JABBA THE AGNIVORE

CRYING TIME

Keith Jackson decides to have a go at Neil Lennon for his ill-advised rant after the St Mirren match at Hampden. Fair enough; Lenny did go a bit over the top, even though most of his criticism was reserved for his players. What gets me, though, is the sheer two-facedness of the whole thing. This is the man that supporterd Traynor's valedictory bile, remember. Apparently it was okay for Traynor to bad-mouth his fellow journalists, as he is still doing, but not okay for Lennon to react to criticism!

Equally, there's hardly a week goes by without Green, Hateley or somebody else telling us all how the boycot of Dundee Utd is justified, Rangers have been hard-done by and that league reconstruction is just a malicious plot to keep Rangers down. And yet there is not one word of criticism advanced against all these paranoid ravings. Absolute double standards.

Jackson even has to resort to lies in his condemnation of Lennon. Okay, maybe not lies but certainly being economical with the truth. Lennon points out the lack of atmosphere at Hampden, which Jackson leaps on with relish. Later in the same piece, however, Lennon is quoted as saying that the lack of atmosphere is no real excuse, that Hampden isn't there for Celtic's benefit and that they should have learned to cope with it by now. So Jackson is a bit premature in his criticism.

It is obvious to anyone with more than one brain cell that Lennon was angry; and justifiably so the way St Mirren put Celtic to the sword. It was probably not the best frame of mind to be in when facing the press. Anyone else, however, would be cut a bit of slack; Green, Auld Dignity, Sooperally et al would have had all manner of excuses trotted out for the way they reacted. When it comes to Neil Lennon, however, they try to portray him, as they always do, as the angriest man in Christendom. Again, as usual, pandering to the bigots.

This makes it all the funnier when you have a look at Loony Leggat's latest offerings. He's still banging on about our meeja being under the control of people whose sole purpose in life is to destroy Rangers. It's all some big conspiracy cooked up by the Vatican, the SNP, Irish Republicans and basically anyone else that the auld bam doesn't like. If he was right do you think Lennon would be pilloried in the press while Green and Sooperally are handled with kid gloves?

And here's the best bit at the end of his tirade, in which he specifically names two Daily Record editors as Celtic Supporters and IRA sympathisers:

 "Finally, let me be clear as to what any reaction of any Rangers supporter should be to this news. It should most certainly, most emphatically, not involve any communication of any sort with either Daily Record editor Alan Rennie or Daily Record news editor Kevin Mansi. That would only play straight into the hands of the Rangers haters. Of whom there are many."

The very fact that he has to say this shows that he knows very well what the normal reaction of many Rangers supporters would be. And we all know as well what kind of  'communication' would be sent by such 'peeppil.'