26th of foot

It's all about the amplification. I am sure Mark Daly is already on the case? Regular phone-ins on the number of hospitals, schools, public transport services, .....etc denied by Sellik personnel non payment of taxes? MSPs raising questions at Holyrood, MPs laying down early day motions, and MEPs opining the need to dine in two Michellin star establishments because ra Sellik undermined their expenses budget? A Sellik tax case blog? Oh, I could go on, including face painters queuing at food banks; but we all know, those sound controls will be set and remain at zero.

Pete, If there are no takers, I am willing to do St Johnstone on Wednesday 26th October.

Today's result in the Challenge Cup. Now, I wonder how the Ginger One will react? After the Heroes of Bronby won one zip at Easter Road in the Europa Cup, Neil blamed the referee. After Dundee Hibs secured a 1-1 draw at Tannadice, Neil blamed the referee. Last week, after Ayr United won at Easter Road, Neil blamed the referee. Could Lennon and Stubbs(Rotheram are bottom) be jobless before the nights get dark? Further, I hope Neil is not reverting to established behaviour and subjecting his current partner to another round of domestic abuse?

Rangers won their second treble in season 63/64, just before my time. The next ten years saw Kilmarnock win the league, followed by ra Sellik's nine-in-a-row. I attended Rangers Scottish Cup final victory in '66, a 1-0 replay win. It would be nearly five years before our next cup success, the League Cup victory, again the same score over the same opponents. It's famous for a 16 year old Derek Johnstone heading the winner in front of over 100,000 fans. Those five years were hard to endure; however, the opposition was tough. Both Killie and Dunfermline had reached Euro semi-finals. Sellik won the European Cup in '67, Rangers lost out to Bayern Munich in Nuremberg 1-0 after extra time in the European Cup Winners Cup final, in the same year. Sellik again reached the European Cup final in '70, losing 2-1 to Feyenoord. Rangers lost out to Newcastle United in the Fairs Cup semi-final. The footballing standard was extremely high, and entertaining. I think I am right in stating that Rangers average home attendance was higher than ra Sellik's in nine out of ten of those fallow seasons? Post '70, Eddie Turnbull's Hibs side were a fantastic team to watch, and Rangers/Hibs fixtures would attract huge crowds. Rangers eventually won the ECWC at the third time of asking in '72, beating Moscow Dynamo 3-2 in Barcelona. Our run to the final saw us defeat the French, Italian, Portuguese, and German cup winners. In '73, we met Ajax in the first European Super Cup final, two legs, losing out 6-3 on aggregate. The football in viewing terms remained attractive and comparably successful, picking up a third trophy in 3 years by winning the '73 Scottish Cup, defeating ra Sellik 3-2 in front of 126,000. The comparison between those fallow times and the early eighties would be the latter period was hard watching. Mostly, the team was turgid, and got worse as the season progressed. Remember, the Scottish League cup culminated by early November. We could usually be relied upon to remain spirited until the festive period. I was home on leave January/February '80/81 and managed to see two home games against Morton and Dundee United. Both played on hard pitches on a Saturday and Tuesday evening. Both attendances were under 20,000, both defeats 0-1 and 1-4 respectively, and we were comprehensively demolished in football terms. Out thought, out run, out played, out .............. down and out inside our most modern new stadium. When John Greig vacated the management seat at the top of the marble staircase, Rangers successfully pitched for both Alex Ferguson, and then Jim McLean to take over. Both huge Rangers men, Govan born'bred Ferguson had played for the club, but both returned to Aberdeen and Dundee United and telephoned the club the next day to relate their change of decisions. A panicked approach to Jock Wallace was a face saver. In one hundred and eleven years, Rangers had only had seven managers, no one had ever refused the Ibrox call; suddenly, two men had done so in the same week. The arrival of Souness thirty years past relit a doused flame.

It was season 80/81. The competition was the Anglo-Scottish Cup. The first leg at Ibrox finished 1-1. The second leg on a rain soaked evening culminated in a 3-0 deserved victory for the Derbyshire side. Several thousand Bears traveled to Chesterfield and at the end realised things had changed. You must remember, in the previous 20 years, rangers had participated in four European finals.

Well remembered. I had forgotten the Cologne game was played on the Thursday night. Reference the bad guys, Gregor Stevens was the Rangers News player of the year.

On reflection, there was one important factor in the 78/79 season often forgotten. Quite simply, it was a truly horrendous winter. The snow fell thickly on Hogmanay and remained on the ground for the next ten weeks. There was a Partick Thistle/Albion Rovers Scottish Cup tie postponed in excess of twenty occasions. From the middle of March until early May, three fixtures a week was the norm, I think Rangers played a dozen games in the last four weeks, the Scottish Cup final took three games before Rangers vanquished Hibs 3-2. Further, I remember Rangers sending the reserve squad up to Pittodrie for two games on the one day. The first at 11am was the reserve League Cup final, the second at 2pm was a reserve league fixture. Talking of snow, our European Cup second round game, second leg at PSV's grouns was late November. We had drawn the first leg at Ibrox 0-0. PSV had NEVER been defeated at home in Europe. They had a wonderful side, including the Van Der Kirkoff brothers. I attended the game on the open terrace amid snow flurries. It was 2-2 going into the last quarter, the play had lengthened, but PSV were slowly dominating. Tommy McLean won the ball in the center circle, looked up as PSV's defence closed up on the offside, a deep running Bobby Russell ran through the back four as Calemero released a 40 yard diagonal pass. It was a foot race between Bobby and the PSV keeper, the Ranger won and passed the ball into the net from 30 yards to make it 2-3. We saw the ball coming towards us on that terracing, and we danced in the snow before the ball crossed the line.

The equation of Rangers decline from '78 to the arrival of Souness in '86 relied on a number of variables, both constant and random. The redevelopment of the Stadium was a constant over five seasons. It was paid for by the Rangers Pools, the biggest in the UK. Wallace's resignation in '78, after his second treble winning season was a surprise, it remains a subject of continued speculation. Clearly, Waddell prioritised the redevelopment of the stadium and as thus, stymied Wallace's European ambitions. Remember, in Greig's first season(78/79), we won both cups, lost the league in the penultimate game at ra Piggery, and reached the European Cup quarter finals. Brian Clough thanked Rangers for easing Nottingham Forrest's progress because we eliminated successive favourites, Juventus and PSV . After several seasons of finishing fourth/fifth, and regularly picking up the League Cup, thus securing European football; Lawrence Marlborough had succeeded to be majority shareholder. He wanted to relocate to Lake Tahoe and pass the club on to someone prepared to take it forward. He installed David Holmes as CEO, and demanded the club be successful to make it a more attractive sale. Souness arrived from Sampdoria, stunning all of Scottish and British football. We signed England's keeper, Captain, and our season ticket sales tripled.

Reference the incident involving Neil Lennon at Tynecastle. The PF decided to include the aggravated addendum to the Breach charge on the evidence of of one witness. The security firm's Supervisor standing at the mouth of the tunnel claimed he heard the 'F' term being shouted. The other dozen people in the immediate surrounds, including the 3/4 that wrestled the assailant to the ground, did NOT hear any sectarian remark. The Police report to the PF advised an ordinary Breach prosecution. The PF went for glory. Actually, the security firm 'Supervisor' was a much more senior figure in the company and had specifically requested the mouth of the tunnel position, he believed he was responsible for Lennon's safety. Of course, it turned out that the Supervisor was a season ticket holder/share holder in ra Sellik. His Jodrell Bank hearing and an aspiring PF denied Lennon proper justice.

Rangers 2 the Mighty Maryhill Magyars 1. FGS : Waghorn.

I suspect Gerry Braiden's dull west Belfast tones are currently whispering in Brendan's lug, "here's the vicTIM card Brendan, play it quick, play it often". BT Sports, Crass Sutton will agree with Brendan's sentiments, once he's been told to do so.

As stated yesterday, Braiden's original article is up there with Phil McFournames essay, 'the Incubator'. Similarly, Braiden should be identified as, 'tarred with the sectarian brush'. The Herald should carefully consider Braiden's role at the blatt, going forward.

I suggest the Bears condemned to visit the hill of dung, clap along on the 12th minute. Perhaps sing along with, 'if your'e happy and you know it'?

Gerry Braiden is the Herald's long term Local Government correspondent. When the Herald requires a bitter tinge in it's copy, both Gerry and Neil Cameron are the go to men. Michael Briggs, better known as Alfie Briggs has given Gerry what he wanted. The problem is that old journalistic maxim, 'if your'e accurate, you'll be objective' has been completely ignored. As has been stated, Barton is a member of the National Secular Society. Of course, the Herald has previous in this regard. A decade past, the then Literary Editor, Hugh MacDonald did a double page piece lionising AC Milan's Kaka for his philanthropy. At the heart was his rc conditioning, charity and good works being pillars of his faith. All of this in a build up piece to Hugh's green'n'grey hooped horrors playing Milan. The correspondence poured in, pointing out Kaka was a born and bred member of Brazil's fastest growing church, evangelical protestantism. Reference Gerry's piece, it's up there with Phil McFournames signature, 'the Incubator'. Sadly, Gerry will be proud of it,

Three weeks suspension appears to be the club kicking this particular can, further on down the road. If Barton returns to the dressing room, this will occur again, and again. His past is a weight he struggles to bear, all the various coping courses he has undertaken, have conditioned him not to bottle up his emotions. Keeping it all in, leads to serious frustrations for Joey, and he blows. Thus, he emotes, continually. He gets it all out and lets everyone else deal with the consequences. Joey perceives his sin to be clean. He can venture on to Talk Sport(he must emote) and sling a comfortable line about doing nothing wrong and the action taken being strange. Again, that's about his equilibrium. Joey can do individual discipline to a point; however, participating in collective discipline .......................? Joey will launch his autobiography entitled, 'no nonsense' tomorrow evening unfettered by club commitment. He can blame all his past bust-ups on all the other participants. The media will eat it up. Extrapolating, I suspect Joey will go on to trash Rangers and Scottish football in the next three weeks, and the media will eat it up. Maybe, Joey should change his autobiography to, 'No Sense'? I have just watched Chris McLaughlin on BBC Scotland purring reference Barton's purdah, the player is no longer welcome at Ibrox or the club's training ground". Chris stands upon the Hinshelwood waste ground echoing the phraseology that preceded his coventry. I suggest the club kick Joey into the Hinshelwood long grass beside Chris, they could form a self-help group.

Yesterday on BBC Radio Scotland; Richard Gordon, Wullie Miller, Scott Davie, and Alan Preston were all desperate for Aberdeen to win at Dens Park. Rheinhart and Wullie are Dandy Dons, thus okay and they added the bonus of going ahead of Rangers on goal difference. Again, Biscuits Preston had the BIG hard-on because he believes a victory at Dens will kick start the Dons season and set them up nicely for next weekend. Rheinhart countered with, "we have St Johnstone first up in the League Cup". Biscuits shrugged it off, "no matter, Aberdeen have too much pace and width for Rangers". Now, I believe Scott Davie to be a Raith Rovers fan; however, he adds he is looking forward to next Sunday's fixture at Pittodrie, "enormously". That well rehearsed, repeated phrase, "due to the ongoing problems between Rangers and the BBC" is becoming a euphemism for 'fill your boots'. Still, as H-u-n scum, we should know our place.

We won the cup that year, it was my first Scottish Cup final(the replay). King Kai's 25 yarder. Singing Kai aye yippie yippie aye, singing Kai aye yippie yippie aye, Singing Kai aye yippie Jock Stein's a fcuking hippie Singing Kai aye yippie yippie aye.

As stated on Footiechat, we must remember the mantra of BBC Radio Scotland that, "Sellik are doing it for Scotland".

Remember Gersnetters, BBC Radio Scotland have been at pains to continually inform the listenership that, "they're doing it for Scotland".

Ross County is a blank canvas, I don't think we have ever played them in a league fixture? Further, is this their first visit to Ibrox? You can paint your own picture, well done for volunteering.

That's it, ra Sellik are in the clear from the footballing authorities. The effigies and banners did not exist. Similarly, 4 weeks past at Tynecastle, the SPFL Delegate, Ricky Gray's report was delayed for ten days, and some say amended to edit out the travelling supports IRA karaoke.

Do we know the identity of the SPFL Delegate on Saturday?

If you remember four years past, Sellik demanded a bank transfer of the necessary funds to cover the cost of the 8,000 allocation. They didn't believe we had access to said funds. Thus, I suspect something similar remains in existence, monies handed over before tickets delivered. Obviously, Rangers recover the funds from those allocated the tickets. Refusing the allocation would almost certainly allow them to sell those tickets on to their non-season ticket support.

I hope the club put the Match Commander, Brian McNulty under specific pressure reference his immediate post match comments. Further, both the current Justice Minister, Michael Matheson and recently retired Lord Advocate, Frank Mullholland were in attendance at the game. The club should request the one out of 129 MSPs that supports Rangers, Murdo Fraser to formally ask the Justice Minister as to his take and direction going forward, on both the banners and effigies displayed?

I would much rather we refused the allocation for our next visit to Sellik Park.