Out Of Line And Out Of Order

You couldn't even call it an excuse for a football match because there was no excuse for what went on between Dundee United and Celtic at Tannadice on Sunday.

Diving, fighting, cheating, and snarling.

It was a sorry misrepresentation of what was supposed to be a top class occasion. And the pair of them now have another three meetings with each other to come within the space of a fortnight.

Heaven help the game's good name as scores are settled and the disciplinary toll rises.

There's nothing epic or gripping about watching a match that could have been confused with a display of un-armed combat. Tannadice was an unedifying example of how to destroy Scottish football's entitlement to a bigger share of television money.

How are the football authorities supposed to pass that game off as a showcase for two of Scotland's top sides and use it as a gambit to earn a greater slice of the telly cake ?

It took all of eleven minutes to have an unseemly melee destroy the game as a spectacle, and that was before we got to the bit where the hard pressed, and under-performing, match officials were conned by United's Aiden Connolly into giving a penalty kick.

Three players sent off, and not even the right one in one instance, and another three who could have been dismissed. And might yet be dealt with retrospectively.

Outcome ?

The first so called showpiece of the season, the League Cup final at Hampden on Sunday, has been devalued by the loss of several players serving their disciplinaty sentences.

There has to be a case for the two clubs concerned being charged with bringing the game into disrepute because of their failure to keep their players properly under control.

Satelite television showed what kicked off mayhem at Tannadice over and over again on Sunday afternoon. Not because it made for compelling viewing, rather to highlight the fact that we play a primitive version of the game on this side of the border.

At this rate Sky would be within their rights to suggest a reduction in revenue for Scottish clubs until they get value for money in the form of football you can recognise.

The only thing that came close to rivalling Tannadice for disapproval at the weekend was Rangers' rancid display at Cowdenbeath, and somebody is going to have to grab this Ibrox side by the scruff of the neck sooner rather than later before they experience the ultimate embarrassment and fail to get promotion via the play-off system.

New owner Dave King was doubtless trying to buy himself time and keep supporters' expectations at a tolerable level when he told Superscoreboard on Saturday afternoon that he didn't think promotion was an absolute necessity at the end of this season.

That argument quite literally does not add up.

Going up means being able to add a hundred pounds on to the price of a season ticket for Ibrox. Forty thousand ticket buyers, the level Rangers can expect to achieve in the atmosphere of a new dawn for the club means the club makes an additional four million pounds at the box office.

How can that not be essential for a club where additional money is the difference between regaining their former status on and off the park and staying stuck in a place where they can't score a goal against a team of part-time players from Fife who are third from bottom in the league ?

Kenny McDowall is a nice man but too downbeat for the job of lifting a team who clearly can't do that job for themselves. A new voice in the dressing room is of paramount importance, even if that means bringing back an old stager to do that job from memory.

Why not have Walter Smith return to lead the team from now until the end of the season before making the decision to appoint a new, long term choice as manager.

Felix Magath can talk to King and his cohorts for as long as he likes, but it's Smith who knows the players and has an instictive feel for getting more out of under achievers.

Rangers have to play Hibs and Hearts before the season's over, and they've done nothing but lose to the pair of them in the league. A force of nature like Smith is necessary to improve matters on the park.

If John Greig's return to Ibrox after a prolonged period of self exile is being hailed as Rangers re-connecting with the past and righting a serious wrong then Smith coming back is about more than nostalgia.

It would mean the return of the stare that can wither human beings who let Walter down. Rangers don't have a man in charge who would make players afraid to come off the park in the event of a defeat or a draw as bad as the one at Cowdenbeath.

There's no fear and trepidation, and that, as awkward as it sounds, is what players have to experience if they want to raise their standards.

That doesn't mean the creation of a team that crosses the boundary between what is, and is not, acceptable behaviour. It means a will to win that's born of fear of the tongue lashing and brow beating you're going to get in the dressing room if defeat comes your way.

Likewise Celtic need to go back to playing the football that mesmerised Aberdeen and got them four goals without reply. Since then they've sleepwalked to a defeat from St. Johnstone in the league and diced with elimination from the Scottish Cup against a Dundee United side reduced to nine men for half a game.

Ronny Deila can make Celtic sound like a laboratory experiment at times with his references to how far individuals run during games and the other medical issues he brings to the job of team management.

But now he's been confronted by the human factor. Players switched off last midweek and then over compensated for their shortcomings by getting involved in a pitch battle at Tannadice.

Now they and United have short changed themselves, and therefore their supporters, for the first cup final of the season.

The pitch at Hampden got the blame for making the League Cup semi finals a lottery. That's been re-laid and will hopefully have removed the playing suface as an excuse available for anyone who wants to use it as such.

Those who play on the park on Sunday now have an obligation to show they've gone away, had a think about it, and come back with a better attitude towards delivering a match worthy of the occasion and not another excuse for television to leave the recorded highlights until after the watershed for fear of causing alarm and distress.