Euro Gers are ouro heroes

Okay - I’ve just watched the STV highlights of the Villarreal game for the third time and a few more half-arsed thoughts have occurred to me:

First of all, I now wish Dado WAS available for the second leg. The more Archie McP slags him, the more I realise it’s overly harsh: Just like Ferguson, Dado’s made a rod for his own back by being so great in the recent past. Everyone expects sheer perfection from him so we start thinking he’s a liability when he can “only” make a total nuisance of himself to a world-class defence - getting touches (of the right kind - in THEIR box) and covering every blade of grass to hassle and harry: A half-fit Prso or an off-form Bazza is still more valuable to us than an on-form Marvin Andrews or a fully-fit Bob Malcolm (No offence to these guys - this is an example of how highly I rate Dado and Bazz’s talents).

Furthermore - Have to reconsider my initial on-the-night foul-mouthed reactions to the French Referee (But not his female assistant - I’d NEVER swear at a laaaaaydeeeee … so thank god she wasnae on the Main Stand side for all those offside decisions which did and didnae happen in the first half): When I spend so much of my time reacting against the embarrassing notion among my fellow fans that referees make occassional poor decisions against us because officialdom is bent against Rangers (Us? The Masonic Order? How ridiculous - we all know refs hate Celtic and LOVE Rangers), it means that there’s a surpressed volcano of rage ready to explode when I do genuinely lose it with an umpire:

As an adult, it’s no coincidence that this has happened to me only in European games - where my hopes and ambitions have never been fully realised so I’m much more liable to experience that sheer desperation to be angry which infests the psyches of our celtic-supporting professional-victim friends.

I lost the head with Collina when he gave the penalty against Craig Moore for that foul on Van Nistelrooy of PSV in the 99/2000 Champions League. I was right behind the incident - and spent the whole of half-time screaming about a UEFA Conspiracy against clubs with no hope of getting into the G14 (See, this is how I KNOW where the Celtic fans are coming from with all their conspiracy talk - it’s barely displaced anger at the fact yer team sometimes stays shite despite the depths of yer love for them): We eneded up winning 4-1 and when I got home and watched the highlights it was a GREAT decision by Collina - spot-on. I was embarrassed.

Herbert Fandel: Feyenoord in De Kuip. Uefa Cup 2002. The two free-kicks he gave them from which Van Hoodwink scored (free-kicks were like penalties that night with that rat bastard about) - this time I was right and this time I lost it, refused to see that these things evened themselves out and still hate the man to this day. I watch a lot of german football - I ATTEND a fair bit of German football: I see Herr Fandel of the DFB on the TV each week and I WILL, one day, see him again in the flesh (in fact - he’s been back at Ibrox since),and I WILL be down the front and I WILL have learned enough German to tell him what I think of him. Oh Yes - I bear a refereeing grudge.

But not against the Monsieur in Noir on Wednesday night: Villarreal’s second goal was, on closer viewing, a perfect reading of the new offside rules. The rules themselves are shite - yes. The law is an ass, yes. But this judge interpreted and executed those rules perfectly - Diego Foreskin’s goal was legitimate. I had also shouted and screamed at this ref for allowing the entire fucking Villarreal team to leave the field of play and celebrate with their coach in the technical area after Riquelme’s penalty conversion: Surely they should all have been booked!

Technically speaking, yes - but I then discovered the Villarreal coach’s wife had been seriously unwell and there’d been real doubts over whether or not he’d actually make the game. Good decision bythe ref and our best wishes to Senora Pellegrino.

More than that, both Villarreall’s dissallowed goals could have stood and one defo should have. LOVE that ref!

And, all this contributed to the feeling among many Gers fans and definitely among the head of Archie McPherson (I love Archie - he moans at us so much he’s clearly a Bluenose) that Rangers were TERRIBLE on Wednesday.

Bollox - we were fucking BRILLIANT. There was absolutely no realisation by the complainers of the fact we were playing WORLD CLASS opposition. So many Scottish punters think that it’s all about completing every pass and walking the ball into the net. Nah. When you play a team like Villarreal with our limited resources it’s all about hammering away, plugging away, not being intimidated and never, never, NEVER giving up. Wee Chrissy Burke was the best but the rest of them also personified this attitude:

You got the game on tape? I’ve only got the STV highlights but Watch our first goal, from the start to the finish - turn the volume up and take a preliminary look at the heaviness of the pitch: WHAT A GOAL! Archie’s moaning about Burke “letting himself down” because he’s just run half the length of the pitch in two seconds and didn’t beat a third consecutive opponent cleanly - instead he “only” manages to force that last opponent into a clearence so desperate that it lands straight at the feet of Lovenkrands - Pete’s twenty yards out, with the stingiest defence in this year’s competition in front of him, but still rifles it first time into the top corner: The players aren’t hanging about saying “Oh Chris - you should have laid that off to my feet” - the Rangers players aren’t thinking “oh no - we don’t have as much possession as we would against Livingston” - the Rangers players are sniffing the merest of chances and slapping them away. They’re not caring about how our second goal was scored - they KNOW it came from our pressure. They’re not caring about the other goals Villarreal COULD have had - they know that there’s always a Herbert Fandel waiting round the corner to even these thinsg out. The Rangers PLAYERS have the balls to seize the fucking moment for what it IS - not what it might or should be. They’re then spending the rest of the game working those same balls off to eek out those snippets of chances which can get those form-books chucked out continental windows.

We may well get hammered in the second leg - on paper, we should. But I think we can do it and if we do it’s because of our team’s determination, belief and sheer fucking spirit. Let’s share in that with them - let’s tell them how much we appreciate it - how much we actually UNDERSTAND what their giving us. So many folk were moaning about our players the other night - but the genereal atmosphere was Friggin ELECTRIC. Ibrox did ROCK. From that we can assume we all knew it was a big occassion and we knew Villarreal were classy opponents - so in phone-ins, on websites, in letters pages and at Falkirk next weekend let’s let the Teddy Bears know that we’re 100% behind them. We have the rest of our lives to bitch and moan about failures - but a rallying to the cause right now could give us a European moment to CELEBRATE for the rest of our lives.

No matter what happens, for Wednesday night I’m so thankful and, even more than usual, so PROUD of my team.

Also - does anyone else think Brahim Hemdani looks like a cross between Claudio Reyna and Ian Murray?

And we’d better hope we don’t play Everton in the Champs League anytime soon - Van Nistelrooy has scored against us for two sides in the CL. Now Forlan’s done it. Gary Neville is the only Man U scorer from two seasons ago who hasn’t done it to us for someone else. Oh baby…