As those specky, peely – wally, tone-deaf warbling, Scottish republican, Hibernian supporting Proclaimers wail, there’s Sunshine on Leith and indeed there was on Saturday the 25th of July 2015.
But I think us Rangers fans encapsulated that day at Easter road better off in song with this little ditty.
Oooooooh Warburton is magic,
He wears a magic hat,
He could have stayed in England,
But he said no fuck that,
His assistant is Sir Davie,
He’s Rangers till he dies,
And when we get promoted,
We’re going for 55.
What an absolute pleasure it was to be at Easter Road on Saturday. The sunshine was indeed shining on Mark Warburton’s brand of sexy football.
I think Irvine Welsh summed up my feelings on Saturday best in his Novel Trainspotting.
“take your best orgasm, multiply the feeling by twenty, and you’re still fuckin miles off the pace”
It’s easy to be magnanimous after a well earned humping of a team that will probably be your biggest rivals for the Championship but I thought both teams played football the way it should be played. Ball on the deck, crisp, tight, pass and move. Lots of attacking endeavour and effort.
Attack, attack, attack.
Brilliant stuff.
I was going to use the phrase that the petrofac training cup game at Easter road was a potential banana skin but that would be wrong. It wouldn’t have been unexpected given last years performances to have seen Hibs run out as winners………..
BUT THAT WAS LAST YEAR!!!!
In saying that after Sam Stanton broke the deadlock after 15 minutes and the game being back and forth for the first 40 minutes the same old story that we saw last year seemed to be getting played out before us.
That was of-course before the very impressive James Tavernier’s unstoppable free-kick on 39 minutes followed by Martyn Waghorn goal from a well worked move on the right hand side with again Man of the Match Right back James Tavernier being at the heart of it.
While us fans were ecstatic at this breath of fresh air from last season of sexy football we had just seen before usand being 2 1 up after being 1 nil down. One man who wasn’t there last season and probably the most important, that counts Mark Warburton was down in the dressing room reading the riot act unhappy at the first 35 minutes of the game.
That was probably because Warburton was an OUTSIDER ………….. (Pauses for comedic effect) to what went on at Ibrox the last few seasons thankfully.
When I say riot act Mark Warburton wont be the type to go kicking trays of tea cups into players faces and rave like a red faced loony. But more calm and tactically, analytical, individual and group talks saying the team can do better here. We were too sloppy and off the pace giving the opposition too much time and space. We didn’t squeeze high up the pitch enough.
What ever he said and how he said it at half time the Rangers players took it on board 100% into the second half
With 4 more goals coming and to be honest there could easily have been more for Warburton’s SOLDIERS got stuck in and left Hibs with egg on their faces ………….. (Pauses for comedic effect)
Hibs were TOAST!!!!
The things that impressed me was the average age of the team that started the same as the team that started against former EPL team Burnley was dramatically lower than that of last year.
It wasn’t just the new faces that Warburton brought in, oh no, Barrie McKay I thought had an excellent second half.
I can remember the start of our long journey back up to were we rightfully belong the first league game against Peterhead. Ally McCoist started Barrie McKay who must have been about 16 , 17 at the time playing up front through the middle and scored our first Goal. A well taken goal that looked as if he had been playing in the first team for years. But that was that and he and others seemed to have lost his way.
Somehow I don’t think all that will be happening under Mark Warburton’s watch!
This kid McKay who has came through the ranks at Murray Park has seemed to have taken his new chance under Mark Warburton with both hands and he and Templeton have both started as the wide players up front of this 4-3-3 formation.
It wasn’t just the Starting line up and the débutantes that impressed me. It was the strength that came off the bench too. With our lean and hungry squad still boasting the likes of Shiels, Miller and Clark. All made their impact too.
Another highlight of the day was the arrival of Scott Allan and the reception he got. It reminded me of watching 9 in a row legend and Rangers Hall of Fame member Ian Ferguson play against Rangers at Ibrox for St Mirren just before he would sign for Rangers in one of the worst kept secrets in Scottish football.
I remember watching Ian Ferguson that day and hoping the Rangers players wouldn’t put a hard tackle in and injure him. Quite surreal for an opposition player. I’m pretty sure on that day Ian Ferguson got a warm reception form Rangers fans warming up and when he left the field of play either it was as a substitution or at the end of the match.
If Scott Allan has half the career that Ian Ferguson had he will be doing very well and with the little glimpses of magic we saw on Saturday and his performance last season there’s no doubt in my mind that he could.
Yip, Rangers seemed to be getting things right on and off the park and in doing so ramming it down the throats in the best way possible of Rangers hating bheasts who tried to cripple us with sly attack after sly attack on our beloved club.
It’s actually good to be blogging about the football and hopefully when we get to the top and are being run for and in the best interests of Rangers Football Club, then I can stop this blog and get back to just supporting my team. But there’s still loads more to come on that front dear reader.
For the first time in a long, long, long while I am feeling optimistic about Rangers both on and off the field.
I wouldn’t say its like the last time we held aloft our 54th title because I wanted Rangers to win that for all the wrong reasons that was to ram it down the throat of the Lurgan bigot. An antagonising, IRA loving, sectarian, Rangers hating bigoted NED. Who with the help of his little pathetic British hating cabal did more in one season to ramp up animosity and hatred in Scottish football and destroy from within with unfounded unprofessional attack after attack on referees, the media, other fellow professionals, other teams fans and the “Establishment” -what ever the fuck that means-that Scottish football was sadly starting to resemble the sinn fein/IRA petty point scoring pedantic pathetic Politics of the Lurgan bigots home town.
This all had its impact and the wonderful results of this can be seen with how Scottish football is set up today.
No the optimism I am feeling today is that of the one I felt under Walter Smith and the run we had to the UEFA cup final that would kick start us on the road to 3 SPL titles in a row.
One night in particular springs to mind that beautiful night in Florence.
Now I’ve said this phrase many times before but after that Joy of six of sexy football that we saw on Saturday I’m saying it with more confidence and conviction about things at Rangers both on and off the park.
To quote the almost orgasmic ravings of the ITV commentator on that night.
BRACE YOURSELF!
RANGERS ARE COMING!!!!!!