A certain Mr J. Greaves once stated that “It’s a funny old game!”. If there has ever been a truer word uttered to describe this drug that we choose to call football, I’ve yet to hear about it.
I don’t think that even Jimmy Greaves would have been able to imagine just how funny things can get north of the border.
I’m not quite sure what the best way to even begin to break the week down is…so it might end up a bit of a mish-mash of stuff.
Turns out that there was no need for my fears. Although the score ended, a rather close sounding, 2-1 to Hearts, there was a huge gulf between the sides for all to see. You could almost smell the fear emanating from all concerned with the fortunes of Hibernian Football Club regarding the outcome of their Scottish Cup Quarter Final replay on the Tuesday evening. Those fears would prove to be well founded!…
Later that same day, Celtic took on St Johnstone in Glasgow. All seemed fine. Celtic ran out convincing, fairly predictable winners, 3-0 was the score, £65,000 pounds a week man Robbie Keane was on the score sheet yet again. Tony Mowbray might yet be proved a genius in persuading the Celtic board to bring him up the road from London. Well until Wednesday night anyway…
24 hours after Celtic closed the gap in the SPL table, their old adversaries Rangers were facing St Mirren in the first national final of the season. Comedy writers couldn’t have scripted this one any better. St Mirren literally flew out of the traps and were hitting Rangers with everything they had. The “boys in blue”, although not playing well, were having to fight tooth and nail at the back to prevent the men from Paisley taking the lead. The same seemed true at the start of the second half.
And then something strange happened. Glasgow Rangers had a man sent off in a cup final…and they weren’t even playing Celtic!!!
And then something EVEN STRANGER happened! Rangers got ANOTHER man sent off. Surely this was only going to go one way now? Two spare men would surely see the League Cup make it’s way into the hands of the St Mirren players and, in turn, those players into St Mirren folklore for ever.
Right?…..Wrong!!
For some reason, presumably known by Saints manager Gus MacPherson, St Mirren adopted some weird, gung-ho, everybody up front mentality and managed to get caught on the break by Rangers. What added insult to injury was that, not only did they get caught on they break, they got left with 2 defenders facing 3 front-men in blue. Rangers scored….held on (without much of a problem) and claimed the first of what was being heralded as their “stick-on” domestic treble! Well, until Wednesday that was…
Right, so to sum up so far. Hearts would still seem to hold the upper hand in Edinburgh derbies. Celtic still had a chance of the SPL title (assuming Rangers would falter) and Rangers did what the pundits tell us they do “they win cup finals”. So, nothing too funny about the “old game” there then.
Then the whole damn world went, quite frankly, barmy!
A memento of a great night in Scottish football....and also....the very last one in the club shop!
And boy could they! Apart from 5-10 minutes at the start of the second half (which they scored a minute in to) in which Hibs looked like an SPL side, Ross County were better in every department. Even when County went that goal behind, it was obvious to every body in that ground that they had at least one goal in them to take the tie into extra-time. That goal duly arrived and I was subject to the best after-goal atmosphere that I have had the pleasure of joining in with for quite some time. None of us were quite prepared for what followed though. Last minute of the 90 minutes and up pops Ross County’s very own “ginger Pele” Scott Boyd to score the winner and send the Staggies support into raptures. All at once, those fears felt by the Hibs faithful after their derby defeat came rushing into stark focus. Once again Hibs, after getting an almost hand-picked cup draw, after thinking that this was their year, had been dumped out of the Scottish Cup!
24 hours later. Another cup replay, this time at Tannadice Park, Dundee. This time it was Rangers “treble dream” that took a beating. Again, it was a late winner that put the “under-dogs” through. But to be honest, the fact that Dundee United are an SPL side, and one which is going very well at the moment, it was always a result that could have happened. That, along with what was happening at the same time in Paisley will keep me from dwelling too much on that tie.
So, what WAS happening in Paisley?
Well, not to put too fine a point on it, Celtic were getting their pants pulled down in public was what was happening. Not only did the wheels come off Tony Mowbray’s bandwagon, they came off, rolled through about 200 feet of horse-shit, careened over the top of a bottomless abyss and caught fire on their way down….never to be seen again. Nor, it would seem, is Mr Mowbray.  In short, Celtic suffered their worst defeat to a team in the SPL, other than Rangers, for 30 years! St Mirren ran out 4-0 winners on the night. Thursday afternoon arrived and Tony was handed his P45. His dream of free flowing, silky, flair football in tatters, he couldn’t help but have one last pop at his opponents stating that the SPL was “perhaps not the right place” for such Brazilian style soccer.
Yeah, okay then Tony.
Then we, finally, come back to Hearts. Another lunchtime kick-off, another strange result. I say “strange” not because we were beaten 1-4 by Rangers but because of the manner of the defeat. One week earlier the boys in maroon had fought for every ball. Had WON almost every ball. Had been vastly superior in every way and in every department on the pitch and came away with a very close sounding 2-1 victory. THIS week most of the lads competed well, SOME of it even came off and a few personal battles were quite intriguing. We had only one shot less ON target and actually had 3 or 4 MORE off target. Yet, this week, we managed to finish on the end of a 1-4 defeat.??
“It’s a funny old game” innit?
