Willie Collum Does it Again for His Team

 

Another Heart of Midlothian v Celtic game, another example of Willie Collum's deliberate bending of the rules to benefit his team.  Yet again he takes his teams side. This is not new, I make it six penalties he gave in seven games against us, none of which were penalties, and add to this several non red cards which he decided were red and has shown against this club, and he has gone one better today.  Sitting far from home in Glasgow he has made use of VAR to force the referee in today's game to send off a Heart of Midlothian player for no reason.  A foul, if it was a foul was committed, a yellow card shown, if that was required, and the  Willie demands a red, because that is what he does!

Had I been the boss at Tynecastle I would have taken the players from the field and sued both Willie and the SFA for the cheating we have endured.  This is not new, I have seen this as far back as the early 60s when Gordon Marshall was also treated badly by a Glasgow referee.  The 'Old Firm' have always had the refs in their pocket.  Today, ought to have been time for action.  The cowards at the Heart of Midlothian board will fail to react, once again. 

Boring, Cloudy Bank Holiday Monday

Being the August Bank Holiday it is inevitable that the weather would be dreich.  Cloud covers the land, warm cloud but dreich nontheless, and so I remain inside in the dim light.  Nothing exciting has been laid on for kids or else.  The results of Covid I suppose, all are afraid to organise anything.  Those that have gathered at music festivals and the like appear to be happily catching Covid!  Could this be because they have not bothered, nor had the chance to get a jab?  I wonder.  It is the younger folks, as well as the now well advertised anti-maskers who are dying from this virus.  Why do people not listen?

 

 

It is amazing what people will believe without factual confirmation.  Some happily believe in aliens and UFOs from distant planets, even though astronomers, both professional and amatuer say no such thing has been discovered.  Others accept social media statements that the vaccine is harmful or an attempt by Bill Gates to control you.  I read somewhere that a third of the US population thought they had been lifted up into a spacecraft by light ray and, er, investigated by aliens.  A third sounds a great number, but there must be quite a few who believe this in the US, some in the UK also I bet.  People will believe what they wish to believe whether it is true or not.  This covers religions, historic patriotic events, usually propaganda rather than fact, aliens, beliefs about incoming foreigners, and stories about that woman down the road, the one with the funny headwear.  Once a belief gets into someone facts may be difficult to insert, just ask a Brexiteer.  

In fact I had similar arguments at the weekend with Celtic fans.  After the match Rangers fans, all in black, marched through the streets singing 'The famine is over, why don't you go home.'  Having a dig at Celtic fans and their Irish origin.  When I pointed out correctly that sectarian behaviour arises from both Celtic and Rangers fans I met a barrage of disbelief - all from Celtic fans.  It is woven into them that the fault is all 'over there.'  They are not sectarian, and anyway it is anti-Irish racism, not sectarianism.  As if that made a difference.  'Racism' is the new, trendy, word, it was never used in the past, only sectarianism, and it certainly comes from both sides.  The 'famine song' by the way has one small problem with it, the 'protestant' ethos espoused by the rangers fans comes from the early Rangers fans who came from Northern Ireland.  These men came, with their 'Orange Order' parades from Belfast, so if that lot ought to go 'back home,' I suggest the choir we saw on the streets could go 'back home,' also.

Nothing of course will be done.

 

A book: 'Break Up,' the story of the fall out between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, is about to be published.  Alex is not pleased.  He knows this is just another step in Nicola's desperate attempt to remove the threat he offers to her position.  She fears him as he is the only man who can truly bring independence.  Alex has reported the 'Times' for printing elections of the book, these detail information banned from publication by a Scots judge.  He will be bringing action soon, well, probably in two or three years, you know how slow the courts are these days, and then we may find out more of the infighting within the SNP.  

Interestingly the writer is one David Clegg, once editor of the 'Daily Record,' and known to be well in with the Scottish government.  It is thought he has obtained information from a source, known to some, within the SNP government and included this, and this in spite of legal rulings.

Nicola is desperate to lose the threat of Alex, he is however, still a far better, more devious, politician than she.  We may see an end to her cabal before long.

Saturday Delight

 

 

Saturday, a day of rest for many, of shopping for others.  

I managed to avoid the crowds by joining the crowds yesterday when the bread ran out.  This was a mistake.  Still, it would be worse today.  I fail to comprehend people who always shop on a Saturday when it is busy.  Surely they can find another time?  These big stores are open till 8 in the evening, five days a week, sometimes they open till nine or later!  How come everyone arrives at the same time on Saturday?  

 

However, proper football begins tonight, in the meantime we have the Blue bigots playing Livingstone. This was a poor game, especially as the blue bigots won.

This will have to do until later, whem we begin against the Green bigots.  8 pm on a Saturday night?  What a strange time to play football, some of the younger players may enter the field holding their phones and Lager bottles by mistake.

That church in the picture has been there for at least 800 years, possibly longer.  The pub, or a pub, has stood on that spot since at least the Saxons I reckon.  A building nearby has a beam that was dated to 1392 I think the man said. This is because this was the road from London to Norwich, and at Bury St Edmunds lay St Edmunds, so a popular pilgrimage route began, and money was taken...

 

BBC

 

So, at the ridiculous time of 8 pm we 'entertained' Celtic in the opening game of the new league season.  While it is true they are not at their best, neither are we, indeed that showed in the first half.  However, after taking the lead, we allowed them back in.  Tsk!  Still, improving in the 2nd half and after losing an undeserved equaliser we changed the shape and finished them off with a great John Soutar header a minute from time.  Add to that two saves in the Jim Cruickshank mould in the last minute of added time from captain Craig Gordon and the job was complete.  Heart of Midlothian win by two goals to one and it ought to have been more.  Even the ref was quite good for a change!

 

O Happy Day!

This was destined to be a good day, the sun shone through the chill wind, the shops were empty again, no new neighbour moved in the flat next door as yet, and I will eat properly tonight!
What else do we need?  I will tell you what we need, a good result against the green bigots!

And a good result we obtained!
While the Glasgow media pander to the green bigots by declaring how weak Celtic's squad is at the moment (not counting the multi million players appearing for them today surely?) the fact of the matter is that the Heart of Midlothian tactics were better, even though the claim is they did not quite work, that the players were more determined, that our play was better and we scored yet another wonder goal!  Even John Beaton, he off the flashing yellow and red cards, did not book as many as usual indeed cautioning two of the bigot side, and overall the game went well all round.  

A happy manager as he sees his side begin to take good shape and prosper as they ought.  I look forward to the next few games, many of which we have every chance of winning, and note how the Glasgow media will ignore us until we threaten their hold, then they will unsettle our players with lies about 'bigger' clubs wanting them, the usual lies.  A good time lies ahead.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

It has been a tiring couple of days.  Searching the town for cheap gifts, wandering for miles round in a circle, back to St Paul's for a great morning including Greek ginger Christmas treats, and then today wandering again round the shops before joining the merry crowd in Tesco, smiles abounding, at least from those heading for the door!
All this has been accompanied by the joy of watching the Heart of Midlothian do what they are meant to do, stuffing the Old Firm good and proper!  This half is the lesser of the evil twins, but not by much, and while they deservedly have made good use of the vast wealth they have it is clear the Heart of Midlothian are making much better use of the slender resources at our disposal.  This is why the victory is greater than it would have been in times past.
Scottish football was at its best in the 1950's and early 60's.  This is partly because the better players did not wander off into England as the £10 a week limit on wages still applied at the time, most were content to remain at home unless the English club could find a way round the wage limit by acquiring another job for the player, an old and well worn trick.  So when I started to watch football  e expected to beat everyone, and why not, they expected to beat us.  Sadly filthy lucre has ended those happy days and with SKY V pouring money into the feeble English game, and far too little into the Scots one, a disparity has arisen.  Add to this the Rangers chairman and his tax dodging friends hugely increasing costs and running away, supported by the Glasgow media, we now see Scots football recovering slowly from the bad taste of recent days.
So enjoyment is complete when one half of the evil twins lose to the Heart of Midlothian, the other losing also to St Johnstone the day before also brings tears to the eyes of the 'typists' at the 'Daily Record,' and this enjoyment we wish to continue.  The struggles are not over but as one man said "This is not the end, but it maybe it is the end of the beginning."

The Usual Sunday Stuff

While the antipodeans cover themselves in layers of sun cream there was no danger of sunstroke from the sun hiding behind the light gray skies this morning.  Even worse there was a determined effort to drop dirty great lumps of snow on us yesterday afternoon which luckily did not prove sufficient to lie. Yuck, we don't want any of that here!

Trapped indoors wrapped up like Nanook of the North instead I participated for a short while in keyboard warrior action.  A Celtic fan, claiming to be 'anti- sectarian, refused to accept the proven fact that his club is as sectarian as Rangers.  He quickly descended into 'whataboutery' a well know tactic in which they avoid the issue and point fingers elsewhere.  It took some time but he eventually disappeared convinced of our error, occasionally others joined in, and determined to believe he represented a club as pure as the snow I hate falling near me.  
Forums, Twitter and newspaper (I use that word loosely) comment columns are full of such people. The 'Daily Mail' is one of the best, and most likely to delete any comment that disagrees with their view (the Guardian, that centre of 'free speech' is much, much worse at censorship than any other) and surely the keyboard anonymity allows all sorts of psychopaths free range to discuss their 'views.'
One 'gay' discussion soon brings out the bile.  No-one is allowed to indicate gays are in the wrong.  You must accept and never disagree, no matter what the situation.  The comments always follow the same routine, cut and paste questions, quotes and texts from a gay forum and refuse to accept any answer. Debate is impossible as openness is not allowed.  The 'Gay Manifesto' from 1970 has working its way through the nation and few have noticed.
Secularists are the same.  The 'cut and paste' follows identical patterns, giving rise to the thought that a few people use many names and cover two topics regularly.  Openness is declared but rarely seen.  
I sometimes wonder why I allow myself to get involved when I know the answers, probably having met the same folks before.  However the Celtic one I had to speak on, the bile from both sides destroys the west of Scotland and proper government action is long overdue to the influence these two football clubs have on this.  Removing the sectarian influence form both would lead to a cleaner nation and happier people.  It would take time however.

I note, but have no link, to an NHS employee fired by her organisation for offering to pray for a Muslim friend.  There is more to this story but the woman comes out well yet the authorities have refused to accept they did wrong.  This is yet another example of the anti-Christian attitudes that are now prevalent in western society.  This is to be expected in India, where the Hindus are at this moment attacking Christians and Muslims in a deliberate policy to eradicate them from India.  It is common in Pakistan, Iran and other Muslim states but in the west?  Many are suffering in India and such places yet the western media ignores this.  The west is now doing the same, authorised by parliament and encouraged by the liberal middle class.
The real power is of course the spiritual one in high places that is indeed leading a major attack on the church.  It has crept up during the last forty years unawares to most but is now free to operate throughout the land.  The days ahead will be dark for Christians, and secular and gay lobbies will be leading this, under the guise of 'toleration' and 'equality' probably!  The days ahead are dark indeed.

   

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Highs & Lows

This morning took me down to the lower end of town to the lovely, but not architecturally grand, St Paul's Church.  The Church of England has some strange people manifest within its borders but this church is not one of them. Here we find a warm atmosphere and people who know what they are talking about.  I looked forward to shuffling down the road as I enjoy this place.  I was as I expected not disappointed.  With talk of a light coming into the darkness, it was what Anglicans call 'the first Sunday of advent,' and with kids lighting a candle, appropriate songs, a laugh, cheery talk, and the presence of Jesus it was an enjoyable morning.  The friendly people are the reason to be here.  The church died for a while but under a female vicar (Tsk Heresy!) it has revived.

When I left the sun was shining the sky was blue, even the temperature was almost bearable, and my heart was light.  I even smiled at the passing kiddies rather than kick them into the bushes.  Home for dinner that today I did not grill.  Yes indeed yesterday I placed two items into the oven I had previously switched on and left it.  Some time later I began to notice a strange odour in the room.  "Dearie me," I thought, "The lass next door is burning something." It took me a few minutes longer to notice it was my smoke alarm that was beginning to yell out!   Bah!
Today the lunch was not burnt, just rubbish!

The joy of the morning received a shock just after three in the afternoon.  At that time I realised we were playing the best team in Scotland and Gollum was refereeing!  Now Gollum has refereed the last six Celtic games at Tynecastle I hear and managed to send off three Hearts players while doing so, he even gave them a very soft penalty while not giving a glaring one to us!  Thus I was in a great deal of fear and trepidation while I watched.
I need not worry, within ten minutes he had sent off our captain, just after half time he gave them a non penalty and cautioned anyone including the manager who dared to ask how he got his job when he DID NOT KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING! 
My spiritual high sank.
Teeth gnashed together, and this is not wise at my age, passions arose and spilled out, loving my neighbour does include informing them of their faults, and I confess I did this in a full and hearty manner!  
What had looked like being a tight hard fought game died within ten minutes, the Hearts players gave up as they knew whatever happened the ref would work against them so what was the point?
If only the club had the guts to stand up to this.  

I now sit here in the dark, the candle has gone out, fuming gently, wishing the dinner had been better, struggling to find anything worth commenting on as there is no news.  I noticed the BBC World Service man Menendez was asking people to send tweets of any news out there, somewhat tongue in cheek. The news folks do not see news around them only wars, fights, bad news and terror, nothing else sells it appears.  The weekend, especially Sunday, is a poor day for news.  The media need a war to erupt, a disaster to occur before they think it worth reporting.  They will not find much to talk about on this site today will they....?

Day Off

The local world took a day off today for the May Bank Holiday.  If shops opened they opened for short hours only, buses ran a Sunday service, which round here means they don't run at all, and the weather took a day off and sent the sun all day.  That is a change I must say.  Of course the folks returning to work tomorrow will find the rain arriving as they leave the house, excuse me while I snigger a wee bit.    

Much of yesterday was spent sniggering at Hibernian's second cup final defeat in a row, you will recall how the Heart of Midlothian cuffed the 5-1 last time out.  This time it was a much better performance, a mere 3-0 defeat after an abysmal performance.  One interesting fact was a banner made by the Celtic fans watching their team walk all over Hibs.  These lads come from a small island on the west coast of Ireland and produced an Irish Tricolour with "Achill Island CSC"  written on this.  However this caused consternation with some who watching on TV thought it read "Islam CFC."  Naturally the extreme anti-Muslim lot got onto Twitter and Facebook and began crying out against these nasty Irish Celtic folks.  Consider also the IRA troubles of the past forty years and Celtic fans blatant contempt for 'British' soldiers, it was easy for the less intellectual to jump to such conclusions.  As you can see from the picture they were wrong, but you can understand the mistake.

    Scotsman 

The sun has shone through the cold wind, however that did not stop the English male wearing tight T-Shirts, shorts and sunglasses and carry an useless plastic bottle of water.  What a difference the blue sky makes, how bright the world appears, how eagerly do we race to sit in the sun.  Ah well, back to normal tomorrow....

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This is how it should be!

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Rudi Skacel who opened the scoring with a thunderous drive.

Ryan Stevenson who finished the job

The Heart of Midlothian defeated the Celtic by two goals to nil this afternoon.  


This is how it should be!

When I began trudging to Tynecastle I expected us to defeat the grim Glasgow ogres, and indeed everyone else.  This is how Scottish football ought to be, us winning, the league being open, and the Heart of Midlothian being the team to beat!  

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