Gers just have to grin and bear it
7 05 2008
The euphoria of reaching the UEFA Cup final still sits amongst Rangers fans, but Sunday’s scoreless draw with Hibernian at Easter Road may be the first sign that their team are beginning to stumble as they hurtle toward the finishing line.
They are a team totally knackered after a marathon European campaign, which began with a Champions League qualifier with Zeta in July resulting in a UEFA Cup final with Zenit St Petersberg on Wednesday week.
Walter Smith has been busy slamming the SPL in his spare time for not helping Rangers prepare for their biggest game since the 1972 European Cup Winners Cup win. A heavy fixture backlog will eventually see Rangers play 4 games in 8 days following the Manchester showdown.
The congestion has been caused by a number of factors, such as sodden unplayable pitches, dreadful Scottish weather and the untimely death of Motherwell captain Phil O’Donnell.
So Smith wants the league season extended. While I agree that the situation is far from ideal, I don’t see what more the league can do. A season extension would be a struggle, mainly due to the start of the European Championships in June and the fact the Scottish Cup final is on May 24. As Queen of the South boss Gordon Chisholm rightly says, you can’t move the showpiece of our game. Queens season finished on April 26 at Dunfermline and they wouldn’t be too happy at having to wait even longer for their big day at Hampden.
Indeed, Smith also forgets that the SPL agreed to let Rangers postpone an SPL match at home to Gretna on the Saturday before Lyon sent them crashing out of the Champions League in a bid to help them.
Smith’s talk of the SPL and SFA conspiring to help Celtic more than his team is absolute nonsense. The fact that his UEFA Cup opponents have had games re-arranged prior to the final is irrelevent- they have just entered their season, while we are at the end of ours.
Its been a difficult season with regards the weather, pitch condition and tragedy all wreaking havoc with fixtures. As a Dunfermline fan, I remember in our First Division title campaign of 1995/1996 we had to play 6 games in 18 days and had to cope with the death of our skipper Norrie McCathie, injuries, suspensions and a car crash involving 2 of our players. We had the next game after our captain’s death postponed before we defeated Clydebank 4-3. Games were cancelled due to the weather, but we didn’t have any choice but to cram fixtures in. We responded in the right way and went on to win the title on the final day of the season.
It is unfortunate, but Rangers will simply have to get on with it. They boasted earlier in the season that they had a big enough squad to field 2 teams- now’s their chance to prove that theory.
hartypar
im so fed up with rangers moaning. nine times out of ten the sfa will strive to assist the old firm.
i mean get a grip walter you’ve got the refs on your side and have always had them. Dundee United at the weekend showed this. and the fact that Hugh Dallas and co would find a way to give the teddy bears a last minute penalty in any game that they happened to be struggling in. like the imfamous miko incident a few years back were that cheating linesman whos name escapes me gave them a pen when two people jumped together in the box. ridiculous but it always happens. same with the hoops as well.
Listen to Vlad and Levein. the refs are corrupt.
Andy Davis. There’s yer linesman.
United were robbed at the weekend, and in the CIS Final. We’ve been cheated against the Old Firm- Balde’s punch out the box in the 2004 Scottish Cup final which saw Celtic equalise 30 seconds later, Paul “I thought he was going to tackle me so I dived outside the box to win a penalty” Lambert, Arthur Numan just using both hands to shove Barry Nicholson over in the box in a CIS Cup tie with Rangers.
The OF get the vast majority of reffing decisions their way.
Luigi’s tomorrow?
Billy “The Fish” Dodds with a horrible dive just to try and get a hat-trick, but he missed the penalty. GIRUY you jug-eared, Capri driving, fake leather jacket wearing muppet.
We were also robbed of a penalty against Rangers in that game when 1-0 nil, Tony Vidmar challenge from behind.
And back in the 80’s we were denied a late penalty against them.
I hate that Davis wanker!
I think he’s the most blatent gers man along with Hugh of course!
i hope he gets bad aids!!!!
[...] Focus on Manchester- Zenit St Petersberg V Rangers 14 05 2008 Ever since their semi final shoot-out victory over Fiorentina in Florence, all the talk from those connected to Rangers has been Manchester, Manchester, Manchester. Well, that and the fixture congestion, which I had my say about earlier on this blog. [...]