Another Stormy Year Ahead For The Real Rainjurrz Men

AM I the only person who thinks 2017 did not end well for Rangers? Sure, confirming Graeme Murty as manager for the remainder of the season might have bought them time, but, the fact is – the team is well off the pace in the league, the financial situation isn't getting any better and the divided board is beset by problems on all sides.

Graeme Murty - a period of stability, but, rather him than me

The principal problem, of course, is the Chairman, the King over the water remains more of a liability than an asset to the club. He is still a Glib and Shameless Liar and many Real Rangers Men, are beginning to see King Gasl as more of a “Reel Rainjurrz Man”.

Then, to add to the woes, on Hogmanay, Nottingham Forest sacked Mark Warburton – which I reckon could mean Mr Warburton being more than a little-more interested, now he has spare time on his hands, to secure his financial future by extracting the moneys he thinks he is due from Rangers.

Add the ongoing situation apropos King Gasl's dispute with the Take-Over Panel and, it is clear, m'learned friends will continue to get a good living out of the club.

Then there was yesterday's Old Firm game at Celtic Park. With my long-held refusal to have anything to do with Sky, I was forced to listen to BBC Radio Shortbread's commentary and, quite honestly, from the chances Celtic missed in that first half, Brendan Rodgers would be quite within his rights to fine his players for sloppiness.

 Brendan Rodgers - could well fine his team for sloppiness

Of course, as anyone with the faintest level of football knowledge will tell you, this is not a great Celtic team, so, in their second-half fight-back, Rangers could and should have won the game. However, if the current Celtic team is a pale shadow of the Lisbon Lions, the current Rangers team is even further off the level of the great Rangers teams of the past, such as the Scot Symon outfit in which Jim Baxter pulled the strings or the all-conquering Iron Curtain Defence team of 1949.

That's another wee problem to be sorted. Mr Murty has apparently been told, any recruitment at the January sales has to be on a one-out – one-in basis, and one or two of Pedro the Portuguese's recruits, having failed to set the heather on fire, will need to be off-loaded at a loss.

On the other hand, all seems sweetness and light across the city. Except, while out on their own in Scotland, Celtic will I feel certain, struggle in the Europa League. The cry is no defenders for a start. It will be interesting to see who comes in, and who goes out, over the next month.

Elsewhere, the return of Niall McGinn might well prove to be a great boost for Aberdeen. They are worthy of their current status as the second-best team in Scotland, but, are not that far ahead of the field and a bit behind Celtic.

My own personal hope for 2018 is that the Kilmarnock revival continues and they can cement their Top Six place. Killie has the best manager in Scotland in Stevie Clarke, the question is, how long can they hang onto him? Boydie has his mojo back, suddenly we are smiling again in East Ayrshire.

The feel-good factor has extended into South Ayrshire, where Ayr United will go into 2018 at the head of the SPFL's League One. They have a two-point advantage over the chasing Raith Rovers, although, the Fifers have two games-in-hand. This particular championship race will run and run, but, under Ian McCall, something approaching the Ally Swagger is returning down Somerset Road.

Forgive me that small diversion away from the Premiership, which, regardless of the quality, certainly has width. Only six points, or two wins, separate the teams in sixth and eleventh places, and that, in any division, far less a 12-club one, adds up to a competitive division.

Owen Coyle - you can never write-off one of his teams

Ross County are in the dangerous relegation slot, but, you never write-off an Owen Coyle-managed team.

The Championship is traditionally the toughest division to get out of, but, given the several happy years I spent covering St Mirren, I have a soft spot for the table-topping Buddies and nothing would give me more pleasure than to see the friends I made there, who are still at the club – guys like Tony Fitzpatrick, Campbell Kennedy, the Commercial Manager, and super groundsman Tommy Docherty back in the top flight.

They will face a tough fight with Dundee United for the automatic promotion slot and, while these two look like at the very least being in the play-offs, who joins them is a serious dog fight.

THE Scottish Junior Cup, third round backlog continued on Saturday, with the four outstanding matches again falling foul of the bad weather.

But, there was one significant result on the day, with Kilwinning Rangers travelling to Fortress Beechwood and beating Auchinleck Talbot 1-0. The Buffs have been on a downer in recent seasons, but, are now coming back, and currently lead the McBookie.com Super Premier Division.

In fact, there is a strange look to the table, with the three Garnock Valley clubs – Kilwinning, Beith and Kilbirnie in the first three places, ahead of Talbot. There's a long way still to go, but, this is a great way for North Ayrshire, which has been playing the poor relations to the East Ayrshire Trinity of Talbot, Cumnock and Glenafton in recent seasons.

And, speaking of comebacks, it is good to see Petershill, unbeaten after ten games, leading the West First Division, while Craigmark Burntonians, who nearly went out of the game at the end of last season, are leading the Ayrshire League.

That's it for 2017, see you across the bells in 2018 and, a Happy New Year, when it comes.

As Edinburgh Showed - Foregone Conclusions Sometimes Don't Turn Out

I DO NOT suppose anyone around whatever the Rangers' training centre at Auchenhowie is called now noticed – football people are so-far up their own arses, the world might end and some would not notice until they couldn't find BBC Shortbread Open All Mikes – but, exactly a week ago, an Edinburgh rugby team, fully-expected to lose, went down a man to a fifth minute red card, and still beat a supposedly superior Glasgow side, in the first leg of the 1872 Cup.

Scorer Chris Dean gives a piggy-back to Jaco van der Walt as they celebrate his match-winning try in the Edinburgh v Glasgow rugby last Saturday. Might Edinburgh's against-the-odds win inspire Rangersagainst Celtic this afternoon?

What's this got to do with fitba – I hear you ask? Well, it is just the latest in a lengthy litany of sporting occasions in which the unexpected result happened. When it is a case of one team against another – now and then, shite happens, as it certainly did for Glasgow last Saturday at Murrayfield.

So, if Rangers are looking for inspiration for this afternoon's visit to Celtic Park, then they need only look towards the capital and the way the handicapped Edinburgh stuck to their guns. Dumbfounded the supposedly superior attacking skills of Glasgow, and won the day.

There have been spells in the past when one or other of the Old Firm clubs was supposedly far-superior to the other. There have been previous cases of the dominant party putting together lengthy runs of league and cup successes, but, always, in among the long winning runs, there was the odd, “shock” result, when the supposed underdog emerged victorious.

I am not really expecting today to be such a day, but, you can never say never, and, that is why I am temporarily taking-over the late Jimmy Sanderson's perch on top of a fence post.

To quote old “Solly”: “Only a fool forecasts the result of an Old Firm game”. I still fancy Celtic to win again.

TO PRO-INDEPENDENCE types such as I, it all seems to be coming together in a perfect storm. We have a Tory government, vying with the Rangers board for the title of the worst management team in the UK; we have Brexit going tits-up before our eyes; we have a Labour Party who seem to be a case of the blind leading the blind, and now, right on time for the Independence cause – we have cabinet papers being released which seem to demonstrate – the Scots weren't being paranoid when we thought Maggie Thatcher had it in for us – she really did.

 Maggie's No to Hampden, just one example of her disinterest in Scotland

If the revelation that the then Conservative government didn't want Glasgow to become European City of Culture back in 1990 isn't enough to demonstrate to those still prepared to give Westminster another chance, the perfidious nature of London rule – then maybe the revelations about the bourach which was the Hampden re-development of the same era, and the stuff coming out about the closure of Ravenscraig will.

And, of course, as befits their vision of themselves as “The Queen's XI”, dear old Rangers were in there, fighting against the move to modernise Hampden, for all they were worth.

By the way, back then, Rangers were still the dominant force in Scottish football – today, that role is in Celtic's keeping, and, what do you know, with updating Hampden again an issue – wee Peter Lawwell reckons they would be as well doing without and playing the big games at Celtic Park.

When, oh when will the other stumble bums along the Hampden sixth floor corridor and in the board-rooms of Scottish fitba realise – the Old Firm are not your friends; they are the oppressors, only interested in themselves, and, if the door to English football ever opens even a chink – they will be through it and gone, like rats up a drain pipe.

If Peter Lawwell, allegedly the most-influential man in Scottish football, really cares all that much – then, how about him voluntarily donating the £3 million it would supposedly cost to install goal-line technology to the SPFL – I mean, his club has just come into an unexpected £7 million windfall from Virgil Van Dijk's move from Southampton to Liverpool – it's not as if Celtic doesn't have that spare cash lying around.

Any way, I am not holding my breath on that one.

FOUR of the third round ties have still to be played, but, the fourth round of the Scottish Junior Cup was drawn this week.

The locals sometimes get a wee bit excited when Cumnock and Talbot clash

And there is no surprise concerning what is being seen as the “tie of the round”; Tom Johnston or Ian McQueen must have misplaced the oval and square balls, because, Cumnock and Auchinleck Talbot were drawn to meet at Townhead Park, on Saturday, 20 January. And there was me thinking, after their last little contretemps, some years back, when police horses had to be deployed to separate the fighting fans on the hallowed Townhead turf – which has now, by the way, been ripped-up and replaced by plastic – I understood the polis and the Scottish Government made it clear, they didn't want the ancient rivals meeting again anywhere short of the final.

Mind you, if Newtongrange Star can get past Cumbernauld United, in a tie due to be played this afternoon, then they will meet Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic in a sort of better-mannered East Lothian version of the old East Ayrshire tribal pitched battle.

Common Sense And Scottish Fitba's Ruling Elite - Strangers In The Night

WITH my big Kilmarnock bunnet firmly planted on my head, I am prepared to say – the very late postponement of yesterday's scheduled Hamilton Academical v Kilmarnock SPFL Premiership game, leaves a nasty aroma hanging around. The Killie fans' chat room forums and facebook pages are already chock-a-block with disgruntled fans screaming: “foul.”

 Karen wasn't the only person from Ayrshire who wondered at the late call-off on Wednesday

For my part, I do not see why the League had to schedule last night's round of matches for midweek in midwinter, but, when did common sense ever have a role to play in the administration of Scottish Football? Wednesday, 27 December, 2017 was NOT a public holiday in Scotland, but, Tuesday, 26 December, 2017 was – why didn't they play the games, on Tuesday, with afternoon kick-offs?

Sure, maybe the New Douglas Park pitch would still have been unplayable, but, with an afternoon kick-off, the go or no-go decision could have been made earlier in the day and the considerable disruption which hit the Kilmarnock support would have been avoided.

After their terrific win over an admittedly piss-poor Rangers team at the weekend, the Killie Klan were raring to go, they are not happy at the call-off, and its lateness.

NO SUNSHINE on Leith from the Edinburgh Derby, with the green and white half of the city decidedly unimpressed by the non-award of what seemed, from pictorial newspaper evidence, a perfectly good goal.

 Neil Lennon - Had EVery Right To Be Upset At The "No-goal" Incident

Of course, such decisions going against him are meat and drink to Neil Lennon, who was in full righteous indignation mode – for once, it seems to me with justification. I wonder, will we ever see goal line technology and what Rugby calls Television Match Officials in play in Scottish Football? Probably, by the time the SFA has held meetings about meetings, formed a special sub-committee to discuss the issue, failed to agree on its findings, formed a second special task force, and talked about bringing it in – something else will have been discovered.

Rugby has had TMOs for a few years now, and, they still make the occasional mistake – you see, where there is a human element to new technology, you will always find argument and dissent. I can hardly wait for the first TMO adjudication on was it or was it not a penalty in an Old Firm game. They had better put an armed guard round the television truck wherein the TMO sits, just in case.

SEVENTY-FIVE MILLION POUNDS for Virgil Van Dijk. That whirring sound you hear on Merseyside is the syncopated burlin' of Wullie Shankly and Bob Paisely in their graves.

 Shankly and Paisley, maybe burlin' at the thought of spending all that money on a defender

Mind you, if the big Dutchman plugs the holes in the Reds' rearguard, he will be cheap at twice the price, but, that figure, for a defender, is further proof of how the English game has lost the plot totally. If Van Dijk is worth £75 million – what price Hansen, Lawrenson, Thomson, Smith or Yeats, genuinely good, no, make that great, Liverpool defenders?

Still, I suppose the £8 million Celtic are due from Southampton as a sell-on fee will come in handy.

THE Guardian published their alternative 2017 Sports Personality of the Year list this morning, and, disgracefully, Rangers' Dave King was overlooked – apparently, there are worse club owners/chairmen that the Glib and Shameless Liar. Must try harder in 2018.

Good Business For Celtic, But, It's A Downhill Move For Dembele

TO ME, nothing quite demonstrates the absurdity of modern football and the crazy finances of the English Premier League than this morning's story of Brighton and Hove Albion having an £18 million bid for Moussa Dembele accepted by Celtic.

Moussa Dembele - the reported fee reflects football inflation

Great business for Celtic, a nice wee profit made there and, if their scouting team can come-up with another young, probably under-priced foreign player, entice him to Celtic Park, put him in the European shop window, then move him on for a similar profit, it's job done.

However, to quote one of the great football books – Hunter Davies's master-work on Tottenham Hotspur - “The Glory Game”, football is, or used to be, all about glory. I know of just two former Brighton and Hove Albion players: “the other” Gordon Smith – the one who started his career at Rangers, and finished it as Chief Executive of the SFA, and Jimmy Collins.

I will start with Collins, one of, perhaps THE star of the greatest Junior Football team ever: Fraser; Love and Cathie; McEwan, Baird and Donnelly; Bingham, Collins, Sharp, Neil and Wilkie – the Lugar Boswell Thistle team which reached and were sadly beaten in the 1956 Scottish Junior Cup Final.

Jimmy was a Catrine boy, an apprentice brickie with a local building firm. That season, he scored goals for fun, won Junior Scotland honours and, when he saw a wall he had spent the morning erecting on the Onthank housing scheme in Kilmarnock – setting for the iconic 'The Scheme' TV programme, being blown over during his lunch break, he decided, aye, I will accept the offer of full-time football with Tottenham Hotspur.

 Jimmy Collins in his Brighton days

He took a while, between completing his apprenticeship, then doing his National Service, to establish himself in the Tottenham Reserves,where he was occasional captain. His biggest problem, however, was the presence of a certain John White in the first team. Jimmy under-studied the “White Ghost”, but, only got two first-team games.

Then, Bobby Smith, the England centre forward, was appointed manager at Brighton, and immediately, he recruited Collins – his first team chances at White Hart Lane limited by White's genius.

Three weeks later, White was tragically killed by that lightning strike while golfing, leaving Jimmy, ever since, to contemplate what might have been. However, he prospered at the Goldstone Ground, eventually became captain, and played over 200 games for the Seagulls.

 The wonderful John White

Jimmy who was still playing for his local pub team in his mid-fifties, turned 80 this week, and he still lives just outside Brighton.

Smith, in spite of six Under-23 and Under-21 caps for Scotland, and some vital goals, somehow never really convinced at Rangers, who off-loaded him to Brighton for a then healthy £440,000 in 1980.

In both cases, moving to Brighton was seen as a case of leaving a big club for a smaller one. Collins's nominal transfer fee, Smith's £440,000 fee and Dembele's £18 million fee might reflect football's transfer market inflation, but, there is surely something wrong when a young man voluntarily leaves a huge club, playing regularly in Europe and with a massive, world-wide fan base, for a club from a small seaside town on the south coast, which is more likely to be battling relegation than striving for European success.

What price glory to today's footballers?

THE douce citizens of Edinburgh are starting to get excited about the upcoming Edinburgh Derby, between Hearts and Hibs, and rightly so.

While the wee Ginger Whinger from Lagan has galvanised the green half of the city and sunshine is starting to peek over Leith, things have been a bit harder for Hearts this season. Craig Levein's return to the technical area was not universally welcomed by the Jambos' faithful, but, not least by halting the seemingly unstoppable Celtic juggernaut, he has restored faith down Gorgie way.

So, the war of words has kicked off in the fans' chat rooms and the btl comments section of The Scotsman. With Hibs fourth and Hearts fifth in the SPFL table, this one matters, although, to be fair, to the fans, every Derby matters.

Hearts' revival has been, to an extent, driven by their youthful midfield. It was disappointing to see young Harry Cochrane red carded at Perth on Saturday, but, the kid is young and impetuous and he will learn from the experience.

By the way, I enjoyed Hearts' assistant boss Austin McPhee describing being taken on a tour of “Hearts' pubs” after the win over Celtic, by Gary Locke as: “Like going out in Las Vegas with Elvis”. I know where he is coming from.

The late, great, Jimmy Reid

Ian Archer once sent me to a Clydebank game to “baby-sit” Jimmy Reid – I was doing the match report, Jimmy was doing a “colour piece”. Wee Fraser Elder has never forgotten that game – funnily enough against Hearts. Because Jimmy was there, the barmaid in the upstairs lounge of the Bankies Club, which doubled as the press area, but was normally closed during play, kept the bar open, in case Jimmy fancied a drink. Jimmy didn't, but, wee Fras and one or two of the boys did; so, that afternoon, there was "bevvying".

Any way, being with Jimmy that afternoon, was like being ADC to the King, or, the guy who accompanies POTUS and carries the nuclear launch codes.

DELIGHTED to see Kieran Tierney named in the Champions League XI from the group stages, a well-deserved honour.

 Kieran Tierney - the future of Scottish football

How disappointing therefore, to see the Future of Scottish Football NOT named in the list of the 100 greatest players in the world earlier this week. This reflects Scotland's current place in the world, but, for my money, Tierney is more-worthy of inclusion in the list than some of the has-beens who are in it.

Captain Pugwash, Master Bates and Seaman Staines Have The SS Rainjurrz On The Rocks

IT MAY well be something primal, deep inside their DNA, but, perhaps more than most – and it is wide-spread across the game – Rangers fans NEED a strong and stable leader at the top of their club.

Even these two could make a better job of running Rangers

In football, every successful club seems to require a guiding light – someone who is seen as: The Man. Sometimes, that man is the Chairman, going back as far as old Bob Lord, who was Mr Burnley during their successful spell in the 1950s and 1960s, or Sir Robert Kelly, during his long stewardship of Celtic. But, more-often, The Man is the Manager.

British football has a history of successful, seemingly all-powerful managers – from Willie Maley at Celtic, via Bill Struth at Rangers, Herbert Chapman at Arsenal, via Matt Busby, Bill Nicolson, Bill Shankly, Jock Stein, Don Revie and Brian Clough, to Alex Ferguson and Walter Smith in more-recent times.

Perhaps the ideal scenario is a firm relationship between Manager and Chairman – Stein and Kelly being perhaps the best example, or, Alex Ferguson and Dick Donald at Aberdeen, or David Murray and Graeme Souness and Walter Smith at Rangers. When you have one hugely-competent Chairman, holding the purse strings and making strategic decisions, and an equally-competent and perhaps more-charismatic Manager as the public face of a club, it's a fearsome combination.

 Celtic's dynamic duo

Right now, Celtic has that. While Derek Desmond is the ultimate ruler, he is quite happy to cede a certain level of strategic command to the hugely-competent Peter Lawwell, while, downstairs in the engine room, Brendan Rodgers is keeping the good ship Celtic sailing along at what mariners call: “top of the green” - making the most-efficient use of the available horse power.

Compare that with the chaos across the city. The SS Rangers hit its iceberg back in 2012, just after the long-serving Master handed the wheel to an untried nobody. Since then, the hulk of this once great craft has drifted helplessly on a turbulent sea.

The current Master has been unmasked as, probably a pirate, while the Pilot is unused to navigating in these waters, and, there are serious doubts as to the competency of the crew.

The ship is seriously holed below the water line and the guys manning the pumps are getting somewhat sick of bailing-out the boat, while the Master promises much, but does nothing. I can see another iceberg approaching.

As a Kilmarnock fan, I was delighted with yesterday's win, but, the reality was – that was a Rangers' tribute act, although not wearing the strip. But for a series of good saves from Wes Foderingham, Killie would have won even more convincingly than they did. I fear, Rangers' Winter of Discontent is set to last for a lot longer than Ra Peepul and all staunch Real Rainjurrz Men would wish.

Of course, the King over the Water needs to be toppled, but, even then, the cancerous cells eating-up the club seem to have too-strong a hold for any short-term “sticking plaster” patch-up job to work.

Rangers can be rebuilt, but, it will take an awful lot more the six million dollars to do this. Coming up on six years of time have been squandered, the Ibrox famine now seems set to last longer than a biblical seven years.

MEANWHILE, we are all wearing smiley faces around Rugby Park. Of course, yesterday's victory was great, and highly-enjoyable. Even back in the day in the 1960s, we didn't get to celebrate too-many back-to-back wins over Rangers. Aye, yesterday made for a happier than normal Christmas.

 Stevie Clarke - doing a great job at Rugby Park

And, we might be suffering nose bleeds, being back in the Top Six for the first time in yonks. OK, getting there has been the hard part, staying there for long, in this very-competitive Scottish League (well apart from the one team head and shoulders above the rest), is the more-difficult follow-up.

Stevie Clarke has been a breath of fresh air. We have to accept, he will probably not linger long back in his home county – he's been too-long in the South to not return there when he has rehabilitated his reputation. So, we must enjoy having him and hope when he does go, his legacy is not squandered.

He has turned the club around, now, let's hope it continues to head in the right direction.

Think Of The Real Rainjurrz Men At This Sad Time Of Year

AT THIS time of year, we are expected to ask for peace on earth and to profess goodwill to all men. I know, it's difficult, and in the world of Scottish football, goodwill to all men is as rare at this special time of year than at any other time.

As Johnny Cash nearly sang: "I wear blue for the poor and the beaten-down, living on the hungry, hopeless side of town" - or, as they are known - Real Rainjurrz Men

However, I feel, this year, we really ought to make a special effort on behalf of a poor, down-trodden and oppressed minority – Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you those hard-pressed, put-upon citizens – the Real Rainjurrz Men, the RRM. For them, there appears to be no light at the end of the dark tunnel, not even the headlights of a fast-approaching freight train, about to run them over.

I mean, the seven plagues of Egypt were but a minor inconvenience when compared to the series of travails which have plagued the institution they follow-follow.

For a start, Sir David Murray was never a RRM. Sure, he delivered some great years, he made the people happy for a while, but, in the end, he was shown to have financial feet of clay, before he sold the institution for £1 to a “billionaire with wealth off the radar”, who proved to be a false God.

He was quickly found out as a fraud, and the institution was sold, to “Lord Charles”, who perhaps had some London-based financiers' hands up his backside working him – as he was shown to also be, not what he had appeared to be.

But, Lord Charles was decanted to France and, at last, after more than a quarter of a century in the hands of outsiders, the Club was back in the hands of the RRM. The King over the water was in-charge and all would be well.

 King Gasl - has not got his troubles to seek

Aye Right. Those of the rival family, who mocked the King as: Gasl - “A glib and shameless liar” pointed-out, time and again, that the King had no clothes. Sure, he promised much, but, he appeared to be suffering from a strange impediment. For all anyone knew, he did seem to have deep pockets – trouble was, his arms were too-short to go in there.

Now, this morning, in nice time for Christmas, we learn that HM King Gasl will need to, on the instructions of Lord Bannatyne, one of Scotland's most-senior judges, come up with £11 million, to buy out the remaining Rangers' shareholders and take-over the Club.

Trouble is, while King Gasl has, on the one hand, been promising much - £30 million “transfer 'war chest' anyone” - he has delivered little. The Club continues to be, as it has been since SDM handed-over control to yon off the radar chap, a loss-making entity, without a credit line at any bank, without a permanent manager, with on-going issues over potentially-expensive stadium refurbishment, and with on-going issues over settlement payments to its last two managers.

The genuine RRM who have been funding this loss-making enterprise are, we understand, becoming a little pissed-off with having to bear the burden. One senses it is all coming to a head.

Why, there are even rumours, the pr guru who has, thus far, done a tremendous job in keeping the Lap Top Loyal and the other stenographers and churnalist of the mainstream media in Glasgow, is beginning to lose his audience. And, we are outwith the squirrel-hunting season, so, diversions are in short supply.

 Stevie Clarke - the managerial Flavour of the Month

I detected the hand of the top Level pr guru behind recent efforts to unsettle Stevie Clarke, the flavour of the month among Scottish managers, following his turn-around in the fortunes of Kilmarnock. But, Clarke, good Ayrshire boy that he is, and, having during his time in England worked with all sorts of charlatans, can spot a club owner, or potential owner, who is all mouth and no trousers.

He has made it clear, he has no interest in managing any Scottish club other than Kilmarnock. This, following hard on the heels of the knock-back from Derek McInnes, appears to confirm – the word is out about how skint the Club is, and how untrustworthy King Gasl might be.

I think popcorn sales might be up this festive season, as this movie is set to run and run.

MEANWHILE, across town, there was a speedy response to surrendering their impressive 69-game unbeaten domestic run at Tynecastle on Sunday. Hearts actually did Celtic a favour by winning that one. Perhaps better to lose to a non-Glasgow club than one from the same city, and, if Celtic had stretched their run to 70 games, well, that would simply have been the cue for one of these rare Partick Thistle against the odds wins.

Of course, the churnalists and stenographers have been quick to make the point about this “World Record” run of 69-games unbeaten. Fair play, it was impressive, but, it is NOT a World Record, or even a British Record.

The Celtic run is correctly – a British Record for a top national division, since the outright record is held by AFC Wimbledon, who, on their rise through the ranks in England, put together an unbeaten league run of 78 games back in 2003 and 2004.

SO SORRY to learn this week that Bobby Williamson has been diagnosed with Cancer. Not nice at any time of year, but, more-so in December.

Bobby Williamson - One of the Good Guys

However, I am certain Bobby will give the big C a real run for its money, he's that sort of guy. And, with Bobby being back in the news, it gives me a chance to retell my favourite Bobby Williamson story, from his days as Kilmarnock manager.

Bobby had been having one of his periodic wars with the Fourth Estate in the week leading-up to a Kilmarnock v Dundee United job. He had accused several upstanding tabloid hacks of: making-up stories and manufacturing quotes. Perish the thought!!

So, on the Saturday, he arrived in the Rugby Park Media Suite armed with a Dictaphone, and announced he was going to record the press conference, and, he expected us to identify ourselves and out newspaper when asking him questions, safe in the knowledge, he would be checking our copy to ensure accuracy.

I had drawn the short straw of asking the first question, so, I duly identified myself: “Socrates MacSporran – Sunday Times,” (for it was for that august organ I was reporting). My question was: “Bobby – how do you justify that 90-minutes of shite we've just watched?” The match had, indeed, been that staple of Scottish fitba: “A draw, nae fitba!”

My parentage, my weight issues, my perceived love of Ayr United were all called into question in Bobby's preamble to his answer, before, reluctantly, he accepted, the game had been: “Not very good.”

At least, he binned the Dictaphone, the rest of the press conference passed in friendly banter and without rancour, and we all left, more than ever convinced that Bobby was indeed, one of the good guys.

Alex Smith, the United boss, was a bit harder to convince that it had been a rotten game, but, eventually, he too accepted the crowd had been somewhat short-changed.

Get well soon Bobby – we are all with you in your fight.