26th of foot

The three games leading up to the League Cup final saw a series of high balls thrown into our box from all angles, McGregor's response was uncomfortable at best, he was truly flapping at worst. Dundee United at Ibrox took most advantage because set pieces are a big part of their game. Neil Alexander is confident coming for the high ball, he takes it to hands. Both Weir and Wilson know he will not be attempting punches that often morph into slaps. I would continue McGregor's sabatical tonight and retain Neil Alexander in goal.

Surely, the inspiration for this wonderful episode is Watership Down? Richard Adams' first novel has been embraced, more a case of, 'Watership(County)Down'.

As Gersnet posters, we should chip in to purchase and send each participant in the Bunny Billy Boys, a pack of Duracel batteries.

Compare and contrast wee Poison Pen Pat's take on both last Sunday's and yesterday's refereeing decisions effecting Rangers. Last Sunday, Nevin was unequivical, neither penalty was a penalty. He had no doubts. Yesterday, both Rangers players deserved red, again no doubts. Another consistency from both last Sunday and yesterday, Pat is clearly hurting, badly.

My opinion is that it's a decent design in the wrong place. It is not sympathetic to it's surrounds. It's like Hutcheson E, the disaster designed by European Architect of the year('76), Sir Basil Spence. It was something he had on the back burner for the Greek government, through deck housing with flat roofs. Glasgow District Council bit his hand off for the design. Surely, they realised that the Gorbals is NOT coastal Greece? I would have commissioned the spirit of Archibald Leach to design the Scottish parliament building, I am positive he could have brought it in at a significant lower cost than �£550million.

An imaginitive Architect would have encorporated the Bucky Buzz into the design, green glass with distinctive yellow trim. Instead, we got the romantic dreams of a Catalan obsessed with upturned boats on a shingle shore.

If the Scottish Parliament truly represented the Scottish consciousness, it would have been built in the shape of a deep fat fryer. Reference Orwell, many years past I spent several weeks on the Isle of Jura being eaten alive by midges. A lonely cottage on a promotory was apparently the location of old Etonian's musings on Winston Smith. The tenacious tenacity of those Jura midges would lead you believe that 2 plus 2 does equal five.

I seem to remember in round three of the Scottish Cup, Dundee United were leading Partick Thistle 0-1 at Firhill going into the final minutes. The United goal had been under siege throughout the second half, Thistle having created several opportunities without converting. A breakaway from United saw a ball across the Thistle box and Casalinuovo punched the ball into the net. Game ended 0-2 to United and they marched into the next round. What did Kovac say after that incident? What did Peter Houston say, did he slam the Referee? Maybe it was only me, but I heard the distinctive sound of silence emanating from Tannadice. Oh, I should mention the referee that missed Casalinouvo's underhand action, was Dougie McDonald.

I am the Lanarkshire Seer.

Just about to occur. I predict Rangers/Dundee United versus Raith Rovers and ra Sellik versus Hibs/Ross County. Let's hope so?

It's a variation on a theme, apparently father Georg's come-on was, 'do you want to come and see the Panzers'.

Such depictation on both front and back pages might send the stressful bSteven Purcell over the edge, here's hoping .... Wouldn't it be a good idea for Steven to do a line ................ er on the plight of his beloved green'n'grey horrors?

This week I have read such words associated with ra Sellik mindset : 'seething', 'fuming', 'injustice', 'agitate', .......... etc. All presented with 'legitimate' as a pre-fix. Today, ra Sellik are 'unhappy' with the state of the Falkirk pitch. I hope on Monday morning the word 'turmoil' underneath a cracked four leaf clover is dominating both the front and back pages.

Okay, I'll see you and raise Lee's Macaroon Bars. Lee's, Lee's, More if you please, Scores of us beg on our bended knees, For piccaninnies and Grandpapas, It's Lee's for luscious macaroon bars.

Wagon wheels, They're the treat for me, Wagon wheels, The biggest biscuit you ever did see, Waggon wheels, They taste so grand, Big enough to feed the band, Waggon wheels, They're the treat for me.

Is Steven Purcell your Man Friday on said island?

Thursday evenings on Radio Snyde's SuperscoreboardXtra are addictive listening. Ra Objective Host of ra Show, Bitter Martin pairs up with ra Bhoy in Corduroy for one hour of garrulous indiscipline. It's increasingly obvious that Bitter feels most comfortable broadcasting in the company of Spiers and the resultant relaxation ensures he lets himself down, again, and again. Spiers has always flashed his credentials ie a licenced peddler of mantras, and these Thursday on Snyde are no different. The last five Thursday has seen him state, repeat, and continually reinforce the following pysh : 'everyone accepts there was institutional bias against Celtic thirty, forty years past, but not now'. Bitter, as objective host of ra show, never interupts, never intercedes, never asks for proof, never demands qualification, never ......... because it's his preferred prejudice ans as already stated, he is extremely comfortable with Spiers spouting such pysh. Interestingly, Bitter shares the same studio three or four times a week with a long term colleague, Derek Johnstone; who achieved the vast majority of his winners' medals 30-40 years past. Does the objective host of ra show realise that Spiers is continually trashing and devaluing DJ's achievements? I suspect he does but does not care, the sensitivities of Rangers, Rangers players(including former ones), and Rangers supporters do NOT count. I will finish by relating a series of factual events of 40 years past. It's 1969, I was ten and looking forward to the upcoming old firm Scottish Cup final. The fly in the ointment was our star centre forward, Colin Stein, he had just been sent off for violent conduct. The cup final was five weeks away and Stein went in front of the three man SFA Disciplinary Committee at Park Gardens and received a six week suspension(in those days, any suspension was a period of time as opposed to today's number of games). Six weeks meant Colin, Colin Stein could not play in either the final, or any possible replay. The Chair of said Disciplinary Committee was Sir Robert Kelly ie ra Sellik's long term Chairman. Integrity! Sellik had none then, it's the same today.

I take it, that's an admission to crapping in the funnel?

Here's my warmest supporters' bus tale. It's 1976, we have a Saturday mid season friendly against Aston Villa in Birmingham. We cannot get access to the Uni Union mini bus(fcuking golfers) and there's a suggestion that the Bristol Bar RSC(Duke Street) is doing an extra bus for non-members. A coach and a double-decker leave Duke Street after closing time on Friday night. In those days it was a two and half hour trip down the A74 to reach the M6 at Carlisle. Needless to say, both buses are groaning with massive cargoes. We are on the coach, the toilet arrangements were two five gallon drums on the back bench seat, one had a sizeable funnel to designate only for urination. At 3am, a mate made his way to the back of a largely sleeping bus, he was back inside of 10 seconds demanding the driver pull over to the hard shoulder. There was considerable urgency in this request. The driver indicated the arrangements provided at the back of the bus, Peter screamed, "someone's crapped in the funnel".

I have an idea to bring this situation to a quick and satisfactory conclusion. The couple that won �£56million in the Euro-Lottery, why don't we ask them for a tap?

Talking to a few mates yesterday about things you saw on the old terraces, that appear NOT to occur these days because of the constraints of all seated grounds. Firstly, I am not advocating a return to those days, too many tragedies. St Mirren away in the league 26 years ago at Love Street. McCoist scored in the first half and we put away the tools. St Mirren slowly but surely took control and equalised, followed by a second that would prove to be the winner. The piece of theatre happened at this point, Ted McMinn was waiting on the touchline and the PA announcer boomed, "Rangers substitution is Kevin McMinn for Cammy Fraser". We were standing in the old large terrace behind the goals, just in front of one of the floodlight pylons. The PA speaker was situated 30 feet above on said pylon. A clearly angry and well refreshed Bear took exception to the PA's bellowing of the word, 'Kevin'. He gesticulated towards the speaker and shouted, "his name's TEDDDDDDDD". The PA boomed again, "my apologies, Rangers substitution was Kevin McMinn for Stuart Munro". Refreshed Bear lost it totally, began climbing the pylon, snaked his way around the three strands of barbed wire about 20 feet above, got level with the offending speaker and shouted, "his name's TEDDDDDDDD" and kicked the ensemble off the pylon. He was applauded and cheered to the echo by an appreciative audience below. The Polis were waiting for him to come back down and took him into custody. The guy deserved an Equity Card for improv'. Feel free to add your own bon mots and I might relate the tale of the Bear climbing the old Broomfield Pavillion to unwrap a tangled Union Flag on the flag pole. We need more theatre, particularly when we are being gubbed.

I am impressed, hugely impressed.

Such a statement as Billy McBungle's, is the beginning of misinformation and disinformation. Another point was the figure of 16,000 travelling Bears to Barcelona. I have NEVER heard that figure before. The figure most oft quoted and I am not saying it's accurate, is 25,000. Travelling to Barca in '72 was a comparitively expensive business. My old man passed away four years ago and eventually I got around to sifting his papers. I found a cigar box with two �£39 tickets from Scotia Travel. It included our flights from Prestwick to Barca(return), transfers to and from the stadium, and three nights accomodation in a two star hotel in Girona.

I watched this show last evening. I am a most interested party, having reluctantly walked down Stariway 13 with my old man five minutes before the end of the match, and attended Barcelona as a joyous schoolboy. Brendan O'Hara's writing and Production of this series is heavily slanted and last night was no different. O'Hara is a descendent of one of the original six middle class rc families that founded ra Sellik. We know this because 20-odd years past, he was a most regular contributor to ra Sellik 'zine, 'not the View' and he never missed an opportunity to flash his Sellik share holding credentials. I could go on ................ and on.................etc. Brendan's preferred prejudice shone through in continuous clips of ra Sellik's Euro Cup success in '67, this being the only motivation for the '72 Bears to win the ECWC. He even managed to highlight Rangers were only in the ECWC because ra Sellik were, "in their beloved European Cup" and thus could not as Scottish Cup holders also participate in the ECWC. I remember our run like it was yesterday, there was TV(mostly highlight packages) coverage of Sporting Lisbon(home), Torino(home and away), and Bayern(away was a highlight package, home was live). Brendan choose to show the goals from Bayern(home) and the three goals from the final. He did NOT try nearly hard enough. Reference Stairway 13, I stated earlier, 'reluctant'. My old man had an annoying habit of leaving every game five minutes early. He parked at the city side of Kinning Park(where the M8 motorway is today) and was always anxious to get across the river(the Kingston Bridge was just completing construction). I was 12 years old and wanted to drink in every second of every game. We descended the Stairway with ease, dozens of others in front and behind. Stairway 13 was an accident waiting to happen, several foot of blackened railway sleepers bordered the stairway, particularly near the bottom where the stairway dog-legged towards a large exit on to Harrison Drive. As we crossed Copland Road, we heard a roar, the windows of Harrison Drive rattled, my old man kept walking. On Merrick Gardens, we heard a second, bigger roar. My old man kept walking. I could only hope and guess. All the way along Paisley Road West, I was in turmoil, I knew two goals had been scored, what was the score? I am ashamed to think my thoughts were wrapped in this quandry, given what was occurring on the stairway we had vacated 15 minutes before. At Seaward Street, a lad of my age asked the score? Shrugging and saying nil, nil when we left, two teenagers behind said one, one. We travelled back in the car to Lanarkshire, my old man stopped at the chippy in Uddingston to pick up my tea, as my parents were attending a New Year's party. The TV was on in the chippy and first reports of an accident and several people suffering serious injuries, possibly fatal. My mother had walked to the top of the hill on to Bothwell's main street, anxious to see the car approaching. That evening, I sat with my older cousin watching the TV, my parents had gone ahead to the party. We watched the numerous News Bulletins as they came in, the death toll rose throughout the evening. The film, 'the Masque of the Red Death', a Vincent Price horror was on at approx tenish and the final bulletin interupted to inform the death toll had climbed above 70. It was the next day that the figure 66 was confirmed. I was appalled at Billy McNeill's statement last night, "the bulk of those that suffered may have been Rangers people". It is inappropriate, the victims were ALL rangers people and Brendan O'Hara should have ensured such comment was edited out.

I have noted that Darrell King has disappeared from the pages of the Herald/Evening Times these last ten days or so. Further, he has not appeared on Radio Snyde during the same period. It may be innocent, ie off on a family holiday. However, we should not rule out a period of enforced gardening leave. Just musing?