Ronnie owns the bragging rights

Radio Clyde's phone-in is a Scottish broadcasting phenomenon.

A decades long barometer of what the fans are thinking about relative to any issue relevant to Scottish football. It has, over the years, been given the obligatory Only An Excuse once over and blamed by players and managers for allowing supporters and pundits to spout nonsense.

But it has never ceased to be thought provoking, and never more so than on New Year's Eve in the aftermath of the game between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox.

A decades long barometer of what the fans are thinking about relative to any issue relevant to Scottish football. It has, over the years, been given the obligatory Only An Excuse once over and blamed by players and managers for allowing supporters and pundits to spout nonsense.

But it has never ceased to be thought provoking, and never more so than on New Year's Eve in the aftermath of the game between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox.

This is the fixture known historically as the Old Firm derby. That term has been erased from history by some of those who inhabit social media, but this is my private domain and I'll call it the Old Firm game if I so desire.

It is my New Year resolution to ignore the extremist element on social media and carry on as I see fit, which is why I have also decided to pay tribute to one of the phone-in's regular contributors.

Ronnie from the Merchant City, or wherever it is he lives, is a passionate advocate of all things Rangers. He is unfailingly supportive of his team but without ever resorting to aggressive language or forgetting his manners.

When Ronnie recently said that Ibrox striker Joe Garner was on his way to becoming a Rangers legend, on the back of three goals in half a season following his purchase for £1.8m there was a pause for an outporing of disbelief.

But no-one, and certainly not me, could ever claim never to have made some outrageous statement or other on Superscoreboard over the years.

On Saturday afternoon Ronnie dutifully pitched up in response to those Celtic supporters who wondered what he would be saying in the wake of a game he had predicted, twenty four hours earlier, would end in a win for Mark Warburton's side.

But that wasn't the best or most edifying part of his contribution to the programme.

Ronnie the arch Rangers man revealed over the course of conversation that his two sons were committed Celtic fans. And, not only that, when Celtic had reached the UEFA Cup final against Porto in 2003 he had paid for his boys to go to Seville in support of Martin O'Neill's team.

And they, in turn, had stumped up the cost of sending their old dad to Manchester when Rangers faced Zenit St. Petersburg in the final of the same competition five years later.

In that instant, Ronnie had laid bare the story of a tight knit family that could accomodate under one roof the different sides in the fierce rivaly that characterises the Old Firm.

His sentiments were so perfectly expressed that it prompted a subsequent caller to state that Ronnie was made of the right stuff to become Prime Minister one day.

Excessive, perhaps, but we knew what Ronnie's backer meant.

The moral to the story is that a minute's silence to remember the 66 souls who lost their lives in the Ibrox disaster of 1971 was interrupted by two obscene voices prior to kick-off on Saturday afternoon.

It goes without saying that anyone who can't find it within themselves to remain silent for sixty seconds in remembrance of the dead is a sub human.

It is also the case that for some people anti-social behaviour is a lifestyle choice. They are that way because they prefer to be that way and nothing I, or anyone else, can say will persuade them to join the civilised members of the human race.

But the two obscene voices were outnumbered by tens of thousands of football fans who respected to dead and recoiled in horror at the moronic element in their presence.

And we should get our sums right.

The game was not shamed by half-wits. The game was solemnly respectful, save for two voices.

Ronnie is the rightful owner of the bragging rights.

He was at the game in 1971 in the company of five pals. Two never made the journey home with him.

Today Ronnie can defend Rangers to the hilt and live with the good natured banter of his Celtic-supporting offspring at the same time. His call was a remarkable reminder that the good guys always outnumber the numbskulls and sent all of us who heard it into our New Year celebrations with a renewed belief that there was some hope for the decent majority after all.

Brendan Rodgers being in Scotland as Celtic's manager is great for the game's profile. Rangers' need of substantial investment in order to prevent living in their rivals' shadow for the foreseeable is beyond doubt.

We'll get in about those topics on Superscoreboard from now until the mid-Winter break ends in three weeks' time, but Ronnie reminding us that we can do so in a civilised manner has been a welcome re-introduction to decency.

No random ranting from a rabid rabble rouser will ever be heard above the voice of reason. Ronnie's reminded everyone of that fact.

I salute him.