Ladies - That Was Embarrassing

I BROKE the habit of a lifetime this week – I switched-off a Scotland game. When England's fourth goal at Hampden the other night went in, I grabbed the TV remote, I had seen enough. Some of these lassies who were our so-called defenders got off lightly; Frank Haffey got far worse abuse, for making fewer mistakes – it was totally embarrassing.

I appreciate this is a Scotland squad in transition. Experienced hands such as Jen Beattie – (pictured below) - who showed all her family's class and skill as a talking head at the game, her Faither should be proud – has retired from international duty; as have one or two others, while the great Caroline Weir is out with a long-term injury.

 

 

OK, these are excuses for us not being as good as England, but, the lack of fight was unacceptable. Now, in typically mainstream media style, led by the quarter-wits at BBC Shortbread, they are turning on the manager, who I think has done a good job, with limited resources and, I sense, not quite the full backing of the High Heid Yins along the sixth floor corridor. I sense there is still a bit of: “lassies shouldnae be playin' fitba” at play in the higher echelons of our game.

Mind you, it appears as if the (English) FA are channelling their inner Celtic in the aftermath; you know: “never defeated – always cheated,” with claims of a “fix” between the Dutch and the Belgians, to allow the orangje-clad team to qualify for next year's Olympics.

By the way, the match-calling commentary team were awful. The two English girls had an orgasm every time England crossed the half-way line, while the usually very good Lee Anne Cuthbert appeared to be auditioning for a job in Manchester as she gushed over some aspects of the English play. Alison McCoist she isn't, however.

WATCHING the BBC Shortbread highlights programme on Wednesday night, one thing was immediately clear – that Celtic penalty against Hibs would never have been called by VAR if the incident had been in the other penalty box. But, we knew that, we are now immune to the pauchles – whoops! Sorry - “honest mistakes” which repeatedly help out the Bigot Brothers. Really, our referees have no shame.

The other big debate of the night, concerned Kilmarnock's Marley Warkins and his “forearm smash” on Aberdeen's Stefan Gartenmann, three seconds into the sides' meeting at Rugby Park.

On reflection, and making my Kilmarnock relationship public again, I have to say, he's a very-lucky boy to stay on the park. However, if he had been red-carded, I'd have hoped too, that the Aberdeen player was yellow-carded for his cynical step across to attempt to block Watkins.

This is one of those occasions where Rugby Union does it better than football. In Rugby, the TMO – their equivalent of VAR – would have been on the intercom to the referee. He'd have said something like: “I want to bring to your attention an off-the-ball incident of foul play.” The incident would have been put up on the screen, and then it was the referee's call.

FORREST ROBERTSON is not only one of Scotland's most-respected sports historians, he is also one of that small but dedicated band of “Spiders” who continue to support Scotland's premier football club – Queen's Park. He's been supporting the club for over 60 years now and his book: “The Men With The Educated Feet” is a wonderful history of the club.

Now Forrest has chronicled a less-gilded club, Perth's Fair City Athletic. It's a bit of a tribute to his father's upbringing in rural Perthshire, not so-much a football history, more a sporting/social one, of the years of football's rise to prominence in the second half of Queen Victoria's reign.

The fall of Fair City allowed St Johnstone, their great local rivals, to assume primacy in Perth; it's a near-forgotten story which deserves to be told.

The History of Fair City Athletic Football Club – The Boots on Balhousie, can be purchased from Cambridge Scholars Publishing which can be found at:

https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-2876-5

THE NEWS that Edinburgh City is facing a financial crisis, with player wages unpaid has also come up this week. The Sun writer who has broken the story worries me – I remember when he was starting out a couple of decades ago, he was never one for letting the facts get in the way of a good bad news story; so, unless he has grown a second brain cell in the intervening time, I'll wonder about the story.

However, the fact that such a lowly club – well used to surviving on three-figure crowds – is in trouble, should come as no surprise and this tale confirms my long-standing belief, we have too-many so-called “senior clubs and leagues” in Scotland.

Maybe “The Great Waldo” - aka Wallace Mercer – was right, all those years ago, when he wanted to amalgamate Hearts and Hibs.

And, if that argument holds good for Auld Reekie, might it also not apply to the City of Discovery, and to the Kingdom of Fife?