Scotland’s UCL campaign kicked off last night with “rangers ” storming into a 2-1 lead over Swiss cracks Servette Geneva.
Whilst some might argue, and they’d usually be correct, this has nothing to do with Celtic,
I couldn’t care less what happens to them in Europe, although the co-efficient is important, and so whether they win , lose or draw is irrlevant.
BBC Scotland, who covered the game live as a favour to their pals, had seen it as a win win situation for their channel, because the viewing figures would have been high for their back up channel, and with their recent comedy output coming in for criticism, there were hopes of a series developing around the club/company.
What did concern me was the reaction of their players to the awarding of a penalty against them.
"I was 100% convinced that it wouldn't be a penalty."
Cyriel Dessers was surprised by the referee's decision to award Servette a penalty in tonight's UEFA Champions League qualifier at Ibrox.#Rangers #Servette #UCL pic.twitter.com/Dz7OBCx7dl
— PLZ Soccer (@PLZSoccer) August 9, 2023
We were surprised as well, and probably for the same reason.
In Scotland, they have gone 56 consecutive games without conceding a penalty.
In europe, it’s a regular occurence.
Clearly the player above thought it was a universal decision not to disadvantage his team by applying the rules…
Not surprising was that it was a handball, not surprising was that it was Conor goldson who handled it, and not surprisingly wither, he chased the referee for a bit, wondering why the rules had suddenly changed and no one had told him.
for the rest of us, it was a reminder that there is a different rule book for them when it comes to penalties.
VAR was supposed to put a stop to that domestically, but what it has actually done has enabled two further referees, Greg Aitken and Andrew Dallas, to supervise and correct any decisions they feel are wrong, and given that both of these men are at the very least under suspicion of bias, we could be in for a long season.
The “get the ball into the box ” tactic employed by Mickey Beale is not just to create chances for his players, but to create chances for the officials to award penalties and free kicks, which in fairness to Captain Disappointed is something he is quite adequate at converting,
With the implementation of the new added time rules, we’re going to see a lot more decisions late on that will help to save them a point or two.
Recently, John Beaton, another not known for his impartiality, spoke about the “rangers ” penalty statistics….
“You are asking for an impossible question to be answered. Stats are stats and you can present stats on how x, y and z have happened. All we can do is show you things on an incident by incident basis.
“And if you show us something and say, ‘how is that not a penalty kick’ then we can talk about that incident. But when a club goes a period of time without conceding a penalty then we need to look at incidents individually. It’s impossible to comment on a longer term statistical thing. It’s an anomaly and stats will back up a story any way you want them to back up a story.
It is possible to comment on it.
It’s cheating. Pure and simple.
“All I can tell you is talk through decisions and say, ‘here’s what we did here….It’s going to help this season if we can explain to people why something has happened and we can go out and tell clubs information which then filters its way through to the media and fans.”
Beaton talks about transparency, and one way to achieve that would be to introduce a live microphone so that we can hear what he is saying when he is saying it during a match.
In a recent Ladies World cup tie, england’s Lauren James saw her yellow card upgraded to a red.
The referee stood at the side of the pitch and explained why.
for Scottish football a similar system would be indicative of a modern and progressive sport.
Which, of course, is the exact opposite of what football is in Scotland.
Transparency could also be achieved by independently of each other showing all of our referees the same incidents and asking them for a decision, and their reasons for that decision.
That would highlight any flaws in their knowledge of the rules of the game, which in fairness seem to change on a week to week basis these days.
What would also be interesting is if we showed referees an incident , from their own career, after digitally altering the players involved to achieve anonymity, and then when they , for instance, pointed out an obvious penalty, we could then ask them why they didn’t award one at the time.
what would also be interesting would be to discover if any particular team benefitted exceltionally from these honest mistakes.
Honest mistakes happen, and VAR is supposed to eliminate them.
One could argue it does, in that the mistakes are no longer honest.
Remember, the media narrative is that these things even out over the course of a season.
But one mistake is not cancelled out by another. It becomes two mistakes, and even that admission points to a complete overhaul of how football is officiated in Scotland.
Which, in turn, means a complete overhaul of the SFA.
We can but dream, I suppose…..
Yesterday, we had this….
Caption
‘Dae ye know the way tae Ibrox hen? Ah hear they’re in the market fur fat auld crocs’
Today…
Caption …
Ha ha I used my Clubcard , buy one get one free ..
Ed …’What about a caption ?”
Ralph…” Fuck that one in we used a few months back… they’ll no notice”
Wish I could remember the winner !
Caption: “For every good looking girlfriend Celtic get we will get two. Largely through tax evasion.” Sir David Murray quote when put through the Google Truth Translator app.
CAPTION: A bike pushing a trolley haha “Ye couldnae make it up Helga doll” as they say in Scotland. Anyway darling, after you I’m off to pump some huns in Glasgow. Furry and honking. You’re such a bastard Gustaf but I love it.
On hearing that some vintage Players had been found at the cigarette counter in Asda and are being given away free, the Rangers recruitment team are seen “jetting off” with the counter assistants.
Caption: “Right Wullie, these Tim burds says they just loved Thelma an’ Louise, see how they like this…….whee,ee,ee,ee”
Caption: Women’s football training takes a familiar twist with the introduction of shopping trolleys.
The “Ibrox way” of trying to get into the box and then throw themselves on the deck has been around for decades and it’s why they bought Cantwell. He looks like a little girl and refs feel sorry for him so he gets EVEN more. The 1st ‘lesson’ any new hun manager will get is “you realise you only have to give the ref a decision to make and it will always suit any club/company playing out of Ibrox?”
Walter Smith’s mantra (above), he was the great pretender and a helluvva lot of folk fell for it, including many Tims. He was as sly as McCoist, just more believable.
remember the starfelt/goldson penalty handball incident ,we were told it’s not a penalty because he was just protecting his face
More than happy to read bloggers like yourself highlighting this type of ” anomaly” …but I’d be miles happier if OUR CLUB stood up and demanded an explanation as well…Their silence on issues like this is unacceptable…but predictable.
Caption
Sevconians plan ahead for the Euro trips
They will need a plethora of penalties. This lot are clueless, tactics lob the ball up the park, the Buffalo would look a playerThe Mole stands at the touchline in his own doodoo, he looks lost
” Eceltionally “?
Come again.
Caption 2 …
Carl Carl , three birds in the trolley are better than one jacynta in Portugal …
It may be 56 games and counting since the Scottish refs gave their opposition a decision, I’m sure that it was a further 44 games before they had given away a penalty pre 56 games
So Jas, 1 pen against them in 100 games? An absolute FN disgrace but they’re shameless, they even lap it up and brag about it. Shameless but not short of a bit of feral cunning.
They’ll be ‘working’ on this, especially after Beaton being questioned. If they ever get say, 3 goals up, then the opposition will get a pointless penalty near the end to ‘balance the books’. Just watch!
Terence Nova’s right, our club should be calling this out from the rafters at the very top of their voices but Desmond wants a ‘relevant’ scum as he hangs onto his biggest wish which is to see the O** F*** in the EPL and Lawwell’s there to help try to achieve that. ‘Coincidentally’ they’d both making absolute FN fortunes from it, even by their standards.
I don’t think it was quite like that.
They had the 44 game non-penalty conceded run then over a year or 2 they conceded loads, okay a handful, and now the 56 (and counting) game run.
Only 4 league games till the milestone Diamond Anniversary.
But, but this will all even itself out by 2089.
In a bid by the cash-strapped Ibrox club to save some dosh, 3 new arrivals for the Huns ladies’ team, are transported from Glasgow airport to Edmiston Drive, in never before seen luxury vehicles.
Caption….
”Hey, did we no dae this wance before?”.
Third time round I think JimboH. Ralph often repeats captions – Parsley (rip) once had a brilliant one about an ocelot and I’m waiting for that picture to come back round to re-use it.
PS I see Gringo is still stalking you (see my reply from yesterday).
I think its a monthly memory loss test and I also passed or do I mean failed?
its a f.wit test and you certainly pass.
Hi Oewn (& JimboH) Congratulations on winning caption contest knew it was the winner as soon as I read it – tried to give it thumbs up (as I can rarely comment) but it turned to negative. From your answers today & yesterday I see why 🙁
Hope all is well with you both, much love C x
Hi Christina, I don’t comment much either as I don’t have the tactical nous of the guys on here so I stick to the occasional weak attempt at humour. Interestingly, my ‘winning caption’ was the only entry that was in the red! Poor Gringo will be gnashing his tooth over that one. It seems it’s not what you say, it’s who says it that matters to him.
PS I see you’ve mis-spelt my name – good to see you respect the fine traditions of the Dairy!
Some have a tactical noose
Leave poor old Michael Beale out of it!
Ha ha sorry Owen wee typo but, as you rightly say, I’m in good company here!! I seem to be able to comment just now but, like yourself, I don’t claim to have the tactical know-how (though I’m pretty sure yours is vastly superior to mine) to engage much here especially with sharks swimming around waiting to pounce! xx
It’s a pretty gumsy ‘shark’ that spends his time logging on and off the site just to register disapproval whenever he sees a certain name but if it keeps him happy…
Meanwhile I don’t know if you visit Pat’s site anymore but I checked in when Ralph was off air and it looks dead. Pat is pretty uncompromising in his views and seems to have pissed a lot of his regulars off (even an erstwhile stalwart like Hector). It’s sad to see after the fun we used to have there.
Bye the weigh, Eye no watt yew mien about typos. The Dairy seams two bee a magnum for missed steaks in spilling. At first I guest it was because Ralph was either a mormon or a congenial idiot but fare’s fare – I think it’s jew to the soft wear used on the sight.
Btw, Doughball, for the record, I don’t have any university degrees.
As I’ve told you I quit the place after the first year as they were feeding us nonsense and it was too indigestible for my taste.
Here, there’s an idea, mibbe YOU could try gain tae university, as nonsense is right up your alley!
Go on, Doughball, give it a go!
Yer missus will be delighted tae huv a ‘mature’ (sic) student aboot the hoose 😀
You could try Philosphy like myself.
You’d fit in great wae aw they shite talkers.
Don’t think ye’d pass though, as you’ve FAILURE written all over ye.
Or you could try studying English.
You like writing and spelling and stuff, don’t ye?
Why not make a real go of it by completing a Masters Degree in English Language?
That would be a laugh!
Mibbe not fir yer missus though.
Hello Doughball!
How’s the missus?
Tired, eh?
Hang on a second, you’re accusing me of being yiur Thumber Dooner even though you have multiple Dislikes on certain idiotic comments?
Tell me, Doughball, have I been living in yiur head rent fee all this time?
Cos I stopped reading this site months ago, even before Ralph turned it into a bi-monthly diary.
I’d say the reason you’re getting all these Dislikes is because you’re a self important smart arsed fud but nobody wants tae say it tae yer face cos they can’t be bothered arguing with ye and just prefer to have a few sly digs via the otherwise useless Dislike button.
You won a Cap Comp, aye?
Ralph feeling sorry fir ye again?
My deepest condolences on the death of R.St.Parsley.
I’m not sure if they got through when I read of it as I’m pretty sure I was barred then but that’s a real sickener, he was a good man with a brilliant eye for a lyric and his wit and humour will be much missed.
It’s a real shame that we ended on a sour note as I genuinely liked the guy and admired his brilliant ingenuity.
And, for the record, I did NOT harass him on his site at any time.
All I did was make a few funny comments, which he took the wrong way, that I was coming for you.
And here I am.
It’s easily done.
https://twitter.com/Lisbon25051967/status/1689670920099520512?t=SnqVHIEpxeteuKaXm5iPvQ&s=19
1st September. That’s when the window closes and I suspect late deals will be done as ever. On we haven’t replaced who we lost I suspect most people were Googling Jota on arrival what with his 23 first team appearances at Benfica in 5 years and then 17 and Valledoid he was hardly high profile. All our money in the bank will get us about half an established EPL player, I’d take the legs as our corners are rank. This season is a gimmy domestically so let’s build something sensibly on 2 seasons CL cash. In Brendan I trust. Well for a wee bit.
I’m not sure the league will be a stroll.
I know they started poorly but they’ll still finish about 30-40 points ahead of Scotland’s 3rd Force, whoever that happens to be this season.
That means that it’ll come down to the head to heads and, although we’re ahead there, our record’s pretty poor away, so we need to rectify that and keep doing it at home.
“Brendan Rodgers, here for 3-in-a-row”?
I’ve a mole at Ibrox and yer man will be gone by Christmas and perhaps Halloween.
He’s making a mountain out of that.
A year would be the same as given to Bronky, who won the Scottish Cup, European Finalist and Champs League qualifiers.
The Govan Gobshite will need to put a sprint on in the next few months to batter that.
Is your name Phil?
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Sevco fans prepare for their annual Trollope Dash
Caption
rangers staff return from a poundland trolley dash, hoping they’ve found a bargain for their ladies squad
Albert_Kidd, I looked at that and you’re absolutely bang on.
Toddilene Cantwell will lose sleep if she sees that and TavPen might have to revert to Tavernier.
Send it to MN at CP and tell him to tell the SFA/LRA that THAT’S how it’s done and to tell Lawwell it’s fukk all to do with him as he’s now a figure-head only with no more executive power.
Ha ha, will do mate.
Caption- Water missing but definitely cheating involved. It’s a team from South Glasgow way. Ffn lol ☺️☺️☺️☺️
Brendan Rodgers expects professionalism from all players.
The SMSM corpus are infuriated.
Surprised at BRs assessment on extra extra time. Used to be known as Fergie time when bluenoses intimidated refs in public not at the lodge. He knew he had fitter players and a stronger bench so when not ahead it gave an advantage. On CalMacs 60 plus games get a suitable replacement and give the guy a rest against weaker opposition or the majority of games as I call it. Strong argument that KT physically was burned out by his quota here.
Caption: Looking for even more penalties, 2 “rangers” fans have taken up trolley theft and kidnapping.
Caption:
Celtic’s Recruitment Team race to sell good looking female players, to avoid another Carl Starfelt situation.
jota and pal enjoy shopping in the saudi markets
see jota is getting it up the chockie. f him
So good it needed saying twice.
F*ck him and his blood money.
see jota,is gettingitupthechockie,f,him
Speculation of Rangers financial woes intensifies as Cantwell and Lammers spotted arriving on matchday in new club cars.
A Rangers spokesperson confirmed the player transport is the result of a spelling error by the commercial department.
The tender was supposed to say Club Cars sponsor.
I’m hearing that Lagerbielke from Elfsborg is moving along as Celtic has agreed a fee and there’s just a medical and minor contract issues to sort out. It’s so very nice to see us bring in, what we hope will be, another good CB and that position is now looking covered. WE STILL NEED A READY-TO-GO ‘keeper to give us depth in all areas.
However, with Oh being out for 4-6 weeks it’s maybe worth a loan contract for the (33 yr old ?) West Ham striker (sorry I can’t recall his name just now) who’s kinda out-of-favour.
All this speculation……….but I, for one, have been very happy with our club’s dealings since Ange chose to go South and we then lost Jota and Aaron Mooy. Carl Starfelt goes with my Best Wishes as he did a decent job for us despite some of his frailties.
HH
Weclome Gustaf.
A Swedish player with a Royal Coat of Arms. I tell Brendan I can put my arms in my coat, does he sign me? Does he buggery.
Boots back on the rusty peg.
I’m having a wee drink and, after seeing “followfollow” being advised as a source of hilarity on various Tim sites I thought I’d have a look. Not disappointed. There’s one article, on betting I think, that’s incongruous to say the least. You’d need to read it…..it includes the mythical 55 titles, refusal to mention the Celtic name and a load of shit about their (‘add superlative here) season last year? WHIT? I’m sure I ‘read‘ somewhere that WE got another treble, A WORLD FIRST, no less. I await ‘followfollow’ following lemmings…….and getting TF off the planet
And cop for this, on a new hun site: “……..then in the fourth minute came the most famous expression in Scottish football. Penalty to Rangers!”
Send this to the LRA/SFA and see how THEY answer that, coming from their favourites site!!!!!
Roll on more hilarity and then sweet zzzzzzzzzs.
HH
Caption
Parks of Hamilton provide transport to and from Ibrox for their WAGS.
(Witches and Ghoul friends.)
A plea…why do you persist in using ‘ladies’ instead of women. It’s the women’s World Cup., it’s women’s football both of which might include some ladies but all of them are women. Imagine referring to Gentlemen’s football or the gentlemen’s World Cup. Time to enter the 21st century. Love your blog btw…keep on going on!
A test.
Today is a first term test with what the players have learnt from Brendan Rodgers during pre-season.
COYBIG
Enjoy.
Has Ange planted the steppingstone seed into some of the Asian players heads?
No matter what, there are similar goals for Club and players. A beneficial path to a win-win is the desire for Celtic.
Celts 7-0.
David Martindale has joined the reformation movement list of geniuses.
We are the Pertaining.
Our record up at Pittodrie has been remarkably good in recent seasons, in fact Ronnie Delia was our manager the last time we lost there. However, they’ve given us some very tough games over the piece packed with drama and incident. Robson’s Aberdeen sides tend to be physical and very direct with little in the way of patient build-ups and slick passing. He often sets up with a 3-5-2 formation but today is more likely to go 5-3-2 against us One thing that does stand out is the height of several of their players so we have to be very wary of their potential aerial threat at set pieces.
Their Dutch goalie Kelle Roos is a consistent performer who appears to be an upgrade on Joe Lewis while a couple of familiar faces such as, the evergreen 36year old Johnny Hayes and midfield battler Graeme Shinnie are expected to be in the starting line-up. It’ll be interesting to see how their new signings fare. With Angus MacDonald still out for at least another week, giant Serbian CB Rubezic will probably start while the home support will be keen to get a look at Israeli international RB Or Dadia, undoubtedly one of their more technical players. 6’4” US DM Dante Polvara could also be one to watch if selected. This game will come to soon for New Zealand international defender James McGarry who is literally just in the door. Their two frontmen Duk and Miovski totalled 36 league goals between them last season with the former looking particularly dangerous when cutting in from the right. Both have had a slow start to the season but are expected to start.
Hatate could be on the bench again today as it would be difficult to drop Turnbull after his two-goal MOTM displaly last weekend, Just hope wee Reo takes this the right way and ups his game to win back his place as few would disagree that he is an extraordinary talent, very hard worker and a potential game changer. Oh’s injury is indeed a blow but with both Maeda and Abada capable of playing a central striker’s role to good effect I’m not sure if we really need to sign up another striker. I’d rather see a quality goalkeeper come in. Finally, Liam Scales will probably be included to cover for Bernabai, who has not been selected as a disciplinary measure for bad time-keeping.
With some early season encounters having a slightly unpredictable element about them, me might be in for an exciting game. Enjoy to the full. COYBIG
“midfield battler Graeme Shinnie”
Now, there’s a euphenism to use in polite company. 😉
I thought we were poor at significant stages last weekend, not just at the start but in the 2nd half and end too.
I know its early days but I found it surprising, as previously when we didn’t start well, when we did establish a foothold we usually controlled the rest of the game.
With regard to Hatate/Turnbull, its right that the latter is ahead just now but, I doubt, he can hit the heights of the former and it would be disappointing to me, if we let another major talent go and replaced him with a “reserve”.
Its claimed that he didn’t sign a contract extension but even so, I’m sure there’s still a year or 2 left before we need to flog him to suit the dreaded Player Trading Model.
I wasn’t surprised to see the Dons struggle last week at Livi because, as well as they did at the end of last season, I thought 3rd place flattered them and was mainly due to Hearts collapse.
If the Jambos stay consistent then I’d expect them to be comfortably 3rd but still dozens of points behind our friends in the south.
It should be a tough game today and we need to be up for it, we’ll easily outplay them if we outfight them first.
Any win will see us leapfrog current leaders, the Buddies and Simply The Second Best, who will then be 3rd. 🙂
Good post. Just hope we don’t lose any more of our top players before the transfer deadline and we bring in one or two ‘first team ready’ signings, There’ll be considerable unease if that doesn’t happen. Not a bad game to watch yesterday but plenty of areas to improve on. Hope it all starts to gel soon. The ironic use of ‘battler’ for Shinnie was intended as he is one of the worst hatchetmen in Scottish football.
Reply in “mod” 🙁
I’m off to the pub for a drink and see if there’s any footy on. 🙂
Me too mate. We’re all here in St Patrick’s Valencia to cheer on the Bhoys.
well done brendan. a great 3 pts and another index finger to the goons
Fine result and some aspects of our play were encouraging. I thought Aberdeen played particularly well and exposed our defence down the flanks quite a few times with Morris, Duk and Miovski looking particularly effective. Not a bad game to watch with plenty of end to end action although the home side were being given too much space at times and finding easy routes towards our goals too often for my liking. Kyogo was superb again and the performances of subs Yang and Thiago were also pleasing. Fortunately, the new injuries to CCV and Hatate don’t appear to be very serious. Good to get that hurdle out of the way and come away with another 3 points.
Can’t understand the criticism of Joe Hart, I thought he was one of our top performers today, a good result against a vastly improved Aberdeen side, who I would say are a cert to finish second!!
Wee message for the Editor…Get Ralph to check out the upcoming fixture list…with emphasis on Sevco home games…Surely another ” anomaly”..??…
Here, Ralph, do us a favour, ask Doughball how long he’s going to let me live in his head rent free and for the love of God tell the idiot I’m barred or the banter would be flowing as usual.
Cheers.
Good to see you’re still with us.
Ok! I’m not barred after all!
Magic! 😀
ryan fraser. surely no