Tuesday 27th January 2009 - Co-operative Insurance Scottish League Cup Semi-Final

Saturday 31st January 2009 - Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League

 

 

 

If you don't take your chances, you don't win games. Celtic scored with their first shot on goal in the entire match, in the 58th minute. That sums up the grip that Rangers had on the game up till then. But with Boyd, Miller and Davis all missing really good chances, you just sensed the sucker punch was coming.

 

To be fair, it was like watching the 9-in-a-row season in reverse. Back in those days Celtic used to dominate the games, but Rangers had the cutting edge. Now it's gone full circle. Celtic have strikers who can score goals in big games. Rangers have Kris Boyd, who has scored one goal against Celtic in his career, and even that was an error by Boruc.

 

But hey, it could have been different. Had the referee not taken the easy option to disallow the Rangers goal when Broadfoot shoved Boruc, and instead given the penalty for Boruc wrestling Miller out of the way as he scrambled to get to the ball, you never know. And had the referee not taken the easy option to show only a yellow to Gary Caldwell when he chopped down Kenny Miller who was through on goal and about to shoot at 0-0, then again you never know.

 

But Rangers had their chances, and you can't ask for more than the chance that Ferguson laid on a plate for Boyd. 18 goals in 18 starts is all very well, but you have to perform in the big games and not just against the Motherwells and St Mirrens of this world.

 

So it's a long way back now. Will Rangers react to this result the way Celtic reacted to defeat at The Piggery in August ? Somehow I can't see us winning 12 consecutive games, but you never know. I can see Celtic doing it, though. I wouldn't necessarily say thet are a better team than Rangers, but they are unquestionably mentally stronger.

 

Rangers :- McGregor 7, Whittaker 5 (Novo 2), Broadfoot 7, Weir 6, Papac 7, Davis 8, Ferguson 6, Mendes 7, Adam 5 (Lafferty 3), Boyd 5, Miller 5.

(Subs not used - Alexander (gk), Dailly, McCulloch, Aaron and Fleck.)

 

Celtic :- Boruc 8, Hinkel 4 (Wilson 5), Caldwell 6, McManus 6, Naylor 6, Mizuno 3 (O'Dea 5), Scott Brown 8, Hartley 6, Robson 6, Samaras 7, McDonald 7 (Vennegoor of Hesselink 0).

(Subs not used - Mark Brown (gk), Loovens, Crosas and Hutchinson.)

 

Man of the match - A joint award to Steven Davis and Scott Brown.

 

 

 

 Can you see me ?

 

This will be much more than a match report, more my experience of the day. And what a day. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of my team being involved in such an occasion. I made sure I enjoyed it, because I may never get the opportunity again.

 

I rose at 4am, and TGO's car arrived at 5.10am to pick me up, and off we went. As soon as we joined the M74 motorway, it was incredible. Absolutely every car heading south without exception had Rangers scarves or flags draped from them, and some of the vans and lorries had too. The bridges had good luck messages draped from them as well. First stop was Tebay service area at 7am, which was a sea of red, white and blue. There we briefly met iainthemac05 and the rest of the car carrying the Ythanview Methlick RSC.  Then it was on to Manchester, after a brief stop in Rochdale to pick up a key for our digs. (Oh yeh, and a parking ticket for TGO. )

 

So then it was on to Manchester. We decided the best tactic was just to get the car parked and leave it for the day, so we got it into the all-day car park beside the stadium, wandered up to see where our turnstile was, and then jumped on a bus into town. Everywhere we looked were Rangers fans, and it was just beginning to dawn on me just how many of us were there.

 

We got off the bus in the town centre and headed round to the nearest Fanzone, i.e. Piccadily Gardens. This was about 11.30am, and it was already bursting at the seams. We knew by this point that iainthemac05 and crew had made their way to Albert Square, so there we headed as well and by the marvel of the mobile phone network we found them in amongst the biggest crowd of Rangers fans at an away match that I had ever seen in my life.

 

We basically stayed there for the rest of the day, popping out briefly for a pizza round the corner and several toilet breaks. (More several for TGO than the rest of us. ) The atmosphere was terrific, although some of the songs were of the undesirable nature, if I'm to be honest, but you'll never completely stop them I'm afraid. It wasn't helped by the official band on stage encouraging it by providing a backing group to a ned who climbed on stage to lead the party songs. But hey, nobody in the square was offended by it. Poles were climbed up and turned into flag poles, statues were adorned with Rangers regalia, and the square was just a happy place to be. I saw countless people that I knew, although gary-mc23 never quite found us unfortunately.

 

Eventually at 5pm TGO and I made our farewells to the guys and headed towards the stadium for the biggest match of my life. The stadium was awesome, although not as big as it should have been for such an occasion in my opinion. The sight of the Rangers support taking up 3/4 of the stadium was simply terrific, and the banners draped all the way round the upper tiers was brilliant to see. We felt particularly at home as the Brothers In Blue Shawlands flag was unveiled, and Toryglen True Blues and the Kings Park Loyal were either side of us.

 

The game itself was fairly predictable, and you've all no doubt seen it for yourself. We were always going to be up against it, and Zenit are a side on the rise big time, if they can hold onto their players that is. I have no complaints about the outcome, we were beaten by a better team, although when it got to 70 minutes at 0-0 I have to admit to beginning to believe it was our night. But those hopes were dashed soon after that.

 

Word started to filter through of trouble in the city with the screens and running battles with the police, and we just hoped they weren't true. Unfortunately as we all know, they were true. In my opinion there were many thousands of Rangers fans in Manchester who hadn't been to a game for years and didn't really care much about the reputation of the travelling support who go regularly to matches all over Scotland and the continent without any trouble. It was so sad, however I have to say Manchester simply wasn't prepared for the number of fans that appeared. They could have coped with the predicted 100,000, but for double to appear simply sent it over the controllable level. The policing during the day had been superb, and I had commented on it several times. It was just such a shock to hear what had happened after we left, although the trouble had been at Piccadily Gardens and not Albert Square.

 

After the game we simply decided, in the circumstances, that getting out of Manchester was probably the best idea. A curry was on the cards, but when that fell through it was a dodgy chippy in Rochdale and then bed.

 

Today the journey home was pleasant, and the motorway was full of Rangers fans again, this time Gretna services was packed but with slightly less booze being consumed.

 

I really hope I have this experience again. I made sure I loved every minute of it, because I may not be lucky enough. But I believe.........

 

Rangers :- Alexander 7, Broadfoot 7, Cuellar 8, Weir 7, Papac 7 (Novo 5), Hemdani 6 (McCulloch 3), Davis 6, Ferguson 7, Thomson 8, Whittaker 6 (Boyd 2), Darcheville 5.

(Subs not used - Graeme Smith (gk), Faye, Dailly and Adam.)

 

Man of the match - Kevin Thomson was the best Rangers player on the pitch.