Nae Pressure John - Just Tell Them

JOHN McGINN just might be going through the most-difficult few days of his career, as he seeks to persuade his Aston Villa team mates that it will be anything but a dawdle when they face Hibernian, at Easter Road, in the Europa Conference League Play-Off Round.

Of course, Villa will start as favourites; however, they need to remember, they might have won the European Cup over 40 years ago, but, today they are in the continent's third tier competition, facing a Scottish side whose European credentials were forged even longer ago. This is still a Battle of Britain contest, and while Villa will be expected to prevail, against a Scottish team, determined to beat an English one – they can take nothing for granted.

It falls to McGinn to persuade his team mates – they cannot treat this one lightly.

MORE THAN 60 year ago, I spent a year at a commercial college in Glasgow, being taught shorthand and typing, to help me along my chosen career path into journalism. I boarded with an aunt and uncle in Springburn, ane my uncle, who worked on the railways, used to take me to watch Rangers play.

I can honestly say, in my intervening years covering The Beautiful Game, I have never seen any team waste time and rub-in superiority with quite the elan that that Rangers team, inspired by Jim Baxter at the peak of his powers demonstrated that season.

In particular, I remember them humiliating Celtic at Celtic Park, as Baxter, Ron McKinnon and John Greig indulged in a bout of keep ball to wind down the clock. The Celtic fans didn't hang around to suffer this, they had departed early, but, the Bears loved it.

I mention this memory of long ago, since time wasting and how to counteract it is apparently a hot topic at the moment – with referees being instructed to add-on time should they feel a side is time-wasting.

This shows, when it comes to improving the product, the game's High Heid Yins show a magnificent inability to learn from other sports. For instance, covering Ice Hockey I have seen players sent to the sin bin for Delaying the Game penalties. Other sports, such as Basketball, have rules which demand that players get a dead ball back into play within certain time constraints.

In Rugby Union, goal kickers have a limited time in which to take their kicks at goal, and, while the referees in that game, sadly, do not penalise often enough – there are also time constraints on getting the ball into the scrums and lines-out.

Here's an idea for Football:

• Why not go to what I would call “Ball in Play” time.

• This would demand, we get a set period of actual play – maybe 60 minutes

• Every time the ball goes out of play, the clock stops; ditto every time the referee blows his whistle to stop play.

• That way, we get ball in play time – with the teams required to restart the game within a set time of the referee telling them to do so.

To help with this, we take time-keeping duties away from the referee and give it to a time-keeper. This, I think, would be a good start towards improving the spectator experience.

NOT FOR nothing is Marie Osmond's 'Paper Roses' associated with Kilmarnock. Ever since Willie Waddell showed perfect timing, in getting out at the top, we supporters have been fed a diet of promises from the various directors of the club.

The years since 1965 have generally been hard, but, we're still here and if all the pain hasn't been washed away, times such as this, what some fans are calling: “Carlsberg August” has left us feeling good about ourselves.

Back-to-back wins over the Ugly Sisters has meant life is, for the moment, a bowl of cherries for Derek McInnes. But, knowing how some Rugby Park regulars think, it will not be long before some will again be calling for his head.

Meanwhile, enjoy the moment Killie fans.

DOWN HERE in God's County, these are strange times in football. As if Killie beating both halves of the Old Firm wasn't a big enough surprise, it is insignificant compared to the state of the West of Scotland Premier Division table, which shows Auchinleck Talbot lying in 14^th spot in the 16-club division.

Legendary gaffer Tucker Sloan has embarked on a major rebuilding job this season, after the 'Bot crashed out of the Junior Cup to Cumnock last season, and several club legends departed Beechwood Park.

Talbot have won just one of their first six league games, but, Tucker is such a terrific manager and the 'Bot has such a well-oiled club machine, I have no fears about them recovering – a league campaign is a marathon, not a sprint.

SO, The Women's World Cup is over, and The Lionesses lost. Dear Me, such a shame. Still, it's now safe for us Scots to turn back on our televisions – the BBC and ITV commentaries were right up there with the legendary Marty Feldman, England v Uruguay commentary spool, so, it was a relief when they lost.

Still, one World Cup win every 93 years does mark England out as the game's Master Race, doesn't it.

By the way, am I alone in thinking, had the Spanish goalkeeper made that penalty save which Mary Earps pulled off, by going early and getting away with it, then the FA would have been consulting Owen Farrell's KC in an effort to get at least a retake. I reckon, even Willie Collum could have seen, Earps moved before the kick had been taken.

FINALLY, I have never been aware of any magical properties around Brendan Rodgers. To me, he is one of those managers who has been built-up way beyond his abilities, and I fear his second coming in the East End of Glasgow may be a damp squib.

So, I was not surprised when he came up with his reason for losing to Kilmarnock on Sunday – it was all down to the Rugby Park pitch. Listen wee man, good players can play and win on any pitch.

 

BBC Shortbread - Mair Like Purritch And Auld Claes

I HAVE long had my doubts about BBC Shortbread, oor ain, haund-knitted outpost of the English Empire. Even back in the days of Queen Margaret Drive, I thought it a strange organisation, low on confidence and, like so-many Scottish branches of a UK Establishment institution, needing permission from London before even going for a toilet break.

Particularly when it comes to sport, the Glasgow outpost has long had a liking for enthusiastic amateurs, rather than professionals. Now, at the highest level: Bill McLaren or Bob Crampsey for instance, guys who worked at the chalk face from Monday to Friday then picked up a microphone on a Saturday, well, they could do as good if not a better job than the professional journalists. However, The Voice and The Brain were pretty unique talents in their fields.

BBC Shortbread also inflicted on us, and still inflicts on us, lesser talents who should probably have stuck to their original career paths. More recently too, they have gone down the road of putting on-air coverage into the hands of retired footballers, many of whom emphasised the belief that footballers wore their IQ on their backs. This, I fear was all part of a systemic plot to “dumb down” sports coverage.

All is not lost, I have to admit. The front page of the BBC Shortbread Sports website on Friday had thumbnails linking to 40 different stories. Twenty-six of these are football stories; eleven are stories from the UCI World Cycling Championships, being held in Scotland; there was one Athletics story and two rugby stories.

So, while 65% of the stories are about football – the High Heid Yins at Pacific Quay have noticed, sports other than football are available in Scotland. I cannot help thinking, maybe if they employed real sports writers, they could better reflect the wide range of sports played up here.

For instance, our young athletes, in various disciplines, are doing rather well in the Commonwealth Youth Games, currently taking place in Trinidad and Tobago. The Commonwealth Games Scotland and Scottish Athletics Facebook pages are carrying stories of medals won and outstanding performances – it would be nice if the team at Pacific Quay, and the mainstream media in general, could lift their eyes from their fitba obsession and give the kids a boost.

BBC Shortbread were seen at their collective “best” on Wednesday night, with their coverage of the Rangers v Servette Champions League qualifier. Neil McCann made some good points, as did co-commentator James McFadden, however, I fear Alan Hutton and Stevie Thompson are definitely members of the fans with microphones sub-sect of the Lap Top Loyal.

The truth, as I see it, is – there are total frauds out there, guys taking a very-good wage from the club, who are what my auld Hun of a Faither use to describe as NRCs – Not Rangers Class.

OK Not being a Rangers' fan, I go along with which Rangers players did you least like to see lining-up against my side – Kilmarnock? By that measure, my Rangers Nightmare Team would be (in 4-4-2) formation: Goram; Jardine, Woodburn, Gough, Caldow; Henderson, Gascoigne, Baxter, Wilson; McCoist, Hateley. Measured against that XI, not one of the Rangers' squad on Wednesday night would make the Third Team.

That game on Wednesday should have been over by half-time, a half-decent Rangers' team would have put five or six goals on Servette. I predict problems in Geneva.

FOR A WEE WHILE on Saturday night and Sunday morning, St Mirren were sitting top of the league. This gave me the chance to ask two of my Buddies-supporting sports writer friends if they were suffering nose bleeds from such a lofty perch.

One replied, he was coping – just, the other, better known as a rugby writer, replied he was very-happy, but, more-concerned as to where the team would be in May. He's too-sensible to be in this business methinks.

I DO NOT often watch the top-flight English games. To be really exciting, football needs mistakes and the players at that level, while they may no longer have the individual skills of the guys I grew up watching: Baxter, Law, Best and Charlton, the Lisbon Lions etc., they make fewer mistakes, because they so-seldom attempt the “killer ball” the likes of Baxter, Charlton, Bobby Murdoch and Co would regularly pull off.

But, I did catch the Arsenal v Nottingham Forest game on Saturday, and was pleasantly surprised. The game, however, only came alive when Forest scored and realised – hey, we could still get something out of this.

Of course, it helped that Alistair McCoist was on commentary. He really is the best “colour man” in the business. I love Test Match Special, particularly when they go “off piste” to talk about somethng other than the actual game they are covering. Coisty has such entertaining moments, such as, on Saturday, when he got started on statues in Kirriemuir. The man is a National Treasure.

FINALLY – about this suggested £60 million joint signing deal, between West Ham United and Manchester United. I hear David Moyes actually negotiated a £100 million deal for Scott McTominay (provided they got the version that plays for Scotland and not the one that plays for MU) – but agreed a £40 million discount if he took Harry Maguire as well.