I won't bore you all with the details as to why I couldn't make the Dundee
game. It is suffice to say that at the same time as my old man was taking
his place among 'the clique' in the usual watering hole. I was parking my
pert bahookie in front of the telly in Chez gub and having a wee sneaky look
as to how the yahoos were getting on at Fester Rd. The result at the time
was 2-1 to the visitors and 76 minutes were on the clock.
After a minute or so of watching the play I do believe I heard Rob McLean
referring to 'ten-man Celtic' and sure enough a quick look at Teletext
confirmed that the thug had been red carded in the 70th minute.
So there I was, within a minute or so I had been transformed from a casual
lets-have-a-look-anyway observer to a full on
eyes-glued-to-see-if-they-slip-up viewer. Truth be told though the Hibs
forward line wouldn't have been dangerous even with the aid of a napalm bomb
and from what I saw the yahoos held out comfortably to register all three
points.
The only thing that whetted the appetite in that last quarter of an hour
were the many references by 'Plankton & McLean' to the 'rashness of Balde's
challenge¹ and 'You can't get away with this type of thing'. And sure enough
the highlights afterwards did indeed confirm the 'rashness' of the thug. Oh
how I laughed.
Given the ramifications of the sending off, all that went through my mind
was; 'It wouldn't surprise me if they appeal against the red card if only to
allow Balde to play against Rangers.'
Cards on the table time, the thug's sending off affects me differently from
how it affects Timmy. Quite frankly he would never be out of my Sellik team.
Let's see now, no discernible talent whatsoever to speak of, a propensity to
kick the ball only in the direction he's facing, the fact that he's always
going to be a liability on the ground and discipline wise. I think you get
the message.
In saying that, all of those marvellous attributes have to be offset against
the fact that the thug is a valued commodity in O'Neill's brutish
footballing scheme of things.
What I will also say is that the Balde's sending off provided us with a
perfect cameo moment of how a Celtic player behaves under O'Neill. I mean,
here we have a man mountain that went down as if he had been poleaxed by a
challenge from a smout half his size. In other words it was a dive followed
up of course by that primeval urge to hurt an opponent. Both sides of
O'Neill's Celtic coin as it were.
Next up we had the Rangers game. Given that I don't fancy any of the Radio
stations or any of the pundits, yours truly settled for the Food and Drink
Channel, which I discovered to my delight, was devoted entirely to Italian
cuisine. So there I was watching Georgio Locatelli (I love that bugger to
bits) and the River Cafe Cookbook, interspersed every two minutes of course
with another snatch at the latest scores on Teletext.
Half time came and went with no scoring of course and then I had to run out
and do a few quick errands. By the time I came back into the gaff I finally
relented and stuck on the 'tranny' in the kitchen. As luck would have it
within ten seconds of tuning in Dundee had equalised. These things are sent
to try us.
The rest as they say is history and of course the reaction of the
commentators to Vanoli's 'toe-poke' made it all the better. Derek Johnstone
going as far as to say that you wouldn't see a better struck goal this
season. Watching the Beeb's highlights at 5 o'clock confirmed that it was
indeed a belter.
So there I was, one happy Bear, large vodka in hand so I said to myself
'feck it, let's listen to the Snyde phone-in'. It was all rather
predictable. The first yahoo on wanted to know why the Hibs player involved
in the incident with the thug wasn't booked?
There's just no shaming them is there? These are the people whose battle cry
is 'Bobo's gonnae get ye' These are the same people who would phone and
email polls in their thousands to tell us that Bobo is the hardest player in
Britain/Europe/the world. But they want a guy half Balde's size booked for
having the temerity to jump up for the same ball as him.
Now you were actually aware of the pregnant pause as Andy Walker started to
formulate his answer. It's almost as if the motto at Snyde is that every
answer to a yahoo, which they know he doesn't want to hear has to be said in
soft conciliatory tones. Walker to his credit disagreed and stated that
there was no way the Hibs player deserved to be booked. But we need to start
being aware of what's happening here. We (and we do it all the time on the
FF message boards) are now starting to praise journalists who have the nerve
to disagree with Timothy's mental diarrhoea.
Next up was another yahoo who blasted straight into Derek Johnstone for
saying Vanoli's goal was the goal of the season. Timmy was of the opinion
that McManus' goal for Hibs at Ibrox was a better strike. And get this he
also accused Johnstone of being biased. Irony is lost on these retards.
Johnstone countered by saying 'it's all about opinions' It seems to me that
if you voice one that looks favourably upon Rangers then it is open season
on you on Snyde.
You are of course all acquainted with the drill on Snyde. Questions are
interrupted as they go 'trackside' with a player or a manager etc, etc. Then
it came, the question I had been waiting for, as I knew it surely must. 'Eh
dis ra panel no hink rit Sellik shood appeal the Balde red card so he cin
play next week?
Again to be fair to Walker and Keevins they both gave a resounding no to the
query. Keevins even going as far as to say that Septic couldn't appeal
anyway as O'Neill had said live on Snyde earlier that he thought the sending
off had been justified. But again look at what's happening here. I'm giving
kudos to a couple of hacks who have disagreed with Timmy over a question
that would have been laughed out of court if it had came from anyone else.
There were of course other questions allowed here and there but Timmy was
not to be diverted from his 'we're being victimised' theme. And another one
came on and demanded to know why the Hibs player involved in the penalty
incident wasn't red carded. This deranged individual was of the opinion that
Petrov had been denied a clear goal scoring chance.
Once again there was the awkward silence before Walker came back and
disagreed. All done in that softly softly manner of course. It was almost a
whisper as he reacquainted Timmy with the laws of the game. Walker quite
rightly said the Hibs defender should not have been red carded because
Petrov was going so far wide that he wouldn't have been able to have a clear
cut chance. You do wonder if the fan of any other club would have been
allowed onto prime phone-in time ask such an inane, ridiculous question.
Which brings us to the very crux of the matter. There is something very
sinister happening in this country with regards to the press and its
relationship with Timmy. It's hard to put a timescale on it or speak of a
defining moment. But I would say that the rise of O'Neill at the cesspit, as
ungracious, unsporting and bitter an individual as there's ever been there,
allied to the purge of the 'right footers' at the Herald and of course the
ongoing Septic-Minded propaganda machine that is Radio Snyde are all
connected.
Just look at how they have portrayed some of the news involving Timothy even
just this year. A gang of Celtic fans attacks a referee's home and there is
nothing said about it. It is simply airbrushed out of the news. Another
carload of Celtic fans goes roaming around housing estates looking for an
opposition chairman. Yet quite unbelievably it is the opposition chairman
who cops the flak. Now if this doesn't set off alarm bells ringing then I'm
afraid nothing will.
I really don't know if there is a major point to this wee piece. Other than
that I wanted to share with you what was actually happening last week on
Snyde, as you lot were in the pubs and clubs reliving Vanoli's wonder strike
and the soft, shoe shuffle from Capucho a minute or so later.
But I tell you what though. Everytime Snyde and Co allow Timmy on the
airwaves and letters pages to vent his diseased spleen, they are in fact
giving credence to, nurturing, nourishing and encouraging a mindset that
doesn't need any prompting to hate. I'll say it again. Someone, somewhere in
an official capacity in Scottish football is going to be killed because of
this shower. I know who I'll be pointing the accusing finger at as
accessories.
The Govanhill Gub.