That Was The Week That Was

In the same vein (if you'll pardon the pun) I have to say my incredulity
levels reached Learyesque proportions listening to Hugh Keevins on Radio
Snide's phone-in on Sunday. What happened was the first Rangers fan on (yup
they do allow them occasionally as long as they don't want to talk about
referee's windows) reckoned there is a 'conspiracy' afoot to help prevent
Rangers from winning this league. To back up the statement he went through
a whole catalogue of errors from big John Collina at Almondvale earlier that
day.

Keevins (and this is where my scepticism was being stretched to the limit)
pooh-poohed the caller, shouted him down and said it was of course a
nonsense for anyone to suggest that there is any kind of conspiracy against
any team in Scottish football. How soon they forget, eh? Because this is
the very same Hugh Keevins who wailed, moaned and gnashed his teeth
throughout our NIAR season chanting the following mantra; 'Celtic fans feel
there is a conspiracy against them this season to prevent them winning the
league.' No doubt Keevins would have been in the same effervescent and
light-hearted mood if Mjalby hadn't been on hand to pop in a last gasp
winner at the munky-hoose a half-hour earlier?

Whilst I may not agree entirely with my fellow Rangers supporter that there
is a conspiracy among referees to deliberately stop Rangers winning the
league. There can be no doubts about the effects the conspiracy among yahoo
journalists to whip up hysteria everytime a contentious decision that goes
in Rangers' favour, has had upon them.

It is patently obvious big John Collina reads the papers, and there was
never any chance of him raising the hackles of the scum with typewriters
with his dire performance on Sunday. And that's despite the best efforts of
Messrs McLean and Clark (who really is a reptile of the highest order) to
try and make believe some nastiness into a nothing incident between Arteta
and some Livingston non-entity. It's funny how 'intent' is enough in
Arteta's case at Livingston on Sunday to warrant a red card? Yet making
contact TWICE in the Old Firm at Ibrox in December as Hartson did is swept
under the carpet?

I missed the after match histrionics by Amoruso on Sunday. But really the
fact that he was allowed to go anywhere near the BBC cameras just six days
after being stitched up by the same people the week previous, once again
shows up the management of our club for what they are. A bunch of
incompetent, amateurish ne'erdowells who do not have a clue as to what they
are or should be all about.

I weep for my club, I really do. I mean, early last week Alex McLeish hit
out at the BBC and accused them of trying Amoruso by kangaroo court. That
should have been the signal for the PR dept at the Club to kick into gear
and decide how they were going to tackle the issue?

The thing is, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out how the
club should have acted.

1 - Last Monday or Tuesday there should have been a statement from the club
to the effect that the BBC would not be allowed access to Rangers players,
management or into Ibrox. Not last Sunday and certainly not in the lead up
to this Sunday.

2 - This State of affairs would be reviewed after Amoruso's case was heard
on March 18th. Simple really. But what do we do? Well sadly, you already
know the answer to that one.

You've got to give credit were it is due and the yahoos are so far in front
of our duds in the PR stakes that we're not even in the same league set up
far less the same division. Just look at what happened after the 'thugs n
thieves' banner in 'The Rhebel' just before Christmas? O'Neill had only to
say he was unhappy at the headlines and before you know it they were
repeating them at half time on the screens at the munky-hoose, just to ram
the message home that 'The Rhebel' is an enemy of irafitbaclub. Now we all
know that last sentence is a load of codswallop. But fair play to the
yahoos for sticking to their guns anyway. (I was going to say principles
but a yahoo and ethics go together like the French and the will to do
battle)

You really do have to ask yourself how long the rank incompetence and
cowardice, which is now the norm at Ibrox, is going to be tolerated? In my
humble opinion Bain and Co are fast running out of ideas. They are so far
out of touch, so far removed in thought and principle from the wants and
needs of the grass roots Rangers support that the game is up.

People insist that Martin Bain is a 'good bluenose'. Well if he is such a
good Rangers man, then even Martin Bain must surely realise that the
indifference of the club's hierarchy to what we, the club's support views as
injustices, (and there are many) is slowly but surely killing the club.

I'll never meet Martin Bain, but I would plead with him to realise that
there is a simple equation here that he really needs to understand. The
equation is this, the more they (the Rangers management) refuse to respond
to those who hate us, then the more we (the Rangers support) will refuse to
respond to what they want from us.

Regards the game itself at Livingston. When it comes to timing I can only
hope that lot of ours are better when it comes to nocturnal pursuits than
what is displayed on the park. And a whole lot better at that! Because
quite frankly that ninety minutes at 'Wee-sellik's-ville' has to be the
worst defensive display I have witnessed domestically all season. And it
doesn't do too much for my karma that these jitters should be put on display
on the eve of the crunchiest of crunch times of the season for us.

The way Livi were allowed wee half chances and pot shots in the first half
especially, was totally unacceptable. As for the goal lost at the death?
I'll be kind here to Bonisell and assume that he had switched off marking
the defender running to meet the ball because he was waiting for the whistle
to signal time up?

Of course I should take the abominable Rowbotham's performance into account,
what with the disallowed goal(s) and stonewall penalty. But much, much more
will be required from all departments of the team this coming Sunday if
victory is to be ours. Oh, and expect even less favours if that could be
humanly possible from the ref this week than last week. (But more of that
later)

Oh dear oh dear, I see that probably the biggest hypocrite in Scottish
journalism, (and bhoy is that saying something) Bill Leckie, was trying to
stir things up again in midweek. Welcome to Leckieland, where double
standards are the norm! In saying that I nearly choked on my toasted ham and
mozzarella Pannini sandwich the other morning when he tried to infer that
the slug Grady would be in for some GBH at the hand of Rangers fans the next
time he goes out for a night on the town.

As we've said before, Leckie is a curious bag of contradictions. He tells
us he hates sectarianism, but is a staunch advocate of sectarian apartheid
in the Scottish Education System. So much so, that he allows his son to be
a product of it. He tells us constantly that he hates all the nasty
chanting from OF fans, but has himself referred to Rangers fans as 'Orange
Scum'. This week's diatribe was no different. In Leckie's opinion Amoruso
should be made pay/held to account for his public outbursts on a specific
incident involving him. But James Grady, the other protagonist in said
'spat' should not. Leckie is nothing if not consistent in his hypocrisy.

I am intrigued as to Leckie's take on violence though. He feels moved to
write an article based around uncontrolled and misguided fervour, (aimed at
Grady) which up until now is only a product of his own fevered imagination.
Yet he refuses to write about the sinister behaviour aimed at Scottish
footballing officials, which has now become part of the yahoos' after match
repertoire. But as we've already witnessed time and again, hypocrisy is par
for the course when the 'jagged lil Bill' is allowed anywhere near a
typewriter.

Let's look at it from another angle. Lets say for talking sake, that a
group of Rangers fans decided to brick a Scottish journalist's windows
because they took exception to something he had written. Do you think
Leckie would have something to say about it? You bet your life he would.
Yet Leckie has not written one single word (that I have seen) about the
latest instalment of inTIMidation aimed at Scottish footballing officials by
the fans of irafitbaclub. I refer to the recent attack on referee Mike
McCurry's home.

Which attack brings us on nicely to big OF game #1 in a sequence of three,
possibly 4 big OF games from now until the end of the season? To be honest,
I truly believe that Rangers should have put in an official complaint as
soon as it was announced that Mike McCurry was going to be the man in the
middle for this very important league encounter. The bottom line here is
that it is impossible for this man to be left unaffected by this recent
unprovoked attack on his home by Celtic fans. It is as simple as that.

Let us make no bones about it here, Mike McCurry has been left out on a limb
and hung out to dry by the Scottish press in these last few weeks. If you
don't believe me, then ask yourself the following question(s).

1 - Why was the recent attack on his (Mike McCurry's) home, suppressed as it
were, by the Scottish press? The Daily Express for example, brought us the
story on the Friday (they were the first Scottish paper to print the news if
memory serves correctly), yet the attack happened on the night of the yahoos
v wee yahoos game five nights previously?

2 - Why didn't this recent attack on Mike McCurry's home bring universal
anger and disgust from the Scottish (footballing) Press?

3 - Name me one single (Hell, I'll even throw in married) Scottish
footballing journalist who actually came out and had a pop at Celtic
supporters, blamed them totally and unequivocally for said attack? I mean,
it's not as if there isn't a line of enquiry or precedent to follow here is
there? The menacing threats and inTIMidation of Gordon McBride (and his
wife and weans) the attacks on the homes of Dallas and Albertz also spring
to mind in recent years. The crucial difference here being, for some
strange reason not one, single, Scottish journalist seems to care about the
plight of Mike McCurry. Now why is that?

Still on the subject of McCurry, I see David Syme of all people is slagging
him off in today's (Friday's) edition of 'The Sun'. Dear oh dear you would
think a dud like Syme of all people would have the good grace to know when
to shut it, because he was no great shakes in the whistlers stakes. His
atrocious decision to chalk off a perfectly valid Rangers goal in the 1978
League Cup final forever springs to mind whenever his name crops up.

Syme was a coward of the highest order. In fact he's told us often in the
past about how big 'ba face' used to try and wind him up before OF games and
he succeeded too. Souness certainly had him summed up to perfection.

So getting back to the question of big OF game #1. I f you gave me the
opportunity just now, I'd take the draw. It's not about running scared, far
from it. To be honest, I just don't see that the referee (any referee) in
the circumstances Mike McCurry finds himself in at this moment in time will
have the 'bottle' to do the right thing if a moment of 'controversy' crops
up? The best Mike McCurry can hope for is one of those tame lame
disappointing 0-0 draws that happen along every once in a decade or so. Of
course, if the Teddies are of a mind to prove me wrong???

Have a good one bears!

No matter what, we are the people!

THE GOVANHILL GUB

PS. How long before Mr Blobby walks the plank now?