Fear And Loathing At Hampden: Sevco Crash Out On Martin Boyle’s Big Day.

Oh there are fewer sweeter things than listening to Stephen Craigan flap about every little injustice.

With fifteen to go he demanded a replay of a nothing incident where he thought the Hibs keeper might have handled the ball during a pass-back. The footage clearly showed the ball coming off his foot and then the post.

Another one bites the dust.

I had hoped that the incident might show a clear foul, much as I hoped that there would be controversy aplenty where the Ibrox club saw bad decisions go against them. Kevin Clancy is the target of much online hate for giving a penalty against them.

But he booked two Hibs players in the first five minutes of the game, something almost unheard of outside of hockey.

Let’s get it out of the way; this was either the first game of the Van Bronckhorst era (good if this is the road it goes down) or the last of the Gerrard era (which is sweet on its own as it ends in the same ignominy in which most of it took place) but it raises a question whatever the answer; would a Gerrard team have lost three goals in one half?

Say what you want about him – and this site has said plenty – but he could organise his rag-bag team into a unit that was hard to beat. Whatever else happens, that drilled, disciplined stuff is over with. There are opportunities aplenty for teams which want to have a go. Like Hibs did today. Like Celtic will when January comes around.

Sevco’s season is unravelling. Can Van Bronckhorst make a difference?

Well he now knows that every single thing that was said to him at the interview was largely bollocks. This isn’t a team that only needs to keep doing what it’s being doing; this is a team on its last legs. This isn’t a team which is capable of challenging on every front; it’s a disaster zone, artificially boosted last season.

Defensively they’ve been a joke all season, but this afternoon the joke was broadcast to the nation with everything but the laughter track on it. We provided our own laughter though.

For months all we’ve heard is how good this Ibrox team is. Ryan Kent “the most valuable player in Scottish football” … according to who though? A transfer website? FIFA 22 ratings? Football Manager?

In the real world what we saw today was the real Ryan Kent, a player hooked with 20 minutes to go and who otherwise you might have forgotten was on.

Aribo ran about like a headless chicken. Morelos snarked and argued but didn’t produce an iota of football. Tavernier and Goldson gave us more laugh out loud moments than the Chuckle Brothers and Glen Kamara continues to play like a £50,000 player, making a mockery of everyone who thinks there’s a superstar there. Hagi came on and did absolutely zilch.

Likewise, Sakala. I trust we’ve heard the last of the ludicrous Harry Kane comparisons.

On their fan forums they are having a terrible reckoning with reality as they come to understand that these players are not even close to as good as the hype. Hilariously, they still hope to get tens of millions of pounds for some of them in January and the summer … I think many are holding out hope that Gerrard’s new employers will sanction a vast financial bailout of his old ones.

They literally live in a world of their own this mob.

The best man on the park was a guy this site has been touting as a Celtic signing for yonks. Would he get into the current squad? Probably not, but he was easily good enough to rip them to absolute bits today. I was less impressed with Nisbet and Doig, but then those guys didn’t really have to be at their best with Boyle running riot.

Last week, The Daily Record ran a headline saying Welsh was trying to get fit to “set up a final against Rangers.” Someone forgot to tell him that because he never mentioned it in the article. Someone also forgot to tell Hibs, or maybe they did and that offers a partial explanation for the first half display which blew Sevco out like a birthday cake candle.

There are a lot of people who are going to kid themselves that today was simply the result of disrupted preparations and the loss of their coaching team, and clearly that had an impact but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Whatever kept that team on its feet last season isn’t working anymore and Ibrox fans are finally starting to worry that this isn’t as good a team as they thought.

That’s the fear. The loathing was being directed at anyone and everyone (see what I did there?) who they could think; Gerrard himself, the “gutless” captain, Goldson for not wanting to hang around for any more of this shit-show, Morelos for not showing up … you get the drift. The one group these fans won’t blame are themselves, but they had their own part to play.

Everything at that club is an exercise in smoke and mirrors. We handed them a league by collapsing last season and failing to put them under pressure, but this guy Ange has their number because he has brought new ideas and can keep our players focussed and above the fray.

And today that man is on the brink of his first trophy as Celtic boss.

The irony is we’ve probably wound up with the harder cup final opponent.

For all of us this has been a bloody good weekend … for those who have refused to see the writing on the wall so far this season, that it’s the Ibrox club who should have been the focus of scrutiny, well we welcome you to the conversation at last.

For now, enjoy the sound of egos crashing, bubbles bursting … and perhaps, this afternoon, a certain Australian manager chuckling to himself as he switches Premier Sports off.

Oh Stephen Craigan, Kris Boyd, Derek McInnes, Tom English … can you hear me?

Your two-bob mob took a hell of a beating.