neuro.me.uk

First, Rangers get beaten in the UEFA Cup final, then a core of arsehole Rangers fans decide to rampage across Manchester’s city centre, and now news that Celtic legend Tommy Burns has died. These are dark days for Scottish football.

This surely says it all:

Gary Caldwell scores for Scotland against France, Hampden Park, 2006-10-07

I was in McPhabb’s for this game, and the atmosphere was unbelievable. What a great day to be a Scotsman.

Oh, view the French reaction too!

Glasgow Herald: Why the Pope Should Visit Ibrox: isn’t it obvious? The International Society of Flying Pig Watchers needs somewhere to hold their inaugural meeting. Harry Reid makes some sensible points, but let’s face it – it’s hardly going to happen, is it?

BBC Sport: Team bus attacked by Rangers Fans: it’s this kind of behaviour that got England teams booted out of Europe, and this does nothing to promote the relatively sane Scottish football fan culture. Awful, just awful.

Chick Young says something I actually agree with after Scotland’s slow international fitba recovery continued with our failure to qualify for Germany 2006. No, I don’t want to see Walter Smith’s head on a platter, I just wish we could win the right games at the right times

Celtic have snagged the Double by beating the Pars 3-1 in the SFA Cup Final — reports: celticfc.net [free registration required], BBC News, Google News UK.

After a fright near the end of the first half when Andrius Skerla headed in a lovely ball to the back of the net, and a strange decision to disallow a Celtic goal earlier in the half, Henrik Larsson stuck two away in the second half in his last competitive game for Celtic. Stelian Petrov scored a cracking goal just before 85 minutes to secure the Cup for the Celts. I thought Dunfermline played really well, they just got tired against the tremendously fit Celts — you could see it in Stevie Crawford’s face and body when he made an attempt at a goal near the end of the game — and Jimmy Calderwood should be proud of his team.

See more photos from the match [BBC News] »

Martin O’Neill and the rest of us just need to figure out what it will be like next year onwards without Henke!

There was no way I was going to get tickets for Henke’s testimonial match against Seville on Tuesday night, so I’m going to settle for the PPV screening on Setanta, which a few of us are chipping in for (although it’s only £7.99, which ain’t that bad).

The Scottish Executive is planning new reforms in Scotland’s licensing laws including bans on happy hours and other “irresponsible” promotions. This kind of thing is good, as this country’s relationship with Ra Drink has always been somewhat love-and-hate, but when I read Tory MSP Brian Monteith’s comments that we shouldn’t be treated like “children” and that he thinks that “[l]ifting the drink ban at all seater football grounds and at Murrayfield would have been a step in the right direction”, I was somewhat taken aback.

Is this guy actually promoting the idea that we should drink at fitba games? I can just see it now, the next Old Firm match, Celtic getting another one over the Rangers (sorry, couldn’t resist), and a stadium — it doesn’t really matter if it’s Ibrox or Parkhead, they’re both bloody massive — chock full of fans, one set absolutely buzzing from a win, another absolutely fuming from a loss, and Monteith thinks that plying this crowd with drink is a good idea? Someone give this guy a slap, or at least a stiff drink.

sat 1445 GMT home -> car to mcphabbs (loads of guinness and munchies) -> air organic (loads of lager, spirits and a nice boak in the loo) -> $randompub (water and crisps) -> solid rock (guinness and crisps) -> kebab shop (keeebab!) -> firebird (guinness and chips) -> crash at a flat -> sun 1215 GMT awaken -> watch first half of old firm game -> taxi to car -> car to home -> celtic 19 points clear of rangers — no a bad weekend

Cheers to everyone who turned up on Saturday for my pre-birthday drinking sesh, which didn’t quite follow the route as intended, but it was all good — I’ll get pictures sorted from folk as I only took about 3 meself. It was great to see everyone, especially those I hadn’t seen in an age from WS Atkins! I’ve got another 21 hours of being a twenty-something to go until 3:30pm tomorrow — 30 years after I was born. I have the slippers and cardigan on standby with ‘break glass now’ hammer beside them.

Ya Beauty!