26th of foot

I sat immediately behind the goals, a dozen rows back. I noted Davie Weir sprinting off after the linesman after Hearts scored. He was demanding a flag, then he turned his attention to the referee. I think the linesman was Martin Cryans, certainly looked like him, and he has plenty of previous in this regard, involving Rangers.

Here's something that folks always ignore about Maggie. In late 1981, her Government announced that the Ice Breaker, 'Endurance' would not be replaced, the two frigates that stagged on in the South Atlantic were being withdrawn to Belize, and the Naval Party(Royal Marines) on station in the Falkland Islands were being reduced by more than 50%. The result in March'82 was a dozen Argentenian scrap metal merchants stepped on to South Georgia and began to dismantle the old whaling station. Without reaction, other than diplomatic attempts, the Argentenian fascist Junta invaded British Sovereign terrority and put 2,500 of Her Majesty's subjects under a totaltarian yoke. Recovery of the lands, liberation of the people, and restoration of the status quo cost in excess of 300 British servicemens lives. Maggie went on to win a further election on the back of her reaction to a situation; she was directly responsible for creating.

I believe the current News Editor at BBC Scotland is Diarmid O'Hara. Obviously, increasingly so, he is a man who sits extremely comfortably with his preferred prejudice.

Rather a Spiersesque approach! I believe Graham is promoting his founding of a new CSC for those wishing to express Metrosexual Balaclava Chic - Armalites and Catamites CSC. Another emotional outburst like above, may see an invitation to join being extended from the Botanical Truth fairy. Careful now.

Even after Neil Diamond had long left the comforts of the Brill Building, Rangers paid out a small Dividend to the club shareholders most years. At the height of Diamond's mid-seventies pomp and still retaining a lock of his own hair, Rangers persisted in rewarding those that invested in the club. Somewhere around 1980, Rangers refrained and Neil entered a quarter century period of little to no chart success. One of Diamond's creations was sang by the Monkees, 'I'm a Believer'. Ironically, the Monkees were a manufactured band, specifically created for the same named TV show. Our Dearest Leader is a manufactured Rangers supporter and these several years it has become harder to maintain the 'I'm a Believer' mindset. These last several years, finance or the mismanagement of it has played an increasing role in our continuing love affair with the club. Increasing disappointment has haunted all our dreams. As stated, it hasn't always been this way. We enjoyed halcyon days. My generation of football supporter regularly visited other grounds to watch other teams. Born and bred in Lanarkshire, I watched all the county sides, particularly in the early seventies if Eddie Turnbull's fantastic Hibs side were visiting. You got lifted over the turnstyle or you paid 10 pence for the Boys' Gate. I attended national cup finals that did not involve Rangers. It was the football that mattered, no one mentioned finance. In the mid-eighties, my professional life took me to London for a year. I would cross the river, like a few hundred other Scots and watch Brentford/Millwall/Charlton. It was a more recognisable Scottish experience. A dozen wee groups scattered around the terracing, all gathered around a big arm held radio tuned to BBC Radio scotland on the medium wave. A dozen arms would go up to your front and right, it was the expat Jambos celebrating an announced goal at Dens. Meanwhile, Millwall would be toiling against Bristol Rovers. Each of the groupings would experience the emotional rollercoaster of Saturday fitba. No one talked money. The cost of football would NOT allow the above paragraphs these last few years. There is a genuine lack of tolerance too. On Saturday last, I had three conversations with mates before kick-off and during half time on the concourse. The subject matter was unfailingly, 'the Bank'. Another product of the Brill Building was Carol King, her Tapestry album remained in the charts for over a decade. The opening track was a thumping piano power chord, 'I feel the earth move under my feet'. That's the emotion I prefer to associate with my Rangers.

Graham Spiers Sports Diary. I note those red, white, and blue cavalcaders have ceased dragging their collective knuckles, superceeding their favoured pastime by launching an in depth critique of the Peloponnesian Wars. I love a sword and sandal epic, heaving oiled bodies replete in leather and metal plate doing the macho thang. I am undone by the necessary violence of those short stabbing bacon bayonets. My salad days as a Divinity undergraduate at St Andrews was one long Greek Tragedy. As a homage to Cambridge Footlights, we formed East Neuk Catamites but alas the weekend Marathon from Elie to Crail threw up so few windswept Hoplites prepared to administer satisfying facial humiliation. My crie de couer on the Fife coastal path often went the way of tidal driftwood, I was prepared to impale myself on any spear. I urge my fellow Rangers supporters to disist from further study of the Peloponnesian Wars, extra virgin olive oil is a poor lubricant.

I believe the current situation goes back several years to SDM's two year sabbatical; remember John McClelland took over as club Chairman. In 2003, the club debt was established as being in excess of �£50million, and climbing. The Murray Group underwrote a �£15million Revolving Credit Facility, our owner took the 1% placement fee. Essentially, the club has been run with the support of the Revolving Credit Facility ever since. Last year's August spend of �£10million took us over the �£15million limit, triggering greater interest on the debt. With the retail sold off to JJB, miniscule TV/Media rights, our main source of income is season ticket sales. By December, marginal income is the norm, thus the Bank demanded Rangers make a bigger contribution to service the debt and the club hierarchy announced the firesale. If Arsenal do what Dynamo should have, then Rangers are guaranteed another �£2million from Champions League TV rights as the sole Scottish participant. This may steady a still rocking ship; however, such a position of weakness will ensure bids for McGregor, Boogie, Boyd, .......etc will be accepted, particularly in the last week of the transfer window. Reference the Revolving Credit Facility, Rangers must get the amount well below the �£15million level, because as the season progresses, we will be drawing on the residual to keep the club functioning. I suspect the Bank are very much running the club.

Everything about the behaviour of certain elements of the Rangers support in Portsmouth is in the public domaine. Currently, it's being raked over in both radio and newspaper phone-ins. It reinforces the impression that all the problems of Scottish football, can be neatly packaged and laid at the club door in Edmiston Drive. Lot's of folks continuing to sit extremely comfortably with their preferred prejudice. A team of wild horses would NOT succeed in ripping such a dearly held comfort blanket from their collective mouth. Meanwhile, on the same day at Eastlands in Manchester, the green'n'grey hooped horrors indulge in a normal away day. Dozens of seats are broken, the usual IRA kare-oke is presented in a well rehearsed gusto, and a brick lobbed by a Yahoo strikes a child. Both broadcast and print media entirely ignore these happenings because they do NOT fit the package. Last Thursday evening, Abergreen fans are involved in an incident involving tear gas canisters, we hear about this, it is presented as an attack on an innocent grouping of 40 Dandy Dons in an Irish themed bar in Sigma. Before the game, reports of heavy fighting in Sigma town centre between those lovable Dandy Dons and locals. Riot Polis are deployed and begin to swing batons. Reports end, nothing about arrests, reasoning, or outcome. Two maritime flares are set off inside the ground during the match, flares carried on aircraft from Aberdeen to Sigma. No reports during the match, no reports after the match; only comes to light because this event was included in the official UEFA report.

What's the difference between a Bean Counter and a Bean Grinder? A pair of comfortable shoes.

Craig, I feel it is increasingly obvious that our club is continually dealing from a position of weakness; hence, why I suspect �£2million is the tipping point for McGregor to walk down the marble staircase for the last time. Reference the club being held for ransom, the last couple of days of this transfer window might just provide the necessary indication of how weak our club is at this moment. Again, it's suspicion on my part and I hope I am wrong, truly; however if a bid of �£1million was received for McGregor and the weekly wage arithmetic is done by Murray/Bain???????

Reference the Alexander/McGregor debate, realistically it's all about expediency. If Rangers can attract a bid of around �£2million for McGregor, then he's off. The club desperately need the dosh, they get another player earning in the region of �£25,000 per week off the wage bill, and Alexander is a most able replacement. The nearer we get to the end of August, then I suspect a few English clubs will begin to bite. Of course, a possible bid might carry the demand that McGregor plays a couple of games for the potential bidder to view. Walter, then has a decision. The times we live in!

I think you are confusing Charlie's fee, which is �£500,000 with the proposed fee offered and accepted(�£200,000 from Plymouth) for Alan Gow.

I suspect Charlie's goals to games ratio, for a wide left midfielder is more than decent? Maybe, another poster can provide said information? Charlie was a heads up player, knew the options available. Even whilst receiving the most undeserving of comments from a section of the Rangers support, he never hid, always available to take a pass. Good luck Charlie, as a professional footballer you will continue to make a good living from the game and I know you will not miss an opportunity to thank Rangers for providing you with the necessary skills and application.

................. and we recouped �£750,000 when he left. Andy walker betrayed himself on Radio Snyde last evening, "ah like him, good movement, comfortable with his back to goal, will provide the foil for Scott McDonald, but looks like he has no confidence in the box ..........mmmmhh". That mmmmhhhh was the sound of reappraisal.

All that inner balance, ying and yang, transcendental weighted equations, life based harmony, .......................... pysh demands a daily/weekly mantra. A cerebral comfort blanket to get you through times on an even keel. Maintain your centre and you will maintain your focus. With the above in mind, I have settled on the next week's balanced approach - 'a third choice manager results in third rate performances'. I have related this to a few Yahoo aquaintances, iot has the desired effect. I am reinforcing it with, 'MAF is NAF'. Call me Marko(Mark Antoine Fortune) looks promising in providing short term(and let's all hope that morphs into long term) hilarity for us and excrutiating embarrassment for ra Yahoos. Bears, find your centre and hugely enjoy the next week.

BBC Scotland's love affair with their beloved green'n'grey hoops has become increasingly apparent this last decade. Remember Suvul, BBC Scotland driving an open top double decker bus over to Anduluzia, nearly 150 staff joined the junket, and Queen Margaret Gardens operating on a skeleton staff for a week. A succession of Sports Producers and News Editors at Beeb Scotland have ensured a Rangers hating ambience. Truly, ra Sellik are the Establishment club.

The first Rangers teams were full of willing teenagers, their absolute enthusiasm more than compensated for their lack of game nous. In the early years from playing on a the flood plain at Fleshers' Haugh, through Burnbank, to Kinning Park, the young Rangers attracted crowds in excess of 2,000(considered huged by comparitive standards). Rangers were NOT successful in their first 20 years, a few losing Scottish Cup finals, plus a few minor cups; why did these crowds continue to turn out? It was the way Rangers attacked the game, Moses McNeil(the club's first internationalist) is the epitome of what we are attempting to get at here; he was a strong running inside forward/winger that drifted past opposition lunging tackles. When he was dispossessed, he tackled back with venom despite being callow and half the weight of his opponent. Rangers were often recorded in the newspapers as playing the game in, "a light and speedy manner". A big part of popuarlising the game in the late Victorian era was through cigarette cards and postcards(both given free with the purchase of a packet of coffin nails and newspapers). Each club would be depicted in the way they approached the game, Rangers were always portrayed by a young athletic player running at full tilt with the ball at his feet, the underlying strap line was always, 'Rangers - the Light and Speedy Blues'. It became journalistic and Bluenose shorthand to refer to, "the Light Blues". Thus, nothing to do with the colour, or the depth of blue hue. It was game approach, a light and breezy style that attracted large crowds. The Rangers approach perculated through the club, the second eleven were known for 60-70 years as , 'the Swifts' - darting, rolling, balanced, swooping, turning, ........................... etc We should be proud of our original nickname, it should endure; we are the Light Blues - absolutely.

Professional Youth football is competitive and in my opinion, exciting to watch. Reserve football is truly awful and rarely offers worthwhile opportunity. A first team regular needing games to regain fitness is it's only real value. The Andy Websters of this world treat reserve football with no respect, they barely achieve quarter pace. Even Youth players stepping up are subjected to the unprofessional attitude of seniors who should know better. The only future for Rangers Reserves is to get them into Division 3. If this doen not happen, if it's not on the immediate radar, then bin the Reserves and ensure all the club's concentration and resources(after the first team squad) are poured into Youth football, it's far more important.

Moscow Dynamo were the much preferred club of the old communist Soviet secret Polis, the KGB. When we won the ECWC in Barcelona in 1972, considerable tensions arose because Spain was a fascist state under Franco. When the Bears entered the field to celebrate winning the cup, the Guardia Civil(Spain's paramilitary Polis) were immediately determined not to be seen to be losing control by a Euro wide TV audience, particularly those watching in the Soviet Union. The TV plug was pulled and batons were wielded. Being old guard KGB will not help Dynamo, Peter Lawwell and his on message press-pack will be more than a match for them in the dirty tricks department.

Seriously, one must feel for Australia. Everything that flies, crawls, slithers, swims, .......etc will bite you, sting you, kill you. Salt Water Crocs, Fresh Water Crocs, Taipans, King Browns, Funnel Web Spiders, Box Jellyfish, Sea Wasps, Sea Crates, Sea Snakes, ....................etc are joined by the most toxic predator on the face of this good earth - the Yahoo.

Colin Hendry is a big Bluenose from a big Bluenose family. He realised a dream in his one season at the club, winning a treble and NEVER letting the club or the support down. He was treated appallingly by wee Dick. I believe Colin and Denise have four children. I hope they find support from the greater Rangers family.

When Fergie moved to Dunfermline, there was a notorious 0-0 draw at East End Park against Spiers green'n'grey heroes. Fergie was routinely abused in a sectarian manner. MON was indignant after the game, saying Fergie was old and big enough to take all sorts of abuse. Now, the full attention of any Hack should have been on MON's refusal to deal with the specifics of the sectarian nature of the abuse. Spiers lead the charge of mitigation, his Herald report included the line, "Ian Ferguson has all the charm of a child molestor". At that point Spiers lost any right to stand on the moral high ground and pontificate on sectarianism in Scottish football. He was at the game, he witnessed it, he chose to stay in MON's good books and run interference. At the end of that season, ra Sellik rewarded all on-message journos with a slap up bash at One Devonshire Gardens. All the usual suspects were in attendance, Glenn Gibbons, McCara, Kevin McKenna, Keevins, Cooney, Delahunt, ...............etc Spiers was invited too and attended. Spiers deserves every ridicule aimed at him, he has appeared twice on TV, on Scotsport and on Tam Cowan's Offside. On both occasions he regaled the audience with a medley of Elton John melodies. Spiers is a graduate of Divinity, his old man is/was a Baptist Minister; he knows the devil is in the detail. Thus, "Ian Ferguson has all the charm of a child molestor", what's his motivation for such a statement?

We took the Strathclyde Uni Union mini bus to that game, 22 of us in a sixteen seater. We were uber confident, Stewart Kennedy in goals, Alfie Conn in flowing locks strutting the midfield, and Derek Parlane up front. Conn had a decent game and Parlane was unlucky with a shot that hit the post. As for Kennedy? I continue to see him wrapped around the post, the ball behind him in the net. We were 3 down in no time, a Bruce Rioch penalty brought us some hope, onlt to concede another two. It was a 5-1 humping. Like every other Scot, we had all retired to the Wembley bars(behind the stands), downing warm bitter from plastic tumblers. The mini bus returned with only 18 on it, everyone of us had reviewed our appreciation of Stewart Kennedy. His performance that day, totally destroyed his confidence, he did not look like an international keeper after the Kev'n'Trev show.

You should also include Colin Stein. I saw Colin play 45 minutes in goal for Rangers at Ibrox in a Glasgow Cup tie. He managed a clean sheet, in a 3-0 victory.

Before Woods, it was a toss up between McCloy and Nicky Walker. I don't think the Bears ever really appreciated the Big Gas Meter? He arrived at the club from Motherwell, in a deal that saw Brian Heron and Bobby Watson going to Fir Park. The goalkeeping situation at Rangers prior to McCloy's arrival was transient. Norrie Martin, Eric Sorensen, and Gerry Neef had competed for the number one jersey for three years, all failed to establish themselves long term. Big Peter had a poorish start, the team suffered a few unexpected away defeats and he was blamed. A low struck shot from distance at East End Park had evaded him and immediately it was a case of, 'he's too big, cannae get doon tae low shots'. His form improved and the team's too, 1971,72, and '73 saw three trophies arrive. During his 16 years as a Keeper at the club(he spent another few years as a youth coach), he was challenged by Stewart Kennedy, Jim Stewart, and Nicky Walker. Both Kennedy and Stewart were international Keepers, but Big Peter always survived. He made 533 appearances, 230 shut-outs.