Celtic Diary Friday January 30: Includes the words to “The Ibrox Disaster Song”

Courtesy of  Andybhoy, in the replies to the diary yesterday, just to clarify things. To the tune of Snoopy vs The Red Baron, this was written and performed by Matt McGinn. Surely this isn’t what the forces of law and order are referring to when they say its a banned song ?

The Ibrox Disaster

New Year Bells had been ringing,
All of Scotland was singing,
The old year had died,
And the new had been born.
As the news of disaster
From Ibrox came spreading,
The news that would cause
A whole nation to mourn

Two great goals had been scored,
In the last dying moments.
Jimmy Johnstone for Celtic,
For Rangers’ young Stein.
Their supporters all cheered them,
With voices of thunder,
Unknowing what waited on staircase 13

66 people died
Some in flower of their manhood,
When the fences gave way
And the barriers bent,
Seasoned Glasgow policemen their faces all tearstained,
With brave efforts, endeavoured far worse to prevent.
All of Glasgow enjoined,
For the first time in history.
In the Glasgow cathedral no Billys, no Dans
But the Old Firm united to pray for their victims,
Of a tragedy set in the memory of man.

New Year Bells had been ringing,
All of Scotland was singing,
The old year had died,
And the new had been born.
As the news of disaster
From Ibrox came spreading,
The news that would cause
A whole nation to mourn.  

 Which, to any right minded person is a tribute to the fallen. Whatever else the police say, whatever else the media hint at, thats the only song by that name any Celtic man would sing.

 Speaking of songs,  theres the Aretha Franklin classic. R-E-S-P-E-C-T ,  which appears to be the current watchword of Walter Smith, the greatest living Scottish football manager, if you don’t count any of the others. He feels that ;

‘You’ve got to have an overall respect for the teams you play against,’ 

‘Rangers will have a respect for Celtic. I’m not so sure Celtic are showing the same respect, with some of the comments their players are making. One of them’s talking about scoring a hat-trick.

‘A few years ago, the games would have been much tighter in terms of how everybody’s perception of how the game is going to be. But I don’t think you can turn round and disrespect your opponents by saying you’re going to score three.

‘If that is an overall feeling that Celtic have got, then it gives Rangers probably a better opportunity than maybe they should have.’ 

 John Guidetti, of course, recently said he wanted to score a hat trick against the new club, as any striker would, in any game. Somehow, that has been perceived to mean that the Swede doesn’t respect the club that failed to pay its taxes, and  dumped all its debt before pretending nothing had happened, after failing to drag the whole of Scottish football down with it.

 Respect has to be earned. Had the old club gone admitted its wrongs, and started afresh without the “We Are The Peepil ” attitude they would have earned respect.

 But they didn’t, so they haven’t. Instead, this is how they will be remembered;

 What goes one, two , three, four, another, another, another ?

 Second Rangers fans counting the goals as they go in on Sunday.

 Oops , wee lack of respect there.

 The abuse I’ve had since that post the other day on the Sky sports News timeline has made me a little indifferent to their feelings. It still hasn’t stopped, and is still remarkably limited in its wit and intelligence. In fact, we hear, courtesy of Cartuja on KDS, that they have released a statement to counter some of what they deem as “disrespectful comments ” about their club;

Fair play to Cartuja, he’s also got hold of the official list of banned items for Sunday, so don’t take any of these into the ground;

 There is a little bit of optimism for the fans of the Ibrox club , though. Manager Kenny MacDowell has said he will bring in some new faces, and Ian Black has asked if he can have one.

Lee McCulloch, who will captain his side has respect for Celtic, somewhat predictably, but not fear.

‘I wouldn’t say there is any fear, There is respect. There is never really any fear.

‘We just need to go and enjoy the occasion. We need to play well if we want to win the match. We are massive underdogs.

‘It’s good we have a mentality that we want to go and show people we are capable of winning.

‘It’s not for me to say (if there is a big gulf between the teams). We will see on Sunday how big it is.

‘What I would say is it’s going to be really hard for us, just like it has been in the past. Sunday will be no different.’ 

When his manager took him aside and pointed out quietly to him that his team was going to be “royally fucked ” on sunday, McCulloch got himself ready;

Not quite as accommodating as Nacho Novo, though, who told Second Rangers he would play for nothing for them, and would do anything for a game.

Another “respected ” former Second Rangers player offering his toxic tuppence worth -well, two players , I suppose, was Andy Goram

“The Celtic boss has blundered big time by insisting he will only celebrate in front of his own fans” 

“You shouldn’t need extra motivation in a game like this but if the Rangers players were looking for it the Celtic gaffer has obliged” 

“Rangers will not go down without a fight and if truth be told, I think there may well be a shock on the cards.”

No, indeed, they won’t go down without a fight. A shock ? Well, it’ll shock me if that bunch of lollygaggers suddenly turn into a football team come Sunday.

 Chris Sutton has called it right, which might surprise some of you. To be fair to Sutton, he does tend to engage the vocal chords before thinking, but at least he says what he thinks, and  he got it right today;

“It may sound like I have my Celtic hat on but I honestly believe that after the pre-match hype and sparring Celtic will destroy their biggest rivals where 
it matters on the pitch once the game starts.

“Even if Rangers play at their absolute best and Celtic are nowhere near their peak Celtic will win comfortably.

“I’d go as far as to say you could virtually blindfold the Celtic players and they’d win at Hampden. 

Now Sutton might be accused of naivety here, and in cranking up the tension a nothch, or even writing Kenny MacDowells team talk for him, but lets be honest.

 He’s spot on.

Kenny MacDowells team talk ?

” Who’s turn is it to pay for the pies? “

 ” dunno, who’s got a line up this weekend ? “

Actually, we have been given a copy of their tactics for the game;

The problem is, the press are desperately trying to turn a thoroughly mismatched game into something of a spectacle. They know it will be embarrassing for the hordes, and they are fairly sure that the reaction from the blue half of the crowd will be exactly the same as it usually is. so they are helping to get their excuses in for them.

 Meanwhile, the police will happily go along with it because it gives them a chance to justify the Offensive behaviour Act, which in turn will eventually lead to armed police on the streets, meaning they won’t even have to run after criminals, they can simply shoot them and say they thought he had a gun.

 Thats what happens when you have armed police, you end up with armed civilians, or at least the police think you do.

 Not convinced ?

 How about this from media whore and RST spokesman Chris Graham ?

Fuck me ? Am I going on ze list ?

Frank MacAvennie has a solution. He thinks that the teams should be led out by Stilian Petrov and Fernando Ricksen. all very noble, but he’s again hinting at the idea that both sets of supporters need calming down, and whereas any neutral observer can plainly see that one side is treating the game with humour and laughter, the other side has a somewhat darker motive.

Again, if there is trouble, the excuses are already in there, and the implication is that it will be both sides of the divide who are hell bent on mayhem.

 MacAvennie, who works for Radio Clyde , in the sense that anyone actually works for Radio Clyde is perhaps the most on-message of former players, and thats his choice, but then when he said he was looking forward to the game and would be at Hampden, I kind of lost interest in what he thinks. I don’t know any Celtic supporter who is “looking forward ” to the game, though I know plenty who just want it out of the way.

 Anyhoo, MacAvennie has his own seat now at the radio station.

 Two Brazilian trialists turned up for a reserve game , and the crowd in yesterdays picture confirmed that Jock Stein knew how to generate interest in the game, and how to manipulate the media.

 He would also put out good news before a big game, to ease tension, and improve morale. Have we learned from the past ? Can we  expect the transfer business around Stuart Armstrong, Gary Mackay Steven and Kris Commons to have happy endings very shortly ?

 Right, they say you learn something every day . I learned yesterday of a link between these two that perhaps isn’t common knowledge. Something apart from the obvious.

 What could that be ?