In today's Off The Ball we'll be wondering if the pain will ever stop for Rangers, Queen of The South played their first ever European tie, Hibernian wish they still had the luck of the Irish and the Alba Cup throws up an interesting fixture.
It's not easy being a Rangers fan these days. OK, so you've won the league more times than any club in the history of the game and you've won more trophies than any club in the history of the game, you've also got one of the best stadiums in Europe (and one of only 2 in Scotland with a UEFA 5-star rating) and really don't face much competition domestically aside from some team on the rough side of Glasgow. A UEFA Cup final and two domestic cups last season, a rich chairman and a huge following - och, I dunno, life as a Rangers fan is rotten, I don't know why they bother turning up week in, week out. Admittedly, this week has been a bit rough around the edges, what with the humiliation of losing to the Hearts reserve side in Europe and then losing one of your best players. But sure, you'll get over it right? You've got some more money to spend on getting some players in, including that Dutch guy you've been chasing all year, the one that'll be the perfect replacement for that Spanish bloke, Carlos somethingorother.
Imagine then how it feels to read that your number one transfer target has decided not to join your team after all and, to make matters worse, he's signed for Celtic. Yes, Celtic have somehow managed to sign - the technical term for this is 'gazump' - Glenn Loovens from Cardiff City, right from under Walter Smith's blue nose. Just how cheeky is that? In a way you can't blame him really, Rangers are not exactly enjoying rave reviews at the minute. If you where a young player on the fringes of your national side, faced with choosing between going to a team that has won the league three years-in-a-row and still in the Champions League, and a team that's only competing for domestic honours and which seems to be under attack from a small, but vocal, section of it's own support, then I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate either, right? And then just when that wasn't bad enough every time you play Hearts, you'll be reminded of that night in Lithuania as the Jambos have signed 25-year-old Slovakian keeper Marian Kello from FBK Kaunus. Oh, when will the pain ever stop?
Queen of the South's adventures in Europe look like ending in the Qualifying round. The Doonhamers lost 2-1 to Danish side FC Nordsjaelland. Gordon Chisholm's team got off to a flyer by conceding a goal in the second minute, Sean O'Connor equalized on the half hour mark before Bernier put the Danes ahead again four minute later. So much for the game and Queen of the South's chances in the second leg, but what got our attention was the pre and post match interviews with Morten Wieghorst, Nordsjaelland's manager. In his 10 years in Scotland playing for Dundee and Celtic, he's picked up a bit of an accent. Listening to the man, you'd think he grew up somewhere along the west coast of Scotland, rather than on a island off the coast of Denmark. He was even throwing in phrases such as "the boy's done well", "he's came in", "at the end of the day" and "guff".
As an aside, Elfsborg, the team that knocked Hibernian out of the InterToto Cup before the season had even begun, where also in UEFA action last night as they played Irish side St. Patricks Athletic yesterday. St Pats are an amateur side, one for whom former Queen of the South and Hibernian player Neil Martin once played, back in the day. The final score was 2-2, and St Pats staged a remarkable recovery from 2-0 down to give them a good chance of getting through to the next round. What that says about Hibernian or St Pats or Elfsborg we're not sure: we're just doing our duty as blogger to report the facts - you lot can decide what to make of it.
The next round of the Challenge Cup throws up an interesting fixture. Aside from the fact that with one exception, all the teams still competing are First Division sides, the game between Clyde and Ross County is a repeat of the 2006 Challenge Cup Final, won by Ross County after a penalty shootout. For both sides it was their first ever Challenge Cup final and marked the end of a 48 year absence from any Cup final for the Bully Wee. Even more creepily, the sun, the moon and the stars have somehow aligned and put the teams together again this Saturday in the league! Elsewhere, the 7th of September fixtures sees Livingston play Partick Thistle, Cowdenbeath (sole representatives from the lower leagues) play Airdrie and Morton take on either Dunfermline or Queen of the South - that game will be played on the 20th August having been rescheduled to accommodate the Doonhamers European game. And a fat lot of good it did them.
Ok, that's it. Back on Saturday with more from around the touchlines of the game.
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