ibrox furore should not hide the real issues

'There was an incredible amount of unspeakable abuse directed at Neil Lennon. In today's society, no-one should have to put up with sectarian abuse of this nature, and Martin was keen to support a player who has been central to the domestic and European success Celtic has enjoyed in recent years.' Statement issued by Peter Lawwell.

Following the events at Ibrox in November it was heartening to see the board standing behind martin O'Neill. We fully endorse the statement and look forward to the Scottish football authorities doing something about it, which should be just as soon as 633 Pig Squadron comes in to land at Prestwick Airport. For more on Ibroxgate there's been plenty of good stuff on etims.net, celticquicknews and keep-the-faith as well as on the official Celtic website. All worth a read.

One thing that is worth adding is that if Celtic - both club and fans - are going to take and hold the moral high ground over the issues raised in the wake of the Ibrox game then we'd better try harder than ever to keep our own house in order. The Record and The Sun had a field day the week after the events in Mordor, particularly when commenting on the treatment Ian Ferguson, the ex Rangers Player, received from the Celtic support when he played for Dunfermline. With great glee they have contrasted MON's comments pertaining to that incident with his comments about the sectarian/racist abuse endured by Neil Lennon. It's clear that any incident involving Celtic or the fans that could possibly be given a negative spin will now be magnified by the Scottish tabloids in their desperate urge to portray Celtic and Rangers as being equally culpable when it comes to bigoted or sectarian behaviour.

The hypocrisy of the tabloid media in Scotland almost goes without saying. For the last few years Celtic's black players have been routinely racially abused by sections of the Rangers support. The only paper to really mention this was the Herald. Why the shameful silence by the red tops? A few years ago the red tops managed to track down the Celtic supporter (singular) who, in the aftermath of 9/11, made an aeroplane gesture in the direction of Claudio Reyna. One supporter out of 7,500 and the Tabloids managed to track him down and name and shame him. Scores of Rangers supporters have racially abused Celtic's black players in the crudest way over the course of the last few seasons and the Scottish press have identified none of them. Tens of thousands of Rangers supporters regularly sing about being, 'Up to our knees in fenian blood' at every match played at Ibrox. Surprisingly, the press are unable to identify any of them.

Maybe they are just not very good investigative journalists or perhaps, more worryingly, they have become inured to the sentiments expressed in that particularly vile chant? If the word 'fenian' in that charming ditty was replaced by another pejorative term, such as 'Paki' or 'Nigger', our politicians would have been falling over one another in their desperation to condemn Rangers and Ibrox would have been closed down years ago. One can only imagine their reaction if supporters of a German club sang about being up to their knees in Jewish blood. Yet, In 21st Century Scotland, a large element of the Rangers support week in week out sing about being up to their knees in another human being's blood and the silence is deafening.

Any comment from politicians is usually along the lines of, 'Both clubs are as bad as one another and must do more to put their house in order.' It is pitiful that this kind of 'neutrality' - some might more accurately call it cowardice - is the order of the day for Scotland's politicians, and journalists when confronted by questions about the bigotry associated with the country's two biggest football clubs. Unless there's some plain talking soon and some garden implements are renamed as spades we look set - as usual to go round in circles listening to enough pious tub-thumping to float the Montgolfier Brothers into orbit.

the empire strikes back

But while the fallout from that afternoon look likely to linger in the air for a while yet, from a football point of view, this should not cloud some worrying issues which arose from a poor performance against an (at best) average Rangers side.

First things first, the defeat at Ibrox was not caused by incompetent refereeing. It's true that the match official looked at times on the verge of complete mental collapse, but trying to deflect attention away from Celtic's many inadequacies by blaming the referee is the easy way out.

Rangers scored from their first attack, the goal yet again coming from a basic defensive error. Their second goal was another self- inflicted wound; Sutton giving away a needless free kick which also brought him a booking. Kenny Clark was not responsible for our defensive frailties - Celtic still had eleven players on the pitch when we went two down.

Clark could have done himself, and everybody else, a favour by getting to grips with some niggly fouls in the first few minutes. Once the tone had been set, though, quite a few of the players on both sides exhibited behaviour that wouldn't have been out of place in a school playground. Alan Thompson, to take one example; you'd have to think long and hard before coming with a plausible and sensible explanation for him going anywhere near a renowned thespian like the gravitationally challenged Lovenkrands. Quite often Thommo doesn't have the pace to run by defenders, but he can usually be relied on to build up enough steam to run over and confront opposition players. Any time there's a flare up on the pitch you can bet your mortgage he'll be there. As an experienced professional he should know better. Why - especially as Clark had already awarded the free kick to Celtic - he had to dash 15 metres to play alpha male games with the Danish dive bomber will forever have to remain a source of bafflement.

Lovenkrands' reaction, of course, was disgraceful and well worthy of an Oscar, but the reality is if Thompson had stayed away from him he wouldn't have placed himself in a position where he could be sent off.

Sutton only has himself to blame for his red card. Two utterly pointless and needless bookings - hardly the way you'd expect a senior professional to play. Having picked up an unnecessary yellow for an earlier foul on Rae, why did he then deliberately handle the ball? It wasn't even as though he was stopping a Rangers attack, he was in their box at the time! Don't players think before they act?

Camara should also have walked and Lennon also seemed to be trying his best in the second half to get an early bath. Joining the procession should have been Novo and on another day both Rae and Vignal could also have seen red. Rae tried to elbow an opponent early on and seemed to deliberately stick his hand into Camara's face when Camara got booked. Little has been said of Vignal's part in the incident which could have led to Camara being sent off. However Vignal might have been booked for his original foul on Camara then perhaps deserved another yellow for kicking out at the Celtic player when both were on the ground, the kick at Camara's backside provoking his retaliation.

However, blaming the referee for our defeat is a bit like saying, 'It wisnae me, it was the big boys made me do it.' Those who wish to excuse our defeat at Ibrox by blaming the ref are avoiding the real issue. Kenny Clark is not the reason for Celtic's rapid decline since the start of the season. Everybody involved had 12 months notice that Henrik Larsson was leaving. Was Henri Camara, Britain's most expensive loan player, really the best replacement we could come up with?

Supporters have been voicing concern about the defence for well over a year now. We haven't had a natural left back for nearly five years. A European class centre half who can be relied on at Champions League level is also long overdue. The response in the Summer was to do nothing to improve the defence but instead to sign Juninho, who has thus far spent most of the season as Europe's most highly paid substitute.

All in, Ibrox was a depressingly bad day. For those who still think we can blame all our ills on others conspiring against us, ask yourself this - would a real top class team, with top class players, have allowed themselves to be dragged down to Rangers level the way we were? Would Barcelona have lost their discipline the way we did?

The best way for Celtic to respond to the Rangers challenge is to beat them. Beat them playing football, show them up for being the limited team they are. Don't descend to their level. The worry at the present time is that unless the squad is seriously bolstered in January the way it should have been in the summer we might yet throw this Championship away.

GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE
and a Gentleman