enough to come down with a minor illness last midweek. Before going any
further I'd like to scotch the wicked rumour doing the rounds that the
yahoos had jammed the Padre Pio hotline asking him to make sure I had
Cancer. It's just not true and does nothing to foster better relations
between fans on either side of the OF divide.
So anyway, last Saturday morning, I declared myself not quite match fit and
resolved to do the full four hours of the Radio Clyde commentary instead.
There was method in my madness mind you. I wanted to find out for myself if
the radio station that equates invisible flutes with bringing down peace
processes would have anything to say about the latest attack on a referee's
home by one specific strand of Scottish society? I know I know I'm too
gullible for my own good, but hey a boy can dream, can't he?
The tone of RC radio was set with the news at the top of the programme that
Celtic's game at Motherwell was off. Oh, they did get round to telling us
about the Killie v Jags match being postponed also and kept us bang up to
date with the goings on up at Dundee, where eventually the Deemen's game
with Livi was also eventually cancelled. But the match at Fir Park being a
no go was obviously something of a hammer blow to Provan but even more so to Messrs Cooney and Keevins.
Cooney gave the game away when he came round to mentioning the main feature for the afternoon, which was of course the Rangers v Hearts fixture at
Ibrox. 'Just think' he said, 'Celtic could have joined Rangers at the top of
the table – if only for a few hours mind you – if that game at Fir Park had
went ahead.' Presumably in Cooney's mind, Motherwell, who have already
beaten the yahoos this season remember were only turning up at home to make up the numbers?
This was the cue for Keevins to get ripped into the blatant injustice of it
all. 'Three matches have been called off, because of a cold snap overnight?
This makes the game here in Scotland strictly Mickey Mouse', Shug barked.
Clearly oor Shug doesn't suffer fools gladly. Unless your name is Finbar of
course.
He also mentioned that it wasn't worth Hearts while turning up at Ibrox
because after they go beyond the Harthill Services Station, they seem to
lose their nerve. To hear Keevins talk, you would have been given the
impression that the jambos just don't try against Rangers. It's funny, but I
never seem to hear the forthright Keevins being so readily dismissive of the
yahoos' opponents? Anyway, give or take a Derek Johnstone titter at one of
his own jokes. That more or less, was the first half-hour taken up.
Just on or around the 2:30 mark another Shug (Dallas) phoned up with his
view on the FA Cup-tie at Old Trafford between Man Utd and Arsenal. 'Were
you glad that it was Jeff Winters out there rather than yourself, what with
all the nasty tackles flying around? Keevins asked. 'Here we go I thought'
this has got to lead onto some forthright and also very topical and relevant
discussion in light of the latest attack on another Scottish footballing
official's homestead?'
Don't you believe it! In less than 5 minutes McCurry was mentioned, the
incident concerning Dallas himself was brought up although not surprisingly
not in any great detail. Dallas was able to inform us that English referee,
Jeff Winters was astonished/appalled at what is allowed to happen to
officials up here in Scottish football. You could've heard a pin drop when
he said that, mind you. He also told us that when it affects your family, it
moves onto another level and that in the future someone may not handle the
attacks in the way either he or McCurry has at this point. As I say, this
wee segment was all done and dusted in a 5 minute period and the level of
debate and line of questioning was kept very much on the surface.
In summing up there was no mention of Celtic fans' involvement this time
around at Chez McCurry or the preposterous reasoning of the morons who
carried out the attack. There were no calls hoping Celtic would take action
against these fans if caught. Well how could there be? After all, this would
just have left the management of Septic FC and RC panel open to ridicule in
the form of those two wee pesky words, Kevin Dunne. There was no mention of
what happened to Gordon McBride or his family. This was a whitewash job and
no mistake.
But just don't take my word for it. The fact is, Cooney and Keevins went out
of their way on a couple of occasions to emphasise that it was only a
'small, small minority of football fans' who indulge in this type of
behaviour. Not a 'minority of Celtic fans' you understand, but a minority of
football fans. If a visitor from Mars had tuned in on Saturday they would
have been given the clear and distinct impression by Radio Clyde that
Scottish football fans in general attack officials in their houses, as
opposed to the fans of only one club.
There can be no getting away from what happened here. Those in power at
Radio Clyde are deliberately sweeping attacks of intimidation and thuggery
on Scottish footballing officials in the so called safety of their own homes
under the carpet, because of the club the perpetrators of said acts are
affiliated to.
Next up was the state of the national side and Bertie McVogts took a
battering from all and sundry. Provan especially is soured with our adopted
'kraut'. 'It's his job to send out a team that is organised at free-kicks
etc' he growled. 'It's what he's paid handsomely for.' You mean the way you
are paid to give us your opinions and comments of attacks on referees'
homes, Davie? As far as I am concerned Provan is one of the least equipped
in the game to be handing out lessons in professionalism.
The commentary of the Rangers game was tedious, admittedly from my point of
view because we didn't kill our opponents off and come that last minute free
kick for Hearts it was some 70% proof medication I was in need of. Anyway
with the game and the rest of the classifieds out of the way, surely now
even one caller would be allowed on to ask about McCurry or give an opinion
on the incident?
Well, I counted 16 calls that were made/allowed on air in the last segment
of the show. We had a yahoo sharing his paranoia with us as to why he
thought the game was called off. Apparently Jack the Masonic frostyman was
strutting his stuff during the Friday night to help Motherwell out of an
injury crisis. We had a Hivee unhappy with his lot. We had a Bear unhappy
with our strikers, we had yahoos unhappy with there being no game because
this could have a negative effect on the European match. We had a Killie fan
on unhappy with the sarky comments from the panel about his club's undersoil
heating. We had another yahoo on about playing the Well v yahoos game on the Sunday. (This one in particular appealed to Cooney) Oh we had a variety of
questions but we never got a sniff of a query or an opinion on the attack on
Michael McCurry's homelife.
If you go onto BBC and STV's Teletext sports pages any day of the week, what
you will find are loads of letters from fans of the 'rebel 10' and the other
just as small clubs putting the boot into the OF and their fans. A regular
moan from them is the way referees are intimidated by the partisan and
intimidating crowds' etc. Yet we are being asked to believe that not one
single person out of the hundreds who jam the phone-lines on matchday,
phoned up Radio Clyde concerned about the connotations for the Scottish game
if we cannot protect our officials? You can bet your bottom dollar that if
it was Rangers fans who had attacked an official, outraged of Croy would
have been the first call of the day!
So what can we do about this totally one sided, biased yahoo road show? To
be brutally frank, there's nothing that can be done other than boycott it
altogether. This is a bolthole that Timmy has got sown up and will never
relinquish his grip from. The calibre of the token, tame lame so called
'Bluenoses' chosen to fight the blue half of Glasgow tells you everything
you need to know as to how this shower operate.
Seeing as I couldn't get through last Saturday, I'll put my question to
Cooney, Provan, Keevins and Walker through Follow Follow. Tell us gentlemen,
what will it take for you lot to speak out. Will a Scottish footballing
official need to be killed by a Celtic fan before it becomes newsworthy on
your poxy wee radio station?
I make no bones for saying so, this lot really should be looked upon with
the same contempt as the Mirror Group!
The Govanhill Gub