Lunatic fringes and fine margins
The vicious attack on Jack Grealish during Sunday’s Birmingham derby shouldn’t be used as an excuse to put Scottish football’s hooligan problem into some perverse form of context.
There should be no inclination to switch on the whataboutery machine and say “Our dimwits are bad, but what about THEIR dimwits?”
What are we supposed to do, set up a Lamebrains League and award points ?
All we can do is acknowledge the problem in our midst in our country, as illustrated by the confrontation between a field invader and Rangers’ James Tavernier at Easter Road on Friday night, and ask for help to put an end to the coin throwing, bottle throwing, flare throwing, sectarian singing wastrels who are disfiguring the game’s image.
The lunatic fringe can only be stood down if football gets help from the courts and sentencing becomes a deterrent in itself.
Abandoning matches or playing games behind closed doors would have to be accepted as an understandable consequence of disgust, but the fear of custodial sentences would have a more profound effect on the growing problem of anarchy in the stands.
Until such time as that happens, what about the football?
It’s not often you get the supporters of Celtic and Rangers left feeling frustrated after a weekend in which neither team has lost, but there is a definite case of retrospective regret going on.
The Rangers fans had been plunged into darkness because of the draw with Hibs, only to be given a chink of light when Celtic drew with Aberdeen twenty-four hours later.
But, in terms of the championship, that chink of light would have been a full-blown, body warming ray of ultra-violet sunshine if only carelessness hadn’t sullied Rangers’ domination of the match in Edinburgh.
Celtic, by the same token, had looked at a scenario that was too good to be true in the wake of Rangers’ profligacy.
They were supposed to go ten points clear at the top of the table and place one hand on the championship trophy in front of a full house inside a ground where no points had been dropped since the start of the season.
And then too good to be true turned out to be an illusion.
And that’s what the title race has become, a contest to be decided by fine margins.
What might the league table have looked like if Scott Brown’s sclaff hadn’t been deflected into the net by Kilmarnock’s Alex Bruce three weeks ago?
Or if Odsonne Edouard hadn’t come up with a belated winner against Hearts at Tynecastle after that?
Celtic might have had two points instead of the six that were their reward for perseverance.
Fine margins.
And that’s why the league isn’t over yet. There are twenty-seven pints still to be played for and the gap between first and second remains eight points long.
Good old fashioned arithmetic, and those fine margins, means nothing has been decided.
That’s undeniable logic, isn’t it?
It’s all a bit savage now as well. If Neil Lennon drops the ball that was handed to him by the outgoing Brendan Rodgers he’ll pay for it by not getting the Celtic manager’s job on a permanent basis.
If Steven Gerrard fails to win a trophy this season he’ll have withdrawn all the goodwill there is in the bank and be made to understand he’ll get the sack if the same thing happens next season.
An Aberdeen win at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup replay between the sides tomorrow night will bring a spectacular fall-out, likewise if Kilmarnock take anything from the league game to be played there on Saturday.
Two wins or else for Gerrard.
Celtic go to Dundee on Sunday, and any more difficulties on the road could have calamitous consequences.
According to the interim manager, the Celtic players were due a bout of post-traumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of Rodgers’ sudden departure for mediocrity, otherwise known as Leicester City.
A draw with Aberdeen was therefore put into a favourable context, which was that the gap between Celtic and Rangers remained as it had been and the Ibrox side had one game fewer in which to deal with the deficit.
Accepted.
But was Gerrard premature in his post-match analysis on Friday night when he appeared to concede the title while clearly believing Celtic would win at home the following day?
“Maybe it was already out of reach,” he said, referring to the league title.
“It’s plain to see we’re not breathing down Celtic’s neck. We’ve got ourselves to blame and I’m responsible for it.”
Would the manager have been so candid if he’d known what was going to happen the following day?
Fine margins.
I read a quote from a jockey at the weekend which can now be transferred from the racetrack to the football pitch.
Ruby Walsh, looking ahead to the start of the Cheltenham Festival this week, said, “Fear of losing holds you back. If you’re afraid of losing, then you’ll also be afraid to win.”
There’s your thought for the day, Neil and Steven.
It’s only your jobs that are at stake after all