The First Installment of the Old Firm for the ‘09-’10 Season
Man of the Match Miller next to Pedro Mendez (credit The Daily Mail Online)
I love Rangers Football Club. I have been supporting them as my all time favorite sports team since I was 11 years old. It all started when a young man by the Paul Hyman transferred to my school after moving to California from Scotland. He grew up supporting the Blue side of Glasgow; his father was a shareholder in the club and held down a season box at the Ibrox before they left for the States. Needless to say, Paul and I hit it off as friends, spending hours kicking the ball around and playing FIFA on Playstation 2 (we graduated to XBOX and 360 as the times progressed). This is where I was introduced to Scottish Football, the Old Firm, and the Glasgow Rangers.
There was a defining moment in the early years of my support for the ‘Gers. I was 13 and hanging out at Paul’s house enjoying one of our favorite pastimes, FIFA. It wasn’t abnormal to have Paul’s father watching over us as the matches were always heated and quite entertaining. At some point between matches, I had made the comment that I wanted to use Rangers because I liked them too. The short angry Scotsman that was Paul’s father took offense to this saying that I had no right being a supporter. “You don’t even know any bloody songs!” He proceeded to kick me out of his Palm Desert house without a ride. My place was 14 miles away in Palm Springs and a long bus ride with lots to think about. I returned the next week and recited three different songs sang by the crowd at Ibrox, including “Follow, follow”. I was quizzed by Paul’s father on my general knowledge of Rangers history and ended up making him proud enough to give me my first RFC kit. I have purchased my Rangers Home Kit from the Rangers Store every year since then.
Rangers hosted their Old Firm rivals over the past weekend and to my amusement, we came away with all three points drawing us one point behind Celtic in the league standings. It is key to take clues from the previous sentence. Take note of how I aligned myself with one of the teams immediately and subjectively reacted to the outcome of the fixture. If you are a supporter of Celtic, this article may rub you the wrong way but let me be clear, I am not a profession sports pundit and I am not getting paid to try and objectively cover the sport that I love, so try not to get your panties in a bunch. Rangers hosted Celtic at the Ibrox on Sunday, October 4th, winning 2-1. All goals were scored in the first half; within the first 25 minutes to be exact. Kenny Miller scored a brace within 16 minutes and after a couple “close calls” in the box (I think I will call it home field advantage), Celtic finally received a penalty kick that Aiden McGeady put away
Miller scores a brace in the Old Firm, and not for the first time (credit the Daily Mail Online)
Kenny Miller is a story in himself really. You see, it is highly unlikely for any player to transfer from one side of Glasgow to the other, but Kenny manage to cross over from Rangers to Celtic (even kissing the Celtic badge while he played for the Hoops), and back to Rangers. Let’s just say that the first player to make the switch from one Old Firm club to the other managed to cause riots in the streets of Glasgow for three days. Sure, times have changed and the Sectarianism that splits the city in two has died down some, this transfer wasn’t received well. But, goals are the best way to make up for any previous wrong doings in the sport of soccer and Kenny Miller is a goal scorer. This is his second time scoring a brace against Celtic in an Old Firm Derby so at least we know his priorities are set.
Yes. There were a couple dodgy calls in the box that went the way of the home side. Do I think Rangers got lucky with the way the referee called the match? Sure. That doesn’t take away from the fact that the Old Firm is one of the most intense fixtures for any referee to govern over. I am sorry, but I worked for a Scotsman once and to have one yelling obscenities at you is scary enough, but to think about having 40-something thousand of them screaming at you talking about how they want to end my life is downright hellish. This derby is no ordinary derby. The bad blood goes way back in the pages of history; think Protestant Reformation. So the Old Firm is a little more than a cross-town rivalry. So do I think we had a couple calls go our way? Again, yes. But that doesn’t mean that Celtic wouldn’t get that kind of treatment at home. After the match, the referee himself said that he would have given a couple calls differently, but then again, Tony Mowbray acknowledged the fact that Celtic have been struggling at the backline all season. Mowbray said he had put a challenge out to his defenders to step up or sit out.
“If the individuals we have got here can’t step up to the mark over the course of this season, then we will change them.”
A win’s a win. Plain and simple. Sometime the calls go your way and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes your team clicks and sometimes you can never get on the same page. It wasn’t a pretty game, but then again, it’s Scottish Premier League Football. It isn’t like it’s the Prem, with tens of millions of pounds being splashed about regularly. You can say Miller and Rangers were lucky all you’d like. It won’t be the last time these two meet. I would also point to the fact that after 385 meetings between the teams, Rangers lead the series with 154 wins, compared to Celtics 139. As long as the ‘Gers win when I visit the Ibrox in February, then I will be one happy lad.
“We’re happy with the result – that was the most important thing,” Walter Smith told the BBC after the match.
The Boss is Happy (credit Flickr.com)
