Filed under: football, Hibees, humour, Rants | Tags: celtc v Kilmarnock league cup final, Celtic, Rangers
Putting to one side the tragic death of Kilmarnock midfielder, Jack Kelly’s father, in a very disturbing weekend all round for football both north and south of the border, for anyone that cares about football in Scotland this was a remarkably good result.
We’ve all had a right good laugh at the fate of Rangers FC as the walls have closed in on an extended reign of cheating.
The trouble is that whilst Celtic have been having the biggest laugh of all as it was looked increasingly likely that we were about to endure a period of total domination for the hoops for who knows how long.
The sense of smugness and self congratulation was palpable until about 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon.
“We can hold our own in the Premiership” Lennon boasted at the end of last week. That was a good example.
What a difference a day makes.
You could have got almost any price on Kilmarnock winning yesterday. Add to that the sense of “unfairness” that an injury time penalty claim being turned down for, yes it’s true, Celtic, and you could not have written the script any better.
It’s marvelous.
Well done Killie.
And hopefully in a few weeks we’ll be saying the same about Motherwell as they clinch second spot in the league.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: huns, Rangers, rangers debt, the crisis at Ibrox
Very, very funny.
Filed under: football, jokes, life, Rants, Scotland, sports | Tags: braga, Celtic, Champions League, europa league, Hearts, maribor, Rangers, Scottish Football, scottish football teams in Europe, sion, spurs, tottenham hotspur v hearts
No Scottish teams even made it to the the play offs for the Champions League, so poor is our European co-efficent and so abject were Celtic against the terrifying Braga. Yes Braga (not Sporting Lisbon or Porto).
What dross we have left all took part in Europa League play off games last night.
And in these Hearts took an absolute pasting. A total and utter embarrasement frankly.
Rangers surrendered an away lead to the European might that is Maribor and Celtic couldn’t even score at home against another giant from Swizerland; Sion.
Is it any wonder that fans of clubs like Hibernian, Motherwell and Aberdeen stay away when we can’t outsmart the shit above?
Incidentally, having listened on the radio to the Hearts game warm up I thought Craig Levein made a very astute observation. He commented that Hearts too often confuse ambition with expectation. Their expectation should be to reach third in the league on the basis that they have the biggest player budget outside of the old firm and their ambition should be to win the league; but their owner is hopelessly deluded and his expectation is to win the league; hence the reason he picks the team and fires managers on at least an annual basis.
Anyway, Scottish football’s old expectation was to do well against the minnows (like Maribor, Sion and Braga) and we would set out very attack minded. These so called minnows used to pack out their defences and frustrate us hugely before (mostly) falling to the odd goal or two.
Last night Hearts were the minnows against Spurs and should have done likewise (at least in the hope of a decent gate at the return match before going out) instead they fielded a reasonably open formation and found themselves ripped apart in defence time after time.
Was their expectation to win? I’d have said their ambition should have been to avoid a five goal drubbing. They failed on both counts.
Totally naive. Ridiculous and painful to watch.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: glasgow rangers, Manchester united, Rangers, Scottish Football, walter smith
Much as I admired Rangers’ desperately pragmatic grinding out of a result against Manchekster Utd last night I felt Walter Smith’s defence of his strategy lacked humility today.
In it he bemoaned the fact that he had to adopt those tactics to hold any chance of a result against the wealthier teams of the league. He pointed out that 85% of Premiership teams have no chance of winning that league and that The Champions League is much the same!
Hello!
The only reason Rangers are even participating is because they benefit from precisely the same financial domination as those teams enjoy in their respective leagues. The difference is that I don’t see Man Utd or AC Milan pillaging the talent of their fellow league mates in an attempt to bury their ambitions.
Walter. Put a sock in it. Have a heart. Look in your back yard before you mouth off.
Filed under: football, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Champions League, david weir, davy weir, manchester utd, Rangers, rangers v man utd, Scottish Football, Uefa, uefa champions league
Too old? Nah; too wise!
Rangers did what Lichtenstein nearly did last Tuesday.
It was quite good.
Davy Weir is a quite remarkable individual.
Filed under: football, humour, jokes, politics, Scotland, sports, stories, The Scotsman | Tags: Bertie Vogts, Celtic, European football, Falkirk, George Burley, Hibees, Hibernian FC, International football, Lichtenstein, Rangers, Scotland manager, Scottish Football, SFA, Wales, Walles v Scotland, walter smith
I am not, and never have been, a fan of George Burley. The performance by Scotland against Wales on Saturday defied description in the first half. At 3-0 down we gave away a stone wall penalty that wasn’t given and Marshall, the goalie, should have been sent off. So that would have been 4-0 with ten men. We’d no doubt have shut up shop at that point and sloped off with a four goal defeat. As it was we lost to a bunch of schoolboys by three.
He had to go. And go he has.
Our game is a mess. I mean, let’s face it, Hibs are within a win of topping the league despite a makeshift team in parts and having sold 11 internationalists in five years. How is that possible? I’lll tell you how. Because everyone else is shit. And if you want proof of that look at Rangers’ and Celtic’s positions in their European groups. Both bottom, neither with a pot washed.
Investment in Scottish football’s youth (outside of Easter Road) is lamentable and that’s why that old saying “There’s no easy games in international football” is true once again. Scotland is an easy game. Fuck sake, Falkirk went out of Europe to a team from Leichtenstien.
Lichstentsien!
In the past, had a Scottish team drawn a team from Lichstentsien we’d have needed a fucking calculator to work out the aggregate score.
So back to Burley. Cheerio and good riddance I say. We’ve had two clowns in charge both utter pish (Burley and Vogts) a sort of shit sandwich in reverse. It seems remarkable that the rose between those two thorns was dour old Walter Smith who got the team playing again, reaching unheard of heights.
He leaves? Splash, right back in the poo.
Smith is sitting in the Ibrox ejector seat so I suspect the SFA (pricks that they are) will make the predictable decision to send him a parachute. Indeed this may all be part of a “plan”.
As for Burley? He can get back to looking really, really creepy and doing dodgy stuff that no-one can write about, out of the glare of the public eye.
See ya. Wouldnae wanna be ya.man tommorow. You’ll like it.
By the way. Check out 60 Watt’s topical Scotsman.com ad in The Scots
Filed under: Arts, football, humour, jokes, life, photography, politics, Scotland | Tags: Rangers, the queen
Filed under: humour, jokes, life, Scotland, sports, stories, work | Tags: nun, nun at rangers shop, Rangers, rangers shop
How much money did she raise? Nun!
Filed under: business, football, Hibees, humour, jokes, life, politics, Rants, Scotland, sports | Tags: andy driver, Birmingham City, Boydy, Dundee Utd, football, Hearts, Hibs, Kris Boyd, Rangers, Scottish Football, the cabbage
Don't cry for me argy bargy.
It makes me laugh till I spew reading the angst emanating from Ibrox about Kris Boyd being sold. What? The family jewels sold off to a bigger and richer club, (Birmingham City) just when they were doing well.
Well, now you know how it feels!
Thomson, Miller, Whittaker, Murray and, over the fence, Caldwell, Killen, Riordan, Brown and that’s probably not all of them that have been ripped out of Easter Road in the last few years and it’s no different at Hearts or Dundee Utd.
Shadenfruede?
You bet.
(Oh and I believe they’re after Andy Driver at Hearts. Bloody hypocrites.)
Filed under: football, humour, jokes, life, politics, Rants, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Carlos Cuellar, Celtic, Champions leaguer, Cuellar, hoops, Rangers, rangers fc, Scottish Football, SPL, the bhoys
Ok, so they won’t be winning the Champion’s League and Carlos Cuellar won’t win Player of the Year this year.
But they might have an outside chance of winning the “Whatever else happens if we beat the fenians it’s all OK league.”
Filed under: football, humour, jokes, life, Scotland, sports | Tags: Champions League, Rangers, Rangers European adventure over, Rangers v FKB Kauna
Rangers new shirt sponsor is Easyjet.
Oh well, at least we don't need new passports. You don't need one tae see the Accies.
At least Queen of The South are still in.
Filed under: football, life, Scotland, sports | Tags: Champions League, EUFA, FKB Kaunas, gers, huns, qualifying for champion's league, Rangers, Scottish Football, SFA
Smells of pish and ham.
Och.
That’s pathetic.
But at least Romanov might recoup some of his utter embarrasement at Hearts.
As for Celtic? Ho, ho, ho.
The bottom line?
Hibs – a European disaster.
Rangers – A European calamity.
Dundee Utd – Another European embarassement.
It’s a long way from Old Trafford isn’t it.
Filed under: Hibees, humour, jokes, life, Scotland, sports | Tags: brazil, cowdenbeath, fc kaunas, Hearts, huns, Rangers
Cowdenbeath's greatest hits. I wonder if they play this on the tannoy.
So, tonight Rangers failed to put a goal past Hearts’ feeder club, FC Kaunas of Lithuania.
And last night Hibs lost 2 – 0 to Cowdenbeath (the Blue Brazil) following their three previous pre-season non-scoring efforts.
So, Hun or Hibby. It ain’t looking good.
A Jambo guy I know tells me that Hibs also didn’t score in the last five games of the season which, if that’s true means we haven’t found the net in 13.5 hours.
Filed under: football, humour, life, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Cup final, dooonhamers, qos, Queen of the south, Rangers, Scottish Cup, Scottish FA Cup
Old Firm commentators always make patronising comment about the cup final opponent that one or other of them usually faces. “Aye, at least it’ll be a grand day out for the Hibs fans” they mutter in a fug of unfocussed condesention. But they’re wrong. Totally wrong. It is horrific getting to cup semis/finals only to, yet again, lose out to one of the Weegie tanks, armed, usually, with a clutch of that year’s crop of your best young talent.
So, imagine how dismissive they are of the visit of Queen of the South; yes, that’s right, Queen of the South to meet the mighty Rangers FC. Sure, the Doonhamers won the Challenge cup in 2002, but the trophy they won before that was The 1936 Algiers Invitational tournament and before that the 1922 Southern Counties Consolation Cup.
That’s grim.
They’ve only ever reached one Scottish Cup semi final before last month, and lost. But now the unthinkable has happened. Not only are they in the final but they face Rangers FC.
It’ll be an anihilation right?
I’m not so sure
Let’s look at the facts.
First off. Rangers are shit.
Second, they’re sick as dogs at losing two trophies in a week as this amusing visual interpretation of winning the quad(ruple) demonstrates.
Third, they can’t score gooals and I don’t just mean in Europe. If you take out their 6 – 0 thrashing of East Stirling in January (long considered Scotland’s worst team) they’ve only scored five goals in the following 5 games in thios year’s cup run. Beating the Cabbage 1 -0 in a replay, Partick Thistle 2 – 0 in a replay and St Johnstone 4-3 on penalties after extra – time in the semis.
Meanwhile, after gubbing Peterhead 5 – 0 in the opening round QoS have scored 12 (in 2 games fewer) including 4 against Linlithgow, 2 against both Morton and Dundee and an amazing 4 against Aberdeen. Indeed Aberdeen are the only team to score against them in the cup ,whereas both Partick Thistle and St Johnstone (from the same league as QoS) did so against Rangers.
There is not a neutral in Scotland who does not want QoS to win this match. Myself included.
And my own view is that it is possible, although (aside from final match performances) Rangers have had the luck of the gods with them all year long so don’t count out an extra time (or even penalties win).
It would be even more ‘romantic than Cardiff’ last week, which sadly never came to pass.
The odds are attractive at Wm Hill
I’m going to stick my neck out and say it’ll be 1 -1 at full time with QoS scraping through 2-1 in Extra time.
‘mon the South
Filed under: football, humour, jokes, life, photography, sports, stories | Tags: bias, Craig Levien, Dundee Utd, huns, Mike McCurry, ragers bias, Rangers, ref, referee, SFA, the union, union jack
After all the fuss about referee Mike McCurry’s performance in the Rangers v Dundee Utd match last Saturday the SFA is in no position to defend his behaviour as this photo of the linesman demonstrates.
Filed under: football, humour, jokes, politics, Rants, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Eufa Cup, fixture congestion, glasgow rangers, Hibees, Hibs, Rangers, rangers fixture list, Rearrangers, Scottish Football Association, SFA, Thomson, Whittaker
I have supported Rangers’ dogged and boring progress through Europe but I am not, repeat not, a closet Hun. And they couldn’t have achieved it without ripping the guts out of The Hibees first 11.
This is funny. Thanks Mike.
One thing I am 100% behind them on is condemnation of the stance that the SFA have done nothing to further the cause of the Scottish game.
Exactly.
SFA.
Filed under: football, life, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Eufa Cup, eufa cup final, Glasgow, glasgow football, glasgow rangers, Rangers, Scottish Football, smith, the smith effect, walter, walter smith
Is Walter Smith the greatest football manager Scottish football has ever enjoyed?
I think so.
I was in Glasgow tonight to witness, in a pub, the effect this remarkable man has had on a patently average football team. Not only has he achieved greatness for Rangers Football Club but he has done so with six Scottish players on the pitch. Sadly, two of them Hibbies.
Clearly Rangers were not actually better than Fiorentina (or Werder Bemen, or Sporting Lisbon) but they beat them all- this is not typically Scottish behaviour.
But a Scottish team, is in a European Final.
This is genuinely something to celebrate.
C’mon the huns!
Filed under: football, life, Rants, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Eufa Cup, europe, European football, huns, Rangers, rangers fc, rfc
My mate Mike is a rubbish golfer. He can’t hit a driver to save himself but he’s solid with a 7 iron. Plop, plop , plop goes each shot, down the middle, sinks the putt and it’s a par.
It’s real safety officer stuff but it grinds out results.
So, to Rangers.
Their European campaign, although succesful is like playing golf with a 7 iron. Nothing ventured, nothing ventured.
It makes you weep how dull and unimaginative it is. It’s horrific. But hey, the ends might just justify the means.
Whatever.
Filed under: football, humour, jokes, life, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Cardiff, Cardiff City, Champions League, diddy league, Dumfries, Eufa Cup, European football, FA Cup, Hibees, Queen of the south, Rangers, Scottish Cup, Scottish Football, the cabbage
The Cabbage could get into Europe.
Hearts could win the Diddy League. (Although, if memory serves me correctly Mr Romanov predicted that they should be, about now, in the Semi Finals of the Champion’s League defending last year’s title)
Carlisle United look like getting promoted two years’ running.
Queen of the South, yes, Queen of the South are in tomorrow’s Scottish Cup Final. If they win they’ll be dancing in the streets of Queen of the South (in fact by all accounts they already are.
Cardiff City are in the English FA Cup Final and they’re not even English.
Rangers are in the EUFA Cup Semi Final.
I blame it on global warming.
Filed under: football, Hibees, life, Scotland, sports | Tags: boring, Eufa Cup, gers, huns, Rangers, RFangers v Sporting Lisbon, Sporting Lisbon, walter smith
Unquestionably Walter Smith has fashioned a team more boring than a Dremel. But it works and hey, it’s good for Scotland’s Euro co-efficient. They played well in Portugal but something says it could be a touch more inspiring.
Barry Ferguson’s booking for kicking the ball away was, well, daft.
But, of course, the major contribution was from a Hibby, Steven Whittaker’s goal was nearly as good as Theo Walcott’s set up on Tuesday night.
Nevertheless, I cheered them on with gusto and I hope they can outdo Celtic’s Sevillian failure.
Filed under: football, humour, jokes, life, politics, Rants, Scotland, sports | Tags: bigotry, bollocks, catholic, Celtic, Rangers
James McLaughlin!
You are a very naughty boy for sending me this awful link and I warn you, dear reader, that this is a nasty, obnoxious and bigoted piece of communication that nobody, but nobody should watch. So don’t. Especially if you, like me, are a Catholic.
Unless, of course, you want a laugh.
Aunty Margot - you’ll hate it, so don’t bother; you’ll hate it too Mum oh, and Father Tony, best watch Corrie.
I hope this doesn’t condemn me to a life in purgatory.
Intrigued? If you end up offended don’t say I didn’t warn you…
]
Filed under: football, life, Scotland, sports, videos | Tags: Aberdeen FC, AC Milan, Celtic, Champions League, Dnipro, Eufa Cup, Lyon, Rangers, Scottish Football
Aberdeen 1 – 1 Dnipro
Aberdeen qualify on away goals for group stages (surely not; we always go OUT on away goals.)
This video is the best I could dredge up. not good…
]
Celtic 2 – 1 AC Milan
Magnificent performance to beat the Champions of Europe. The match was only marred by the idiot who came on at the end to celebrate, but what about the goalie’s reaction?
Two words…Cheating scumbag.
]
Lyon 0 – 3 Rangers
I think it is particularly enjoyable to watch Lyon’s humiliation in French. Sacre Bleu, Quel Horror, Horrible, Merde. So here you are.
]
Saving the best for last; sure, Rangers rode their luck, but to beat one of Europe’s leading teams 3 – 0 away from home is quite extraordinary and from front to back the Rangers team can hold their heads high.
Masterful.
On the back of the Scotland victory v France we are a nation again.
Wait until the Cabbage play in the Champions League next year. The Champions of Europe may reside in Scotland.
