OLD DAN ARCHER said it first and best, back 50 years ago, when he described Rangers Football Club as: “A permanent embarrasment and occasional disgrace.” Nothing has happened in the intervening half century to disprove Dan's verdict.
Sunday certainly demonstrated, the Rangers' fans are still capable, at the drop of a hat, of breaching the bounds of acceptable conduct; but, and in saying this I run the risk of accusations of “Whitabootery” - what about the other lot?
That Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Quarter-Final was rank rotten, the fitba was terrible, the atmosphere was toxic and, long before the end, I had realised, Rangers weren't going to win it. Long years at the coal face of fitba reporting has taught me, when you create and squander the amount of chances Rangers did in that game, you very seldom win the game.
By midway through the second half, the only question was, exactly how were Rangers going to blow this one. In the end, it was by being abysmal from the penalty spot; once Jamers Tavernier blasted that first penalty into the upper tier of the Copeland Road Stand, the writing was on the wall for Rangers.
And Celtic, they were, for the 90 minutes of normal time plus the 30 minutes of Extra Time, a poor second to Rangers. I have been saying for months/years, the majority of the current Rangers squad never were, are not and never will be Rangers Class. Without their injured Club Captain, the 2025-26 Celtic squad contains too-many players who are obviously not Celtic Class.
I look at the chances Rangers scorned; I reckon the present-day, roly-poly, overweight Ally McCoist or even the 89-year-old Ralph Brand would surely have finished off at least one of the chances passed-up on Sunday.
However, this piece is not about the honking game we had to endure, it is about the post-game events. Of course, the media-savvier Celtic support and their legion of media apologists have moved quickly to blame the home fans for what took place after the last penalty went in.
This is just the latest example of what we call The Mandy Rice Davies Defence. For those too-young to remember The Profumo Affair of the early 1960s and in particular, the trial of Stephen Ward, saw the then 18-year-old Mandy in the witness box. It was put to her that Viscount Astor had denied sleeping with her; to which Mandy famously replied: “Well, he would, wouldn't he”.
Fast forward over 60 years and in denying any wrong-doing on Sunday, surely The Celtic Family were taking their cue from the noble Lord.
Aportioning blame for Sunday's post-match unpleasantness would, in my view, be a pointless exercise, on the ancient basis of: Twa cheeks o' the same erse”, but, it cannot be denied – the Celtic fans were the first onto the park.
If The Scottish Football Association had any balls, they would hit both teams and hit them hard, but the answer to that suggestion is to invoke a peculiarly Scottish response – Aye Right! The teams will get a slap on the wrist and their toxic followers will simply regroup and await their chance to cause more bother.
How about really hurting them this time? I will digress a wee bit here, and reference Ice Hockey. In that game, when a minor punch-up breaks out, which frequently happens, the referees usually send the miscreants to the sin bin for two minutes. However, they can, if they like, send the instigator of the punch-up for an additional two minutes.
So, why not ban both sides from next season's Scottish Cup, while, since the Celtic fans started the bother on Saturday, chuck their club out of this season's competition as well. I know it's a long shot, but, it might work.
Both clubs have, over the years suffered in Europe from UEFA fining them for fan misbehaviour. In Europe, the clubs are held responsible for unseemly conduct by their followers – the SFA ridiculously fails to do this for misbehaviour in the domestic game.
I am not saying the improvement in conduct would be immediate, but, if the governing body was to crack down on fans' bad behaviour and sanction the teams, well, in time things would hopefully, if not surely, improve.
Until then, I suppose we will simply have to tolerate, as we have for over a century, terrible behaviour from these two sets of so-called supporters.
