Shankly Wasn't Ready

ONE common thread in Scotland teams, back in the days of the SFA having a selection committee of butchers, bakers and candle-stick makers who knew better than the professionals, the players and managers, how to pick a Scotland team, was the inclusion in the team of what would today be known as a wild-card pick. This was a previously unfancied player, plucked from obscurity in England, and capped, to mass utterings of: "Shuggie who?" from the Tartyan Army, when the team was announced.

Some of these guys - John Hewie of Charlton being perhaps the best example - went on to do great things in dark blue; others such as Fulham's Ian Black for the 1948 Hampden clash with England, or West Ham's John Dick, at Wembley in 1959, were never heard of again, but left in peace to have good club careers in England.

The fourth game in our run-down of Wembley wins has a couple of good examples of thisphenomenon. That game is:

England 0 Scotland 1: 1938

THIS match is perhaps the most-overlooked of our nine Wembley wins. Hardly surprising really, with the world on the brink of war, football was of little importance in 1938. but, this win, I feel, ought to rank highly in our list of victories over the Auld Enemy.

For a start, Scotland, while not picking what the home-based Terracing Tams would have seen as our top team - no Jerry Dawson, Jimmy Delaney or Bob McPhail for instance: indeed, no representatives from the league-winning Celtic of that Scottish season.

However, the selectors did make one inspired choice - they built the team around the Preston North End team which would win the FA Cup that season. That Preston side had a steel core of Scottishness running through it, with four Deepdale men in the side at Wembley - left back and future Scotland manager Andy Beattie, centre-half Tommie Smith, inside left and FA Cup-winning goal-scorer George Mutch, oh, and an unheralded 25-year-old right half from Glenbuck in Ayrshire, chap by the name of Wullie Shankly, who, like Mutch, was winning his first cap.

Centre-forward Frank O'Donnell had left Preston only in November, so, there were effectively five Deepdale men in the team. Skipper George Brown was the only Rangers man in the team, with Hearts providing two in right back Andy Anderson and the great Tommy Walker, arguably the top Scottish player of that decade.

The wild card picks were both from Middlesbrough; goalkeeper Dave Cumming getting the nod ahead of Dawson, with  club mate John Milne also being handed a Wembley debut on the wing, with Brentford's Bob Reid completing the team.

England's team, with Stanley Matthews of Stoke City and ARsenal's Cliff Bastin on the flanks, Stand Cullis of Wolves at centre-half and captained by Eddie Hapgood of Arsenal, was widely expected to win with ease.

However, the divine Walker knocked home O'Donnell's knock-down in six minutes; England couldn't recover from this early blow. Scotland should have had a stonewall penalty, but didn't get it and as the home side upped the pressure ina second half salvage job, the Scots defence stood firm - Cumming became the first Scotland keeper to keep a clean sheet at Wembley - but still never got a second cap,and, albeit it narrowly, Scotland posted their first Wembley win since the "Wizards" a decade before.

Young Shankly, was damned by faint praise - the legendary sports writer Rex Kingsley, for instance, said: "Shankly all through was industrious. He gave all he had. But, I don't think he has just enough to make a national player yet". Aye, even the best can get it wrong sometimes.

Nineteen thirty-eight was a good year for Scotland, we won every international we played that calendar year, but, this often-overlooked Wembley win was, perhaps, the best of the lot. 

More Wembley Myths

THIS being Saturday and there being nothing on but SPFL games, I thought I'd overdose on real football, by running two Wembley Wins stories – numbers six and five on my count-down of our nine wins at England's home stadium.

Wembley Win Six:

England 1 Scotland 2, 1963

THERE are perhaps more myths about this Wembley win than all the others put together. Sure, it was a marvellous win, but, hardly unexpected, the 1960s was our most-impressive post-World War II decade, during which we only lost twice to England, albeit heavily in 1969 and disastrously-heavily in 1961; but, while Britain swung during that great decade, we were more often than not, beating England.

We had beaten the men in white 2-0 at Hampden in 1962, thus winning our first outright Home International Championship since 1953; we went to Wembley, on 6 April, 1963, knowing that, victory would give us our first back-to-back win in the Championship since 1936. We were favourites and, for once, we justified that status.

Where they mythology comes in is, in the way we won. Legend has it, we played with 10 men against 11 for all but the first five minutes, thereby raising this win to the heights. The fact is, we only had a one-man disadvantage for 50 of the 90 minutes.

The key incident came after just five minutes. Scotland skipper Eric Caldow, playing in his 40^th international, went to clear the ball from down near Scotland's left-hand corner flag, when he was challenged by England and Tottenham Hotspur centre forward Bobby Smith. Smith's tackle was a bad one: "A forward's mistimed challenge" which left Caldow with a broken leg, and Smith with a serious knee injury – both players were carried off.

Scotland manager Ian McColl agreed to Dave Mackay's - who assumed the captaincy with Caldow's departure - suggestion that Davie Wilson move back to left-back; a move Wilson would only undertake if McColl stayed on the touch-line to coach him through the rest of the game.

The ten Scots re-grouped, Jim Baxter grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, took advantage of a slip by England skipper Jimmy Armfield to shoot us ahead in 29 minutes, before making it 2-0 with his first penalty in a competitive game, two minutes later. Thereafter, Scotland played out time to win, in spite of a second-half England goal from Bryan Douglas.

That brief pen picture of the game overlooks the major role the hobbling Smith played following his return in the 40^th minute. He might have scored twice himself, laid-on a stream of tempting crosses for Spurs team mate Jimmy Greaves, but, the most-potent British striker of his era, who had scored a hat-trick in the 1961 destruction of the Scots, missed five or six chances he would normally have put-away with ease and the ten Scots got out of jail.

Of course, this was a very good Scotland team: Bill Brown; Alex Hamilton and Caldow, Mackay, Ian Ure and Baxter; Willie Henderson, John White, Ian St John, Denis Law and Wilson.

The England team they faced wasn't the best, a composite XI from the two teams might have seen Gordon Banks preferred to Brown in goal, and perhaps Bobby Charlton for St John at centre forward, but, that would be England's total representation.

It's that fact, we weren't playing a great England team, which marks down this still very brave win.

Wembley Win Five

England 1 Scotland 2: 1977

AS WITH the 1963 win, that in 1977 gets marked down due to the paucity of the English opposition. We were heading for our second successive World Cup: "Representing Britain, and here's the reason why – England cannae dae it, fur they didnae qualify".

This one might have been awkward, the match was the climax of the Home Internationals, which were then run as an end-of-season tournament, and the Scots went into it with a new manager in Ally MacLeod, who had taken over from Willie Ormond just before the tournament began.

MacLeod, famously, thought tactics were a small white mint, but, he knew how to motivate a squad and he certainly had his side up for this one. Big Gordon McQueen put us ahead just before half-time, Kenny Dalglish scored against the Auld Enemy for the second successive year on the hour and his scrambled effort put us in easy street.

Mick Channon did convert an 87^th minute penalty, but, by then the game was long since over as a contest. MacLeod could even show boat, taking off Man of the Match Don Masson in 83 minutes, to a standing ovation from the Tartan Army, and sending-on Archie Gemmill.

But, the real talking point of this game came after the final whistle, when the jubilant Tartan Army, clad in the fashion of the time like a mass Bay City Rollers tribute group, decided to sack Wembley. Down came the goal-posts, up went the turf as jubilant supporters dug-up squares to take back home as a memento of the occasion.

Of course, much drink had been taken, Scotland keeper Alan Rough, marooned some 150-yards from the dressing rooms, took an alleged 45 minutes to make his way back there and Middle England was horrified at the appaling behaviour of the Scots fans.

The mayhem didn't subside until the Sunday night, when the last revellers were rounded-up and sent northwards, while the Scots team set-off for a South American tour, as a recce for the following year's World Cup finals.

We were Kings of the World that June, but, as we know now, this was a bad case of pride coming before a fall. Still, Alan Rough; Danny McGrain, Willie Donachie, Tam Forsyth, Gordon McQueen, Bruce Rioch, Don Masson, Kenny Dalglish, Joe Jordan, Asa Hartford, Willie Johnston and substitutes Lou Macari and Archie Gemmill handed out a real beating to an England side which, it has to be admitted, wasn't their best.

Another similarity to the 1963 win comes from the fact, this one gave us back-to-back Home International Championship wins and meant we kept possession of the magnificent Jubilee Trophy; but, as we celebrated, we were sure, 12 months later, we would be placing the World Cup alongside it.

We had every right to dream - pity the dream became a nightmare.

We're All Celtic Fans Now

SO, it's situation normal as we go into the new season. It used to be Scotland's "diddy" teams in Europe were out before Christmas, now, they're out before the end of August, following last night's losses by Motherwell and St Johnstone.

 

Motherwell shot themselves in the foot by losing their home first leg tie, while Saints lost out on the lottery of penalties - doubly galling when you lose such a shoot-out at home.

 

So, once again we are all Celtic supporters when it comes to Europe this season. Let's hope they get a half-decent draw in the play-off round, when the ties are drawn later today.

 

 

 

MEANWHILE, there was a nothing piece, by Lindsay Herron, in this morning's Scotsman, which, in great detail, told us that Sandy Jardine will unfurl the last SFL Division Three championship flag at Ibrox tomorrow.

 

The last of the piece, telling us how much Ally McCoist loves Sandy and what a pillar he has been during the last year's troubles was, quite frankly puke-inducing crap, from a journalist who, if he hasn't already worked his notice at Rangers, where his role has been usurped by James Traynor, is all but out the door.

 

This was pure PR puff; one of the worst examples of "churnalism" I have seen. It's quite obvious that Scotsman sports supremo Colin Leslie is on holiday this week.

 

I bow to nobody in my respect for Jardine. great player, nice man, still living with and coming to terms with cancer. The last thing Sandy needs right now is to be dragged back into the cess-pool which is present-day Ibrox.

 

 

 

I WAS not impressed by the squad which Roy Hodgson announced yesterday for next week's England v Scotland bun fight at Wembley. That lot are takeable - if we believe.

 

And, speaking of Wembley; we have reached match seven in my run-down of Scotland's nine Wembley wins. This one is:

 

England 2 Scotland 3: 1951

 

TRADITION has it, when we win at Wembley, the victorious XI is hailed as the greatest one since the last victorious side under the twin towers - but not in this case, the single example of a winning Scotland side in London being slaughtered by those paragons of even-handed, informed criticism, the "Fans With Typewriters" of the Scottish Football Writers Association.

 

The criticism of the winning 1951 team: Jimmy Cowan, George Young and Sammy Cox, Bobby Evans, Willie Woodburn and Willie Redpath; Willie Waddell, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly, Billy Steel and Billy Liddell came about because they apparently struggled to beat ten-men.

 

England's wonderful inside right, Wilf Mannion was carried-off with a fractured cheek bone, following a clash of heads with Liddell after just ten minutes, and, in these pre-substitute days, his departure ruined this show-piece occasion.

 

The Mannion injury was the start of what became known as the Wembley Jinx, every year from 1950 until the mid-1960s, either in the England v Scotland game or in the FA Cup final, one team would be handicapped by injury.

 

In this case, England got all the credit for making it so-hard for the Scots to win. Their least-experienced player, Huddersfield Town's Harold Hassall, was voted Man of the Match, for operating as a one-man left wing following Mannion's departure - Walter Winterbottom had switched Tom Finney to inside right, to form a priceless right wing with Stanley Matthews. Hassall even shot England in front in 26 minutes, before weight of numbers carried the day for Scotland.

 

Bobby Johnstone scored on his debut to equalise before the break, then the inevitable Lawrie Reilly in 47 minutes and Billy Liddell in 53 minutes scored further Scotland goals. The glorious Finney did cut the deficit to a single goal in 63 minutes, but, this was a last hurrah for ten men running on empty and the fact that Bert "The Cat" Williams had to be at his awesome best in the final half hour to deny Scotland more goals has perhaps been overlooked in the general sympathy for the ten men who gave so-much.

 

On paper, Scotland had perhaps the stronger team that afternoon; against ten men they ought to have won by more goals; but, that said, Williams - the man who is today, aged 93, the oldest-surviving England internationalist - at his best was a remarkable goalkeeper, who, like Cowan two years previously at the other end, gave a formidable display of goal-keeping.

 

Still, this win gave Scotland back-to-back Wembley victories, for the only time and only the narrowness of the margin sees it rated so low. 

Taxi For McCoist - Maybes Aye - Maybes Naw

WOW! Who'd have believed it, a front-line Scottish sports writer has, this morning, had the temerity to suggest that, just maybe, Ally McCoist isn't up to managing Rangers.

 

Of course, Stuart Bathgate in The Scotsman, didn't actually suggest that: "Taxi for McCoist" was in imminent danger of being heard around Murray Park - but; there was a hint that maybe the Second-Greatest Living Ranger's jacket was on a shoogly peg.

 

Such is the turmoil around the club just now it's almost like watching the Arab Spring - without the bombs and bullets. There are so-many different factions vying for power and influence, so-many characters sticking their nebs in, it is difficult to make an accurate assessment of what is happening.

 

There is one certainty, Charles Green hasn't deviated from his belief that: "Rangers are worth £50 million any day" and, he will not budge until he gets a price for his shares which accurately reflects his valuation of the entire Rangers brand, notwithstanding the fact he is quite prepared to further tarnish it to get that price.

 

I actually believe that IF the club was properly funded, managed and operating in a properly-managed Scottish game, £50 million perhaps under-values that club. That said, I don't see it happening. Sure, the right, pig-headed-obsessive, with the money to make his wishes happen, COULD, make Rangers worth more than £50 million, but only if he could also bend the rest of Scottish football to his will. And, that aint gonna happen any time soon.

 

So, unless Charlie drops his price - I see continuing stalemate until, sooner or later, Rangers are back in administration or more-likely liquidation.

 

As for the quality of the would-be alternative Masters of Ibrox. Again, there is no saying what the Hampden "blazers" might do, but, I would suggest that, given his part in the self-destructive downfall of "Old" Rangers, Paul Murray has disqualified himself from any part in restoring the dignity and status of the Rangers brand.

 

Similarly, given his well-known travails with the South African justice system, Dave King isn't the red, white or blue knight who will put it all to rights. We are told that King has the money to sort things out - if so, why hasn't he before now?

 

 

 

ACROSS the city, there is a sense of relief this morning, with Celtic safely ensconsed in the play-off round, the last obstacle to be overcome before the guarantee of a lengthy European run this season, in the group stages and beyond in the Champions League, or, in the group stages, then as a back-up, the Europe League.

 

The play-off round is the real sweat box in Europe: win, you're in the money, lose, you're nothing.

 

Celtic came through a real test of nerve in getting past their Swedish opponents last night. They only had a one-goal cushion, they reeled and rocked at times, but, they came through and well done to them.

 

 

 

Wembley Wins Eight - England 0 Scotland 1: 1999

 

EIGHTH place in my list of Wembley Wins goes to our last success in the cathedral of English football, on 17 November, 1999, when we went there for the second leg of a European Championship play-off tie, seeking to overturn a two-goal deficit from the first leg, at Hampden, four days previously.

 

We badly missed Paul Lambert at Hampden and he was again absent for the Wembley match. Knowing he had to win, manager Craig Brown rang the changes, bringing-in Callum Davidson for the more-defensively-minded Paul Ritchie, Neil McCann for the injured Kevin Gallacher and pushing Don Hutchison further forward and asking him to "bully" Gareth Southgate, whom Kevin Keegan preferred to Martin Keown at the heart of the English defence.

 

Hutchison did as he was asked, brilliantly, even scoring Scotland's goal with a great header, from a McCann cross late in the first half. Brown also asked goalkeeper Neil Sullivan to lump the ball up Route One, for Hutchison to knock it down to the supporting Billy Dodds and Scotland certainly were on the front foot all game.

 

Sadly, however, the second goal which would at the very least have opened the door to extra time and possibly penalties, didn't come. In the second half, we flung everything but the twin towers at David Seaman in the England goal, but the man who owed his England place to the coaching of Scotland's own Bob Wilson, produced some great saves to deny us - none better than his late effort from a Christain Dailly header, which had the whole of Scotland on their feet already shouting: "Goal", when Seaman saved.

 

Like so-many Wembley wins, it amounted to nothing. It was too-little, too-late, we were out and England qualified for the European Championships finals in Belgium and Holland - where they produced a terrible performance which made even our effort in Argentine in 1978 look adequate.

 

Leading 1-0 at half-time and with all the momentum; we should have gone on and won by more, but, we didn't, which is why this win only ranks eighth in our list of Wembley wins.    

'Edmiston Drive' it could be the soap opera to crush Coronation Street

IT should not be too-much of a surprise that the continuing soap opera which is The Rangers continues to set the football news agenda in Scotland. When the on-field product is as pish as the game up here is today, we have to look elsewhere for entertainment. But, it would be nice to get back to discussing tactics, or who will win what - instead, it's all about Rangers.

 

This, again, should be no surprise, given the tribalism in Scottish life: perhaps a hang-over to the old clan system. I was speaking last night to a contemporary from school; a guy who actually signed for Rangers, but, because the love of his life and his wife now for nigh on 50 years just happened to be born and raised as a Roman Catholic, he never got to play in the first team.

 

This chap, a retired member of one of our more-respected professions, is convinced there is an anti-Rangers bias in today's Scottish media; that it is being run by an RC "mafia" who are relishing every piece of bad news to emerge from Ibrox. This is an argument I have heard put forward by others, but it is not one to which I fully sign-up.

 

Yes, there are some members of "The Celtic Family", who carry NUJ cards and rather relish the other side's current travails; similarly the membership of "The Lap Top Loyal" is still strong within the mainstream media in Scotland. But, both sides agree, Rangers' continuing trials and tribulations is still damn good copy. They also, at last, seem to accept that much of this nonsense was self-inflicted.

 

But, as I have often put forward, and have yet to be shot down for saying so; doesn't this mirror Scottish football as a whole? Every time Celtic or Rangers take the field in a Scottish game they face an XI which by and large breaks down into: four of their own - determined to show them they are good enough to weat the hoops or the blue shirts - four of the opposition - determined to beat thae bar stewards at any cost - and three neutrals, of whom one or two might be genuine fans of the opposition, keen to win.

 

Enough preamble, to the meat in today's sandwich. I said when he was appointed, Walter Smith would not find being Chairman a piece of cake. It is one thing managing a team, quite another running a club and I feared he would be found wanting - which he has been.

 

It would have been quite simple for Smith the manager, to have ripped a truculent player who wasn't buying-into the team ethos to shreds. He could drop him, he could make him train with the youth team, he could even, as runmour has it happened under Souness, invite the troublemaker into the gym to have the shit beaten out of him by the big, bruising assistant manager.

 

That approach doesn't work with a co-director who is singing from a different hymn sheet, or has a different agenda. Footballers, by and large, are as thick as shit in the neck of a bottle, easy to cow with cerebral argument. That will not work with directors, especially those who have scrambled up the greasy pole of business by their own efforts.

 

A fight is, supposedly, going on for the "soul" of Rangers. Listen, Rangers do not have, never have had, a "soul". That club is all about making money. Since the days of Murray's Mismanagement, it has become a cess-pit for the less-principled amongst the money-making classes and, as we all know, where there's muck there's brass. And Rangers right now has attracted some real brass-necked muck-rakers.

 

Walter is well out of it, but, his departure was not good news for Alistair McCoist.

 

 

 

I NEVER "got" John "Bomber" Brown. I never thought he was "Rangers Class" - since my ideas about "Rangers Class" were forged by watching the likes of Eric Caldow, Ronnie McKinnon, Jim Baxter, Alex Scott, Willie Henderson, Ian McMillan, Ralph Brand and Davie Wilson.

 

Now, you note  the names I cited there. These magnificent seven players were all members of the all-conquering (domestically) Rangers squads of the early 1960s. But, all the trophies which they won could not have been won  by seven men playing against eleven. They needed the likes of Bobby Shearer, Harold Davis, John Greig and Jimmy Millar. Good, but not great players, in theatrical parlance, sword-carriers, there to back-up the main stars.

 

Davis, the man so-badly wounded in Malaysia, was an under-rated player. HIs subsequent coaching career marks him out as such. The likes of Shearer and Greig, for all the latter's 40 caps and status as TGLR - The Greatest Living Ranger, were journeymen. But, they were fans on the park, they really did believe in "No Surrender", in a footballing sense.

 

They were also bigger "Rangers Men" than Brown. "Bomber" may be the voice of "Ra Peepul" in the Copland Road and Govan Stands, but, that doesn't make him an expert.

 

Furthermore, Brown is Manager of Dundee FC. His first loyalty SHOULD be to the Dens Park outfit. Of course, given the low standard of Scottish football journalism today and the fact he is known as being a good source of copy - some tabloid hacks will always telephone him for his opinion on events at Rangers.

 

If he was true to his employers, Brown ought to thank them politely for the call, but then add: "I have no comment to make on happenings within a rival club - at the moment, it is none of my business", then hang-up.

 

He has, apparently, enough on his plate with a power struggle, somewhat akin to that at Ibrox, going on just along the corridor from his office. Brown can add nothing to events at Ibrox, but, he can, and should be, trying to broker peace at Dens, so he can better do his own job.

 

 

 

NEXT week, at Wembley, Scotland under Gordon Strachan, will be attempting to post what, if they succeed will only be their tenth win at Wembley in 89 years. So, I thought, I would, between then and now, post on here, a brief outline of the previous nine wins, in the order in which I rank them.

 

England 0 Scotland 1 - 1981

 

THIS match was won and lost on John Robertson's second-half penalty. The awarding of the kick was never disputed, it was a "stonewaller", which Nottingham Forest's Robertson slotted away past Joe Corrigan with aplomb.

 

He had to wait to take it, however, as Forest team mate Trevor Francis attempted a spot of mind games. Everybody who had done their homework knew, Robbo would aim to beat Corrigan at the goalkeeper's bottom right-hand corner; so Francis sauntered forward, as Robbo prepared to take the penalty, to have a word in Corrigan's ear, hoping that, seeing this, Robbo would change his usual practice and shoot to the keeper's left.

 

The plan misfired badly, Corrigan went left, Robbo did what he always did, shot to the right of the goal, 1-0 Scotland, game over.

 

In truth, this was just about the only note-worthy incident in a dreich game. England tried to claim a late penalty for a typically-brilliantly-timed penalty box tackle by Willie Miller, which won him the ball and left Francis flat on his face - but, the referee wasn't having it and the claims died of embarrassment - that they should try it on so blatantly.

 

Both sides were under-strength because Liverpool and Ipswich were both in European cup-final action; so, no Hansen, Souness, Dalglish, Brazil or Wark in the Scotland squad and no Ray Clemence, Phil Neal, Phil Thompson, Terry Butcher or Mick Mills in the England one.

 

England were ripe for the plucking that day. They had lost in midweek to Wales, as-ever, on the back of a loss to a lesser nation, the English media were on a scapegoat man hunt and under-pressure England manager Ron Greenwood was openly at war with his media cheer-leaders.

 

We won, but, it was a dreich, dour game, best-forgotten. So, only ninth in the order of merit of Wembley wins.

 

 

The SFA Has Rules - Never

I COULDN'T be bothered reading the piece. there's just something about the whole paper which turns me off, but, apparently, the Daily Mail has a story that SFA rules will prevent Paul Murray from returning to the Rangers board, should all the cards fall in his favour during ther latest round of Ibrox in-fighting.

I said lang syne - this whole Rangers soap opera would run for years and the only winners would be the lawyers - nothing has persuaded me to change that view, Mind you, SFA rules, gie's a brek, these are made-up as they go along. For as long as Campbell Ogilvie is still SFA President, they can do nothing about the constant embarrassment which Rangers have become.

APPARENTLY there were all sorts of problems with technology at the weekend, wqith BBC Scotland looking even more foolish than usual. It was all PA's fault apparently. I am not surprised, a decade ago, when PA first put their exclusive phone lines with their special phones into Scottish press boxes, helping-out a mate by doing PA for him at a game, I couldn't get through on the dedi ated line for over half an hour; so I simply stopped trying.

Sure enough, at half-time, I got an angry and indignant call from some jobsworth on the PA football desk, berating me for my lack of contact. I simply told him: "sort-out your technology and I'll get back to you - otherwise, you phone me".

Maybe if today's young journalists had the balls to do that, things would improve. It is always the guy on the ground's fault to the desk jockeys, sometimes you have to put them (the djs) in their place.

It doesn't help that PA today uses mainly ex-footballers for their match coverage, nice guys, but sometimes not the sharpest, particularly when things go wrong. Of course, the way BBC Scotland has cut backroom staff to the bone, while paying big money for authoritative talking heads such as Murdo MacLeod to say pretty much nothing, doesn't help.

I'll finish with an old joke: What about football in Edinburgh?

Don't know, aye, it might catch on.

Ally Is PUshing His Luck

ALLY McCoist has always given the impression of being a jammy so-and-so, but now, I fear he is pushing that luck.

His wee outburst against Chukkie Green on Saturday was a nicely-timed smokescreen, diverting the Lap Top Loyal's attention away from the fact Rangers had just been turned over by FORFAR BLOODY ATHLETIC!!! Up there in the great celestial Blue Room, my late father and my late uncles - Bluenoses to a man - must be wondering what is going on back here in Scotland.

No full-time team worth its salt should lose to a part-time outfit; Ally can blame the players, either in public or behind a locked dressing room door; he can cite the effects of the preposterous money-driven politicking inside and outside the boardroom - the so-called battle for the "soul" of Rangers. However, he cannot hide from the fact,, in a results-driven industry, his team didn't get the right result at Station Park; and, since a manager stands or falls by his team's results - those who call: "Taxi for McCoist" have a point. Super Ally's managerial record aint so super.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I thought, over-rated as a manager though Walter Smith has become, thanks in no small measure to the LTL spinning machine, Cardigan Man did know how to put-out half-decent Rangers team. McCoist, as 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' should have been able to manage a fairly straight-forward transfer of power; instead, the myth of Rangers power has been swept aside by off-field shenanigans and on-field failure.

McCoist, like John Greig before him, has been over-promoted, over-quickly and has been found-out. If any one of the coteries of "Real Rangers Men" win the off-field power battle, he will survive at least as far as the return to the Premier League - provided that happens for the start of the 2015-16 season.

But, if the guys who are only interested in the bottom line - and I include Green in that bunch - carry the day. I see a tearful reunion with Sue Barker on the horizon.

Another point re Rangers. Once upon a time, had Rangers lost to Forfar, it would have made the national news' sports segment. I watched the BBC News Channel's bulletin this morning - a full 15 minutes of sports news. They covered meaningless friendlies involving English Premiership clubs, even mentioned 

Steven Pressley's Coventry, facing possible liquidation in England's third tier, and paid homage to a couple of minor sports. The goals from the Celtic game were shown, but, of Rangers' defeat at Forfar - narry a mention. That's how far Rangers have fallen.