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Oh dear, what a shame.

A strange year to be honest. Watching Rangers claim 55 was amazing. I don't care what people think of of SG. For me he delivered what he was here to do. He improved us on all levels and won the title. His departure could have been better but that's football. I'm old enough to not get too bothered by things like this. Hopefully we will work with a model going forward that relies on a clear vision rather than reactionary decision making when hiring managers. On a personal front, I changed careers. I moved from being self employed to the public sector during the pandemic and thank God I did. I can't even begin to imagine what I wouldn't be earning at this time of I was still self employed. It's crazy.

It’s Boxing Day. But at 3pm, many of the largest football grounds in the country will be eerily silent, apart from the echoing shouts of the players on the pitch or a handful of team officials on the side lines. Large stadia that are normally a cauldron of noise today with thousands of football fans will be standing empty. In the smaller grounds, the teams down the divisions will be welcoming reduced numbers of supporters following a frantic few days where multiple last minute changes have been implemented to comply with a new set of rules. Yes, severe COVID restrictions have once again been imposed on the nation’s most popular sport and pastime. Football is on the danger list once again, with health advisors and political decision makers deciding that there are simply too many risks around the national game. The normal average attendance of 5,500 at Motherwell’s Fir Park is too many. 1,400 at Gayfield in Arbroath too much of a risk, as is 670 at Montrose’s Links Park. However, just a few miles away from some of these empty or sparsely filled high risk football grounds, tens of thousands of people will be descending on shopping centres. The Boxing Day sales are underway. Retail outlets have cranked up their marketing as well as their sales and offers in order to attract as many people as possible to their stores. According to health advisors and political decision makers, that’s ok. No restrictions on numbers there. You would be forgiven for wondering why this is the case? Particularly when you factor in that football fans at games are sitting outdoors, and we have been told it’s safer than indoors, where of course most of the shoppers will be. How can sitting socially distanced outdoors at Forthbank Stadium in Stirling be more of a risk than shopping indoors at Silverburn? When asked about 50,000 fans at a game last week, government adviser Professor Jason Leitch said: “The outdoor experience at St Johnstone or Hampden – that doesn’t worry me particularly, but getting to and from it do.” Well unless shoppers at Silverburn or Braehead are teleporting in, why do the worries not extend into that environment? Shoppers will be using their own cars, like football fans do too. Many will elect to use public transport including buses and trains, again like football fans do. Some will use Park and Ride which is perhaps an additional risk to shoppers that football fans don’t face. Some additional aspects specific to football were cited as areas of concern, and these included queuing at turnstiles, toilets and snack bars. But surely those same concerns exist for shoppers? They will of course be faced with queuing, multiple times more than football fans do as they move from shop to shop. They will need to use toilets, they’ll stand in line at food outlets, they will have more interaction with products on the shelves and shop staff than anyone would have sitting in their outdoor seat at a football game for 90 minutes. The arguments don’t stack up and for the first time, I find myself starting to wonder if there is something deeper here in terms of an unconscious bias against football fans which despite all the money at the highest level, remains a working-class sport. Is it any wonder that there has been a hardening of attitudes amongst football fans over this past week as the new restrictions were imposed? Football has played a key role in fighting the virus right from the start. It shut itself down completely, well over a week before the Government imposed lockdown restrictions. When it wanted to restart, the employees (players) were all subjected to a weekly PCR testing regime. Very few other businesses PCR tested all their employees every week for nearly a full year. At an average cost of around £75 per person for around 30 people, this adds up. Multiply that across all teams in the professional game and you’ll see that millions of pounds were spent on early identification of the virus and limiting its spread. The contact tracing used by Scottish football went further than the standard Test & Protect. A specialist government Elite Sport Clinical Advisory Group (ESCAG) was established. Every case at a club is passed to the Scottish FA in line with written protocols and procedures. We’ve all had to learn about Annex 11 in our rules, and how this links to Regulation 3.10 for Target Groups 1 & 2 subject to Articles 103.1, 103.2, 103.4, 103.7 & 103.9. What does that all mean? It’s just the tip of a pile of rules and regulations that govern how we deal with COVID cases and prevention. Football clubs take this issue seriously, have put their money behind it, and continue to be part of the solution. As for the fans, they have every right to feel aggrieved. They have been let down. Let’s not forget that whilst many shops and businesses reopened to customers last year, football fans were not allowed to attend any games last season – not one. In order to finally get the ok to attend, they were told to get vaccinated, which the majority complied with. Bear in mind that a large proportion of fans are in a younger age group where there has been vaccine hesitancy. Not because young people are anti-vax, but because they believe themselves to be less vulnerable to the virus. Even when you put that aside, I know myself I thought I was bulletproof in my early twenties. However, many of these younger fans went out and got vaccinated anyway, sometimes in the face of peer pressure. They then downloaded their COVID passport, and ordered their Lateral Flow (LF) home testing kits. They did all this, because they were sold the message that if you do these things, that is your way out of restrictions, that is the route back to your seat in the stands. But they sit at home today, once again banned from football, despite complying with everything asked of them. Those that said getting vaccinated was pointless might just have won this latest skirmish. However, in the long term, getting vaccinated, and the booster is still the right thing to do, and it will no doubt be brought back as a requirement to attend matches in the near future. But for now, football fans have been let down, badly. Enjoy your day at the shops.

Hopefully any SNP voting Bears had buffering problems today.

His club are the reason we are 8n this shit-show - had they stick to their guns in 2020 then this omishambles would have been avoided. No sympathy for them, reap what they sow. By the way, did they ever get those glamour friendlies they were promised?

Decent performance but we should be humping these teams.

2 - 0 flatters them. I would say that when we are on top as much as we were today, we should be running up a cricket score.

A long way to go in this game but I thought that was really top drawer from Rangers in that first half. St Mirren parked the bus but we certainly provided plenty of variety and imagination to breach their defensive lines. Same again after half-time please.

Good article... https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/scottish-football-has-been-let-down-and-i-now-wonder-if-something-deeper-is-at-work-iain-mcmenemy-3507024 Scottish football has been let down and I now wonder if something deeper is at work - Iain McMenemy

Some of their quotes are absolutely ridiculous and hilarious - the one there is a good example. Being annoyed about how hard a striker hits a shot is preposterous.

Yes, but it takes quotes and tweets from real Celtic accounts and retweets them - it's a genius account !

Is this a parody site?

Agreed. That's a three 2-0 wins now that could have easily been 6 or 7 if we were more ruthless. Happy enough. 6 pts clear going into a winter break. I would have taken that at the start if the season.

Very happy with that. Yes, we should have scored more but the general trend is what the last month is all about. The Dec fixtures have been cut short but we have won them all and we have extended our lead. In that regard, we've been beaten in the league just once in 2021 which allowed us to win 55 and has given us a great platform to retain that championship this season. Difficult to ask for much more. Now time to relax and enjoy a wee break!

Bit disappointing we never scored more goals 2nd half, however we strolled that and it's another 3pts and a clean sheet. 6 points clear at the top

🤣

We have a terrible habit of falling out of game when we go ahead. Need to lift the tempo again.

Usually 2:30PM?

Decent line-up. Mon The Rangers! 🇬🇧

🤣🤣🤣

Aunty Beeb starting early today. Claiming the Tims are "depleted" for their match in Perth. Every player bar one is a first team player or an Ange signing.

Well, that was quite a year. After all we've been through as a club and as a support, we got our title, as Champions of Scotland, back. I doubted we'd ever get it, throughout the decade we struggled up the leagues and for the first couple of years back in the top division. May 2021 will live with me forever. What an outpouring of joy it was to see Tavernier lift that trophy. Since then, it hasn't been straightforward. We've lost our manager and his backroom staff but we have brought in a new man and from what we've seen, so far, there's nothing to be despondent about. We are top of the league and we look capable of reclaiming our title. I'm a happy Bear and I'm looking forward to 2022. I hope it's a year that brings more joy to us all. No Surrender. 🟥⬜🟦

Seasons Greetings to one and all.

Frohe Weihnachten!

Merry Christmas to all Gersnetters.

The Establishment Club. The SPFL Board aka Peter's Place Men decided upon the voting options available to the clubs in lieu of the onset of Covid variant, omicron. Neil Doncaster, Rod McKenzie and, Murdoch MacLennan provided the required analysis, the preferred options and, the get out of Jail free card(Dundee's John Nelm's spam folder) to the SPFL Board and assured Peter that ra Selllik's growing injury crisis was a most manageable problem. They were pursuing the common sense approach and were confident of the outcome. Sellik have cultivated a raft of politicos these last three - four decades, at one point the two Boards running the club contained a former Vice Governor of the Bank of England and three Cabinet Ministers. The Kerrydale Soup Kitchens were serving Vichyssoise and Bouillabaisse. Pottage dripping from his chops, Billy Bunter aka Ian Blackford furthered his Humble Crofter credentials, "the proposal to bring forward the footballing winter break is a sensible proposal". John Swinney was bad cop to Blackford's PC Murdoch, "the League Cup final may have been a super spreader and I urge football supporters to refrain from attending festive season fixtures". Look closely, the seemingly mixed message is the same message. The compliant Scotttish media was on message, the consensus among SPFL clubs was to utilise the winter break as a circuit breaker. Bringing it forward by a week was good sense, the only dissenting voice was as ever, Rangers. Of course, it was important last night's fixtures were completed and Boxing Day's matches be played in front of a maximum of 500 spectators at each game. Sellik could handle a Covid hamstrung St Mirren and bottom of the table St Johnstone, couldn't they? Pat Bonner explained on Sportsound, "every team will have played the same amount of games, no one will have an advantage". Last night's Sportsound was hosted by Big Dick; he was joined by Wullie Miller, Pat Bonner, Michael Stewart and, Alan Preston. Mikey thought the SPLFL decision was, "the sensible approach". Preston approved, "common sense has been applied" and, Wullie was comfortable being part of the majority, "it's only Rangers that see it another way". We were not informed of the other way but found out concurrently Aberdeen Chair, Dave Cormack was e-mailing Nicola appealing for a significant rise is allowed Boxing Day attendances. St Mirren Boss, Jim Goodwin was tasked with leading his lambs to ra Sellik slaughter and he was definitely off message. Strange, he had been photographed at Hampden on Sunday sitting in ra Sellik end with his son replete in green'n'grey scarf. Jim told us the SPFL had broken their own rules, bent over backwards to ensure the fixture went ahead, "I have been allowed to recall four teenagers from loan spells at Lowland League clubs but not the three more experienced loanees at League one and two clubs". He went on, "I have a bench with no Premier League experience whatsoever, there are several players in my dressing room meeting each other for the first time". After the match, when Karma prevailed the atmosphere on Sportsound was best described as 'choking'. Goodwin received some deserved plaudits but mostly there was an atmosphere of every shoulder being applied but Ange could not oblige. Big Dick left it to the end, "the League table looks like this, Rangers are six points ahead. Hibs move into the top six, Aberdeen drop out and St Johnstone are anchored at the foot". Everyone agreed the SPFL took the sensible approach but we never did find out what the other way entailed? As a BBC License Fee paying Rangers supporter, perhaps I can articulate : The Imminent Scottish Football Shutdown. Due to a new Covid strain called Omnibollocks which is unique to footballers, the SPFL look again to give into Sellik's demands and postpone all football until Sellik are happy. Symptoms of this new strain are pulled hamstrings from over exuberant goal celebrations against lesser opponents. Apparently playing AngeBall heightens risk of infection. Boffins claim this new strain first appeared at Sellik Park in 2008 after the club's post season tour of Japan. It may be an offshoot of Sportingintegrititus prevalent in ra Stade de Gadd at this time. It is not believed there is any connection to SeparateEntititus which has surfaced in connection with former employees spending time at Her Majesty's pleasure. Further, Sellik have proposed a contingency plan to the SPFL in case the league cannot be completed. Apparently, the true test of Champions is the ability to pass the ball more and it is accepted that points accrued is sectarian and anti-Irish. If Sellik's proposals are not endorsed completely, the club will make application to play in Palestine. Just saying like.