Before we get to the point, let’s talk for a moment about Pedro.
Prior to today’s game kicking off, there was a major discussion going on across the media outlets, about how long Pedro Caixinha will, or should, get before the axe at Ibrox falls. Today he bought himself time, enough of it to multiply the effects of the disaster when it hits.
Yesterday, after our draw with St Johnstone, hope leapt briefly amongst the Ibrox horde before reality dawned … to actually take advantage of our result yesterday they had to win today. And there was a distinct lack of confidence that their team could manage that.
I didn’t even try to predict the result of their game today; they are so inconsistent that you can’t call it. And that’s the problem, because they will drop points in as many games as they pick up the full quota. Away days like today will sap the souls of players who came here expecting a holiday and ended up having to run out at freezing cold grounds against footballers who more than make up for with raw aggression what they lack in silky skills.
I don’t think their team was built for a fight, and neither do the hacks.
Today they won, but it was not comfortable.
Scott Fox gifted them one of the goals, and I thought he could have done better for the first. For 20 minutes in the second half, Sevco were reeling though; had Ross County shown more ambition in the first I don’t think Sevco would have left with a point.
Caixinha has spent the week talking about his football philosophy; as I said last week, he’s turned his team into a long-ball side. His ideas are about fifteen years behind the mainstream. They are, to put it bluntly, absolutely dreadful to watch.
But they are also dreadful to listen to, and today their supporters took a high-dive into the sectarian sewer with a 90 minute litany of pro-Loyalist and anti-Catholic songs. They included the illegal racist ditty The Billy Boys, a song that had vanished from their stands for yonks before returning, in the last few years, with a vengeance.
You know, these people moan constantly about our fans and our “obsession” with the Republican movement.
But an awful lot of them seem terribly keen on song of praise in floral reflection of Loyalist killers, who appeared to have no political objectives other than inspiring urban terror and trying to force Catholics to leave the north altogether.
I think what bothers them most is that whilst much of the world regards the Republicans as freedom fighters there’s no love across the broad sweep of mankind for sectarian murder gangs more interested, really, in carving out drug dealing territories for their members than they were in advancing a social agenda.
The Sevco fans seem to be descending deeper into this the longer their pain goes on.
It seems that every time an obstacle is put in their way they lash out against the usual targets, and their forum pages have been filling up with an almost unbelievable amount of bile these past few months. A lot of them appear to have completely lost the plot.
There’s a major debate going on over the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act and you wouldn’t believe some of the comments on their forums in relation to it over the last week. Some of them actually want to leave in place a grossly regressive law because they fear it would leave our fans free to sing what they liked whilst their own support continued to be punished.
Bizarrely, they appear to believe that the repeal bill is part of a continuing conspiracy to attack their “culture and way of life”, which manifests itself in, amongst other things, support for the independence movement and the SNP.
Are they largely ignorant of the fact it’s the SNP who passed the bill and are the only party still defending it?
Are they ignorant of the fact that Tories – or, to give them their full name, the Conservative and Unionist Party – are wholly in favour of the repeal?
Yes, Orange lodge councillors and all.
I’m not sure how they square the circle in their wee demented minds.
But they appear almost dangerously ignorant of the fact that the SNP is determined not only to maintain this law but to extend their attack on football fans by making Strict Liability for football clubs part of their next legislative session … I have no idea if they have the votes for this idea but they’re determined to try.
And on a day when The Billy Boys is pouring out of the stands there’s a part of me that wonders it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world. Is it too much to ask that people can bottle their hatred for 90 minutes? Why are football grounds the cathedrals to which some people bring all their baggage and their bile?
In the end, though, I don’t favour such a measure, and nothing will convince me to.
But I am sick to death of hearing people sing about being up to their knees in my blood and that of my friends and my family. We didn’t need to be reminded that there’s a section of their fan-base which is content to roll around in the filth, but today they reminded us anyway.