We really should have known better when Andy Cameron
told us 'Its not over yet', then the Blue Order
started singing 'We're gonna win the league'. Who's
kidding who?
It was always going to be one of those days. Even
after Caley Thistle were reduced to ten men when
Darren Dods was sent off and Charlie Adam rattled the
Gers into a 14th minute lead with a superb free-kick,
there was something unconvincing about our team's
performance. There was no spark about our play, no
pace in our attack and, against a team whose immediate
priority was to keep the deficit to one goal, we
didn't go after the killer second with any great
urgency.
It was Barry's worst game for a while and, having just
worked two hard shifts on Scotland duty, there was a
case for subbing him at half-time. With Kevin Thomson
on the bench, could there have been a better
opportunity for the new man to show what he can do?
And while I'll never be a Sebo fan, if his work-rate
can cause Ra Sellick problems, surely he could do some
damage to a ten man outfit.
As it turned out, we could all see the equaliser
coming long before Craig Dargo knocked the ball into
the net eight minutes from the end and, in view of
earlier events at Tannadice, we let the Mhanky Mhob
off the hook big-time. Whilst catching them would
still have been a pretty tall order, any nerves they
might have at this time were surely eased by Rangers'
inability to finish off a team who had to play with
only ten men for all but 13 minutes of the game.
As those who read my weekend preview will have noted,
I was unaware of the Great Unwashed kicking off before
us (I thought they were the Sunday game). The
excesses of the previous evening made sure there was
radio silence for my trip to Ibrox and it was only the
loud roar erupting from a Paisley Road hostelry which
alerted me to the dramatic finish at Tannadice. I
rubbed my hands and thought 'Maybe, just maybe…'
Even if we'd cut their lead to eleven points, they
would still have been overwhelming favourites to win
the title but the feeling that we were hitting a wee
run just in time to ask questions of Septic's
character would have made the remaining weeks of the
season very interesting indeed, if only as a wee
pointer towards how things might pan out next time
around.
But if we keep bailing them out like we did on
Saturday a lot of frustrating weekends lie ahead, this
season, next season and maybe even beyond then.
Indeed, the past weekend just about summed up our
season for me.
On Friday, while Gordon The Garden Gnome was moaning
about his team not getting enough penalties, the
Minted One was getting up on his high horse and
threatening to ban Rangers supporters from all away
games. Forgive me for being a wee bit cynical here
but would he be equally indignant if he stood to lose
any money from our non-appearance at these games? I
think not.
It really pisses me off that, at a time when the main
topic of debate should have been the heavy-handed
policing in Pamplona, the Scottish media and a tube on
Youtube allowed the thing to be turned against Rangers
and Rangers supporters. With all the UEFA bigwigs in
Glasgow recently for the UEFA Cup quarter-final draw,
it was a wonderful opportunity to nail them down on
the policing of football matches throughout Europe.
Bain and McIntyre had made all the right noises in the
immediate aftermath of the Osasuna game but a
Sellick-minder Hack Packer raised the topic of our
singing and suddenly the policing issue was pushed
into the background. And the idiotic posting of
Simply The Best presented our enemies with open goal.
At a time when we were urging each other to 'box
clever', one retard landed us in the firing line yet
again.
At my Friday night swally, it was suggested that, in
the wake of Murray's hand-wringing rant, it would be
interesting to monitor the singing the following day.
Well, apart from the fate-tempting 'We're gonna win
the league', there was little to monitor. Is that the
atmosphere you want at Ibrox, David? Or perhaps the
lack of any passion in the stands was down to the
team's inept performance.
On several occasions this season, especially during
PLG's time in charge, I've told myself things can't
get any worse, only to find that there was even more
turmoil lurking just around the corner. On the
evidence of the past few days, I'm again wondering
what horrors fate has in store for us.
With the combination of self-inflicted injuries and
our club's refusal to square up to those whose
anti-Rangers agenda is no longer hidden, we can hardly
be too surprised to find ourselves on the back foot on
a regular basis.
LITTLE BOY BLUE