Player Welfare And International Appearances - Rugby Does It So-Much Better Than Football

HAVING played both games, albeit to a fairly low level, I well know the difference between Association Football and Rugby Union Football. Rugby is the harder game, both physically and mentally; however, against that, the skill level required to be an absolute stand-out is definitely higher in football.

There are obvious differences – handling against kicking the most-marked – but there are similarities too. Rugby calls for a greater degree of specialisation: but in both the same team ethos and group qualities are called for.

Leigh Griffiths - has opted-out of Scotland duty

This week's wee storm in a demi-taste coffee cup – over wee Leigh Griffiths' decision to opt-out of Scotland duty to get fit, brought firmly into focus, one aspect of team management, where rugby is leaving football miles behind: player rotation and care.

Even though the greater physical demands of rugby are a given, rugby players, certainly in Scotland, get better looked-after by their clubs than in football. Again, in international terms, the fact those rugby players who are in and around the full Scotland team are full-time employees of the SRU does make a difference.

However: let's look at the different approach of Celtic and Rangers, our European representatives in football, to that of Edinburgh and Glasgow, our two rugby teams who play in Europe.

Last Thursday, Celtic and Rangers both played Europa League matches against Austrian opponents. In their last SPFL games prior to these, Celtic played Aberdeen, at Celtic Park, fielding the following team: Gordon; Hendry, Boyata, Lustig, Tierney; Brown, Ntcham, Edouard, McGregor, Forrest; Griffiths – with Sinclair, Morgan and Rogic coming off the bench.

In Saltzburg in the midweek, Mulumbu came in for the injured Brown, while Ryan Christie was used off the bench instead of Rogic. These were the only changes.

Rangers travelled to Livingston on the Sunday, when they fielded: McGregor; Tavernier, Worrall, Goldson, Barisic; Ejavia, Coulibaly, Arfield; Candeias, Morelos, Lafferty; with Kent and Middleton coming off the bench.

Back at Ibrox for the midweek European match, Flanagan replaced Barisic and Kent came in for Lafferty, while Halliday came off the bench.

So, for Europe Celtic made two changes and Rangers three.

At the weekend, Edinburgh and Glasgow played their last normal league games before their European campaigns began. Against the Cheetahs, Edinburgh fielded: Sutherland, McInally and Nel; Toolis and Gilchrist; Bradbury, Watson and Vata; Pyrgos and Hickey, van der Merwe, Socini, Johnstone, Graham; Kinghorn. Their bench, all of whom got on, was: Ford, McCallum, Berghan, Ritchie, Hamilton, Kennedy, van der Walt, Dean.

Glasgow, against Zebre, fielded: Kebble, Turner, Nicol; Davidson, Gray, Ashe, Fusaro, M Fagerson; G Horne, Hastings, Hughes, Dunbar, H Jones, L Jones; Jackson. Their bench was: Allan, Stewart, Rae, Peterson, Smith, Tamielau; P Horne, Matawalu.

Allan Dell - the British Lion was rested from last weekend's Edinburgh game

Edinburgh rested Scottish internationalists Allan Dell, Matt Scott and Dougie Fife, all of whom seem certain to come back into the match-day squad for this weekend's European trip to Montpellier.

Glasgow left out Scottish internationalists Fraser Brown, co-captain Ryan Wilson, Ali Price, Tommy Seymour, Rob Harley and Nick Grigg, plus New Zealand-born co-captain Callum Gibbons and Canadian internationalist DTH van der Merwe, all of whom will be back for their clash with Saracens, at Scotstoun on Sunday. They will also have their new signing Petrus du Plessis in their 23-man match-day squad, filling the crucial specialist position of tight-head prop.

Adam Nicol made his first start at tight-head against the Italians, because normal first-choice Zander Fagerson and last season's number two in the position, Tongan Siua Halanukonuka are both injured. SRU protocols meant D'Arcy Rae, who had become first-choice in the position, had to be rested, but, he was on the park after 51 minutes. Rae will almost-certainly be du Plessis' back-up on Sunday. In the second-row, Glaswegian Andy Davidson, on-loan to Glasgow from Newcastle, made his first start, because Glasgow have three locks – Scotland cap Tim Swinson, Scott Cummings and Brian Alain'uese (who has now been transferred to Toulon) injured.

Last season, Glasgow used 54 players in match-day squads over their 30-match club season. But, only 23 of these players were in the squad for 15 or more games. Ruaridh Jackson was in the most match-day squads, 23, 21 starts and two appearances off the bench.

Ruaridh Jackson - Glasgow's busiest player last season, playing in 23 of 30 games

A couple of paragraphs above, I mentioned SRU rest protocols. This is a governing body-backed rule, which means, if a player starts five successive matches, he must stand down for the sixth, in an effort to avoid burn-out. Such a rule would not, I am sure, go down well in football – even if the SFA had the power to impose it. It helps that, in rugby, the SRU is the players' ultimate employer.

Another thing which rugby does differently is, everything else does not stop for internationals. This admittedly is a somewhat recent development in the round-ball game. But, it strikes me as a daft one.

Scotland are playing in Haifa tomorrow night, then at Hampden on Sunday. Why does this prevent a full SPFL programme on Saturday? Only 11 SPFL players are involved in the national squad for the two internationals: Craig Gordon, Jack Hendry, Kieran Tierney, James Forrest and Calum McGregor of Celtic, Allan McGregor of Rangers, Graham Shinnie and Scott McKenna of Aberdeen, Steven Naismith and John Souttar of Hearts and Stephen O'Donnell of Kilmarnock.

 Stephen O'Donnell - Killie's sole internaitonalist, but, no game this weekend for his club

If Glasgow Warriors can play a league match minus six fit Scotland caps, plus two non-Scottish first-choices, why cannot Celtic play a league match without five internationalists, or Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Hearts or Rangers without one Scotland cap?

Not playing makes no sense. Time and again, the SFA are told by the fans: “We would prefer football at 3pm on a Saturday.”

The 12 SPFL clubs in the Premiership list on their official websites, 308 “first team” players. Celtic list 33 “first-team” players, St Johnstone list 20, these are the largest and smallest squads. As I wrote above, just 11 SPFL players are on Scotland duty this week – that is just under 4% of the listed “first-team” players.

Celtic, with five players – 15% of their squad are the worst-hit club, Aberdeen are minus two players from a 27-man squad: 7%; Hearts are also minus two players, from their 25-man squad: 8%; Kilmarnock are minus one player from their 21-man squad: 5% and Rangers are minus one man from their 25-man squad: 4%.

Calling-off an entire league programme, when so-few players are absent on national duty – is that really helping the game, providing the fans with football and meeting the SFA's stated mission, to promote the game?

Just a couple of final thoughts from rugby:

• In 2015, during the Rugby World Cup, Glasgow Warriors had no less than 21 players on international duty, with Scotland, Canada, Fiji, Tonga and the USA – they continued to play PRO12 league games during this period
• If Celtic, Scotland and the player himself, really want to get Leigh Griffiths fit – maybe Brendan Rodgers should send him along to train with Glasgow Warriors for a week. Excuse him the contact work, but, let him do the rest, and I bet he will come back the fittest player at the club – or be dead.

Inducting Gazza - For Me It's A Scam To Sell Tickets

CYNIC that I am, I reckon tickets for next month's Scottish Football Hall of Fame induction dinner must be slow to sell. That's the only explanation I can come up with for two “leaks” of information as to who will be getting inducted this year.

 Paul Gascoigne - inducted before some more-worthy Scots

I have no complaints as regards Julie Fleeting getting in – this is a thoroughly-deserved honour for a wonderful footballer, and a nice lassie into the bargain. I have no qualms about Paul Gascoigne being inducted as well – on footballing grounds.

Yes, Gazza probably, more than most, merits that old put-down about players wearing their IQ on their back, and yes, he has had his many and varied off-field problems. However, I firmly believe, Gazza is more to be pitied than scorned, I believe the only place he has ever been truly happy is on the park, playing, and, certainly, if we were gong to induct incomers such as Terry Butcher, Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larssen, then why not Gazza?

Of course, as soon as his inauguration was announced, the ranks of the unco guid rose-up in condemnation. Ach! They've been holding Scotland back since Rabbie Burns was a ploughman and part-time poet, what's new?

I do have a complaint, however, with some of the omissions. For instance, since the HoF was inaugurated in 2004, I have been saying Bob Gardner should be in there. Who he? I hear you ask. Well he is number one in the, to date, 1183-name long list of men who have played in a full international for Scotland. There is a direct line from Gardner, goalkeeper in the world's first international football match, and Hearts' John Souttar, the latest player to join the list.

 Robert Gardner - Scotland's first captain

But, there's more. When that inaugural international was arranged, back in 1872, Gardner was secretary of Queen's Park; he was the Scottish end of the correspondence with the Football Association's Charles W Allcock which got the game played, and, he captained the side. For Scotland cap #1 to still not be in the HoF, 14 years after it was started, is a disgrace.

Fourth-fifths of Hibs' Famous Five, arguably the best club forward line in the history of Scottish football: Gordon Smith, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly and Eddie Turnbull are in, the fifth member, Willie Ormond isn't. Yet Ormond who was awarded the OBE for his services to football, was a successful Scotland team manager, leading the side to an unbeaten run and ninth place – our highest finish, at the 1974 World Cup.

Less-successful Scotland bosses are in the HoF, what grievous sin has Ormond committed.

Willie Ormond - why has he been overlooked?

I have long been arguing: football is a team game, you win as a team, you lose as one. “The Lisbon Lions,” the Celtic team which won the European Cup in 1967 are all in there, both collectively as the Lions, and individually. But, while the likes of Hughie Gallacher and Alan Morton are in as individuals, the bulk of the Scotland team known as the Wembley Wizards, the side which crushed England 5-1 back in 1928, and against which every subsequent Scotland team is measured, are not in.

Amazingly, Alex Jackson, who scored a hat-trick that day is not in.

As I said, the Lisbon Lions are in, and, while the likes of Leighton, Miller, McLeish and Strachan from the Aberdeen team which won the Cup-Winner's Cup in Gothenburg in 1983 are in there – would they have won it without Rougvie, Cooper, Black, Weir and Hewitt and the rest.

In fact, that Aberdeen team went on to beat Hamburg, the European Cup winners, to lift the European Super Cup, surely there should be a full-team induction there. The same argument could and should be made for the Rangers team which won the Cup-Winners Cup. If Barcelona Bears such as Greig, Jardine and Johnstone are in – why not the rest?

Wullie Shankly is in – but not his brother Bob, who was also an excellent manager, not least than when guiding Dundee to the European Cup semi-final in 1963. Speaking of Dundee, Billy Steel and Alan Gilzean are in, as is Bill Brown, but, what of Doug Cowie, or Alex Hamilton, Ian Ure or Bobby Cox?

Junior football is a major part of the game here. But, while we now have two women inducted, with Julie Fleeting joining Rose Reilly, where is the place for the legend that is Willie Knox – arguably Scotland's “winningest” (to use an Americanism) manager when with Auchinleck Talbot? What about some recognition for the great Cambuslang Rangers team of the late 1960s and early 1970s?

The great Willie Knox - when will be be recognised?

It is an uncomfortable fact of life, one largely ignored, but, the “Golden Age” of Scottish football was not during the 20^th century, but in the 19^th, when we really were the best team in the world.

Aye, inducting Charles Campbell, RS McColl, Bobby Walker and Andrew Watson paid lip service to those great pre-WWI days, but, no recognition for Dr John Smith, James Kelly of Renton and Celtic, or Tom Vallance of Rangers' “Gallant Pioneers,” or Dr John Smith, or Alec Raisbeck or Charlie Thomson – or any one of many great Queen's Park players.

Scant recognition there is in the part the Vale of Leven played in developing Scottish football, and when I remember, where is the name of Sir George Graham, the man who ran Scottish football for three decades and more as secretary of the SFA?

Jack Mowat supervises the pre-match pleasantries before Real Madrid v Eintracht in 1960

Tiny Wharton is the sole referee inducted – where are the names of Jack Mowat, or Peter Craigmyle? Archie McPherson is in, but not Arthur Montford. Hughie McIlvanney, but not Dan Archer, or Alex Cameron.

I appreciate, who gets in is a committee decision, and I also accept, reluctantly, it's the induction committee's decision which counts. But, I do feel, some of the guys doing the choosing, even if they are Celtic supporters with lap tops, don't know their football history.

Because I can think of a lot of players and managers who ought to be in there before some who already are. However, that's football opinion for you.

The Leap From Junior To Senior Isn't That Great

LAST SEASON saw a major stooshie in the junior game, with a whole raft of East Region sides, including such giants as Bo'ness United, Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic, Hill o' Beath Hawthorn, Linlithgow Rose and Newtongrange Star jumping ship to the East of Scotland League, which reformed to integrate the newcomers.

I appreciate, league campaigns are marathons, rather than sprints, but, a look at the latest tables shows the former junior sides are setting the pace at the top of the three League Conferences.

And, with Kelty Hearts, the team which ignited the departures from the junior game to the non-league senior, chasing Spartans at the top of the Lowland League, reality is at last biting in Scottish football – the juniors are on the rise.

There not being a West-Central Scotland equivalent of the East of Scotland League – the South of Scotland League is barely on-par with the lowest West Regional junior league, we are unlikely to see the likes of Talbot, Glenafton, Pollok or Beith taking the leap into “senior” football any time soon. Indeed, Henry Dumigan, the esteemed Talbot secretary has specifically ruled-out such a move for the Real Madrid of the junior game.

Mind you, should Talbot account for Cove Rangers in their upcoming Scottish Cup tie, Cove's own Alan Macrae, the President of the SFA, will have food for thought. And I would not rule out the chances of Tucker Sloan's Beechwood Battlers doing for Cove.

Of course, in the real world, where results trump hypothesis, Talbot and the other West teams are still adapting to their own new set-up, where the former Central and Ayrshire Leagues have been integrated into a new all-region four divisions.

Hurlford United are setting the pace in the Premier Division, but Talbot, like the league leaders, are unbeaten, while having three games-in-hand.

THE second round of the Macron Scottish Junior Cup was played on Saturday. Can I say here, well done to SFA Supremo Tom Johnston, who has finally bowed to my approaches and listed the games in alphabetical order.

There were the usual number of mis-matches: Hurlford stuck ten goals on Dufftown, without response, while Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, Largs Thistle and Pollok each scored nine goals. Rutherglen Glencairn scored eight, while Harthill Royal and Thornton Hibs each hit seven goals.

Talbot, needless to say, went through to round three, after beating Forfar West End 4-2 at Beechwood, while in perhaps the tie of the round, The Buffs – Kilwinning Rangers, beat 2016 winners Beith 3-1.

My first team – Lugar Boswell Thistle, is, unfortunately – out, beaten 5-3 at Royal Albert, but, my home village team: Glenafton Athletic, is still involved, after winning 2-1 at Cumbernauld.

LAST week, the Celtic family lost an honoured member, with the death, following a lengthy battle against Dementia, of Jim Brogan. Jim was the epitome of that rare and honoured breed: “the fan on the park.”

Jim Brogan - a fan on the park

Every club benefits from such players, but, in Scottish football history, the Old Firm has probably benefited more than most. A majority of The Lisbon Lions were fans living the dream, Brogan was such a player in the 1970 European Cup Final. Roy Aitken, Paul McStay, Tommy Burns – such players were common-place last century. But, since the millennium, as Celtic has broadened the club's recruitment area, such players have become fewer.

Sure, “incomers” such as Henrik Larssen, Scott Brown and Leigh Griffiths have “bought-in” to the notion, but of today's squad, perhaps only Kieran Tierney comes into the category: “A Fan on the Park.” While, the Boss, Brendan Rogers is “A Fan in the Dug Out.”

Across the city, perhaps only Allan McGregor and Kyle Lafferty fit the label. But, while Steven Gerrard isn't “A Real Rangers Man,” he does know what it takes to be top dogs in a two-team city, and that includes a fan on the park.

But, I digress, while Jim Brogan was: “A Fan on the Park,” he was also a very good defender. He was one of the last of those players who endured a lengthy apprenticeship in the reserves, before making his mark in the first team – another type of player we have lost with today's demand for instant results. Not every player steps-up ready-made, some have to be moulded by a club, and that can take time.

By the way, while writing a Jim Brogan obituary, I discovered something, he is the answer to a tricky pub sports quiz question. That question is: Who succeeded Billy McNeill as Celtic Captain?

The unlikely answer is Brogan, who was handed the captaincy for his final Celtic game, in the Glasgow Cup Final – a week after McNeill's retirement following the 1975 Scottish Cup Final.

I QUITE like the look of the squad big Alex McLeish has named for the Europa Nations League clash with Israel and the following friendly against Portugal. He is, to my mind, trying to get a “club” ethos around the national side, refusing to try experiments and sticking to guys he has worked with before.

I feat Jordan Archer might be the latest recruit to the lengthy list of Scottish “one-cap wonders”, having lost his place as third goalkeeper behind Allan McGregor and Craig Gordon to Sunderland's Jon McLaughlin.

I still feel, however, if he could get a regular run in the Celtic team, Scott Bain could be the next undisputed Number One. However, to do that, he has to get past Craig Gordon, which is no easy task.

FINALLY, what a pleasure to see Julie Fleeting about to be inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, joining fellow Ayrshire lassie Rose Reilly in the esteemed gathering of the great and good.

Julie Fleeting - a Hall of Fame inductee

What Scotland would have given for a male striker able to match Julie's international record – 116 goals in 121 internationals. That works out as 0.96 goals per game. That's better than our best post-war strikers – Denis Law and Lawrie Reilly.

Ah kent her faither, and all I can say is: Julie's mother must have been a fantastic player!!

I stole that line from Craig Brown by the way. Father Jim was not a bad defender, and an even better coach and SFA administrator.

Damn Scots - They've Ruined Scotland

I SUPPORT Scottish Independence. I can see no circumstances in which an independent Scotland, inside or outside of the EU, could be any worse off than it currently is under the colonial rule of this present bunch of Tory wasters – or the Labour alternative, so poor, even with the Maybot notionally in charge, and the rest fighting like rats in a sack, in England they are not seen as a viable alternative government.

But, I sometimes feel, even if we were to be Independent, and Nicola Sturgeon, or whoever was Prime Minister of the nation, was to come up with a proven plan whereby each and every Scot was to receive a guaranteed income of £1 million per year – tax free, there would be a sizeable group of Scots saying: “No, no, that kind of thing is not for us.”

The Greatest Living Scotsman

Scots must be the most-negative folk in the world. To quote the greatest living Scot – Groundskeeper Willie: “Damn Scots – they've ruined Scotland.”

I have, this morning, been thinking a bit more about this bourach, the two Betfred Scottish League Cup semi-finals being held, back-to-back at Hampden on the same day.

Yesterday, I tackled the absurdity of this, then, I had an additional thought. In Welsh Rugby, they regularly hold what they bill as “Judgement Day,” when the four Welsh teams in the PRO14 – Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets go head-to-head in Cardiff's Principality Building Society, as the Millennium Stadium is now called.

Full House 80,000 crowd guaranteed, everyone in and out, no problems – with a mere two hours between matches.

The London rugby clubs – Harlequins and Saracens, regularly play double-headers at Twickenham, filling its 80,000 seats, again, with a much shorter gap between games than we will see at Hampden.

Now, I realise, the crowds in Cardiff and London will not be as tribal as they will be in Glasgow. I further accept, a lot of the rugby fans will pay the extra and take-in both games, which is a lot-less likely for Scottish football fans. However, the fact remains, if the RFU and the Metropolitan Police and the WRU and the South Wales Police can arrange these show-piece events without problems – why cannot the SPFL and Police Scotland?

There has been a lot of talk about the poor transport links on a Sunday – the fact there is not a train out of Aberdeen on a Sunday morning, which could get the Dons fans to Hampden in time.

I appreciate the old Football Specials are a thing of the past, but, in the 30 days between Aberdeen qualifying for Gothenburg and playing there, back in 1983, transport arrangements, including laying on a North Sea ferry, were put in place to get 12,000 Dons fans to Sweden.

The authorities, including Aberdeen FC, have had more than 30 days to put things in place to get probably only slightly-more than 12,000 fans to Glasgow. (The game's on TV, it is only a semi-final, there is no way Aberdeen will bring 26,000, or anything like that number to the game).

Come on Aberdeen, think out of the box. Hire a train or trains, direct to Mount Florida or King's Park Station, give the fans a good deal on train fare plus match admission. I think Scotrail would bite your arm off for the business.

Again the club could organise buses to the game, again, travel ticket plus match admission for one single price. If they had spent less time moaning, and more organising, things could already be in hand.

The same planning could work for the Hearts fans. I suppose we can leave the other two tribes to make their arrangements – they have a lot of experience of this.

But, to return to my initial point. If Scotland is to ever become a successful independent nation, we will need to adopt a lot more of a can-do attitude. This might be a good place to start.

I WAS speaking to my good friend A Somerset Parker last night. He was not a happy bunny, in spite of the Honest Men being top of the Championship table.

His gripe – the fact United had, in his words: “Taken the money and rolled over,” against Rangers in the League Cup quarter-final on Wednesday night.”

Ian McCall - some United fans thought they were happy to take the money in midweek

He thought Ian McCall's men had turned-up, gone through the motions and happily pocketed the nice fat cheque at the end. “This is a rubbish Rangers team, they should have had a go,” my mate moaned.

“Livingston didn't stand back and let them play this afternoon,” he added. “They had a go and got their reward.”

He did concede, there are signs this season, that the aura of entitlement to winning is slipping from the Bigot Brothers, and other Premiership sides are more ready to have a go at beating them: a development which augers well for the future of Scottish football.

Let's hope this readiness to make a game of things spreads, and we see other teams challenging for the title. IF Hearts can go to Ibrox at the weekend and win – well maybe the long-awaited challenge from elsewhere is on.

MY OLD MATE Alex Gordon, Sports Editor of the Sunday Mail back when it was a real newspaper, now a successful author, in particular a best-selling crime writer, and I, had a wee spat on Facebook on Saturday.

 Alex Gordon

I suggested I would be covering the Match of the Day in Scotland, since, versatile as I am, I had been rostered to report on the Ayr v Melrose top-of-the-table clash in rugby's Tennent's Premiership. The top two club sides in the country, both unbeaten after posting four successive bonus-point wins, the Bill McLaren Shield up for grabs, something had to give and, with the associated Oktoberfest and Beer Festival also taking place at Millbrae – this one ticked all the boxes for me.

Alex disagreed, showing the pro-Celtic leanings he hid so wonderfully-well while piloting the sports bridge at Anderston Quay, he countered: “Surely Celtic v Aberdeen is the Match of the Day, Socrates.”

No Alex – that was a mid-table scramble.

Methinks The Press Doth Protest Over-Much

PERHAPS few issues have exposed the paucity of thinking in the mainstream media in Scotland in this year of our Lord 2018 than this week's shitstorm over the decision to hold both Betfred Cup semi-finals, at Hampden on the same day.

 The Betfred Cup logo

I accept, there are several controversial issues surrounding the timing of the two games, but, in one particular point, I believe the tiny minds within the various msm sports desk teams have been guilty of hysterical over-reaction. That point is the basic one of the logistics of putting-on both games, in the same stadium on the same day.

The argument that this will cause carnage is a ridiculous one. Sure, two of the four clubs have a somewhat large lunatic fringe among their following. The other two also have small groups of loonies who might not be out-loonied by the massed ranks against them, but, by and large, the ordinary fan just wants to get in and out of the game relatively quickly.

Back when I was a boy and young man, I was one of over 130,000 fans who could get in and out of Hampden without problems for Scotland v England games. I have been to Scottish Cup finals with bigger attendances than what will be the aggregate attendance of both games on Sunday, 28 October.

IF, and I will wager now, this will not happen, IF both games were sell-outs, and everyone with a ticket turned up, there would be a maximum of 104,000 inside the ground on the one day. If Police Scotland cannot come up with an arrangement that allows this to happen, then they are incompetent.

And PS are certainly not that, anywhere other than in the imagination of the wilder minds among the political points-scoring ranks of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and the British Labour Party in Scotland – who will, in any case, blame anything which goes wrong on the SNP government.

Let's look at the timings:

• The gates are usually opened an hour before kick-off, occasionally this happens 90 minutes prior. So, the Hampden gates will open at 10.30am for the first match – giving 90 minutes in which to get a maximum of 52,000 fans inside the ground.
  
  
• The match will last, allowing for injuries and a celebratory lap of honour – approximately two hours. It should be over by 2pm – 2.30pm even.
  
  
• This means, the ground should be cleared after Match 1, five and a quarter-hours before the second match kicks off.
  
  
• Allowing for the gates being opened 90 minutes before Match 2 kicks-off (at 6.15pm) there is a three and three-quarter hour fallow window between games.

One potential cause of friction might be, if the first game goes to extra time and penalties. If that was to happen, that window between games would be shrunk by an hour, to two and three-quarter hours.

OK, not a lot of time in which to get the free-loaders out of the corporate hostility section of the ground and the area re-dressed for the second shift. But, it could be done.

Similarly, the back stage staff would have to get a move on, to clean-up the dressing rooms etc between the games.

These are, as I see them, the real potential problems, none of which cannot be overcome. Everything else is white noise.

However, you still have to wonder how we arrived at such a pr disaster for football. I mean, to me the simplest way out would be, to hold-over the second game to Monday night. Or, was that too-obvious?

 Neil Doncaster - he was the messenger, not the message writer

And another thing, all this abuse being hurled at poor old Neil Doncaster. Neil runs the SPFL secretariat - their civil service if you like. It is his, and his team's job to come-up with plans and suggestions, solutions to problems.

Which he and his team then have to place before the SPFL board for final approval. It is not Neil Doncaster who has decided what is to be done - it is the Board members who make the final decisions.

So, don't shoot the monkey and let the organ grinders off Scot free.