I think Sooperally has seen that episode as well, as it appears that he has based his game tactics on it. This was evident yesterday as Bisto FC lumped aimless balls up the field with no idea what to do after that. Umpteen chances were sent wide, over the bar or straight into the arms of the keeper. What the hell do they do in training? Like I said, probably just watch that Simpsons episode over and over. Yesterday's game would certainly suggest that.
As you would expect from a team of amateurs playing against well-paid professionals, Albion Rovers played a defensive game, especially when they managed to go a goal up. Bisto's attacks, however, were half-hearted and lazy and showed no purpose at all. It was only late on, when the Rovers players started to fall down all over the park with cramp, that Ally's team started to turn up the heat. Even then it took a foul against the Rovers keeper to get a goal! No wonder Ally says he needs new players to mount any kind of challenge in the Championship!
Still, the replay will be a midweek fixture, which should suit Bisto down to the ground since the Rovers players will get tired a lot more quickly. Assuming that Bisto get through to the semis then they'll have to take on Dundee Utd; that's when things will fall apart. In The Simpsons, Homer finally faces a top professional boxer and Marge has to shout out, 'Homer! He's not going to get tired!' I wonder if Ally has shown his players that bit yet!
Hugh Keevins had an article in yesterday's Daily Record/Sunday Mail talking about racism. This was sparked by the shameful treatment of East Stirling's Jordan Tapping. In a waffling piece Keevins manages to say nothing much and completely ducks the issue. I thought he was going to tackle things head-on when he mentioned the treatment of Hamilton's James McCarthy; instead he talks of 'cultural' reasons, sectarianism and the usual 'minority.' No mention, of course, of Aiden McGeady and the way he was treated. That would mean riling up the Bisto Kids; and we can't have that!
It's been an abiding myth that racism doesn't exist, or hardly exists, in Scotland. Back in the Sixties and Seventies Scottish folk would delight in pointing to racial violence and riots down in England and self-righteously claim that Scotland had no such problems. The fact was, however, that there were hardly any black people in Scotland then so the problem never arose. As soon as we started to get asylum seekers settled here they were welcomed with the hatred that previous immigrants to these shores could have predicted.
The Irish that came to Scotland at the end of the Nineteenth Century could tell you a thing or two about racism. Even the Church of Scotland racially abused them and made them unwelcome. Nowadays everyone tries to pretend that it never happened but the evidence is there. Even have a look at old films and you'll see the racism come through. In Hollywood films the Irish were policemen, politicians, Americans; real people. British films, however, present us with caricatures of lazy, cunning, subserviant creatures that are like the slaves from Ancient Roman comedies. (Watch The Naked City, a Barry Fitzgerald American film made in 1948 and contrast it with Broth of A Boy, a British film made eleven years later.) The same treatment of black people in movies is pointed to as obvious racism, while the treatment of Irish people is ignored.
This racism could take on more sinister forms. It's a point of pride in Scotland that Mosley's fascist organisation never made much headway here, except among the landed gentry. This is held up as a fine example of Scotland's non-racist credentials. The truth is, however, that Jews were hated just as much here as anywhere else and fascism was just as attractive. The problem with Mosley was that he and his group were willing to admit Roman Catholics and Irish people into their ranks. So, in truth, Mosley was not bigoted enough for many people in Scotland!
The fascist tendancy in Scotland found expression in the Scottish Protestant League, which wanted to ban Irish immigration and repatriate all the Irish already here. When the Second World War started, they claimed it was a Catholic conspiracy to destroy European Protestantism, ignoring the fact that Germany is a predominantly Protestant country and, indeed, is where Protestantism started! (Does all of this sound familiar?) The leader of the Scottish Protestant League, however, one Alexander Ratcliffe, became a rabid supporter of Hitler and had to be constantly monitored by British security forces. After the war he became an apologist for the Nazis and a holocaust denier.
This fascist tendancy is still evident in Scotland, although they still desperately claim that fascism is a Catholic thing. The anti-Irish racism is still evident as well, despite all their denials. McMurdo claims that such racism is impossible, since the Scots and Irish are related and it is impossible to be racist against your own people! He then, however, turns around and accuses Scottish Nationalists of being racist against the English. Considering that Scots and English are as closely connected as the Scots and Irish this argument is completely disingenuous.
This hypocrisy is widespread in our society, which tries to pretend that anti-Irish racism doesn't exist and never did. It's easier to just put it down to sectarianism and then claim that 'one side's as bad as the other,' than to admit the truth. This denial of the racism and fascism that is allowed to flourish in our midst means that the abuse handed out to Jordan Tapping is treated as something surprising and out-of-place. Until the truth is confronted we'll never get to a stage where racism can be stamped out for good.
"Racist? Racist? Only a dirty, fucking, Fenian bog trotter could come out with that one!"
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