WEST SIDE GORY (GERS … 1 Jags … 1 )

At last - a proper Glasgow Derby! The Gers v The Jags. Sounded like a one-note tale before kick-off but it became a bit of a musical epic. And I fucking HATE musicals. West Side Story indeed, with Thistle’s North-westerly innocence stunning our cynical, ruthless Sou’westerly habits. The story-line needs drama and, unfortunately for the SFA librettist, the East Side has been excluded from this year’s tale. Just when we were thinking Kurt Cobain was the only good thing to come out of Aberdeen, Celtic have their heads blown off by the team from the non-Washington version. There will be four more Glasgow derbies for The Teds this season. But only one more in the Scottish Cup. It will not be the semi or the final - it will be the quarter-final replay at Firhill and, if we play like we did tonight, and Thistle play as they did … it’ll probably go to penalties. But, equally, if we don’t learn our lessons from this evening, Thistle might hit the high Cs and plant a bum note in our Broadway-esque season.

The Jags, the Harry Wraggs, the MaryHill Magyars - hats off to them. The cunts played well and their 3,000 fans provided the atmosphere. Werder, Barcelona, Panathinaikos, Celtic, Red Star Belgrade - none of them could score at Ibrox this season. Thistle did. Celtic haven’t scored against us in over a year - in fact, the calendar year 2007 saw us win 1-0, 2-0 then 3-0 over our supposed main city rivals. Yet Thistle of Partick, who play in Maryhill, provided more goals, more of a challenge and more of an atmosphere than Celtic have put together against us for a long, long time.

Well done to them.

Kick up the arse for us. We still dominated possession, we created far more chances but - frankly - did that count for anything when Werder Bremen were doing the same to us six days ago? Nope. Okay, we can’t be too hard on our team. They’ve just pulled off a massive European result and fought out an epic of come-back-ability against le poker a télécharger gratuitementjeu de poker gratuites francaistournoi poker internetjeu carte pokerlogiciel texas holdemjouer au poker virtuelle jeu poker gratuites françaispoker gratuites sans inscriptionjouer wam pokeronline poker oddspoker online flashjeux poker a telechargerpoker hold hem gratuitesjeux comjeux poker onlinepoker avec argent virtuella règle poker texas holdemjouer au poker texas holdempoker en ligne bonusbest online poker,achat poker chips online,poker onlinetexas holdem rulesmultiplayer poker gamecaribbean poker portaljuegos poker sharewaredescargar juego poker gratispoly poquerpoker en linea gratistorneo poker gratispoker portal webcaribbean poker pagina webbajar juego pokerpai gow poker internetjuegos de polly pokerjugar poker,jugar a poker,aprender a jugar pokerreglas de poquerencuentros pokerjuegos cartas pokerjuego cartasjuego de poker en españolpoquer com esdescargas de juegos de pokerpoker texas holdem,jugar poker texas holdem,poker texas holdem gratisdescargar gratis juego de pokerplay 7 card studpai gow poker portales internetreglamentos pokerjuego al instante portal internetpoker texas holdem online,texas holdem estrategia,texas holdempoker caribe portal5 card stud Dundee United to end our three-year trophy drought. There were no howls of derision from me tonight - Charlie Adam and Chris Burke were getting enough of those without me joining in - just a horrible sinking feeling. But the fact Partick are most decidedly a middle-of-the-First Division club - more chance of them being relegated to the Second than promoted to the SPL - means we cannot be too forgiving on Rangers this evening.

We were staring down the barrell of a total humiliation at Ibrox tonight. Instead we got off with a serious riddy. Thistle wanted it more and, frankly, when they scored their sensational opener, seemed to have more of a clue of how to get it. Had they been SPL material that would be forgiveable, given all we’ve been through and been given in the last six days. But no they ain’t. Thistle are utterly mediocre. Many of the Gers players on the pitch tonight were as fresh as daisies on multivitamins and nine hours sleep each night. Many have had far from a tough programme this season. Most of them, however, were pish.

Can’t say I agreed with BOOING THEM OFF THE FUCKING PITCH, mind you. That’s pretty amnesiac. A reaction of total silence would say all that needed saying but - man - I hope tonight’s shite at least gets rid of those fucking awful WHITE SOCKS. We must have been thinking they were “lucky” of late because there’s been no clash with Black from our last two opponents’ stockings and, frankly, I’d rather see Rangers play shite as Rangers instead of looking like some poor Everton impersonation.

The bad omens were all there before kick-off. Firstly, I’d expressed on this blog great pre-match contempt for Thistle and a great desire to see them destroyed. Just as I had for St Johnstone before last season’s CIS Cup quarter-final at Ibrox, another horror show against First Division opposition, with Barry Ferguson missing both games. There was also the haunting fact of three second flight and one very average top flight side completing the final four line-up in this season’s English FA Cup. A Thistle win would ensure the same scenario for the Scottish FA Cup semis. Drawing as opposed to losing makes the hubris gentler, the humiliation more fleeting - this was not Hamilton Accies in 87 or St Johnstone in 2006. But it was, nevertheless, one of the worst nights at Ibrox since the early eighties.

Thankfully, context is all.

What could make it cataclysmic is if this set-back results in us losing the replay or begins some sort of downward spiral in our overal fortunes. Hopefully it will have the opposite effect. Hopefully - and Walter should know how to exploit the situation - this can be the most harmless of wet slaps to the face. Just as our results and Celtic’s seem to indicate everything’s going our way - ye know, that the treble’s in the bag and the only variable left is the identity of our opposition in the UEFA Cup final in Manchester - it will do us good to draw breath, take stock and get fucking well re-focussed. To do it in a way which costs us no SPL points and sees us still in Europe is about as good as we can hope for.

Our main domestic rivals have scored one goal in their last four games, winning none. The danger for us, before tonight, was to start thinking we’ve already won the treble - Europe would be the exciting bonus. Now, after the utter tripe we served up this evening - that’s us now gone three successive 90 minutes without a win - it’s obvious that we could still very well finish the season with only the League Cup to our name. Celtic would claim the SPL title for the third year on the trot and bask in their two successive Champions League Group Stage triumphs. Just like THAT, all we think we’ve fought our way out of will submerge us again and more devestatingly so for having tasted an end to it.

The utterly terrifying factor - one I’ve harped on about all season - is that this team relies so heavily on Barry Ferguson. He gives us our shape, our poise, our direction - even when he’s playing poorly, Ferguson IS Rangers. That’s not healthy but, let’s not bring up the Paul Le Guen affair at this time - we know it’s not healthy, to be so reliant on one man remaining healthy. We just didn’t want to be reminded of it in such pant-shittingly awful terms tonight. Carlos Cuellar deserved a better captaincy but we must now hope Ferguson doesn’t relinquish it again til May … and he’ll be playing two games a week til then if we get all we want.

This was St Johnstone in the CIS cup all over again. When Thistle scored I didn’t make the mistake, as I did against the Saintees, of thinking “Good - that’ll kick us up the arse”. I just watched through my fingers as we somehow managed to eek a goal from a performance which had “LOSS” written all over it.

At times tonight I would have bit yer hand off if ye’d offered me a replay at Firhill. Nuff said. Learn. Move on.