Continuing our series of great Scottish players from days gone by through the medium of cigarette cards, we take a look back at the career of Bob McKay.
30/10/2009
A week of Scottish woes
We're always thankful it's Saturday at Inside Left, mainly because it means a return to the terraces to enjoy watching the cream of our divisions tanning a ball around the park.
This week we're particularly glad that the weekend brings sense to bear, as this has not been a great seven days for the game north of the border. But then again, what week is these days ...
This week we're particularly glad that the weekend brings sense to bear, as this has not been a great seven days for the game north of the border. But then again, what week is these days ...
27/10/2009
Taxi for Laszlo?
As the saga at Rangers continues towards a potentially horrid (or amusing, depending on your allegiances) conclusion, Walter Smith is not the only one concerned at the lack of progress.
Over in Edinburgh things are not going according to plan for the Maroon half of the city, as Hearts gaffer Csaba Lazslo says he'll consider his options unless transfer funds are made available to help his struggling strikers.
Over in Edinburgh things are not going according to plan for the Maroon half of the city, as Hearts gaffer Csaba Lazslo says he'll consider his options unless transfer funds are made available to help his struggling strikers.
26/10/2009
26.10// The Scottish League Cup Preview
The dust has only just settled on the weekend fixtures, but there's not much rest for some of the teams, as the Quarter Finals of the Scottish League Cup takes place over the next two days. We preview the upcoming fixtures.
16/10/2009
Buckie Thistle v Inverurie Loco Works
Highland League sides Buckie Thistle and Inverurie Locos played in the first of a quickfire double header between the clubs at Victoria Park. In a tight game it was the Buckie Thistle, also known as "The Jags" who got the 3 points - Craig Macmillan's header on 66 minutes decided the match.
First Half
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6_gVf4l6sU&feature=sub
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLgOG6uqz4Y&feature=sub
Four days later, it would be Locos who emerged the winner in the Morrison Motors Aberdeenshire Shield when they reversed Saturday's result to record a 2-0 victory over their Moray coast rivals (and current holders of the Shield, a competition for 9 Aberdeenshire-based teams)
Ryan Broadhurst got the Locos of to a winning start when he turned in an Andy Bisset cross at the far post, and the game was put beyond Buckie when a hotly disputed 71st minute penalty was converted by Scott Buchan. Buckie's defender Paul Lamberton was later sent off.
Locos will play Fraserburgh for a place in the final.
First Half
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6_gVf4l6sU&feature=sub
Second Half
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLgOG6uqz4Y&feature=sub
Four days later, it would be Locos who emerged the winner in the Morrison Motors Aberdeenshire Shield when they reversed Saturday's result to record a 2-0 victory over their Moray coast rivals (and current holders of the Shield, a competition for 9 Aberdeenshire-based teams)
Ryan Broadhurst got the Locos of to a winning start when he turned in an Andy Bisset cross at the far post, and the game was put beyond Buckie when a hotly disputed 71st minute penalty was converted by Scott Buchan. Buckie's defender Paul Lamberton was later sent off.
Locos will play Fraserburgh for a place in the final.
15/10/2009
15.10// The Ballbag
It's been a while, but fear not dear reader(s), we're still here. Inside Left has spent most of the last week with the fysio working on a nasty shoulder injury as well as trying to get his back, well, back in order. The ravages of old age on this otherwise athletic body are being to play their part and every day things like walking, bending, moving and so on sure 'aint as easy as they used to be.
07/10/2009
In Days of Yore - Season 1989/90
With the international break on this weekend as Scotland take on Japan, Inside Left takes a nostalgic look back to 20 years ago today.
Scottish Premier Division Results, 3rd and 4th October, 1989
Scottish Premier Division Table
Rangers would go on to win the league by seven points. It would be the second win in what would eventually become their record equaling nine-in-a-row run of league wins. They wouldn't have it all their own way however: Aberdeen, the team that finished second that season would beat them 2-1 in the League Cup, and the Dons, managed by Alex Smith and Jocky Scott, would complete a domestic Cup double when they beat Celtic 9-8 on penalties.
Hearts would go on to finish third, equal on points with Aberdeen but with an inferior goal difference, with Dundee United leading a group of six teams all within five points of each other; Dundee would be relegated. Somewhat surprisingly for younger readers is finding Celtic, managed by club legend Billy McNeill in lowly 5th place; it would be their lowest league finish since 1977, though they came close in seasons 1993/94 and 1994/95 when the Hoops finished fourth on both occasions.
In the days when there where only three divisions in Scotland, the Premier Division, Division One and Division Two and you only got two points for a win, St Johnstone lead the old Division One by 1 point from Partick Thistle. St Johnstone would eventually go on to win the division, ironically just ahead of the two teams that no longer exist, Airdrieonians and Clydebank; the old Airdrieonians team in 1989 are at this stage still several years away from going under, but when, in 2002, they eventually do, they would take over Clydebank and relocate them to Airdrie to form the Airdrie United that's currently bottom of the Scottish First Division.
Also in Division One where a few teams that would make an appearance in the Premier Division and it's successor the Premier League at some point in the future. Raith Rovers (1993), Hamilton Academical, relegated from the Scottish Premier League the season before would wait until 2008 for their return to the top flight. Falkirk would win the First division in season 1990/91 to start a two season long run in the Premier Division. Albion Rovers and Alloa Athletic would finish the season at the bottom of the table, and where relegated to Division Two.
And in Division Two Kilmarnock, managed by Jim Fleeting, led the competition on this day in 1989. They'd eventually be pipped to the title by Berwick on the final day, but a second placed finish assured them of First Division status. At the end of the 1992/93 season another second placed finish saw them reach the now Scottish Premier League, where they remain to this day.
One final thing to notice: there's no mention yet of Inverness Caley Thistle. We will have to wait until 1994 for Caley to make their appearance following the merger of Caledonian and Inverness Thistle.
Division One and Division Two Results, this week in 1989
Saturday 7th October 1989 Scottish Division 1
Saturday 7th October 1989 Scottish Division 2
On 11th October, 20 years to the day that Scotland take on Japan, the national side, under management of Andy Roxburgh where still in the running for World Cup Qualification.
With two games to go before the end of the qualification rounds, Scotland travelled to Paris for the Group 5 game against France. The Scots lost 3-0, with goals from Didier Deschamps, Eric Cantona and a Stephen Nicol own goal, but results elsewhere went their way. A final game draw with Norway had the Scots finishing second in the group behind Yugoslavia and so assured qualification for World Cup 1990. France didn't qualify.
The Scotland lineup that night was: Jim Leighton, Stephen Nicol, Richard Gough, Alex McLeish, Maurice Malpas, Roy Aitken, Paul McStay, Murdo McLeod, Gordon Strachan, Aly McCoist and Mo Johnston.
Scottish Premier Division Results, 3rd and 4th October, 1989
Celtic 3-1 Hibernian
Dundee United 2-0 Aberdeen
Hearts 1-2 Dunfermline Athletic
St Mirren 3-2 Dundee
Motherwell 1-0 Rangers
Scottish Premier Division Table
1 Celtic 8 3 4 1 12 8 10
2 Motherwell 8 3 4 1 11 7 10
3 Aberdeen 8 4 2 2 7 5 10
4 Hibernian 8 3 2 3 10 8 8
5 Dundee United 8 2 4 2 11 11 8
5 Hearts 8 3 2 3 11 11 8
7 Dunfermline 8 2 3 3 10 11 7
8 Rangers 8 2 3 3 6 8 7
9 St Mirren 8 3 1 4 8 12 7
10 Dundee 8 1 3 4 11 16 5
Rangers would go on to win the league by seven points. It would be the second win in what would eventually become their record equaling nine-in-a-row run of league wins. They wouldn't have it all their own way however: Aberdeen, the team that finished second that season would beat them 2-1 in the League Cup, and the Dons, managed by Alex Smith and Jocky Scott, would complete a domestic Cup double when they beat Celtic 9-8 on penalties.
Hearts would go on to finish third, equal on points with Aberdeen but with an inferior goal difference, with Dundee United leading a group of six teams all within five points of each other; Dundee would be relegated. Somewhat surprisingly for younger readers is finding Celtic, managed by club legend Billy McNeill in lowly 5th place; it would be their lowest league finish since 1977, though they came close in seasons 1993/94 and 1994/95 when the Hoops finished fourth on both occasions.
In the days when there where only three divisions in Scotland, the Premier Division, Division One and Division Two and you only got two points for a win, St Johnstone lead the old Division One by 1 point from Partick Thistle. St Johnstone would eventually go on to win the division, ironically just ahead of the two teams that no longer exist, Airdrieonians and Clydebank; the old Airdrieonians team in 1989 are at this stage still several years away from going under, but when, in 2002, they eventually do, they would take over Clydebank and relocate them to Airdrie to form the Airdrie United that's currently bottom of the Scottish First Division.
Also in Division One where a few teams that would make an appearance in the Premier Division and it's successor the Premier League at some point in the future. Raith Rovers (1993), Hamilton Academical, relegated from the Scottish Premier League the season before would wait until 2008 for their return to the top flight. Falkirk would win the First division in season 1990/91 to start a two season long run in the Premier Division. Albion Rovers and Alloa Athletic would finish the season at the bottom of the table, and where relegated to Division Two.
And in Division Two Kilmarnock, managed by Jim Fleeting, led the competition on this day in 1989. They'd eventually be pipped to the title by Berwick on the final day, but a second placed finish assured them of First Division status. At the end of the 1992/93 season another second placed finish saw them reach the now Scottish Premier League, where they remain to this day.
One final thing to notice: there's no mention yet of Inverness Caley Thistle. We will have to wait until 1994 for Caley to make their appearance following the merger of Caledonian and Inverness Thistle.
Division One and Division Two Results, this week in 1989
Saturday 7th October 1989 Scottish Division 1
Arbroath 2-1 Dumbarton
Cowdenbeath 1-1 Brechin City
East Fife 2-2 Queen of the South
East Stirlingshire 3-1 Berwick Rangers
Montrose 0-1 Kilmarnock
Queen's Park 0-2 Stranraer
Stenhousemuir 2-1 Stirling Albion
Saturday 7th October 1989 Scottish Division 2
Arbroath 2-1 Dumbarton
Cowdenbeath 1-1 Brechin City
East Fife 2-2 Queen of the South
East Stirlingshire 3-1 Berwick Rangers
Montrose 0-1 Kilmarnock
Queen's Park 0-2 Stranraer
Stenhousemuir 2-1 Stirling Albion
International Fixtures
On 11th October, 20 years to the day that Scotland take on Japan, the national side, under management of Andy Roxburgh where still in the running for World Cup Qualification.
With two games to go before the end of the qualification rounds, Scotland travelled to Paris for the Group 5 game against France. The Scots lost 3-0, with goals from Didier Deschamps, Eric Cantona and a Stephen Nicol own goal, but results elsewhere went their way. A final game draw with Norway had the Scots finishing second in the group behind Yugoslavia and so assured qualification for World Cup 1990. France didn't qualify.
The Scotland lineup that night was: Jim Leighton, Stephen Nicol, Richard Gough, Alex McLeish, Maurice Malpas, Roy Aitken, Paul McStay, Murdo McLeod, Gordon Strachan, Aly McCoist and Mo Johnston.
02/10/2009
02.10// The Scottish Fitba Weekender
In the SPL, Hamilton and St Johnstone battle it out at the bottom of the league for the wooden spoon. Aye, we know, it's very early in the season for that kind of talk but there's been very little from either of these two sides to inspire any degree of confidence in their long term survival prospects. Hamilton fought hard to get something out of the game against Hearts last week, and where unlucky to lose 2 goals in a minute. St Johnstone are scoring at least, but until they start scoring more than the opposition, their stay in the SPL will be mercifully short. They lost 3-2 to Dundee United last week.
Hibs and Dundee United meet in what would have been one of our games to follow, had it not been for the Old Firm derby on Sunday. Hibs won some silverware this week in the shape of a Manager of the Month for John Hughes, and a Player of the Month award for Derek Riordan. The Hibee's are third in the league, level on points with Rangers. Dundee United find themselves in fourth spot after that win against St Johnstone.
Aberdeen travel to another one of they bogey teams, Kilmarnock. Killie inflicted a lot of pain on the Dons last season, something Mark McGhee will no doubt want to put right. Their performance against Rangers on Saturday showed some of the fighting spirit that's been lacking in many Dons performances this season, and McGhee's faith in the youth in showing some signs of being rewarded. If only the older players in the squad would do the same.
Killie drew 0-0 with Falkirk at the weekend in a game that's just not worth wasting any more pixels on.
What else? Motherwell against Falkirk and St Mirren against Hearts complete the SPL action on Saturday. Falkirk are finally off the bottom of the league, while Motherwell will have been disappointed with that 1-3 defeat to Hibs on Saturday. Both of these sides had been unbeaten going into the game, so something had to give. Hearts picked up three ,aluable points as their season continues to cough and splutter to get going. They meet St Mirren tomorrow, a team still looking for their first league win since moving to their new ground.
The semi-finals of the Alba Challenge Cup takes place on Sunday. Dundee take on Third Division new boys Annan Athletic, and Inverness Caley are given a chance to avenge the 3-1 defeat inflicted upon them by the boys from Dingwall earlier on in the season.
Annan Athletic chairman Henry McClelland has been busy this week telling everyone just why his side will beat the second biggest spending club in Scotland this week. Nothing to do with events on the pitch, but rather events of it. Allow Mr McClelland to explain:
"There is a primary school in Annan called Elmvale and in 2005, Brooks Mileson presented their end of year school certificates and within 12 months he was in a national final. In 2007, David Rae of Queen of the South did the honours and he was at Hampden within a year. I presented them in June this year so I reckon our place in the Final may just be around the corner.”
Right ....
Elsewhere, the Active Nations Scottish Cup continues with a series of replays.
Bonnyrigg Rose v Fraserburgh
Forres Mechanics v Buckie Thistle
Wick Academy v Clachnacuddin
Wigtown & Bladnoch v Whitehill Welfare
and there's a nearly full fixture list in both Division 2 and Division 3.
Scottish Third Division
Alloa v East Fife
Arbroath v Clyde
Dumbarton v Stirling
Peterhead v Brechin
Stenhousemuir v Cowdenbeath
Scottish Third Division
Albion v East Stirling
Berwick v Forfar
Montrose v Queens Park
Stranraer v Elgin
Lastly, no round-up would be complete without mentioning the UK's highest scoring league, the Scot-Ads Highland League. We've a derby game on our hands which we'll feature in our Four to Follow piece soon, but the legendary Fort William take to the field again, fresh from their 7-0 demolition at the hands of ace Junior side Auchinleck Talbot; they take on Turriff United. Strathspey Thistle, a Fort William in-waiting take on Lossiemouth. Banff side Deveronvale travel up the road to Nairn, and Huntly's game against Brora completes the action.
Phew.
Hibs and Dundee United meet in what would have been one of our games to follow, had it not been for the Old Firm derby on Sunday. Hibs won some silverware this week in the shape of a Manager of the Month for John Hughes, and a Player of the Month award for Derek Riordan. The Hibee's are third in the league, level on points with Rangers. Dundee United find themselves in fourth spot after that win against St Johnstone.
Aberdeen travel to another one of they bogey teams, Kilmarnock. Killie inflicted a lot of pain on the Dons last season, something Mark McGhee will no doubt want to put right. Their performance against Rangers on Saturday showed some of the fighting spirit that's been lacking in many Dons performances this season, and McGhee's faith in the youth in showing some signs of being rewarded. If only the older players in the squad would do the same.
Killie drew 0-0 with Falkirk at the weekend in a game that's just not worth wasting any more pixels on.
What else? Motherwell against Falkirk and St Mirren against Hearts complete the SPL action on Saturday. Falkirk are finally off the bottom of the league, while Motherwell will have been disappointed with that 1-3 defeat to Hibs on Saturday. Both of these sides had been unbeaten going into the game, so something had to give. Hearts picked up three ,aluable points as their season continues to cough and splutter to get going. They meet St Mirren tomorrow, a team still looking for their first league win since moving to their new ground.
The semi-finals of the Alba Challenge Cup takes place on Sunday. Dundee take on Third Division new boys Annan Athletic, and Inverness Caley are given a chance to avenge the 3-1 defeat inflicted upon them by the boys from Dingwall earlier on in the season.
Annan Athletic chairman Henry McClelland has been busy this week telling everyone just why his side will beat the second biggest spending club in Scotland this week. Nothing to do with events on the pitch, but rather events of it. Allow Mr McClelland to explain:
"There is a primary school in Annan called Elmvale and in 2005, Brooks Mileson presented their end of year school certificates and within 12 months he was in a national final. In 2007, David Rae of Queen of the South did the honours and he was at Hampden within a year. I presented them in June this year so I reckon our place in the Final may just be around the corner.”
Right ....
Elsewhere, the Active Nations Scottish Cup continues with a series of replays.
Bonnyrigg Rose v Fraserburgh
Forres Mechanics v Buckie Thistle
Wick Academy v Clachnacuddin
Wigtown & Bladnoch v Whitehill Welfare
and there's a nearly full fixture list in both Division 2 and Division 3.
Scottish Third Division
Alloa v East Fife
Arbroath v Clyde
Dumbarton v Stirling
Peterhead v Brechin
Stenhousemuir v Cowdenbeath
Scottish Third Division
Albion v East Stirling
Berwick v Forfar
Montrose v Queens Park
Stranraer v Elgin
Lastly, no round-up would be complete without mentioning the UK's highest scoring league, the Scot-Ads Highland League. We've a derby game on our hands which we'll feature in our Four to Follow piece soon, but the legendary Fort William take to the field again, fresh from their 7-0 demolition at the hands of ace Junior side Auchinleck Talbot; they take on Turriff United. Strathspey Thistle, a Fort William in-waiting take on Lossiemouth. Banff side Deveronvale travel up the road to Nairn, and Huntly's game against Brora completes the action.
Phew.
Scottish Football Week in Review
Saturday's fixtures provided no real shocks, with the results pretty much going the way of the form teams.
Celtic overcame St Mirren, a welcome win to get them in the mood for a much anticipated Europa League fixture later in the week. Rangers' preparation for the second game in their Champions League group on the other hand amounted to their third 0-0 draw in a row, this time against Aberdeen at Ibrox.
Falkirk got themselves off the bottom of the league following their 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock. Taking their place are SPL new boys St Johnstone who continued their excellent scoring record, but their defence continues to let them down as their opposition continually outscores the Perth side. This weekend was no exception: they scored twice, yet still lost 3-2 to Dundee United.
Motherwell and Hibs turned out to be an exciting enough game. At one point Hibs where playing a somewhat unusual 4-2-4 formation, something not regularly seen in football since the 1920's. It's that kind of cavalier approach to the game that landed John Hughes the Manager of the Month award for September. Hibs are now level on points with Rangers in third spot and could jump into second place should Rangers lose the first Old Firm derby of the season and Hibs overcome Dundee United. Hearts also moved up the table following their 2-1 win over Hamilton.
In the First division, we have a new leader. Queen of the South took advantage of Ross County's slip-up against Dundee to leapfrog the Dingwall side. The Doonhamers thrashed Dunfermline 4-1. Managerless Morton picked up their first 3 points of the season with a 1-0 win over fellow basement dwellers Airdrie United.
Inverness CT are continuing to make heavy weather of their First division campaign. Caley went down 3-2 at home to Partick Thistle. The battle of the promoted teams was won by Ayr United, Kenneth Connolly scoring after 12 minutes to secure the points against Raith Rovers. Despite their off-field problems, Stirling continue to do stirling work in the league. They 2-1 win over Cowdenbeath moves them 3 points clear of Alloa, who lost at home to Arbroath. In the Third Division, Livingston started the week with a win against Queens Park, but somewhat surprisingly lost 3-1 away at East Stirlingshire in mid-week in the re-arranged opening day fixture. Berwick continue to lead the division: they won 2-0 at bottom side Montrose.
In mid-week, our remaining European contenders took to the field once more. Rangers faced a tricky tie against Spanish side Sevilla. Given their less than impressive start to the season, there was plenty to be scared of. Rangers had a good first half and should have been awarded a penalty when Naismith was fouled by Konko but the referee waved play-on. How the game would have gone had Rangers scored first is a matter of debate, but what is certainly not a matter of debate are the four second-half goals in 25 minutes from Sevilla's Abdoulay Konko, Adriano, Luis Fabiano and Frédéric Kanouté that killed the tie very quickly.
The following day it was Celtic's chance to show-up their Glasgow rivals when they took on Rapid Vienna in a game much anticipated by both fans and press alike. The cause of the tension between these two sides stems from a bad-tempered European Cup Winners’ Cup game in 1984. Rapid claimed that defender Weinhofer was struck by a bottle thrown from the crowd. Despite claims from Celtic and the fans that the bottle had in fact landed quite some distance from the Austrian, UEFA forced the tie to be replayed (Celtic had won the original tie 3-0) at Old Trafford, which Rapid won 1-0.
The goal was scored by Peter Pacult, ironically enough the manager of the same Rapid Vienna side that came to Glasgow on Thursday. The 2009 version of this fixture ended in a 1-1 draw, with Rapid scoring after only 3 minutes when Nikica Jelavic took advantage of some slack defending in the Celtic penalty area. Scott McDonald later equalised for Celtic, but the result leaves them bottom of the group, after Hamburg's 4-2 win over Hapoel Tel-Aviv (the team to which Celtic had lost their opening game in the group).
Also taking place this week was the open forum debate into the state of the Scottish game. Inside Left had submitted some questions to the "Scottish Football Under The Spotlight" forum, but according to our delegate and fellow Inside Lefter Andy Kennedy, they never made it to the platform.
The main point we where interested in was the panels view on a pyramid structure. Our view had always been that most, if not all teams in the Scottish league system would welcome a setup that would allow them to promote themselves up the league and potentially the Holy Grail of the SPL (and the regulation poundings by the OF). Somewhat to our surprise, it seemed that most Junior sides actually thought the idea of upward mobility was not really in their interest. Most would rather win 'local' silverware and compete against their local rivals than against the likes of East Fife, Montrose, Dunfermline or Rangers.
It's an angle we've not though of before here. We always presumed that the removal of the glass ceiling that limited clubs ambitions would be high on the list of priorities for chance, but I guess we underestimated the level of ambition in the Scottish game.
But by far the most depressing aspect of the conference was the fact that the majority of those attending had little or no faith in the report that Henry McLeish was putting together and the impact it is going to have on the game. Henry McLeish himself knows that, like every other report before his own, his final report in nothing but a series of recommendations and that he has no power or authority to force those recommendations through the byzantine league structure, the very same league structure that has come under a lot of flak lately. In other words, it is unlikely that the turkeys will vote for Christmas.
A good write-up of the debate can be found at the excellent Voices of Football site.
Celtic overcame St Mirren, a welcome win to get them in the mood for a much anticipated Europa League fixture later in the week. Rangers' preparation for the second game in their Champions League group on the other hand amounted to their third 0-0 draw in a row, this time against Aberdeen at Ibrox.
Falkirk got themselves off the bottom of the league following their 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock. Taking their place are SPL new boys St Johnstone who continued their excellent scoring record, but their defence continues to let them down as their opposition continually outscores the Perth side. This weekend was no exception: they scored twice, yet still lost 3-2 to Dundee United.
Motherwell and Hibs turned out to be an exciting enough game. At one point Hibs where playing a somewhat unusual 4-2-4 formation, something not regularly seen in football since the 1920's. It's that kind of cavalier approach to the game that landed John Hughes the Manager of the Month award for September. Hibs are now level on points with Rangers in third spot and could jump into second place should Rangers lose the first Old Firm derby of the season and Hibs overcome Dundee United. Hearts also moved up the table following their 2-1 win over Hamilton.
In the First division, we have a new leader. Queen of the South took advantage of Ross County's slip-up against Dundee to leapfrog the Dingwall side. The Doonhamers thrashed Dunfermline 4-1. Managerless Morton picked up their first 3 points of the season with a 1-0 win over fellow basement dwellers Airdrie United.
Inverness CT are continuing to make heavy weather of their First division campaign. Caley went down 3-2 at home to Partick Thistle. The battle of the promoted teams was won by Ayr United, Kenneth Connolly scoring after 12 minutes to secure the points against Raith Rovers. Despite their off-field problems, Stirling continue to do stirling work in the league. They 2-1 win over Cowdenbeath moves them 3 points clear of Alloa, who lost at home to Arbroath. In the Third Division, Livingston started the week with a win against Queens Park, but somewhat surprisingly lost 3-1 away at East Stirlingshire in mid-week in the re-arranged opening day fixture. Berwick continue to lead the division: they won 2-0 at bottom side Montrose.
In mid-week, our remaining European contenders took to the field once more. Rangers faced a tricky tie against Spanish side Sevilla. Given their less than impressive start to the season, there was plenty to be scared of. Rangers had a good first half and should have been awarded a penalty when Naismith was fouled by Konko but the referee waved play-on. How the game would have gone had Rangers scored first is a matter of debate, but what is certainly not a matter of debate are the four second-half goals in 25 minutes from Sevilla's Abdoulay Konko, Adriano, Luis Fabiano and Frédéric Kanouté that killed the tie very quickly.
The following day it was Celtic's chance to show-up their Glasgow rivals when they took on Rapid Vienna in a game much anticipated by both fans and press alike. The cause of the tension between these two sides stems from a bad-tempered European Cup Winners’ Cup game in 1984. Rapid claimed that defender Weinhofer was struck by a bottle thrown from the crowd. Despite claims from Celtic and the fans that the bottle had in fact landed quite some distance from the Austrian, UEFA forced the tie to be replayed (Celtic had won the original tie 3-0) at Old Trafford, which Rapid won 1-0.
The goal was scored by Peter Pacult, ironically enough the manager of the same Rapid Vienna side that came to Glasgow on Thursday. The 2009 version of this fixture ended in a 1-1 draw, with Rapid scoring after only 3 minutes when Nikica Jelavic took advantage of some slack defending in the Celtic penalty area. Scott McDonald later equalised for Celtic, but the result leaves them bottom of the group, after Hamburg's 4-2 win over Hapoel Tel-Aviv (the team to which Celtic had lost their opening game in the group).
Scottish Football Under The Spotlight
Also taking place this week was the open forum debate into the state of the Scottish game. Inside Left had submitted some questions to the "Scottish Football Under The Spotlight" forum, but according to our delegate and fellow Inside Lefter Andy Kennedy, they never made it to the platform.
The main point we where interested in was the panels view on a pyramid structure. Our view had always been that most, if not all teams in the Scottish league system would welcome a setup that would allow them to promote themselves up the league and potentially the Holy Grail of the SPL (and the regulation poundings by the OF). Somewhat to our surprise, it seemed that most Junior sides actually thought the idea of upward mobility was not really in their interest. Most would rather win 'local' silverware and compete against their local rivals than against the likes of East Fife, Montrose, Dunfermline or Rangers.
It's an angle we've not though of before here. We always presumed that the removal of the glass ceiling that limited clubs ambitions would be high on the list of priorities for chance, but I guess we underestimated the level of ambition in the Scottish game.
But by far the most depressing aspect of the conference was the fact that the majority of those attending had little or no faith in the report that Henry McLeish was putting together and the impact it is going to have on the game. Henry McLeish himself knows that, like every other report before his own, his final report in nothing but a series of recommendations and that he has no power or authority to force those recommendations through the byzantine league structure, the very same league structure that has come under a lot of flak lately. In other words, it is unlikely that the turkeys will vote for Christmas.
A good write-up of the debate can be found at the excellent Voices of Football site.
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