The shame old,shame old

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

IT'S what this game of ours should be all about.

Two next-door neighbours, coming head to head with the whole season at stake.

One's top of the league, the other a point behind in second.

No wonder no one's thought about anything else for weeks.

And now it's here at last, there's not a spare seat to be had.

From the moment the gladiators swagger side-by-side into the arena, you can't hear yourself think.

Best of all, when it's done and every single one of them has wrung every single ounce of energy out of himself and into the the churned-up turf, winners and losers alike go home babbling about the only thing that matters.

The football.

But enough of Dunfermline against Raith on Saturday. This was Ibrox, 24 hours later. The anti-derby. The opposite of sport. Everything that this game of ours has been allowed to become.

A day when the sight of cops everywhere you turn should be a reassuring one - yet which in reality only rams home how depressing a fixture it is these days, how little it has to do with joy or entertainment and how it's all about praying the lid doesn't come flying off a big box of mayhem.

A day when the only result that matters to anyone who's not involved through choice is if they get through it all in one piece.

The ref and his linesmen, those legions of cops, hundreds of stewards, the girls on the pie stalls, the media. Taxi drivers, bus drivers, casualty nurses and doctors.

So many people put through the ringer just so the lawless, brainless element among two sets of fans can have their fun.

A minority? Yes, they may well be. But they are the fleas on the tail that wags the dog - and leave the rest of us yearning for a right good fumigating.

I mean, what chance is there of peace breaking out between these two when the one guy you'd think would want to keep his head down struts around the pitch winding up the world? Neil Lennon's been sent nail bombs in the post. Internet halfwits are being rounded up as we speak for running online death threat campaigns against him.

So if anyone should have been happy to get away with a result and head home to open Easter eggs with the family, it was surely him.

But no. He parades around the pitch at full time with both hands cupped to his ears, telling the Rangers hordes he can't hear them. And in one ill-judged gesture, he makes sure the whole firestorm of abuse and recriminations keeps on blazing away.

He said he was only having a laugh. And if these were jolly occasions, the world might have seen the joke. But let's be honest, they offer all the fun of a night in intensive care.

Or maybe that's just me, seeing as the official line from inside Ibrox was that everyone had a smashing time and Radio Scotland commentator Rob McLean announced that the occasion deserved "ten out of ten for atmosphere, noise and colour and good humour."

Good humour? Yeah, maybe in the way French peasants used to crowd round the guillotine for a fun night out or passers-by snigger when an old lady trips over a dodgy paving stone and breaks her hip.

From where I'm sitting on days like these, everyone hates everyone else. No one's happy.

At every throw-in and corner, twisted faces hang over the barriers, pointing and screaming abuse. They're like angry mongrels barking at postmen.

All over the pitch, players who every other week can pass and run and shoot with the best of them pull shirts and click heels, riddled with fear over the dire consequences of losing.

OK, so the second half was way better in the first and you could only admire the brilliance of Rangers keeper Allan McGregor as he kept his side in it. But in the end, it sums up the overall lack of quality that it will be most remembered for a striker failing to tuck away a soft penalty given by a ref who - for the second Old Firm outing on the trot - got away with making the wrong decision when it mattered most.

Between that messy incident and Lennon's antics at time-up, it was just about the most fitting possible end to a horrible week when this rivalry has felt more tired and tarnished than ever before.

I have friends on both sides who once would have sold their granny for an Old Firm ticket, but who'd now rather watch in the safety and sanity of their living rooms.

I've spoken to fans of many other clubs who used to tune in to gawp with a hint of jealousy at the craziness of it all but who didn't even put the telly on yesterday.

Yet still those who run Scotland's top division insist that these are the two clubs around which everyone must be built, whose every demand must be met.

EssPeeEll chief executive Neil Doncaster calls this need to pander to the Bigot Brothers "an unfortunate reality". Well, he was at East End Park on Saturday. He saw first hand how a local rivalry CAN be passionate without being poisonous.

And I hope he went home ashamed that he and his cohorts are flatly refusing to open the door to more clubs who have something fresh and energetic honest to offer.

If that's how the powers-that-be want things, if that's the respect they have for all those in this country who love football for football's sake, then the end if well and truly nigh.

Last week, former Celtic striker Mark McGhee admitted he wished he'd had the bottle to walk off the pitch in protest when the sectarianism got cranked up into overdrive.

What a message it would send to the halfwits who spoil it for the rest if a modern-day player could read his words and act upon them.

In fact, how good would it be if EVERYONE who hates the baggage that comes with this fixture just got up and walked out and left them to it.

Except that you instantly see the flaw in that plan.

Which is that the halfwits wouldn't even notice.

Read more: http://www.thescotti...l#ixzz1KX8aBRo6

WTF.

Does he want the fans clapping the opposition onto the park?

Great atmosphere,considering the build up that he probably helped blow out of proportion It passed off peacefully bar Lennon's stupidity yet he still feels the need to stick the boot in.

I'd suggest without these games or teams to write about you may not have a job.

[Senna 735]

Leckie only writes to stir up controversy to get people to read his column every week.

Pinch of salt.

[TheNuts 552]

Bill Leckie...the man who said he hopes Rangers and Celtic will go to the Premiership. Infact his words were if it were to happen "the tomato sauce on his fry up would taste like champagne"

Furthermore, he said with the Old Firm out of the SPL, teams like motherwell and kilmarnock would play infront of packed stadiums.

After reading that bile, i dont take what he says seriously at all.

[minstral 5,375]

What can you say about that load of pish.

[keithgersbear 3,225]

up the volunteers.

[Senna 735]

Now is that an entirely misleading lie designed to embarrass the Old Firm and paint a picture of a rivalry much more violent than it actually is. People like Leckie shouldn't be allowed to write.

In an interview with a sportswriter at a big paper, I argued that point but he was sure that doing things like Leckie is doing is a legitimate sales technique.

[pcbear 10,924]

He sounds pretty much sorry that it never erupted into violence and mayhem yesterday, you can bet a few pre written articles would have to be binned after a peacefulish encounter.

Old Ibrox was shaken to the core yesterday and it was a sight and sound to behold, big up for everyone who contributed to an atmosphere that many believed had gone for good.

[SteveJ 743]

He is a fanny

[Chuck_Fickens 425]

Why not write about the great atmosphere and how the game passed without much incident (bar lemons antics at the end) ?

[Senna 735]

It is legitimate in that using hyperbole is a legitimate literary technique. The impact it has on those outside the Old Firm divide is where it becomes questionable. I've taken a foreigner to an Old Firm game before and they had an absolute ball. I dispelled the pre-match fears of violence and in the end they just enjoyed a fantastic occasion with two sets of fans going at each other for 90 minutes. We had absolutely no problems at any point and did not even encounter a scenario which might have seen us caught up the whirlwind of violence people like Leckie paint a picture of.

I asked him specifically in terms of playing the OF against each other and stirring the pot.

He still agreed because basically that the papers exist to sell themselves.

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

Leckie only writes to stir up controversy to get people to read his column every week.

Pinch of salt.

I see that but weren't they all singing from the hymn sheet of how the Old Firm had embarrassed Scottish football after the 'shame game' at the piggery?.

Seems you can't win with him and he's made himself look a bit foolish.

[Senna 735]

I see that but weren't they all singing from the hymn sheet of how the Old Firm had embarrassed Scottish football after the 'shame game' at the piggery?.

Seems you can't win with him and he's made himself look a bit foolish.

He used to be/still is a Clydebank FC fan.

He was there already.

[theySTILLKNOW 80]

WTF.

Does he want the fans clapping the opposition onto the park?

Great atmosphere,considering the build up that he probably helped blow out of proportion It passed off peacefully bar Lennon's stupidity yet he still feels the need to stick the boot in.

I'd suggest without these games or teams to write about you may not have a job.

Every time I read Bill Leckie I think of the piece he wrote about how fathers complaining about not being able to see their kids after separating from their partners "should grow a pair,maybe if they treated their partners better they would still be able to see their kids" within a few months his wife divorced him and didn't let him see his kids,he then wrote an article about how "both parents should have the same rights" he's a hypocritical c*nt.

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

Every time I read Bill Leckie I think of the piece he wrote about how fathers complaining about not being able to see their kids after separating from their partners "should grow a pair,maybe if they treated their partners better they would still be able to see their kids" within a few months his wife divorced him and didn't let him see his kids,he then wrote an article about how "both parents should have the same rights" he's a hypocritical c*nt.

Seriously?

That sums him up in a nutshell.

[Guest Andypendek]

Writer shits himself at the thought of having to write something original

thinks

writes same column as last x years

Fail.

[MisterC 12,377]

Writer shits himself at the thought of having to write something original

thinks

writes same column as last x years

Fail.

Was that you I saw commenting on an article regarding sectarianism by Steve Bruce?

[Guest Andypendek]

'Twas I.

Some amount of twats on that forum, though.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

The press are one of the parties with a vested interest in keeping the temprature of this occasion high. Can you imagine how many fewer papers they would sell without putting the old firm of the front and back pages of their publications. This story smaks of keeping the temprature high will pretending to take some sort of pseudo moralistic stance on peoples position. As for the pie sellers living in fear I dont ever remember any complaints from ibrox or parkhead, ever, about any set of fans having issue with this group of employees.

[MisterC 12,377]

'Twas I.

Some amount of twats on that forum, though.

Too many trolls and loonies on there. As well as those who have been mobilized elsewhere to go and shout down others including the authors. Such as the celtc lobby for instance

[Redmond7 1,102]

Bill Leckie...the man who said he hopes Rangers and Celtic will go to the Premiership. Infact his words were if it were to happen "the tomato sauce on his fry up would taste like champagne"

Furthermore, he said with the Old Firm out of the SPL, teams like motherwell and kilmarnock would play infront of packed stadiums.

After reading that bile, i dont take what he says seriously at all.

And of course his club would be amateurs or bankrupt but people like him like to bury their heads in the sand over that little fact.

[Gaffbear 4,101]

The man is like all small club supporters..jealous.

He makes the baggage an excuse for his hatred but it's down to his club playing anti football in front of 2,000 fans trying to stay in this countries top league so they can hang onto the OF's coat tails.

[johngossa 9]

Now is that an entirely misleading lie designed to embarrass the Old Firm and paint a picture of a rivalry much more violent than it actually is. People like Leckie shouldn't be allowed to write.

my ex girlfriend believed all the shit on the news and in the papers and wouldnt let the boy come to the match

[bluepeter 5,627]

I have friends on both sides who once would have sold their granny for an Old Firm ticket, but who'd now rather watch in the safety and sanity of their living rooms.

That's probably why the stadium was bouncing you fanny, I'm glad those 'fans' have decided not to bother anymore

That whole article is a pile of pish, not that that surprises me much...

[IfYeCannae 48]

As far as I am aware Leckie has only been on the end of abuse on a night out by one set of SPL 'fans'.

HINT - They weren't fans of Rangers, Aberdeen, Motherwell, St Johnstone, Hamilton, St Mirren, Hibs, Hearts, Kilmarnock, Dundee Utd or Inverness.

He's a tadger.

[stuvey 5]

That wis a pish read. He's a boring twat!