they once did. Sure, they all have undersoil heating now, but, that aint natural.

Hampden is more-open than most Scottish grounds, but, it isn't as open as it was before it was re-developed. Quite why the Hampden "blazers" couldn't have laid down a proper 4G state-of-the-art pitch is almost beyond me.

I say almost, being Hampden officials, the thought they ought to do that probably never entered their pea-sized brains.