SENTINELCELTS

Morning, all.

Just Another Saturday has been and gone, and left us with the prospect of a Beautiful Sunday. Yes, we negotiated a difficult trip to Tannadice-the venue for our last defeat five months ago-but our soo’side rivals managed to defeat the holders, in possibly the most miserable defence of a trophy ever, the following day. 

Naturally, with every penny a prisoner over Ibrox way, they got a home draw. Again. Incredibly, given the outcome of the Scottish Cup tie in March, it is against us. Unbelievably, there is no 20% rule in this particular tournament, so we will be allocated what the huns tell Police Scotland to allow us. 

I’ll be honest with you, I thoroughly enjoyed my trips to Ibrox in the 70s and 80s. We didn’t win them all, far from it. A New Year 3-1 defeat in Jock’s last season will always be one of my most bitter memories, with good reason. And I remember asking SOLKITTS why we were playing our mascot as a bleach bottle blonde started running around the pitch-just before he took out Davie Cooper with a tackle even I’d have been proud of. Peter Grant, that was. Mind you, we lost that day. 

I remember too the classic when Davie Provan literally left a defender on his back gasping for air. My memory says Davie McKinnon, but recollections may differ. What doesn’t differ is him turning to the prone defender, having laid the ball off and saying:-

“I could keep a beach ba’ aff you in a telephone box!”

Little did he know that about twenty years later, the Celtic support would bring beach balls to Ibrox to commemorate that day!!

But I digress, this is all to say that I genuinely did enjoy my trips there. There wasn’t the sheer hatred then that there is now. Don’t get me wrong, if a couple of fans from the wrong side had found themselves in the wrong place, that would be different. But the animosity was a level below what there is now, in my personal opinion. Also in my personal opinion, it was stoked up during the Souness and Murray years and has never relented or gone away. 

Dave King played to his audience by cutting our allocation from the time-honoured Celtic End of the Broamloan Stand to a tiny corner of 800 hardy souls. Seems he was shocked when we did the same to his supporters, but he was never the sharpest tool. There weren’t any regulations in the SPFL against this, another example of how backward our administrators are. However, those regulations exist in the SFA. And they came into play in March when we were drawn to play them at Ibrox in the cup. 

The Hitler Youth element of the Ibrox support attacked the Broamloan that day, furious at a Timmy support celebrating in their midden. Flares and missiles launched, a stand-off with the police, hundreds if not thousands on the pitch. 

And fewer arrests than from The Trongate two months later!

And as a result of that, it is the Celtic support-the victims, remember-who will suffer. We won’t have the security of numbers in a few weeks time, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see us billeted in our wee corner again. Suffice to say that you won’t see me there, not now. The pleasure of the occasion has long gone. No one should be attending a game of football in fear of what happens off the pitch. 

^^^^^^
To on the pitch matters now, and I was discussing with my mates at the weekend how the fates have conspired against Scottish clubs in Europe this week. Our draw could have been better, but could certainly have been worse. But Hearts v Rapid Boohiss, Hibs v Gent and Motherwell v Freiburg, who were runners up in last season’s Europa League. Then you look at the likes of Larne v Lincoln Red Imps! I mean, who does the seeding for these tournaments?

Me being me with my love of a wind up, I suggested to my wee hun mate that it would make sense for his club to drop out of Europe entirely this season. The Conference is worth about £10m to them all in, including gate money, and it might be better for them to have a free week and concentrate on the league. Eyes on the prize of the CL money next year. 

Especially, as I pointed out, that they can spend as much money in Scotland as they like. No FSR or similar up here. And the spending won’t arrive in the accounts until after they’re awarded a licence for next season. 

Let’s face it, they’ve done it before…
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Above article by BMCUWP