It was as though large parts of Scotland’s media, and many Rangers fans, had decided enough was enough after Saturday’s game. Sectarian singing was reported and roundly condemned, although, inexplicably, BBC Sportscene flippantly suggested disagreeable refereeing could be a cause. It was, however, Nil By Mouth from the government on tackling this peculiar fabric of society.
A Scottish government spokesman was unable to even acknowledge Saturday’s events, giving the Sunday Herald a completely neutral comment: “We deplore sectarian or bigoted chanting at any grounds or from any fans in Scotland.”
By his own admission, Alex Salmond is busy “arguing” with HMRC and campaigning to secure Rangers’ unique place in the fabric of Scottish society – despite openly being in breach of Fifa rules which could see Celtic kicked out of the Champions League and Scotland unable to compete in the World Cup qualifiers. It would have cost him nothing to fall in line with everyone else and make it clear this behaviour is not what he is fighting for.
Issues like this are why we need a First Minister, Alex. If you have decided to go Nil By Mouth, you’re betraying the very fabric you should be cultivating. No one wants to live in a Scotland that looks like this.
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Amadeus remembers being on a hun football special train by some ghastly twist of circumstance, his green and white scarf wrapped around his waist. As the carriage got hotter, he blithely removed his jumper and all the air was sucked out of the atmosphere as his allegiance was declared to all.
Luckily, he had made friends along the way with some tattooed huns who protected him from the slavering hordes – although he was punted off the train at Falkirk.
Talk about a close one…
LiviBhoy says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:17
agree. i think it was very common. It certainly happened a lot at Falkirk were its still very difficult to seperate there loyalty
Remember queens highway and all that. We can do what we want, go were we want, sing what we want
My Last word on the Pat Fenlon “debate”
From Oglach
I would group Fenlon along with that tiny percentage of Irish Catholics who joined the RUC.
Well Oglach that says it all for me.
Have a nice life
We should demand our normal allocation and then return all of them unsold the Friday before the game. None of them would buy them to watch us hopefully win the league and it would cost them about £300k.
:-)
What is the Stars says:
20 February, 2012 at 10:11
I was interested in the different ways people seem to view the Fenlon/Linfield issue.
Scarcely believe the hostility it generates.
I fondly remember Tony Higgins getting stick for openly declaring that he would
‘love’ to be the first Catholic to break the apartheid that existed for so long at Ibrox.
It never occured to me that he was some kind of Judas or closet Hun.
He was a guy who hated their policy & had the kind of personality that could
have coped with the abuse he would have received from BOTH SIDES.
He often told the story of coming off the park at half-time when he was playing for
Hibs at Ibrox, & being crudely abused by strident blonde ‘lady’ who knew the full
lexicon of anti-Catholic insults.
‘Was that really necessary ?’ he inquired.
‘ Ach, It’s nothing personal, son,’ says his assailant, ‘ I work wi’ yer auntie doon
at the Co-op. It’s jist whit we dae at the fitba’.
Sadly, that is the mindset of most of the mindless bigots.
All bigots are not Huns.
We have our share of them too.
St Martin’s Bhoy, I hear you.
Folly Folly, indeed.
yogijunior3, times are a changing.
kevinlasvegas, cheers.
starry plough, Salmond will regret opening his mouth in the first place.
SFFS, :-)
Eurochamps67, many thanks.
TinyTim, deleted, link too long for the page.
greenjedi, deleted, see above.
Lawrenzo, yes, if he cannot stand on principle with this one, you have to wonder what would happen under independence.
quonno, yes, he could have chosen not to speak last week.
KINGLuBO, aye.
VertWolf, yes, that would also work.
TinyTim says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:15
I was also at the 4-2 game but in the Celtic end-it was obviously a long time ago but my memory of it was that there was plenty of room and
nowhere near full.Wasn’t there a bus strike or something?Remember walking home to Burnside and being absolutely gutted it wasn’t on the box!(Another strike?)
Maybe this fact makes it my best ever game as apart from some amateur film it is all down to memory! Don’t shoot Murdo….GOAL!!!!!
Gordon_J
Don’t worry about that Bolt guy, he’s really Richard Branston, so he must be nearly 60
greenjedi says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:08
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:04
St Martin’s Bhoy, kitalba,
I’m in training, but people keep telling me about some guy called Bolt. Sounds a bit made up to me – wonder if he is any good?
…………….
Didier could take him
…….with a certain “Gabon International” on his back!
Rieperman says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:09
What is the Stars says:
20 February, 2012 at 10:11.
I’d just like to echo your point about Pat Fenlon. How on earth can we move forward or expect others to move forward when people who have the courage to cross the divide are called huns by their own?
Hunnish attitudes prevail on both sides it seems.
———————
Bo**ocks – Are you trying to portray Fenlon and Johnston as a Ghandiesque figures that tried to heal divides and were at the forefront of smashing the walls of sectarianism. Utter tosh. To try and criticise someone who shows up Fenlon for what he is, an Uncle Tim of the 1st order, by accusing those who would out individuals who willing chose to take the tainted shilling and say nothing about the institutionalised sectarianism within the club and the NI state as acting like a HUN is in itself a Hunnish trait indeed.
Livibhoy
I had the fortune of seeing the hoops knock out Barca in 2004, the game 2 young Celts excelled in the camp nou, young David Marshall and John Kennedy played with hearts the size of Lions.
I had been saving up for this trip and when the day came to leave Glasgow on the morning of the game I was like a kid on Christmas morning, I met with the bhoys and headed for the airport, all the while clutching my match ticket and staring at it with dreams of glory, When we got to the terminal one of the bhoys said “put yer ticket in yer passport, you wont lose yer passport so in turn yer ticket will be safe”, I thought I like yer thinking amigo and did just that. We all know that a Euro trip away is something to be treasured, well believe you me, I fecking treasured pint after pint and was quite truly merry when we landed in sunny Spain (until about 1 pm, then it was belting down), We made our way through the concourse and along to passport control and out onto our bus, as we sat on the bus heading to our hotel, all the bhoys started to talk about their seat allocations and who had been sitting where, I reached for my passport and and my ticket…………………..Feck!! No ticket, it had gone, in my excitment and young enthusiasm I had lost the thing I had worked for most in the last few months, I was Gutted and obviously the bhoys where having a great laugh at my expense, I wanted to just start walking home. As it so happened the lads managed to get me a ticket and even chipped in and paid for it so I could take in Barcelona’s culture and hospitality, my ticket was for the Barca end and I was assured that I would be fine as they are Celtic friendly and would welcome me without aggression “aye very good”, I was shouted at and abused as soon as I had taken my seat, 3 old boys took it upon themselves to be my body guards for the evening and made sure the young element stayed well clear, that was fine until the final whistle sounded and we had knocked the mighty Barca out the cup, oh deary me, my ageing body guards could do little as I was punched and kicked and even one young fan spat right in my face, I have always loved Barca but still find that situation hard to take, I was bloody over joyed when I met back up with the lads and bhoy did we party. But if I had the choice I would do it again.
That was my own fault but an away experience I will never forget.
Hail Hail.
Phil MacGiollaBhain @Pmacgiollabhain Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Excellent source: “fraud squad sifting through massive amount of documents” only properly getting started today.
Tweet tweet..
Kittoch at 11:26
Don’t worry about that Bolt guy, he’s really Richard Branston, so he must be nearly 60
So Bolt is really Branston, what a pickle.
Mort
jay_mac79 says:
20 February, 2012 at 10:36
There used to be a bus from Dunfermline. It left from Jokers pub.
No idea if it still runs.
Tims on The Tube
Tonight on BBC 2 at 9.
My fear is the football authorities are not governed by enlightened people like yourself.
We will see what the next few years bring. I hope all opportunities are pursued to improve many aspects of Scottish football.
onlyonepaulmcstay at 11:28
That sounds very unfortunate. I was in the Barca end for the CL game in 2008 and had no problems.
Mort
P67
We won our first game against Rangers.
We won our last game against Rangers.
We talk about Neil McCallum now.
In 2124, our great grandchildren will talk about Joe Ledley
Joe – the Welsh Dragon – you are part of our folklore
hhplc
onlyonepaulmcstay says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:28
Same here ,I was in amongst the Barca fans,lost my mates
through drink,barca fans thought I was mad shouting for 90 mins
to kick the baw up the park.
Oglach
You know James Connolly was once in the Britsh Army
He was a right hun wasnt he
James McLean called up for ROI
hes from the north isnt he? or am i wrong
Another in a lengthening list of excellent blogs Paul.
Celticsoulbrother
I travelled in a supporters bus from Fife.
But i think that you are correct that there was a bus strike.
It was a lovely sunny Monday night i think.
We missed the kick off due to the cues to get in.
Infact my first site of the pitch was Alec MacDonald scoring for Rangers.
I think that it was after 8 mins.
Where i was down the front of the Celtic end,it
was jam packed ,and old bhoy next to me fainted and had to be stretchered out of the the Celtic end after the melee that ensued when Colin Jackson scored the own goal.
It may have been roomy where you were ,but it wasn’t where i was.
Bobbishop was with me that night.
It is my favourite ever Celtic match.
I too was gutted that the BBC lost the film footage.
TT
In with the opposition support:
Over the years (particularly when I was younger) it seemed the right thing (daft) to do when you couldn’t get a ticket.
Easter Road main stand & old enclosure – no problems.
Firhill & Tannadice main stands – bit of debate but no problems.
Tynecastle & Fir Park main stands – lot of aggression and vitriol.
Dunfermline – we were in the packed enclosure with our Bhoys but had 5 or 6 kids with us. There was a bit of crushing – cops took the 10 of us out at half-time and walked us round to the half-empty home end – nobody bothered us.
Liverpool – great banter and wished us well on route to Seville.
Blackburn – very unfriendly.
Man Utd – very threatening (3-2 game) from a crowd of their casuals – cops escorted us out of ground at full time.
The best laugh had to be the night of the Frank McGarvey winner v der hun. Their corporate/ reserve players used to get allocated a few rows in the bottom corner of the old main stand at CP. Mate got us 2 tickets through business connections – all was peaceful till Frank scored – I was the only one to jump up giving it pelters. Needless to say – never got tickets again.
Nowadays I stick to our end – feel safer in our own company!
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon says:
20 February, 2012 at 10:52
In life everything is possible but you are going too far with Chic Young!
Vogue/Mort
I was surprised myself, I suppose my elation and waving of scarf didnt help matters but hey, we just put Barca out the cup, lovely stuff.
Vouge
Ive just moved to Ruggy, never been up to the famous boozer, must give it a try, stayed in Cumbernauld most of my days and moved here about 2 years ago, was told it can be quite cleekish (sorry about the spelling)
Hail Hail.
St Martin De Porres at 11:35
Aye he’s from Derry but I don’t think he was selected for the most recent squad.
Mort
TinyTim says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:37
There was someone on the blog earlier asking about supporters buses from Dunfermline. Can’t remember the moniker but might be helpful if you could stick up some info’ if you have it.
There is a depressingly predictable piece of nonsense in today’s Scotsman about how undignified WE are!
Talk about defending the oppressors and vilifying the oppressed….Orwell wasn’t just an author….he seen the future.
St Martin De Porres at 11:35
I see he has just been called up now. Wonder why he wasn’t in the original squad.
Anyways best of luck to him.
Mort
onlyonepaulmcstay says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:39
Chapmans is the place to be (no offence VP). It’s also a shorter walk to the game.
Hailhailplc, yes, in years to come we may talk about that joe Ledley goal. I was there when……
Glenbuck, thanks.
onlyonepaulmcstay says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:28
I was at that game v Barca. You must have had a better view than me. I was up in the gods. Bobo was just behind us having been sent off in the first match.
He wasn’t allowed entry to the players section and was in with us. He was bouncing up and down with the supporters. Great sight. Big Bobo loves Celtic. Spoke to him and got a photo after the game. Total gentleman.
LB
onlyonepaulmcstay says:
20 February, 2012 at 11:39
It can be cliquish,all the Tims tend to stick together:O)
Mort (11:15): “Police tell me they will seek a fixture meeting with SPL if Celtic remain on course to lift title at Ibrox.”
The SPL fixture list leading up to the 25th of March sees Celtic facing Dunfermline & Motherwell at home and Aberdeen away, while Rangers face a visit by Hearts and trips to ICT & Dundee Utd. Celtic have won 15 SPL games in a row and should have enough in the locker to take full points from the next three games, while with the current state of affairs at Rangers it would not be particularly surprising if they were to lose in both Inverness and Dundee and if Hearts returned to Edinburgh with at least a point.
There is probably a half decent chance that Celtic will have already clinched the SPL Title ahead of their scheduled visit to Ibrox.
The one pity about Orwell, was that he turned out to have been feeding info to MI5, mostly on his ersatz friends.
What is the Stars @ 10.11,
Spot on!
Hope my support doesn’t embarass you too much.
Mort
Cheers
Has been very impressive great prospect