Everyone knows that I am no bigot. Still less, am I paranoid about feeling that Celtic are always picked upon and victimised by the establishment who don’t like us. Good heavens, no!
Always going the second mile to see fair play and reasonableness, that’s me. I’ve even been heard to say that now and again other teams have good players as well, and even that sometimes the other team have beaten us on their own merits, and not through referees and administrators who wink to each other, play the same sort of woodwind instruments and shake hands in strange sorts of ways!
No, I’m not like that at all. Everyone has a sense of fair play… don’t they?
But then I came to BBC Scotland who have now started a series of Scottish Cup Classics on Friday nights. (It was actually on Sunday this week because of that old chap who had died in Windsor on Friday.). The game was the Scottish Cup final of 1982 between Rangers and Aberdeen, and it was actually very good, well presented and good to watch because the lesser of the two evils won it 4-1.
You saw Gordon Strachan with red hair, Willie Miller with black hair and Alex Ferguson, as pugnacious and downright nasty to his own players as he always was. You could begin to understand why that nice Mr Keane didn’t like him all that much. Tam Cowan was only 13 in 1982, he told us. Some thought he looked a little older, it has to be said.
OK a good start to the series, and I began to wonder what the next one would be. Some brilliant Celtic Cup finals – Dunfermline in 1965, Hibs in 1972 Dundee United in 1985 and 1988, Aberdeen in 2017 all sprung to mind, not to mention all the games against Rangers. I could hardly wait to see which one they would pick. But they have gone for… Rangers v Queen of the South in the final of 2008!
Hmm! Nothing against the good men from Dumfries, the Doonhamers, whose only Cup final appearance this was, but was this one of the better Cup finals? Especially as one of the teams was on last week as well?
Does the BBC still not like Celtic? Is Peter Thomson still with them? (Peter was called “Blue Peter” because of his inability to hide his tendencies). We shall look with interest at the next “Scottish Cup Classic”, otherwise the reasonable among us will begin to wonder, while others will be more and more convinced, and will question whether the introductory music should be drums and flutes!
But no, let’s give them still the benefit of the doubt! Sadly, Jimmy McGrory and Jimmy Quinn are too long ago for TV footage, but we look forward to seeing Dixie Deans, Billy McNeill, Henrik Larsson, Tom Rogic and others in Scottish Cup Classics. Otherwise the BBC will be proving what a lot of us have suspected for some time!
After all, we have 40 successful Scottish Cup finals for them to choose from!
David Potter
READ THIS…McMahon and Hodge the Heroes as Celtic beat Rangers to win Scottish Cup for the 2nd time
The website says it’s Falkirk v ICT next week
If you have a look at sky football, they have a lot of SPFL Greatest this week. It’s mainly a rangers victories. By Friday there’s only one match that potentially was a Celtic victory.
Dear Editor ,
Naive to say the least , what did you expect from BBC Scotland . Do they even employ Roman Catholics ?
On the night of :- ” Shame and Ignomy “, the 10.30pm. Newsreader wore a red ,white and blue dress . The weather girl was bedecked all in ORANGE —–Did you not even notice ?
All the good citizens down Coatbridge way did !!!!!!
An accurate answer to my question would be very welcome , since I don’t believe my assumption is far off the mark .