The row created by Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston over tickets for the game on Saturday continued yesterday. To appease the Ayrshire clubs fans, who have been up in arms over the offer to Celtic fans of a \u00a36 reduction in price, the chairman has offered any non-season book holding ( which is most of them ) Killie fan who goes to the Celtic game a free ticket for the Ross County game next month, while book holders get a tenner for the club shop if they bring along a paying adult.<\/p>\n
They could take the wife, I suppose;<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ayrshire hasn’t changed much over the years.<\/p>\n
Whilst most of us have no love for that particular club, there is an affinity with supporters, especially those where their chairman is standing over them, having just taken a couple of laxatives. Sandy Armour ( honest, thats his name, and not a cut price uniform for troops in the gulf ) of the KSA said;<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damage has been done and everyone sees this for what it is \u2013 a shambolic gesture after he made a complete mess of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s clearly been taken aback by the angry reaction to his initiative for Celtic fans and is now scrambling about trying to appease us.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pathetic and most supporters are telling him where to stick his offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just the latest in a long line of PR disasters. Just about every Killie fan has had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Johnston last night defended his decisions.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to liven up disappointingly low sales figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t attempting to treat the Kilmarnock fans as an afterthought. The scheme to give free admission to the County game was always going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don’t think he’s even fooling himself.<\/p>\n
Someone else who probably isn’t fooling himself is Morton manager Allan Moore, who claims to have studied Milan as a way of finding out how to beat Celtic..<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said to the boys, \u2018You\u2019re not AC Milan but they got everyone behind the ball against Celtic and took their chance when it came along.\u2019<\/p>\n
Fairly in depth analysis of the game there, even if its not actually how Milan played. I don’t remember Celtic pounding away at them and getting caught on the break, although I have more or less wiped that game from memory.<\/p>\n
Moore then revealed he had told the chairman that Morton were going to win, which is a shame, because he wasn’t allowed to bet on the game, having never played for Rangers. He explained;<\/p>\n
\u201cI was kidding people on beforehand that we were going to win but I didn\u2019t actually believe it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was asked if I had seen Morton beat Celtic before and I said twice. I told them this would be the third time \u2013 but I only said it tongue in cheek as I feared the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
His son, also called Allan to make it easier on his wife when she was shouting them in for their dinner, is in Australia, and he phoned his dad;<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never had so many phone calls, texts and Facebook messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy boy Allan has also been on the phone and he\u2019s
\nblootered because all the Rangers fans in Australia have been buying him drinks all night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poor lad. Blootered on two pints.<\/p>\n
He also spoke of the success of a trip to Eastern Europe with Mark McNally, to recruit some players;<\/p>\n
\u201cWe travelled 1500 miles in a car over two days. It was a hard shift but we brought a couple of boys back with us. ”<\/p>\n
That should get him a job at the BBC.<\/p>\n
All joking aside, we can only wish Morton all the best for the remainder of the tournament. They did earn their win, and if nothing else it means another different name on the trophy this year, and shows that Celtic will not have everything their own way. Competition is good for the game.<\/p>\n
No, I’m not fooling myself , either.<\/p>\n
![\"The-Icelandic-striker-could-be-on-his-way-to-Parkhead\"](\"http:\/\/images.dailyexpress.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/590x\/sightorsson-432203.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Daily Express picked up on the hint in the diary yesterday, and published this today, destroying any chance of the lad ever coming to Celtic. This particular rag has an accuracy rate lower than the Weekly World News when it comes to stories, and to be fair , the WWN scoops are more believable.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
James Forrest has suffered a relapse in his fight against the mystery virus which has knocked him for six. Manager Neil Lennon said;<\/p>\n
“James didn’t come in on Monday because his condition got worse again over the weekend.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know where we are with him at the moment.” ( He could always read the note from Mrs Forrest )<\/p>\n
“We are hoping he will be feeling a little bit perkier over the next couple of days. ”<\/p>\n
Doesn’t sound promising. Forrest, often the subject of harsh criticism from an unappreciative support, is important to the way Celtic play in Europe, his pace carrying the ball out of defence vital in relieving pressure from sides such as Barcelona. Even if Milan saw through that ploy and decided to play cautiously, its unlikely Barcelona will.<\/p>\n
All the tickets for that game have gone now, and season book holders who paid \u00a328 a game for their packages will enjoy a wry little smile when they learn that the few individual briefs that went on sale this week were running at \u00a349 each.<\/p>\n
Some would call it profiteering, others would say it rewards season book holders, who made a commitment to the club in these tough times.<\/p>\n
Mine was \u00a328, so its not difficult to see what my viewpoint is. Not everyone can afford a book, or attend enough games to make it viable, but on balance, the reward from the club is appreciated.<\/p>\n
Better than a ten pound gift voucher for the club shop, which will buy you a scarf, and not much else. And if Bertie Auld is in, you’ll end up buying loads more. He puts things in your trolley.<\/p>\n
With Forrest likely to miss the game, and Ledley and Kayal struggling, its a relief that Barcelona have a couple of players out as well.<\/p>\n
From the Evening Times;<\/p>\n
Barcelona face a defensive crisis ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League trip to Celtic after Javier Mascherano was ruled out for “10 to 15 days” with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
The Argentina international pulled up in Tuesday night’s 4-1 win over Real Sociedad and joins fellow defender Jordi Alba on the sidelines.<\/p>\n
Alba was also diagnosed with a hamstring tear earlier this month to leave Barca without two first-choice defenders, while Carles Puyol is still out.<\/p>\n
The Catalans are therefore set to be stretched at the back ahead of the tie in Glasgow – where they were memorably beaten by Celtic last season. ”<\/p>\n
John McGill, who penned this piece, a cheerful, hope springs eternal go get em Celtic story, will no doubt be looking for another job by the end of the week.<\/p>\n
They are already discussing his next assignment in the editors office;<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, over at the Ibrox Garrison, New Club Second Rangers have announced another Armed Forces day this weekend. Four hundred servicemen and women will milk the applause of the crowd, and raise \u00a315,000 for their charity.<\/p>\n
This money will be paid at the end of the season, according to this statement, another work of satirical comic genius.<\/p>\n
RANGERS and the Rangers Charity Foundation are proud to be welcoming over 400 armed services personnel to Ibrox on Saturday as part of a special event to honour the brave men andwomen<\/a>\u00a0of our armed forces. Good luck with that one. As Craig Whyte would say.<\/p>\n Over on the Kerrydale Street forum, photoshop genius Cartuja summed up the whole pantomime with this picture, which is his best work yet-and thats up against some other efforts of quality. ( I did ask him for permission to use this, and at the time of writing he hadn’t replied, so apologies in advance if I have overstepped the mark, )<\/p>\n ” Behold, the circus is coming to town…”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It even encaptures the sinister undercurrent behind the whole ceremony, as well as the farcical nature of the clubs pandering to the lowest common denominator. Sister Wendy Beckett would have approved..<\/p>\n Yesterdays pictures, Gore Vidal, the Don from the godfather, and kids poet Eminem-real name Marshall Mathers-led us to Gordon Marshall, a goalkeeper from the nineties.<\/p>\n Today, see if you can fathom this one out.<\/p>\n Bit of thinking needed here, in a history context….and tell us how you arrived at your conclusion..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The row created by Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston over tickets for the game on Saturday continued yesterday. To appease the Ayrshire clubs fans, who have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/killie-t-shirt.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-Wo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3622,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620\/revisions\/3622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span>
\nFans will have a chance to show their appreciation for the work and sacrifice of these men and women when they are led out onto the pitch at half time by an army band to receive the applause of the crowd.<\/span>
\nSupporters can expect a stunning display as Royal Marine commandos, led by Sergeant Jeffrey, will abseil in to the stadium prior to kick off and hand the match ball over to the referee.<\/span>
\n
\nRepresentatives from each branch of the armed services will also lead the teams out onto the pitch prior to kick-off.<\/span>
\n
\nThe Club is also playing host to senior representatives from each branch of the armed services in the Directors Box, including Major General Nick Eeles, General Officer Commanding Scotland.<\/span>
\n
\nMajor General Eeles said: “On behalf of the Armed Forces in Scotland I would like to thank Rangers for inviting 400 members of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army, and\u00a0Royal Air<\/a>\u00a0Force to the match. Although Armed Forces Day (AFD) is held in June each year (outside the\u00a0football season<\/a>), I was delighted when Rangers came forward with the idea of holding their own annual celebration of AFD once the new season had kicked off.<\/span>
\n
\n\u201cI very much hope this inaugural AFD day at Rangers will be repeated annually for many years to come, and that it will you an appropriate opportunity to show your support for today\u2019s generation of selfless, committed and courageous Armed Forces personnel, all of whom are enormously proud to serve their Queen and their country.”<\/span>
\n
\nAlly McCoist added: \u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic opportunity for us all to show our appreciation for the men and women who sacrifice so much for our country. I am sure the fans will give them an amazing Ibrox welcome.\u201d
\nAll branches of the armed forces will be represented at Ibrox and The Rangers Charity Foundation is hosting a can collection as part of its new initiative, the Fans Forces Fund.<\/span>
\n
\nErskine and SSAFA won the fans\u2019 vote to share \u00a315,000, which will be donated at the end of the season, and today\u2019s collection is our first step on the way to achieving that target.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/5SePbcC.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Posted](\"http:\/\/img843.imageshack.us\/img843\/6240\/bc0t.jpg\")
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