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.
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