Prior to becoming infamous for the use of his head theRangers’ women’s team assistant coach Craig ‘Hagi’ McPherson had a left foot of some renown, albeit in the boon docks of Scottish football.
Now it appears his use of the head, whilst sadly not engaging his brain, may well lead to a hefty punishment being meted out for McPherson’s cowardly assault on Celtic head coach Fran Alonso, following Celtic’s 99th minute equaliser in last night’s SWPL1 Glasgow Derby shown live on Sky Sports.
You would think such an act wouldn’t have much of a case for the defence to support it, but over on a well-known fan’s forum the Ibrox support appear more than willing to defend the indefensible. Here’s just a wee sample of the though process of the Ibrox support surrounding last night’s shameful incident with a mixed bag of views coming through.
“Hagi’s a good guy, obviously a rush of blood to the head, we’ve all been there I’m sure.”…“Probably the first-time women’s football makes the front pages of the papers, because of the action of a man. You couldn’t make it up.”…“Hagi is a proper Rangers man, just one of us. What he did was wrong but he cares.”…“He is not working on a building site, he’s a complete (expletive) that’s representing Rangers and embarrassing Rangers on live TV.”
“At least get a proper dig in. Imagine getting your jotters cause you tried to head butt the back of a guys head.”…“Why would you think of doing that after the FT whistle?! Sacked in the morning = do not pass go. Stupid man.”…“I think there will be mitigating circumstances and suggest he reacted to something that was said to him/ Rangers bench by the rat of a Celtic manager.”
“I’m not saying it was acceptable what he did but he’s clearly been provoked. He’ll probably get the sack, there’s no denying it.”…“Football is full of emotion. These kinds of things happen regularly even if it’s wrong. I can almost guarantee the Celtic manager has said something to provoke that reaction.”
“He’s going to be sacked, regardless of what was said or wasn’t. Celtic manager wasn’t even looking at him. An embarrassment to himself, the club and the game in general.”
That final comment gets to the crux of the matter and was a modicum of common sense occurring on the Ibrox fans forum, but most are already sensing what they think theRangers will do next, plead provocation and use it as a defence.
However, there has been no mention of provocation anywhere after the game and Fran Alonso has never struck as the type of manager to seek out confrontation, although an exuberant celebrator he is – and such passion endears him to the Celtic support.
Indeed, even after the incident the Celtic boss held his composure and explained coherently just what had happened to him and what had been said, including his being called a ‘little rat’. And even if there had been some verbal’s exchanged that would certainly not justify the violent actions in retort.
Alonso seemed to have brushed off the incident almost as soon as it happened, but the same option should not be afforded to Craig McPherson. Whilst his nickname comes from one of football’s greatest technicians his post-match behaviour was more Duncan Ferguson than Gheorghe Hagi and the footballing authorities have to act on this matter, even if theRangers do not.
After all, if any of us did what Craig McPherson did in our workplace there would be no mitigation considered. Instead, we all know what would happen, the tin-tack would occur, and we’d be lucky if it didn’t go further than that. And that should be no different in the world of football, particularly women’s football which is keen to project a safe and welcoming family atmosphere.
Craig McPherson’s actions are not in keeping with that ethos, and now we wait to see if theRangers – or the governing bodies – will hand out a punishment that fits the crime.
Niall J
