The Scottish Football Blog

Frugality, Whyte knights and January gambles

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:35:00 +0000

A week away from the blog.

I'd like to explain my absence with exciting tales of derring do. But I can't. The most excitement I got was watching Hibs beat Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup, nailbiting to the end.

No, I've been away largely because I couldn't be arsed for the last week. One of the many dividing lines between the humdrum blogger and the paid chronicler of our beautiful game is that my can't-be-arsedness means very little to anyone, can't-be-arsedness on their part means children go unfed.

What great events did I miss?

Well, speaking of paid chroniclers, last week was the week that the Daily Record - oft referred to as the Daily Ranger in the more unforgiving corners of our footballing society, a newspaper once literally printed on blue paper - suggested that, whatever else he may be, Rangers owner Craig Whyte is not, after all, a white knight.

Rangers, said the Record, are screwed. One way or t'other, to differing degrees dependent on a variable here or there, but screwed nonetheless.

"Not so," responded Craig Whyte.

This, largely, is all Craig Whyte does. Deny things. Sometimes he also issues legal threats. But largely he denies and denies and denies. He's either incredibly wronged or he's the boy who cried wolf until he was hoarse.

One thing he's not, right now, is the owner of a football club with any momentum. Behind in the league, out of the cup - all the cups - and shorn of their star striker.

Rangers lost the the transfer window just as surely as they lost to Dundee United in that meek Scottish Cup capitulation on Sunday.

Gone is Nikica Jelavić, in is the initially phonetically amusing and initially underwhelming Mervan Celik.

A January devoted to frugality? Perhaps. But it's hard to see how this window's business has done anything but further deflate the Ibrox championship challenge.

And still, perhaps, even bigger battles lie ahead.

Rangers January's travails allowed Celtic to complete a quiet month looking like the biggest winners. Ahead in the SPL and getting past opponents of all shapes and sizes in the three domestic competitions, Celtic brought in Pawel Brozek, Rabiu Ibrahim and Michael Lustig.

What impact the three recruits will have remains to be seen. In a strange January, however, Celtic kept hold of their best players. That may well be enough in what has become a treble chasing season.

Holding on to your best players; Hearts managed that as well, despite talk of a financially motivated fire sale.

That looked to have set them up for a real tilt at third place. Best-of-the-rest might still be a realistic possibility but less than a week into February and Hearts have apparently all but dispensed with the services of 'keeper Marián Kello after a move to Austria Wien fell through.

And then the taxman - who has become as ubiquitous as the SFA compliance officer this SPL season - came calling once again with a bill to be settled and a court date to hammer home the point.

It looks like whatever Hearts achieve this season - and they could still achieve a lot - it will be done against an economically unsettled backdrop. Paulo Sergio must surely be getting used to having to do things the hard way.

Doing things the hard way seems to be a capital trend right now. A beleaguered Hibs team has once again been subjected to a January revolution.

Colin Calderwood's miracle cure lasted for about six games last season. That was enough to win him a manager of the month award and save Easter Road from hosting First Division football.

Then things settled down and the incredulous faithful realised that Calderwood had built something even worse than what had gone before.

The hope is that Pat Fenlon's reshaping will have more sticking power, although the short term goal remains the same - to finish the season in 11th place or better.

There was relief but also a certain belief as Hibs got past Kilmarnock on Saturday. But they face Aberdeen next weekend joint bottom of the table. The proof of whether Hibs have gathered another bunch of puddings lies in the weeks and games ahead.

Elsewhere prudence prevailed. Aberdeen brought in five players with Russell Anderson, Stephen Hughes and Gavin Rae addressing any problems Craig Brown felt he had with experience in the squad. And I'm intrigued to see how Danny Uchechi - a 22 year who stupendously reverses any Pittodrie strategy of making signings with senior experience in mind - fares. Scouting reports from elsewhere suggest his pedigree falls somewhere below middling.

St Mirren bought - the very act of "buying" seems something of a throwback these days, especially when the fee is £35,000 - Dougie Imrie and were boosted by Jim Goodwin deciding to stay put, a decision which would suggest that belief remains in the Danny Lennon Project.

The benefit of holding on should also be felt at St Johnstone where Francisco Sandaza remains until the end of the season, a rumoured victim of the general cack-handedness of Rangers' current recruitment policy.

Early reports suggest Motherwell have unearthed something a wee bit special in Henrik Ojamaa and Dean Shiels has made a video montage with a Cat Stevens soundtrack pretty much compulsory in the build up to the league cup final by staying on at Kilmarnock.

Dundee United brought in only Richie Ryan and Miloš Lačný but the crucial business at Tannadice was keeping a tight rein on Johnny Russell as vultures swooped.

Inverness were restricted to a couple of loan deals and the free transfer of Claude Gnakpa - an "exciting asset" according to Terry Butcher, whose word I'll need to trust for now.

Dunfermline, the church mice of the SPL whose fiscal travails would have inspired Charles Dickens, brought in Kyle Hutton on loan from Rangers and raided the same discount store to get Jordan McMillan on a free.

A 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock last night - their first home point since November - brought Dunfermline level with Hibs having played a game more.

Where Pat Fenlon has chosen scalpel wielding and reconstructive surgery, Jim McIntyre has been left to largely make do and mend.

If off-field events could still impact on the top of the league, at the bottom it looks like being a battle of wits between those two managers.

One was given resource enough to take a January gamble. How that works out will decide this relegation battle.

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Andy Ritchie and the Scottish Mavericks

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:49:00 +0000

I'm slaving away trying to come up with a greatest Scottish league XI for the The Away End's current search for the best of the best.

I've actually already had my vote but now I've been asked to put something down in writing and I find myself with too many names, too many options.

Should I only vote for players I've seen? That restriction would still allow for a hell of a team.

A team that would remind us of the gems we've cherished amid the gloom of the last 25 years.

Then there are the players who, through an accident of birth, I didn't see play. But I thrill to their stories and I'm convinced at least some of them should be included.

And, this being a Scottish league XI, there are those players whose legends are confined only to this country. Or even to their own clubs.

Willie Hamilton would fit in here. Not many more than a 100 league appearances for Hearts, Hibs and Hamilton. An abbreviated career and one often spent at hungover odds with his bosses. But Jock Stein and Pat Stanton reckoned him to be one of the most talented players they'd ever seen. Not bad judges those two.

Perhaps they provide a persuasive argument for the inclusion of a maverick.

A maverick like Hamilton. Or like Chic Charnley, arriving at Old Trafford with his boots in a plastic bag, leaving Billy McNeill to shake his head and ask "if only?"

Chic, scoring from the halfway line, thrilling fans enough for a fanzine cover to tag Pelé the "black Chic Charnley.

Chic, getting chased on the training pitch by a man wielding a Samurai sword.

Or a maverick like Andy Ritchie?

When David Beckham was in his free-kick scoring pomp for Manchester United it was Morton's Ritchie that Alex Ferguson chose to compare him to.

Overweight, moody, lazy. When I hear Ritchie described in such terms I warm to him more and more.

I'm increasingly thinking that my team must include such a richly talented loose cannon.

But which one?

Hamilton? Charnley? Ritchie? Or is there another maverick I can't afford to ignore?

Enjoy Andy Ritchie doing what he did his best. And then let me know your thoughts: which of the Scottish league irregulars should I be prepared to try and tame as I manage the greatest Scottish league XI of all time?

Have your greatest Scottish XI say at The Away End

Falkirk v Celtic

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Saturday 15th October 2011.

Celtic, fresh from a defeat at Tynecastle, are 3-0 down at half time to Kilmarnock.

Winning the title looks a long way off, Neil Lennon's managerial coat seems to hang on an ever shooglier peg.

They came back to draw 3-3, three goals in a 10 minute burst from Anthony Stokes and Charlie Mulgrew salvaging a point. And, with hindsight, transforming a season.

That draw was the start of a run that has seen Celtic lose just one game in 21. That defeat came against Atletico Madrid in the Europa League. The last point they dropped in the SPL was at home to Hibs on 29th October.

Along the way they've scored 41 goals across four competitions and conceded - including those three at Rugby Park - just 13.

An emphatic turnaround powered by form that looks - from this distance at least - to carry treble winning potential.

That, for Falkirk, is the depressing reality that punctures dreams of semi final glory at Hampden today.

Lose a two goal lead and then beat Rangers in injury time. Come from behind in extra time to beat Dundee United on penalties.

And then face another mountain to climb at Hampden. If Falkirk are to get to the league cup final they'll have done it the hard way.

Neil Lennon has been a model of admiration on the topic of Falkirk and their manager Steven Pressley this week.

Even allowing for hackneyed managerial chat - and, perhaps, attempts to defuse any lingering ill-feeling from a past personality clash - it's easy to see why.

Written off and the butt of a thousand internet jokes, Pressley has persevered. Instructed to cut his cloth in line with Falkirk's poverty, he's built a young team with determination and imagination. Today's semi final is a just reward.

A just reward but a mission just about impossible. It's true that Celtic's recent run has been hugely impressive without being scintillating in every game.

But they win and they win and they win. Celtic could have an off day, Falkirk could play as well they've ever played. And Celtic might still find a way past them. It's a habit they've got at the moment and it's proving a hard one to break.

Maybe if Falkirk can get an early goal, maybe...

Another semi final, another win for an SPL club. I'd not bet against it.

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Falkirk: Bairns Learn History?

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:17:00 +0000

Falkirk face Celtic in a semi-final knowing that Kilmarnock lie in wait in the final.

It's the 1997 Scottish Cup all over again. History doesn't repeat itself, does it?

Mind you, Falkirk don't have the best of records in the league cup. They qualified for the second final back in 1947/48 and promptly lost 4-1 in a replay against Second Division East Fife.

Celtic, meanwhile, have won the trophy 14 times and played in 28 finals.

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Ayr v Kilmarnock

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:28:00 +0000

"No, we're the underdogs."

Ayr v Kilmarnock. An Ayrshire derby in a league cup semi final and nobody wants to be favourites.

No surprise there. Derby games are different. Derby games in cups carry an extra weight. Make it a semi final and you've got a hell of a game on your hands.

Best then to try and reduce expectations, relieve some of the pressure on your players.

Even if it is bollocks. Yes, Ayr have seen off SPL opposition on their march to Glasgow giving Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels the inspiration to mimic the underdog. But it's an unconvincing act.

Top flight football and full time players make this Kilmarnock's to lose.

The problem for them, and the reason behind Shiels' cack-handed mind games, is that these games are actually quite easy to lose.

There's evidence of that in both Ayr's cup run and recent meetings between the two sides.

Add to that the odd inconsistency that often hampers Kilmarnock's progress - illustrated once again in a 3-0 skelping at home to Dunfermline last week - and you've got the potential for unease in the dressing room.

That must be pleasing for an Ayr side who will surely need to play with a battle hardened stubbornness and sniff out any Kilmarnock weaknesses to prosper today.

Does this derby, as some suggest, mean more to lower division Ayr than their opponents?

Not for the fans. That's something the Kilmarnock players would do to well to remember.

Local rivalry does, of course, add interest today. Hampden might not be full but the passion - some of it perhaps a touch politically incorrect - should serve as a timely reminder that Scottish football's heart still beats with old feuds, past grievances and dreams of getting one over on timeless enemies.

Kilmarnock should win. They should. But Ayr shouldn't be at Hampden. Dunfermline shouldn't have beaten Kilmarnock 3-0.

Prediction? At least one red card and Kilmarnock to win 2-1 after being somewhat rocked by a strong Ayr start. A cup tie worthy of the occasion if not chock full of exceptional football.

All of which makes it a bit of shame that the game will be played in Hampden's 1pm graveyard shift, without the exposure of live television.

Not that the winners will care. Losing a semi final derby? Been there, done that. Suffered it.

You wouldn't wish it on anyone. Except, perhaps, your worst enemy.

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Ayr United: Devine Right

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A few drinks this evening and the chat got round to the Ayrshire derby being played out at Hampden tomorrow.

Ayr United v Kilmarnock.

An outing of Ayrshire's dirty linen at the national stadium. The Jerry Springer "I Married A Horse" episode writ large. An incestuous family feud settled in a national competition.

I find myself asking what Ayr means to me.

Ayr?

It means Sydney Devine and not a spare seat in the Gaiety Theatre. Can still get them flocking, can Sydney. And, I'm told, he's significantly superior to Daniel O'Donnell.

Ayr?

It means an overrated national bard and ridiculous politicians of all stripes trying to grab a womanising chancer as their own. Surely, if there really was anything about Burns, he'd have written them all off as rogues.

Ayr?

It means a dark night of football. I've watched Scotland fail at many a sport. I've watched Hibs fail in many a game.

But few come close to the misery of watching Ayr United win a Scottish league cup semi final. Franck Sauzee, a hero of heroes, becoming a dead man walking.

Ayr know misery, they know how to heap misery on.

Kilmarnock be warned.

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Leigh Griffiths: A Sorry Saga

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:11:00 +0000

"Sheer stupidity."

Maybe Leigh Griffiths had been fed that line in the bizarre public apology issued by Hibs today.

But it's pretty much bang on the money as a description of his behaviour in the past few weeks.

Gesturing Griffiths, the daftest laddie in the whole of Leith.

That might be unfair. But he got away with a gesture to the St Johnstone fans in Hibs' 3-2 win earlier in the season. He got a one game ban for a gesture in the defeat to Rangers. He got a one game ban for a gesture - to his own fans - in the win at Cowdenbeath.

Few are the occasions when it's a good idea to flick your own fans the "middles" but it seems even more foolhardy to do it when you're developing a reputation for a lack of gesticular subtlety.

So it's another two game ban. And the donning of his best hoodie for the kind of bizarre public apology championed by Tiger Woods, a move that hardly dispels the idea of Hibs as a footballing soap opera of late.

Bizarre might be a good thing though. Stupidity is the last thing Pat Fenlon needs as he plots Hibs' survival. Whatever the coaching staff said to Griffiths failed. Using YouTube like modern-day stocks, delivering public humiliation, might work.

Hibs will hope so.

Griffiths is only a loan player. His disciplinary record might not make him worth the hassle in other circumstances.

But Hibs are in a dark place. They need players with talent and they need players with confidence.

Griffiths has both. The former might be sporadic and the latter buttressed by bouts of petulance but he delivers something that Hibs lack.

One point ahead of bottom placed Dunfermline, and with transfer window business neither quick nor revolutionary, Hibs need all the help they can get.

The rub is that Leigh Griffiths is of no use sat in the stand.

Nor is being seen to indulge his player the sort of message Fenlon - who is surely aware of the murmurs of disciplinary disapproval that have swirled round Easter Road for a few seasons - will want to send out, particularly when public warnings have previously been issued for exactly the same transgressions.

As Griffiths correctly points out he's become a player that opposing fans make much merriment out of disliking. But every reaction will only make the abuse louder, every tabloid splash on domestic disharmony will only encourage supporters to goad him into a reaction before screaming blue murder at what an offensive, rude little man he is.

That's the footballer's life. Maybe more so for a player with a reliance on a certain cockiness.

Griffiths needs to learn. He's quick to say how happy he is at Hibs, his childhood club. But he's a Wolves player, he's already won his lucrative move to the land of opportunity.

There's talent and potential there that deserves a bigger stage than the 11th best club in the SPL can offer.

If his career progresses - which might depend on him sorting his head out as much as anything else - he'll face bigger matches, bigger crowds, bigger volleys of vitriol from the stands.

He's made an idiot of himself in recent weeks, he's taken the piss out of his manager and he's damaged the club he professes to love.

That's very far from being ideal.

Now it's up to Griffiths to prove that it's also very far from being a period of career defining foolhardiness.

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SPL Today: The £35000 Man

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:41:00 +0000

Today's SPL. All of our dirty dozen are in action. Here's a very quick look ahead.

St Mirren v Celtic

Ah, St Mirren. 2-1 up last week with their opponents down to ten men. They lost 5-2.

A season in 90 minutes. The promise, the impressive moments, the entertainment and the frequent disappointments.

If Danny Lennon finds that frustrating, Danny Lennon will tell us. And Danny Lennon will keep working to find the right formula for St Mirren and Danny Lennon.

They did sign Dougie Imrie this week which could prove a wise buy. And, in this barren transfer window, the excitement of Lennon pipping Peter Houston with a cheeky bid of £35,000 must pass for entertainment.

Celtic roll on and on. And this week they signed Rabiu Ibrahim, the "African Lionel Messi."

One thing Neil Lennon will never be short of is short of options. Big squad, big title challenge.

The problem with a winning run like the one Celtic are on is that it has to end sometime.

It will probably survive today though.

Dundee Utd v Motherwell

Plaudits aplenty for Dundee United after their performance at Celtic last week. Just a shame they gave their hosts a two goal lead.

The barely scintillating Dougie Imrie transfer saga would seem to illustrate two things: Peter Houston is keen to evolve his squad and he'll need to do that under the strictest of housekeeping budgets.

That's a big ask and a conundrum that suggests that United's current SPL position - 26 points, seventh place, a degree of inconsistency - might be where the find themselves for a couple of consolidating seasons.

Motherwell cut a dash through the SPL autumn but have now gone a month and four games without a league win.

Last week they relinquished third place, albeit they've got games in hand, to a resurgent Hearts. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

The early success was built on a tight unit and that always ran the risk of injuries, loss of form or a few lapses in concentration causing problems. So it's proved.

I'm backing the draw today.

Hibernian v St Johnstone

A big, big, big win for Hibs at Dunfermline last week. That game - loss of an early goal, recovery, loss of a late goal - showed the weaknesses that have haunted them.

But the late winner also gave a glimpse of the resilience and belief that Pat Fenlon has been trying to bring to a squad that had lost all confidence.

An important three points but not a genuine moment of rebirth. That will take more time.

St Johnstone might very well still be incandescent about the correct procedure for the positioning of free kicks after last week's narrow loss to Rangers.

I didn't see much wrong with it myself but others will disagree.

St Johnstone are still very much in the mix for third place. Narrow defeats to Rangers might be expected but it's trips like today's that will have a greater impact on their season.

I'm expecting goals today. But I fancy the away team might just nick the three points.

Inverness v Hearts

A good win at Motherwell followed by a cup win at Dunfermline made this a good week for Inverness.

A good win against St Mirren followed by an almighty SPL rumpus made this an utterly bizarre week for Hearts.

The players have carried on regardless despite the fracas over their pay. That's very much to their credit.

Tricky trip this though. Don't know why but I've got a feeling this could very well be a home win.

Kilmarnock v Dunfermline

Dunfermline could really have done with ending their dismal run last week.

They didn't. An appalling record lies behind them, a hell of a struggle stretches ahead of them.

They lose too many goals and don't score enough. The result is 14 points from 21 games.

Kilmarnock are capable of great things, poor things and, like last weekend's goalless draw at Aberdeen, best forgotten things.

The top six was the aim this season. They currently lie sixth. If they're going to stay there they need to win games like this.

They probably will today.

Rangers v Aberdeen

Rangers continue to fail to convince. They also, largely, keep winning and tacking close behind Celtic.

Aberdeen have done enough to persuade us they aren't as bad as they looked earlier in the season. But nor are they as competent as Craig Brown would have hoped.

That doesn't give me much confidence in a game of games at Ibrox today. They might prove me wrong.

Or Rangers might overcome a thrawn Aberdeen by the odd goal.

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Forgotten Scotland Players: Paul Bernard

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:32:00 +0000

Another week spent dodging ever more dire warnings about the state of Scottish football.

This time everything's got a lot Grimmer with Aberdeen losing a lauded protégé to the mysterious land of riches that some people call England.

Highly rated youngster leaves Aberdeen area to chance his arm in England? If Jack Grimmer turns out to have a career like Denis Law's not too many Scotland fans will be complaining.

Still, it would be churlish not to concede that Grimmer's departure to Fulham exposes once again the divergence between football on either side of Hadrian's Wall. We're not so much the poor relations as the member of the family locked in the attic to save embarrassment.

Of course it wasn't always this way.

Not so long ago we could compete. Not only on the pitch but to an extent financially. Really, it wasn't that long ago.

Look back to Aberdeen in the mid-1990s. An Aberdeen where the memories of Alex Ferguson's achievements burnished even brighter than they do now.

An Aberdeen where signing a player for a million pounds wasn't some kind of bad Doric joke. An Aberdeen who did actually sign a player for a million pounds.

Hindsight. It's a wonderful thing.

Hindsight might tell Aberdeen that signing a player for a million pounds wasn't the sort of sustainable business decision they could afford to make.

Hindsight might tell Aberdeen that signing a player for a million pounds to show the Old Firm that there was still life in the north-east was folly.

Hindsight might tell Aberdeen that if you're going to sign a player for a million pounds you better make damn sure he's worth the money.

But hindsight is like finding the instructions after you've built the Ikea furniture. Which is why Aberdeen ended up paying a million quid to play a wonky wardrobe in midfield.

Paul Bernard.

The deal looked promising. Bernard was young, he'd built a reputation at Oldham and he'd already won two Scotland caps.

But something went awry.

Born in Edinburgh, Bernard grew up in Manchester and joined Oldham as a teenager. He made his debut in the 1990/91 season.

In just his second game he scored the equaliser as Oldham came from two down to beat Sheffield Wednesday and win the Second Division title on what we'd call a "helicopter Sunday" if it had been a Sunday and a helicopter had been involved.

That win, which denied Billy Bonds' West Ham a title they thought they'd won, saw Oldham back in the top flight after almost 70 years.

It also gave the young Bernard a ringside seat for an era of English football history: the Second Division Championship win gave Oldham a place in the last First Division, their survival ensured they became founder members of what was then called the Premiership.

In 1993/94 Oldham and Bernard were relegated, finishing second bottom on 40 points, ten ahead of bottom place Swindon but three away from safety.

That season he'd also featured in the FA Cup semi-finals as what Alex Ferguson described as a "dogged" Oldham took Manchester United to a replay before going down 4-1.

Back slumming it in the Football League Oldham faced some re-entry issues. 61 points wasn't enough for any more than a mid table finish as their away form - four wins and 13 defeats - dented any hopes of an immediate return.

Despite the reduced glamour of his surroundings - and fewer appearances than he'd managed in the previous two seasons - Bernard had made someone sit up and take notice.

Craig Brown was taking his Scotland team to Japan for the Kirin Cup at the end of the 1994/95 season and Bernard was on the flight.

A 22 year old in a Craig Brown squad might be considered something of a rarity and would probably not expect to play a major part in proceedings.

But Brown obviously saw the Far East as a place to experiment.

On 21 May 1995 Bernard, as he probably expected, took his place on the bench for a 0-0 draw with Japan that featured Jim Leighton as captain, Brian Martin and Rob McKinnon in the starting XI and a John Spencer red card.

Bernard came on for a 13 minute debut when he replaced Scott Gemmill.

Did he impress? Well, he certainly didn't do anything catastrophic enough to change Brown's mind about trying something different in the final game of the tour against Ecuador.

This time Bernard started in a reworked side and lasted the whole ninety minutes. His first full game was marked by a Scotland win: goals from John Robertson and substitute Stevie Crawford grabbing a 2-1 victory.

So it's the summer of 1995. Our hero - only recently described on an Oldham website as a "charismatic midfielder" - is now a full Scotland international and faces big decisions about his future.

He looks north.

Manager Roy Aitken had seen his transfer budget swollen by a share issue. Aberdeen, shaken by the sacking of Willie Miller and their apparent descent from the summit of Scottish football, needed to make a statement.

That statement largely involved making Paul Bernard the first - and still the only recorded - £1 million signing for a non-Old Firm club.

Did they actually pay £1 million? There are hints that so keen were Aberdeen to show their intent that the widely quoted figure was actually made up of both the transfer fee and Bernard's own signing on fee.

Whatever the truth, Bernard had the label: he was Aberdeen's £1 million pound man.

So drenched in despondency has the Aberdeen tale been of late it's tempting to say that Bernard was a disaster from the off. That's not true.

Aitken's side started well enough and even recaptured some silverware with a league cup win in November 1995. In what was Aitken's first full season they finished third in the league, pipping Hearts on goal difference.

They weren't ripping up the ground they'd lost on the Old Firm - there was a 28 point gap between Aberdeen and second placed Celtic - but they were offering hope for the future.

The million pound man was still just 23, Aberdeen looked to be on the up and European football was about to return to Pittodrie. Certainly Bernard's impact was somewhat muted but he had a lot to live up to with the price tag and he was acquainting himself with the Scottish game after serving his apprenticeship in different circumstances at Oldham.

Still, when Scotland travelled to Euro 96 the midfield maestro from the win over Ecuador was not part of the squad. If Bernard had thought a move to Scotland would increase his international chances he was mistaken: he was never to bother the Scotland team again.

His club career also faltered. Over 30 appearances in his first season at Aberdeen were followed by just 40 or so in the next three seasons.

What went wrong?

Injuries played a massive part. Maybe bad luck did as well. Perhaps the injuries contributed to a loss of form. Or maybe the pressure of being the million pound gem in a team that endured periodic struggles was too much.

If his first season had been underwhelming with hints of potential the next three were a disaster and the "million quid signing" tag became something of a Scottish football punchline.

He enjoyed a slight renaissance in 1999-2000, playing more regularly and scoring four goals - one of them coming in that memorable 6-5 away win over Motherwell when two Scottish international goalkeepers conceded 11 goals between them.

But Aberdeen were now under the control of the idiosyncratic Ebbe Skovdahl. With cost cutting to the fore and Skovdahl keen to mould his own team the end of the road had come.

Paul Bernard drove his Ferrari out of Pittodrie for the last time in October 2000.

The next stop was Barnsley where he went a season without a league appearance before joining Plymouth and managing fewer than a dozen games.

He returned to Scotland with St Johnstone in 2003 and appeared sporadically for a couple of years before a season with Drogeha United brought the curtain down on his career.

At 22 Paul Bernard had enjoyed instant success at Oldham, seen the dawn of the Premiership age, become a full Scotland cap and been the million pound signing who might just have ushered in a new era in Scottish league football.

At 33 he was retired: in a decade he'd barely doubled his career appearances, failed to add to his international caps and become a byword both for unfettered spending and an era of Aberdeen malaise.

He was probably quite comfortably off though which might just make this a very modern football tale.

A tale, all the same, of lost potential and, for whatever reason, of a talent squandered.

Forgotten Scotland Player number 12: Paul Bernard, Oldham Athletic. 2 caps.

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Scotland's Greatest Players

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:44:00 +0000

If you've got a moment or two to spare might I point you in the direction of The Away End?

They're on the lookout for the 100 greatest Scottish league players of all time.

That is the best players - of all nationalities - to have graced league football in Scotland over the decades.

I love a good list so I'm intrigued to see what the results are. Often these polls favour the Old Firm and the modern era but surely we've had characters enough over the years to come up with a richly varied list.

I've already made my choices but I'm not sharing them yet, we can all do without accusations of trying to influence the vote.

Mind you, if the abundant talents and unsurpassed league achievements of Gordon Smith are not recognised then hell mend you all.

You can vote for your Scottish league XI until February 29th

And if you know your history...

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:26:00 +0000

So yesterday was a day without Wikipedia.

How did we all cope?

Maybe by using the various workarounds that let you bypass Wiki's self-imposed protest blackout. Or whiling away the hours following STV's #fitbawiki chat on Twitter.

Or you could have gone old school and picked up a book.

A book like Maurice Dougan's Hibernian History Handbook.

It's a real treasure trove of information for Hibs fans and those with an interest in the history of the Scottish game.

Maurice is a big Hibee - although not as "big" as his brother - so this has been something of a labour of love.

Well worth the effort though.

The full history of the club is covered, season by season, from the very beginning to the end of the 2010-11 season.

There's a list of all 1399 squad members from 1875 to 2011, a complete list of club honours and a rather fetching infographic detailing Hibs' European exploits.

There's also a list of managers and their records. I note with interest that John Collins has the highest win percentage since Alex McLeish whose own record was the highest since Eddie Turnbull.

None come close to "The Board" though. They enjoyed a 100% record in the three games between the departure of Bob Shankly and the arrival of Willie McFarlane in 1969.

Maybe that will inspire Rod Petrie. Think of the money it would save him.

The Hibernian History Handbook is available at a number of outlets across Edinburgh including the emporium of delights that is The Football Programme Shop on Albion Road.

Or you can buy it online

David Weir Says Goodbye

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:30:00 +0000

Fare ye weel, Davie Weir.

The Scottish Football Blog has often been facetious about the Methuselah of Scottish football.

Unfair that. Davie Weir was playing at the highest level in Scotland in his 40s and I'm often too lazy to play dominoes in my 30s.

Perhaps unsurprisingly Weir and Rangers will part company this week. He's set to move on. Not to a retirement home but, indefatigable warrior that he is, to a new club in England.

It's proved to be an unexpectedly elongated addendum to his career, the sojourn in Glasgow.

The end has been predicted before. There was a stage in one of the 2008 Uefa Cup games against Sporting Lisbon when I thought Weir would finish the match like Monty Python's Black Knight, relentlessly positive even as his body fell apart in front of us.

But on and on he went. In Jeremy Kyle years he was old enough to be a grandfather to some of his colleagues. He never seemed to let that phase him.

I've always had the impression of him as a good guy. That's probably because of too much exposure to Falkirk fans who used to vouch for his decency back in the 90s. He's done nothing much to dispel that impression though.

To continue playing for so long he's obviously taken a common sense approach to looking after himself. That shouldn't surprise us. He's always seemed a sensible sort. Even his career trajectory - an education (albeit at an American university) then launching his professional career at Falkirk.

From Brockville to Hearts and then on to English riches. It points to feet-on-the-ground progression rather than a head-in-the-clouds explosion followed by an inevitable implosion.

Now it looks like an old-school career. One that money, agents and football's general hysteria makes less likely a generation (or two) on.

It's worked. A Scottish Cup with Hearts. A role in Everton's unlikely progression to a top four finish. Then trophies galore with Rangers.

And he's shown a quaintly old fashioned readyiness to answer his country's call despite the ups, downs and even deeper downs of Scotland's fortunes.

A link too to Scottish football's sunset moment. By my reckoning Weir and Christian Dailly are the last of the outfield players who made up Scotland's 1998 World Cup squad to still be playing.

We'll not again have a Scotland player who lived through the miraculous World Cup qualifying period that stretched for 28 years from 1970.

A last bridge to those bitter sweet but happier times.

Weir has carried on through managers, bad results, famous wins. And he's carried on while younger men have fallen by the wayside. From a debut in 1997 through 69 caps and a final appearance against Spain at Hampden 13 years later.

There have been times at Ibrox when the passing years have made him susceptible to pace. But pace was never his main attribute.

There's been carping aplenty about what opposing fans saw as a mature - if not sporting - ability to influence referees. But opposing fans always have such moans.

Whatever was said Weir soldiered on. Often he looked older than his years, adding to the abundant jokes about his age.

But he always looked happy enough when picking up trophies. And he's done that with metronomic regularity in his years at Ibrox.

Latterly it's been the vogue to project on to Walter Smith the idea of a manger with infinite wisdom. Even then you'd be hard pushed to imagine that Smith knew exactly what he was signing.

Of course he knew about the quality, the benefits of the experience. But you don't sign a player approaching his 37th birthday and expect to get five years service, over 200 appearances and eight trophies.

Or both major player of the year awards in the player's 40th year.

But that's what Weir delivered. A five year career at Rangers after making his debut at 36. A 13 year career with Scotland after making his debut at 27. It's a good advert for starting late.

Slow but steady wins the race. As Weir's old school friend Aesop might have said.

It's been a successful five years at Ibrox. But it's also been a fairly tumultuous time. Weir provided a steadying focal point on the pitch.

I'm not a Rangers fan. But it's been a fascinating five years to watch.

Weir arrived an elder statesman. He leaves a highly decorated, grand old man.

Proof that an SPL twilight can enhance a career.

And, as policemen appear to be getting younger and football stars appear almost embryonic, here was a craggy faced old codger to give us all hope.

Hearts: Pay up, pay up or play the blame game

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:01:00 +0000

"We paid our wages on time," say Hearts.

"Naw. You didnae," say the SPL.

A prize to whoever identifies the voice of reason and truth in the parcel of rogues contributing to the latest farrago over Hearts and the saga of the paid/unpaid wages.

As it stands Hearts are to be charged "under SPL Rule A3.1 with failing to behave with the utmost good faith to the SPL."

Hearts refute this and lay claim to "documentary evidence" which proves the players were paid by the 16th January deadline that the SPL - and the player's contracts - stipulated.

If Hearts are right then one might have thought that this could have been sorted out quite quickly. Someone on the SPL board must have the phone number of someone at Tynecastle. And someone at Tynecastle must have access to a fax machine.

The situation now seems to have gone beyond that.

Semantics hint at a softening of the SPL's stance. A first statement yesterday seemed certain of a failure to meet the deadline. A second statement announcing the charge referenced an "alleged failure."

But there's a risk of reading too much into such things.

What does the charge actually mean?

It seems a woolly way of saying "enough is enough, you're just taking the piss now, this is no time to be playing silly beggars."

Or, if you're a fan of such conspiracies, it's the SPL ganging up on a club - and an owner - they disdain.

So it drags on. The SPL would seem - somewhat uncharacteristically - to have confirmed that they're now up for a fight. Hearts haven't done anything to suggest that they're not ready to go toe-to-toe.

Somebody's going to lose.

Should the rest of us care about a little local difficulty in Gorgie?

Probably. Such an imbroglio involving our perennial third force does little to enhance the tarnished image of the SPL.

And, even if it transpires that they have the might of being right on their side this time, the SPL's handling of the whole situation has seemed typically confused.

That could have repercussions. Scottish football is skint. It's Hearts right now. But there but for the grace of creative accounting, a benevolent director or a winter rush on Bovril, goes your team.

Are we about to see a precedent set in how the SPL deal with such situations when they crop up - as they surely must - in the future?

Perhaps. It's someone else's soap opera right now. But it could be your club next season.

> A word, as ever, for the players at Hearts.

Not since Jimmy Hill became a footballing Spartacus in the early 1960s can the collective salaries of a group of players been subject to such scrutiny.

That can't be pleasant.

The way they've risen above that in the past few weeks to move up to third in the table - while delivering some impressive performances - is a remarkable tribute to their perseverance.

A feat that fairly dents the stereotype of the modern footballer as a mollycoddled mercenary.

If the boot fits...

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:22:00 +0000

Apparently the first recorded example of football boots were owned by Henry VIII.

Football boots: worn by oversexed egomaniacs since 1526.

The description of Hank's boots - heavy, leather, ankle high - actually chimes with the general principles of the humble boot through much of the last 150 years or so.

Not now. There have been many changes in recent years, perhaps most noticeably the race to chuck technology at the humble boot started by a permed Australian and his Adidas Predator.

Thanks to Craig Johnston, the football boot is now an all-singing, all-dancing work of scientific and technological advancement.

With the floodgates opened, nothing was off limits. Even the colours changed. Out went the traditional black. Boot rooms across the country are now a kaleidoscope of bad taste.

I suspect there are a couple of reasons for this.

Firstly adding colour to football boots is a marketing gift: add colour, add individuality.

And there's nothing footballers and football fans love more than being trendsetters. Especially if those trends allow them to express their individuality by doing exactly what everyone else is doing.

The second reason is more sinister: to reinvent football boots as a more trainer-like product and so accelerate the conspiracy between governments and purveyors of leisurewear to have every citizen dressing like an American teenager and sharing the consumerist ennui of that demographic. Possibly.

Thankfully I largely bypassed these trends during what we might humorously call my own "playing career."

Partly this was because personality and popularity classifications based on the logo you sported on your feet weren't as rampant then as they are now. Or, if they were, I was too unpopular to notice.

Partly it's because, both then and now, I could boast the fashion sensibilities of a Greenwoods' mannequin.

And partly it's because I've got astonishingly wide feet. Almost square plates of meat. So my childhood and teenage boot buying expeditions were limited to whatever I could squeeze into.

Fair to say that the boots of my childhood, no matter how well shod I was, don't retain much of a place in my heart.

The earliest example I could find in the family archives date, I suspect, from the late 1970s. That would make them my brother's first boots and also, in the "new to you" recycling scheme pioneered by younger brothers everywhere, my first boots in the early 1980s.

I've got a feeling I was wearing Adidas astroturf shoes/boots the day I led Hibs out at Easter Road, the lucky mascot marching the condemned men to humiliation at the hands of St Mirren.

That's about it though. I can't remember the boots I wore as I lifted the village gala seven-a-side trophy, the dubbin-ed beauties I was sporting as I saved two penalties in a nine goal drubbing at Inverleith are a mystery lost in time and the boots that were abruptly separated as I did the splits under a scrum on a Murrayfield back pitch are gone forever (they had to be multi-functional, my sporting clogs).

In recent years the need to own a pair of boots has gradually receded.

No longer are Sunday afternoons spent at the Meadows in search of a game.

Football, like wearing lycra and dancing, is a pursuit better left to the less amply bellied.

And then I got the chance to roll back the years by testing out some boots.

Intrigued, and no doubt subconsciously egged on by the opportunity to recapture a glorious youth that never existed, I agreed.

None of your fancy-dan fluorescent nonsense.

Sensible football boots. Boots that look like boots. Screw in studs. Black. White and red trim.

The Adidas World Cup boot. Part, fittingly for an ageing Scotland fan, of their Heritage range.

Kangaroo leather. That's a double bonus - pleasantly soft and supple from the start. Plus the offer of added bounce.

And I could get my feet in them. Always a positive, that.

So I've got the boots, I can put them on without any of the eye-watering pinching consequences I remember from yesteryear. Time to test them.

I choose a pitch I well remember from my childhood, a pitch with a gentle incline and a weakness for wind. Or at least that's the excuse I used when I once put a bye-kick out for a corner.

Willing volunteers are rounded up. I reaquaint myself with the idea of sportswear. And we're good to go.

You know when you're a kid and you run and you run and you run until you lose all sense of space and co-ordination and fall over in an exhilariting heap?

Well I did that after running five yards. It was an unpromising start.

Thankfully fears of Labyrintitis were soon eased. Once I'd put down the cigarette, the balance problems were all but forgotten.

A couple of decades on and the pitch still suffers from the same drainage problems. Which just goes to show that, amazing as it may seem, our local sporting facilities will not improve themselves if we ignore them and squander absolutely zero investment on them.

But the boots held up a treat. I stopped falling over - and even, after a while, stopped coughing - and rediscovered the old soccer wizadry.

By the end I was pinging in free kicks with either foot, an outcome that made the decision to use one of those Greenwoods' mannequins as a goalkeeper look inspired.

The boots were a treat, their lightweight resilience a lesson in the occasional benefits of progress.

They even came through unscathed when I displayed an oddly nimble - if not amazingly contortionistic - ability to stamp on my own foot whilst flying through the air like an airborne cask of real ale.

The boots fitted. The magic was back. You never lose it.

Maybe I'll get myself a pair of those fluorescent ones next...

SPL: Timing is everything

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:50:00 +0000

Did your Cup overfloweth last week?

Not so much. Or if it did is was with lukewarm, overly milky tea rather than with an expensive Asti Spumante.

Back to the slog of the SPL today though. What joys await...

St Johnstone v Rangers

Poor timing.

That was Ally McCoist's verdict on his bid for St Johnstone's Francisco Sandaza on the eve of today's game.

Maybe the sense of timing developed while serving an apprenticeship with renowned Ibrox jokers and Fred McCaulay has deserted him.

Or maybe he'd mislaid his fixture list.

Or maybe such a bid is worse timing for the targetted club than it is for the targeter so he's not really that bothered but he's too nice a chap to say that in public.

Certainly Steve Lomas seems less than impressed with the way Rangers have handled the whole "Fran's our man" situation.

So one has to think that the latest bid would be about as welcome as one of those legendary "taking a crap off a stepladder" pranks in the Govan of old. (Alleged pranks, obviously.)

The last time these two met Lomas announced himself with a point at Ibrox, a point that eased Perth palpitations over the departure of Derek McInnes and served notice that Rangers stately voyage to the title had sprung a leak.

And Lomas got himself into bother for suggesting an official was a bit of a Fred Goodwin.

That was a fascinating draw. Will today be as Fran-scintating?

See what I've done there. Quality.

Anyhow, a wee trip to Perth is a day out Rangers might not relish.

I reckon they'll win it. Could be Fran-tic though.

Aberdeen v Kilmarnock

The unbreakable bond between father and son. Apparently Dean Shiels has taken something of a cash hit to stick with dad Kenny at Kilmarnock.

At least he can make appropriate budgetary concessions by letting Mrs S cook his tea.

Aberdeen have lost Ricky Foster but kept Scott Vernon and Andrew Considine.

They might also be welcoming back their own (prodigal) son in the shape of Russell Anderson.

It'll be like the heartwarming conclusion to an adaptation of a Catherine Cookson family saga starring Robson Green at Pittodrie.

With little confidence I'll say home win.

Celtic v Dundee Utd

Neil Lennon's bored of the transfer window. I know the feeling.

United's bank manager won't be though, West Brom's cash is enough to deprive the SPL of watching a developing young talent and to ease United's debt as Scott Allan heads for England.

Peter Houston has been looking lower down the league's for talent. Cutting the cloth accordingly. But also encouragingly. Big fan of unearthing gems from the SFL me.

Anyway. Today's game. Perfunctory Celtic win. Probably.

Dunfermline v Hibernian

The relegation crunch match between two of the worst teams you'll see in the SPL. Enjoy it. I'm getting the hell out of here.

Hard week for Pat Fenlon: identifying a target here, releasing a misfiring player there, consoling Sean O'Hanlon over his inexplicable absence from Fifa's team of the year.

A good bit of business from Dunfermline getting goalkeeper Iain Turner in from Preston.

This is a big game. Who wants to win it more? It will be tight, it will be ugly.

Draw.

Hearts v St Mirren

Hearts await an exodus but wages will be paid. That seems to be the latest.

Turmoil hasn't stopped them winning games like this the last few weeks.

St Mirren tried to get John Sutton in on loan from Hearts this week. That bid failed.

So will their bid to win today. Home win.

Motherwell v Inverness

Terry Butcher returns to his old gaff to clash with the current gaffer, his old mate Stuart McCall.

The interconnecting relationships of Scottish football are a heartwarmingly complex tapestry. Or boring.

Back-to-back defeats for Motherwell. They need to put a halt to that if they are to once again bewitch us with the consistency that left us all so befuddled betwixt August and December.

Big chance to do that today. Home win or I'll be bemused.

The Scottish Football Blog blogathon took place in November in aid of Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. You can sponsor the blogathon for these two great causes until 17th January.

Blogathon: The Final Word

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:14:00 +0000

Last November I held the Scottish Football Blog's first - perhaps only - blogathon.

One post an hour for 24 hours with topics chosen on Twitter and by fellow bloggers.

All in aid of two fantastic charities: Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup.

24 hours, a few energy drinks, too many cigarettes and 17,000 words later and I was done.

I'd set a target of £250 for each of the two charities and broke both those targets.

That was hugely appreciated. As was the support I got from Twitter and elsewhere.

You can still read all the posts from the day and other related posts here.

You can find out about the great work done by Alzheimer Scotland here and by the Homeless World Cup here.

And, again, thanks to everyone who got involved, donated, shouted encouragement.

One final favour - donations to the blogathon will close on the 17th of January.

So if you can find it in your post-Christmas wallets and purses to add a little extra to either charity then that would be just swell.

Click here to make a donation.

Thanks again,
Tom

Hibs: The Victor Palsson Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:52:00 +0000

So Hibs decide to say farewell to Victor Palsson, the young Icelandic player they signed from Liverpool this time last year.

Contract terminated with immediate effect.

Or contract bought out in a mutually agreeable way to free up some wages for what is, at this stage in the transfer window, a rather slow-burning rebuilding job at Easter Road.

Palsson came with quite a pedigree. An Icelandic under-21 player who had, it was widely reported, been tipped as having real potential under a previous Liverpool managerial regime.

The sort of player, in fact, who you might expect to rip up the SPL.

And he started well. His arrival coincided with the one good month of form Hibs enjoyed under Colin Calderwood, the one good month of form that freed the side from last year's relegation jitters.

Then nothing. A slide into anonymity on the pitch. I can't remember his last stand-out performance.

Calderwood stuck with him, maybe determined to back his own judgement or maybe clinging to whatever misfiring lucky charm he could find.

But the form didn't return, he left the team when Calderwood departed and new manager Pat Fenlon has acted with a speedy finality.

Why?

That question's got me stumped.

There are whispers of behaviour more befitting a normal twentysomething than a dedicated young athlete. But Hibs were keen to stress at their AGM that reported wrongdoings were a case of the local press getting the wrong end of the stick. And many good players don't live like saints.

Was it simply the team's lack of form?

That can't have helped, it wouldn't help anyone. But - despite his youth - Palsson looked at first to be the sort of player who could offer the drive and vigour that would drive others on rather than the sort who would let himself be dragged down.

Maybe his attitude didn't help, maybe he just didn't fancy those away trips to Hamilton and Dunfermline and it began to show in his application.

Maybe he was just not good enough, the progress he had made as youngster down to circumstance, good luck and being surrounded by better players.

I don't know.

My mind goes back to a conversation with a former Hibernian player on the final day of last season.

We were chatting about the signings Calderwood had already made and what optimism Hibs could have for the future.

His concern, he said, was Hibs' habit of signing players who would shine for three or four games and then simply disappear, take a wage and offer nothing.

That pretty much covers the story of Victor Palsson. Is that a failure of coaching? Man-management? Scouting?

Whatever the cause, it's a debilitating pattern that Fenlon now needs to break.

2014: Salmond, Levein, Fletcher and Scotland's destiny

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:35:00 +0000

1000 days. Or thereabouts.

After a rather dull game of Westminster-Holyrood constitutional ping pong, Alex Salmond has named his (rough) date.

The destiny of a nation, as dictated by the constitutional will of the Scottish people, will be decided in the autumn of 2014.

What a year to pick. The 700th anniversary of Bannockburn, the year of Glasgow's Commonwealth Games, the year of Scotland's Ryder Cup, the second running of the Homecoming celebration.

The perfect stage for a yes vote on independence.

Maybe. As Severin Carrell has pointed out on The Guardian website, Bannockburn might not be a massive crowd pleaser.

The Commonwealth Games is rather second rate these days and carries the risk, as a trip back to the 1986 hosting of the event in Edinburgh would show, of throwing up costly organisational chaos.

The Ryder Cup is a fine tournament but it could be that this is golfing jamboree in the home of golf that will have very little Scottish involvement where it really matters.

And I'm still not quite sure what the last Homecoming event was all about.

No, these aren't guaranteeing ways of securing the feelgood factor that will send us on our way to nationhood.

It needs something else, something bigger.

It needs football.

Scotland at the 2014 World Cup in Rio: carnival time from Pilton to São Paulo.

But Alex Salmond needs Craig Levein to get him there.

And Craig Levein might well need Steven Fletcher to get him there.

Time for the First Minister to stop goading Gideon, dissing Dave and to get on with the job of marriage counsellor to the stubborn national manager and his recalcitrant striker.

What better backdrop could Salmond have than a resurgent Scotland, - led by a benevolent Levein, inspired by the prodigal Fletcher and celebrating a spirit of inclusion with the English-born Jordan Rhodes - cutting a dash in Rio?

Start banging heids together Eck.

And, if you really want to win the vote, you might look at scheduling the referendum some time between the days of blind optimism engendered by our second group game and the inevitably humbling failure of our third group game.

More seriously, if you've got any views at all on how football could be affected by the independence debate I'd be delighted to hear them

Away Day: Cowdenbeath

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:45:00 +0000

If there's a better way to celebrate your birthday than with a trip to Cowdenbeath's Central Park then I'm not sure what it is.

Obviously seeing your team winning on said trip would be something of a bonus but that's in the hands of Pat Fenlon and his less than merry band. Drink shall either dull the pain or intensify the joy.

Like this current Hibs team, Central Park comes in for a lot of stick.

It's seen a lot of history though. And, like the Blue Brazil, it's somehow survived down the years.

Maybe Cowdenbeath need a new stadium for a fresh start. But it will be built on the memories - good and bad - of the old place.

When that time comes Central Park deserves to be remembered as more than just a punchline.

This short documentary says it all much better than I ever could.

The Scottish Football Blog blogathon took place in November in aid of Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. You can still donate to help two great causes.

Scottish Cup: Shock and Awe

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:21:00 +0000

A January weekend to cast off the shackles of league pressure and revel in the romance of what is, at this stage, the most egalitarian of our competitions.

A Scottish Cup weekend. Breathe in the fresh air of potential shocks and brace yourself butchers, bakers and candlestick makers making SPL defences look like part-time amateurs.

The Old Firm both travel to the north-east and the live TV coverage follows them, hoping for excitement and scares amid the trawlers and seagulls.

Cowdenbeath manager Colin Cameron is adamant Sky have made the wrong choice.

Celtic fighting their way out of jail in Peterhead and Rangers looking to avoid a smoking in Abrbroath are all well and good but Cameron feels it should be Hibs in Fife for shocks this weekend.

Hard to argue with him. Cowdenbeath have form, home advantage and nothing to lose.

Hibs have a haunted look, seem scared of their own shadow, lack fortitude in defence and are searching for invention in attack.

Apparently Cowdenbeath haven't beaten Hibs since 1930. Hibs haven't won the cup since 1902. Maybe something will give in 2012.

It's going to be an interesting Saturday afternoon at Central Park. Not to say an uncomfortable one for the green half of Edinburgh.

Across the capital Hearts entertain Auchinleck Talbot. Exactly the sort of fixture that the cup should throw up. If not one where a shock seems likely.

One never knows though. Isn't it about time we had a seismic upset of this kind? It might be. But I still can't see it happening.

Where else might we look to see (relative) giants a tumbling?

Aberdeen have offered much entertainment in this area in recent years but they should be able to negotiate their way past Forfar.

Dundee will be relishing having a go at Kilmarnock in front of the BBC cameras and that should be enough to ensure there's trepidation on the trip from Ayrshire to Dens Park.

Motherwell will be happy enough at facing Queen's Park at home while Dundee United will be respectful of the trip to Airdrie but feel consolations that it's a fixture that no longer holds the same terrors as it used to for "big" clubs.

Hamilton's trip to Paisley looks intriguing and St Mirren will be expecting a rough afternoon while St Johnstone and Brechin might have offered more interest if it was being played at Glebe Park.

An SPL club will fall in Inverness where straggling stugglers Dunfermline will be on the look out for some cup cheer. I'd back Inverness to come through that one though.

Elsewhere I'm drawn to Livingston v Ayr with the visitors enjoying a recent tradition of upsetting bigger odds than they face in West Lothian.

Ross County have haunted SPL clubs in recent seasons and will be looking to progress beyond their home tie with Stenhousemuir while Falkirk will hope to make the best of home advantage against East Fife to set up a shot at some more giantkilling in the next round.

Raith Rovers host Morton while Queen of the South visit Partick Thistle in the sort of fixtures that could provide enthralling games even as attention is drawn elsewhere.

Not, perhaps, a weekend stuffed full of shocks. But more than one SPL team is likely to fall and a couple of lower division sides will fancy their chances of making a statement.

All of which should be enough to, even briefly, engage us with a competition we should celebrate more.

It will also give those in favour of a more inclusive top flight the ammunition they need to fire off their annual volley of "look at what Minnow X did to Sort-of-big-club Y" tirades.

At least one player that we've probably hardly heard of will finish this weekend a hero. An Adrian Sprott for 2012.

Other players will wake up on Monday morning and have to face the season ahead knowing they've played their part in bringing shame and humiliation to their club.

That's the thing about romance. There are winners. And there are those left sitting on the kitchen floor drinking vodka from the bottle while snivelling wretchedly.

Makes for a great weekend though.

The Scottish Football Blog blogathon took place in November in aid of Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. You can still donate to help two great causes.

STV and Rangers: Love hurts

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:05:00 +0000

A rather anaemic press release on Rangers' website seems to have set the Twitter world all a-flutter.

The club will join with STV to explore "commercial" opportunities.

Two businesses, each negotiating their own challenges in a changing world, form a vague union that they hope will end profitably for both.

The very thought!

Given some of the stronger comments heading STV's way the commercial benefits from the deal might be offset by the negative perception it's creating in a divided city.

Scottish football largely fails to exploit online opportunities so a deal of this sort makes sense for the club. And while people rage about a biased national broadcaster - are the good folk of BBC Scotland enjoying a wry smile - we don't know if other clubs have been approached or if other announcements of partnerships are imminent.

Indeed STV might be cursing - does their own reticence to engage with the story speak volumes - that Rangers pushed this particular announcement out unilaterally.

My memory might be hazy but I'm not sure if can remember such gnashing off teeth when Sky TV became a shareholder in Leeds United.

Or when STV's parent company SMG got involved in a not wholly satisfactory dalliance with Hearts back in 1999. Make no mistake, if conflict of interest is your concern, then that deal at Tynecastle offered a far more troubling precedent than this latest venture.

But this is Glasgow and this is football so uproar, even while the full facts are still to be established, must surely follow.

And that's something that STV's commercial high heid yins should have predicted. That's what happens when you sup - however constructively, however fiscally sensibly - with someone else's devil.

What's troubled me more is the way that people have been so quick to throw into question the integrity of STV journalists.

STV's online coverage has been one of the success stories of Scottish football's hard transition to a digital age.

To see people - including some pontificating fellow journalists - immediately jump on STV's editorial staff and accuse them of now following an agenda or of following an agenda at some unspecified time in the future is a worry.

Obviously the accusers are chasing their own agenda - and largely I think the followers of forty Scottish league sides won't care - but it's another sign of how difficult the game is to cover in an age of over sensitive whining from all sides.

I don't know the details of the deal, I don't know the circumstances in which STV's editorial team found out that a deal had been struck with another arm of the organisation.

I've no doubt though that the guys that work there would be as concerned as anyone if this was going to impinge on their freedom to do their jobs.

This deal - if it's a one-off, if it's a wide ranging collaboration - may yet be a bad commercial move for STV.

But until we know exactly what's planned it seems unfair - it even seems unreasonably biased - to catch innocent reporters in the crossfire of a never ending game of Old Firm tit-for-tat.

The Scottish Football Blog blogathon took place in November in aid of Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. You can still donate to help two great causes.

Justice takes a break

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:53:00 +0000

So Lee McCulloch is free to play for Rangers tonight.

How can that be? Wasn't he red carded against St Mirren on Saturday?

That he was. For flinging an elbow. I've seen more heinous crimes on a football pitch. But I'd also say that the red card was justified.

Opinions, of course, are like certain anatomical features. We all have them.

Ally McCoist has his: McCulloch should not have been sent off so Rangers have appealed the decision.

That's fair enough.

Complications arise though.

It's Christmas. So the SFA's much heralded fast tracked disciplinary procedure has developed a breakdown. The main players are on holiday.

McCoist is adamant that he's not playing the system, he's simply standing by his man, seeking justice for the wronged party.

Who's to doubt to his sincerity?

But it's a handy loophole and one that a touch of foresight should have closed in advance.

This isn't really about McCoist or McCulloch.

It's about the SFA realising that their processes must be active as long as games are being played. Otherwise, in an Old Firm week, they're opening themselves up to a whole lot of nonsense.

Justice, and Stewart Regan's SFA revolution, is weakened if it needs a Christmas holiday.

The Scottish Football Blog blogathon took place in November in aid of Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. You can still donate to help two great causes.

SPL: Wednesday Wonders

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:30:00 +0000

The SPL works off the turkey and mince pies with a full Wednesday evening fixture. The eyes of the world upon us once more. Or at least the eyes of those Sky viewers not tempted by the tungsten superheroes at the Ally Pally.

Celtic v Rangers

Apparently recent form has left some Celtic supporters confident about this one.

Yet Ally McCoist was quick yesterday to talk about his confidence in victory.

I don't understand anybody displaying confidence before a big game. Fear, misery and a sense of doom are my defaults. And who is to say I've not got it right?

If you're expecting defeat it hurts less when you lose and you enjoy it more when you win.

Avoid hubris and project pitiful pessimism at all times. It's the path to a happier life.

Still, I'll never known what it's like to support one side or t'other in the greatest sporting rivalry on earth. And, for that matter, I'll never know what it's like to support one side or t'other in an Old Firm game either.

Instead I peer into the cauldron of Glasgow and a see a game that will end another chapter in a twisting title race.

Victory for either side will not close the book on this SPL championship. Last season provided enough of a lesson that the points and goals that win or lose titles can lie elsewhere.

It's still a game chock-full of meaning though.

For Celtic and particularly for Neil Lennon victory would offer the final act of redemption in the climb back from the dark days of autumn when they looked hopeless, Rangers looked rampant and Lennon looked vulnerable.

For Rangers and Ally McCoist a win, or even avoiding defeat, would offer evidence that a suddenly feeble looking Rangers are more than capable of holding off a resurgent Celtic.

Tonight's winners, if we're to have a winner, will lead the SPL into 2012. There's no glory in that. But it's an achievement that could offer mighty psychological succour to both sides in a season of mixed fortunes.

Who's it going to be?

Celtic have the momentum. 24 points from the last eight games. The sort of autumn-into-winter run that can define a title winning season.

Rangers have stumbled, fumbled, dropped the ball. Just 16 points from the last eight games, losing ground as Celtic have gobbled up the space between them.

An Old Firm game though. Windae, form book, oot the. We've seen it all before.

One point separates the two. Rangers have won 15, lost two, drawn three. Celtic have won 15, lost three, drawn two. Rangers have scored 37 goals, conceded 11. Celtic have scored 40, conceded 15.

Different seasons, different crises, different periods of sustained victory gathering.

Fag paper thin though, the differences between these behemoths.

A draw? Maybe I'm leaning towards that outcome. Maybe I'll cover myself by betting on a Celtic win.

And, while I'm in the bookies, it would be stupid not to put a couple of quid on Rangers as well.

If you're pushing me I'd say the build-up, current form and home advantage all point towards Celtic.

Mind you I've never been confident placing a bet in my life.

Aberdeen v Hearts

Let's hear it for the Hearts players. Supposedly facing the biggest off field challenges of their careers, the club facing a crossroads signposted gloom and doom.

And they've scored six in their last two outing, kept two clean sheets and enjoyed dominance over a Motherwell side who have been all but untouchable on the road.

Crisis? What crisis?

Aberdeen were enjoying a revival before they lost to Inverness on Christmas Eve. They can see daylight between themselves and relegation dunderheids Hibs and Dunfermline though.

And Hearts' struggle on the road which makes a midweek, wintry trip to Pittodrie as welcome as a letter from HMRC.

Draw.

Hibs v Inverness

A new manager but not a new dawn for Hibs. Pat Fenlon criticised the players' fitness after their second half capitulation against Dundee United.

If that is the case then the cluttered festive fixture list could offer dismal tidings for Hibs.

Fenlon seems to have identified the failings but this first period of his reign doesn't appear to offer much chance to right those wrongs.

Apparently some players are upset at the way they're now being spoken to on the training ground. Which just goes to show that even mentally weak, wage thieving wasters have feelings.

Inverness have been striving to impress in recent weeks and came through against Aberdeen with a makeshift side.

There's spirit among Butcher's boys. There's not much in evidence at Easter Road.

Defeat tonight and those last few believers will surely accept that Hibs are in their fight of their lives.

Who would bet against Inverness?

Motherwell v Dunfermline

Motherwell will be slightly chastened after their Christmas Eve defeat at Tynecastle.

They've also been in the strange situation of struggling more at home than they have on the road. Goals have been hard to come by.

Dunfermline, caught in a torrid run of form and looking all at sea, should offer some succour tonight.

Home win.

St Johnstone v Kilmarnock

Joyous wins, stern-faced draws, feeble defeats. St Johnstone and Kilmarnock have had seasons of fluctuating fortunes.

Who's to say they won't bond in their inconsistency with a draw tonight?

St Mirren v Dundee United

What do St Mirren do after a famous, much celebrated win against Rangers?

What do Dundee United do after coming back to beat Hibs?

The evidence of the season suggests that both will struggle to build on the winning of three points.

Which sets us up nicely for another draw.

The Scottish Football Blog blogathon took place in November in aid of Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. You can still donate to help two great causes.

SPL Advent: St Mirren

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:01:00 +0000

We're so close now you can almost smell the reindeer dung. We reach the final window in the SPL Advent calendar. Fling open the curtains and have a nosy at St Mirren.

One thing you can say about St Mirren is that Danny Lennon will do what's best for St Mirren Football Club and what's best for Danny Lennon. Because what's best for Danny Lennon is also what's best for St Mirren Football Club. That's how Danny Lennon operates.

Ah, Danny. I'm happy to adopt a Bruce Forsyth style theatrically conspiring whisper and admit: "Danny, you are my favourite."

The severe sincerity of his post-match utterances amuse me. But I also admire the way he got on with the job when many felt St Mirren had erred with his appointment.

And I want him to thrive because the idea of managers and players making a progression through the leagues is one that would seem essential to the game's survival in Scotland.

So good on you Danny.

This season he's added experience in the dugout with the arrival of the much travelled Tommy Craig. And he worked to reshape the squad in the summer.

Last year Lennon did what was required, performed the basic function of his job, by keeping St Mirren up.

But his approach in the summer seemed an acknowledgement that not everything he tried, not everything he transferred from Cowdenbeath, had worked.

One does wonder if that idea of a manager being given time to make the odd mistake and the opportunity to put it right will ever catch on.

Has it worked?

19 games in, half the season gone, and 22 points won. Five victories, seven draws and seven defeats.

That's already two thirds of the way to last season's points total but it'a another warm welcome to inconsistency, the theme that's run through this SPL Advent like cloves through mulled wine.

Draw at Ibrox one week, lose to Hibs in Paisley the next. Beat Kilmarnock at home one week, lose in Inverness the next. Hard to build a head of steam with those kinds of results.

Taking only eleven points from 24 against teams below them in the league points both to the tightness of the league and the struggle St Mirren face to establish themselves in the top six this season.

26 goals conceded is a fair SPL record but only nine goals scored at home and nine on the road are not enough. Nobody above St Mirren in the league has scored less.

That helps explain why they find themselves in the bottom half of the table and why Lennon will scour the January sales in search of a striker.

The team looks more experienced than last year with more solidity and a greater ability to win games.

That should be enough for safety. Danny Lennon's hope will be that it's enough for slightly more than that.

King forever, ceasing never. Over us all to reign

Danny Lennon wants everyone, players and Danny Lennon himself, to keep learning.

He probably also wants Santa to bring him a goalscorer and more points from "winnable" games.

If he gets that St Mirren could still be bothering the top six come the SPL split.

The Scottish Football Blog blogathon took place in November in aid of Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. You can still donate to help two great causes.

SPL Advent: St Johnstone

noreply@blogger.com (the scottish football blogger) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:17:00 +0000

Day eleven. Guided by a star of wonder, the SPL Advent takes a trip to Perth.

Perhaps we should all read a Christmas lesson from the good book of McDiarmid Park.

St Johnstone have lost both a talented young manager and a steady, long-serving chairman this season.

And, so far, it's been more evolution for revolution.

The boardroom succession was from father to son as Geoff Brown decided to retire.

His final task was to find a replacement for Derek McInnes.

When McInnes left for Bristol City there was sadness but also an acceptance that such departures are the norm for clubs like St Johnstone.

He went with best wishes and was invited to suggest a potential successor.

Steve Lomas was one of the names that McInnes, although maybe not many other people, put forward.

And so it was that Lomas joined the rogue's gallery of SPL managers.

A surprising appointment? Perhaps, given his low profile in Scotland and his lack of experience.

But they know what they like and like what they know in Perth.

McInnes was charged with evolving the blueprint put in place by another ambitious young manager. Lomas will be given the opportunity to do the same.

A solid stability about these Saints. And it seems to work.

No chasing of impossible dreams, no hissy fits, no financial panics, no existential crises.

Just steady progression. Onwards and upwards but not at the sort of pace that will bring on dizziness.

The Lomas succession appeared miraculously seamless. There was a goalless draw at Ibrox - the manager proving his passion with a quickfire ban for "gesturing" - and then back-to-back wins over Hibs and Hearts.

Three straight defeats since then have proved that life in the SPL is perhaps as not as easy to adjust to as Lomas was making it look.

Yet St Johnstone remain in fourth place. The chasing pack are tight behind them and Motherwell look to have inched too far ahead in third. In a league where most clubs are capable of beating each other there's little to suggest that another wee run won't have the Saints securing not only a top siz place but a top four place.

Some clouds remain on the Perthshire horizon. Those last three defeats all came at home in the space of just eight days.

Played ten, won three, drawn one, lost six. It's not a great home record. 15 of the 20 goals they've conceded have been scored at McDiarmid Park.

Compare and contrast with an away record that's seen them win four and lose only once. That includes wins at Celtic and Motherwell and, arguably, an unpunished dive at Easter Road is the only thing that's robbed them of an unbeaten run on the road.

As with Motherwell we can only wonder how much tighter the top of the league might look if away form could be replicated at home. That's all ifs and buts, the thwarted dreams of living in a duopoly.

What we can say is that St Johnstone really do need to stop this current run if they're to keep ahead of the teams below them and have any hope of engendering some anxiety in Lanarkshire.

And Lomas is going to be tested. Maybe these three straight defeats are about more than injuries to Cillian Sheridan and his strike partner Francisco Sandaza.

They are missed though. Sandaza, top scorer so far, has been one of the success stories of the season and it's asking a lot of Marcus Haber to replace them.

What wriggle room will the January transfer window give Lomas? And will he use it wisely?

There's more to this management lark than wearing a scarf and suggestion a match official is a wan...

Still, this mini-slump apart, I'm reasonably impressed so far. There are teams in the SPL with more to fear going into 2012.

From now on, our troubles will be miles away.

More wins, particularly home wins, and deliverance from injury worries.

Those were Steve Lomas' whispered wishes when he sat on Santa's knee at St John's Shopping Centre.

Probably.

And if he's going to be scouting round for talent in January, the signings need to be both affordable and effective.

Let the progress continue...

The Scottish Football Blog blogathon took place in November in aid of Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. You can still donate to help two great causes.