WELL - I didn't see that one coming; St Johnstone going to Celtic Park and winning. Of course, I am an old hot-metal journalist, programmed to accept the superiority of either one of the Bigot Brothers when they have home advantage over one of the "Diddy" teams.
But, as we have seen, time and again, the old certainties no longer apply. This Celtic team might top the league, but, they are a long-way removed from being a Good Celtic team, and, as such, there will be nights such as Wednesday's, when they trip on a banana skin.
Maybe too, we ought to give our "Diddy" teams a bit more respect. The Premiership, as currently set-up, is a more-competitive league than maybe we give it credit for and certainly, results such as last night's are to be welcomed by all those without an agenda slewed towards the status quo.
At least, Saints winning in Glasgow diverted some media attention away from the latest plot line in the Edmiston Drive soap opera.
Mind you, with the King over the water seemingly set for an Ibrox coronation, sooner rather than later, followed by an invitation to: "Come up and see us - soon" from Peter Lawwell and his cyphers on the SFA board, there might not be as smooth a transfer of power as Ra Peepul would wish for.
And, that's before we find-out just what Mike Ashley has in mind. I see no reason to deviate from my firm assertion, events around the club playing out of Ibrox will continue to be a nice little earner for m'learned friends, for a wee while yet.
Also, one wonders which other skeletons will come tumbling out of the Ibrox cupboards once the Kings' men begin opening them.
We surely do live in interesting times.
MEANWHILE, as I feared they might back in 2012, now the chancers who run the Football Association have seen what goes on in that ultimate sporting gravy train, the Olympic Games, there is no chance of them treating the 2012 Olympic football campaign of Team GB as the one-off it was supposed to be.
Cue the usual howls of outrage from Hampden and Cardiff. Leaving aside the objections of the Welsh FA, who couldn't wait to jump on the London bandwagon in 2012, I refer the Hampden "blazers" to a point which this blog has made before.
This is, they have only themselves, or to be precise, their predecessors, to blame for England deciding to press ahead with Olympic Games teams. Back in (I think) 1906, when the British Olympic Association was formed, and football, the sport, was asked to become involved - the SFA, and their Welsh and Irish colleagues stood back and left it to the (English) FA, to represent football on that body - the BOA, which is the UK arm of the International Olympic committee.
Had football, like every other Olympic sport - even curling, which is barely played on these islands outside Scotland - formed a pan-British organisation, affiliated to the BOA and through it to the IOC, then we wouldn't have the current problems.
Of course, for most of the years between 1906 and 2012, leaving it all to the FA didn't really matter. Up until 1972, which was the last year in which UK football, particularly in England, differentiated between "amateur" and "professional" football, the FA left the organisation of the UK's Olympic football campaigns, the last of which was mounted in 1972, to the (English) Amateur FA. Certainly Scotland participated: Matt Busby managed the team for the 1948 London games, in which Ronnie Simpson was one of a handful of Scots in the GB team, while another future Scotland cap, David Holt, played in the 1960 Rome Olympics, the last game for which Team GB qualified prior to their "host team" entry in 2012.
The trouble was, the Scottish Amateur FA, for which read the Queen's Park committee, were never 100% behind the Olympics. Queen's Park players would be pulled out of Olympic qualifying squads if needed for a Second Division match. Our lack of interest and lukewarm involvement has now come back to haunt us.
The SFA always plays the independence card, parroting: "Participation in a Team GB squad might impinge on Scotland's international football independence."
Given the occasional squeals from overseas, the now disgraced Jack Warner for instance, was a particularly vociferous critic of there being four independent football countries within the UK, they might have cause to worry.
However, I cannot see UEFA, which has admitted such football "giants" as San Marino, Andorra and Gibraltar into membership, agreeing to the amalgamation of the four "Mother Associations" into one UKFA.
Yes, such a move might gain UEFA some of the four Home Nations' seats on IFAV, the International Football Associations Board, but, I cannot honestly see UEFA forcing England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to amalgamate any time soon.
I further accept, the three Celtic nations risk becoming fringe players in what will be a mainly English programme, but, as a bridge between Under-21 and full internationals, the mainly Under-23 Olympic team has a place in football, and, we cannot simply accept, most of the good young players are English.
For instance, arguably the two Scots in the 2012 Team GB were the most-influential players.
However, it still comes back to the fact, at the moment is is England's ball. IF, and it is a big if, the three Celtic nations could persuade the FA to cede control of Olympic football in these islands to a newly-constituted UKFootball Federation, charged soley to run the Olympic Games programme, then I would have no objections to Team GB having football teams in Brazil and beyond.
If, however, such a new body cannot be formed, if England inists on running things, then the SFA and their Northern Irish and Welsh colleagues, MUST pursue every avenue to prevent further Olympic Games programmes in football.
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