READING through some tweets on Saturday night I found a clip showing Rangers players about to run up the tunnel at Ibrox ahead of their game against St Johnstone.
The footage appeared genuine enough, with a cry of ‘come on Rangers’ and few hand claps registered to help them on their way. On the day, Rangers lost 3-1 to the Saints, their first defeat at the hands of the Perth side at Ibrox in the league since 1971.
Normally, I would give such a thing a cursory glance. But watching it again, that small video summed up so much of the current malaise at Rangers.
There have been dozens of similar clips over the years, and many will have witnessed them. There are also some that were never for public consumption. Put it this way, if they were made available, one or two former Rangers players would be answering police enquiries under current legislation.
Those battle cries were to fire up the Rangers players and intimidate the opposition before they even got on the pitch. On Saturday, it appeared the least wee noise might frighten the Rangers players more.
I don’t think for a moment that screaming in the faces of team-mates and rivals will guarantee you a win. But it might show those in the stands that you care about more than money.
WHAT constitutes legendary status?
For a striker, that title is usually bestowed only on those who have been prolific during their career. Former Wolves striker Steve Bull qualifies for that accolade, being the club’s record scorer, with just the 18 hat-tricks amongst his 306 career goals at Molineux.
I even saw him scoring for England against Scotland at Hampden.
It is nearly 20 years since he last played for Wolves, but today, you can still purchase a 2018 Steve Bull calendar.
Now, that’s what I call legendary status.
IT is always heartening, I find, when experts get it totally and utterly wrong. It was therefore particularly nice to see Ian Beattie, the scottishathletics chairman, being so wide of the mark last Sunday evening as he predicted the outcome of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Beattie tweeted: “I don’t think Farah has a chance. I think it will be Joshua.” And this from a guy who watches and supports athletics all year round.
For the record, Mo Farah won the top honour, while heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua wasn’t in the top three.
And how did I call it?
Exactly the same as Ian. What good judges we are.
LAST Saturday evening it was the turn of Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes to deliver the sport during the BBC’s late evening news bulletin.
Having started with the tale of woe from the cricket Down Under, she then gave the now customary warning; "Match of the Day follows the news so if you don’t want to know what happened, please avert your attention now."
Approximately 0.96 seconds later, she gave the game away by telling us Manchester City had beaten Spurs 4-1.
I couldn’t care less. Trying to avoid the result of a specific match, like that episode of the Likely Lads, is pretty much impossible these days.
But finding the remote control to hit mute, or trying to leave the room in that short space of time can’t be good for some of the more mature viewers.
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