SPL: Capital gains

Moan out of the way first: I'm not sure Scottish football is playing to those strengths it still has by scheduling a cup final and an Edinburgh derby on the same day.

But that's just the way it is.

So we get on with it.

Before the blood pressure starts to rise in Auld Reekie, Saturday sees an abbreviated SPL schedule.

Rangers, still actually a football club with fixtures to fulfil rather than just a business basketcase, travel to Tannadice.

It's a fortnight now since Hearts overcame a half time deficit to beat Rangers at Ibrox.

How will the squad have reacted since then? It's difficult to say. What we do know is that this was far from a vintage Rangers side before the off the pitch implosion. The financial collapse looks to have weakened them further.

That's why Dundee United's odds have been shortened and why many people will fancy them to enjoy back-to-back wins over Rangers for the first time in a decade.

The outcome will be pored over by those looking to gauge the extent of Rangers footballing decline and by those waiting to see if the champions will be beaten to second place by Motherwell.

If United can win and Motherwell can beat Aberdeen then Stuart McCall's team will be level with Rangers on points, although trailing by a massive goal difference discrepancy.

Strange times these, on and off the pitch. Chastened but defiant in their defeat to Celtic last week, I'd not be surprised to see a bullish United performance tomorrow.

Do Rangers have the spirit left to match them?

They certainly look they might struggle at the back. Dorin Goian, Carlos Bocanegra, Steven Whittaker, Kyle Bartley, Kirk Broadfoot and Sasa Papac are all missing. Finding a defence looks like being yet another headache for Ally McCoist.

For their part Motherwell couldn't beat Aberdeen in the cup last week as Mr Brown's boys continued their thrawn 2012 unbeaten record.

Christmas Eve was the last time Aberdeen tasted defeat. Last week they showed that they have some ruthlessness as well as a commendable obstinancy. This now is very much the team that Craig Brown built.

Second place within Motherwell's grasp and the top six not completely beyond Aberdeen. This could be another interesting game at Fir Park.

Finally today, all the saints go marching on Paisley as St Mirren host St Johnstone.

Seven of St Mirren's last eight games have been drawn. That makes St Johnstone's effort in drawing three of their last six look like a fairly pathetic attempt to steal the crown of league stalemate specialists.

It also suggests that the two sides fighting out a draw wouldn't surprise many people.

And so we move on to Sunday.

It's been so long ago since Hibs beat Hearts that I can't even remember who the victorious manager was that day.

No, no. I jest. It was me old mucker Mixu Paatelainen back in May 2009.

There's been little joy for Hibs in these games since then. There's been little joy for Hibs at all since then.

Ahead of this game I hear that Hearts are the more experienced derby team, that they're determined to complete a derby clean sweep this season (there might be another game if Hearts don't qualify for the top six), that they have played better when the players haven't been paid.

So the result should be a foregone conclusion.

It might well be. I don't predict such things anymore.

Hibs are improving and they have better players. They're certainly a very different proposition now: of the team that I expect Pat Fenlon to field only four starters from the New Year defeat at Easter Road will remain.

Do the new players understand the significance of the fixture? That question seems to make a supposition: that the old players did understand the significance of the game.

Fat lot of good it did them.

But these players will know. They don't live in complete isolation and there remains Hibs fans in and around the squad. I surmise that Fenlon - no stranger to local grudge matches in his career - has also come through a crash course in the history of Hibs.

Does any of that matter? It might be a completely unquantifiable variable, although it is one that offers succour to the fans.

Hibs mini revival has coincided with fluctuations in Hearts' form. That means the two sides actually have similar recent records despite a 16 point gap quite correctly illustrating their different fortunes across the season.

Hearts still look to me to have more match winners at their disposal. But that might make a victorious team effort all the sweeter for Hibs. It could be a close one.

Someone will win and gloat and dance and be merry and crack unfunny jokes about the losers who will in turn moan and cry and drink and then start singing again.

Unless it's a draw. Then Hearts will sing and dance and gloat about ten games undefeated and Hibs will sing and dance and think "at least the buggers didn't beat us."

And so, winners or losers, the circle of capital football life will continue.

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SPL: Where The Smart Money Goes

The whirligig that is international week has left me struggling for time as we approach the mundane predictability of the SPL.

So this week's SPL preview has been drawn entirely at random.

Not by me.

I've shipped in a glamorous assistant, a glamorous assistant who is the number one draw every Wednesday night at a "gentleman's club" cabaret in Newcastle.

I'm told the things he can do with a ping pong ball need to be seen to be believed.

And to make it interesting I'm even going to have a little flutter on the results of this randomness. No balls were heated in the making of this draw.

Dundee United v Rangers

A home win. +1 goals scored.

Bets inspired: 10p on Dundee United to beat Rangers and 10p on under 2.5 goals to be scored. A wee cheeky double on those was not allowed by the reputable online betting firm.

Celtic v Motherwell

Draw. +3 goals scored.

10p on the draw. 10p on over 2.5 goals.

Inverness v Hearts

Away win. +1 goals scored.

You know the score by now.

Kilmarnock v Dunfermline

Away win. +4 goals scored.

Guess.

St Mirren v St Johnstone

Draw. +2 goals scored.

I'm going to be rich.

Sundries

One of your whole English pounds on the win, the draw, the win, the win, the draw. 1183 to 1. That, friends, is the money shot.

Although my glamorous assistant has just told me what the "money shot" is and suddenly I'm a bit unnerved.

Tomorrow: Will I risk 5p on a Hibs win?

SPL Tonight: Dundee United v Rangers

Rangers fit in their first, and only, trundle to Tannadice of this much chopped and changed season just before the SPL-it.

Making hay while the sun shone on Celtic at Hampden, Rangers went top on Saturday with a 2-1 win over St Mirren. They can extend that lead to four points this evening, although Celtic will have two games in hand.

Dundee United, of course, gave this title run in added drama when David Goodwillie's last minute goal gave them a 3-2 win at Ibrox.

That win continued a rich vein of form for United but it was sandwiched between two defeats to Motherwell that provided further confirmation that the SPL's "other" clubs are strangers to sustained consistency this year.

But this is hardly a game that Rangers will relish. That Ibrox defeat has been followed by a 2-0 win at St Johnstone, a 1-0 win at Hamilton and Saturday's 2-1 home win over St Mirren.

At this stage winning is all that matters and a certain trepidation is understandable. But it's not emphatic. And that might lead to more fear tonight, so soon after Dundee United's richly talented attacking players gave Ibrox a potent display of their ability.

A win tonight though means Rangers take an SPL lead into Sunday's Old Firm clash. That could prove priceless.

United too have their motivations this evening. Not only would back to back wins over Rangers prove a notable scalp but it would further strengthen their grip on fourth place.

And fourth place could still carry a European spot. Conversely though that Europa League berth might be dependent on Rangers winning the title.

I suppose we should be grateful that we still have these subplots to mull over at this stage of the season.

I fancy Rangers to get another win here. It might be another tight win though.

And it took only the intervention of the Ibrox crossbar, Goodwillie's composure and United's season long habit of scoring late goals to show that anything can happen in a finely balanced game, in a finely poised title run in.

There might be more gnawed fingernails before tonight is out.

> It's not over 'till it's over: I make it 23 goals that United have scored in the last 15 minutes of games across all competitions this season. Impressive, game changing, point garnering stuff.

One Golac was enough

Any talk about Dundee United's Scottish Cup win over Rangers in 1994 always throws up a couple of Scottish football's great unanswered questions.

How did they fail to win the trophy in the Jim McLean era? And how did anyone ever expect McLean and Ivan Golac to enjoy a stable working relationship.

The first might be put down to nothing more than a footballing hoodoo. They can happen.

The second is more interesting. Golac, the Serbian manager who liked his players to stop and smell the flowers, and McLean, the gruff manager turned chairman who could kill a whole rose garden with a sideways glance.

That really was an uneasy coalition.

Yet it survived long enough to bring the Scottish Cup to Tannadice for the first time. And nobody knew better than McLean the magnitude of that feat: six times over the course of three decades he'd led the club to defeats in the cup final.

The intriguing Golac was somewhat miscast in the Scottish football of the early 1990s and his tenure was brief. He went on to manage a chocolate factory in Belgrade.

It's probably safe to say that was never one of Jim McLean's ambitions.

United's Winning Team: Guido van de Kamp, Maurice Malpas, Gordan Petrić, Brian Welsh, Jim McInally, David Bowman, David Hannah, Alex Cleland, Christian Dailly, Craig Brewster, Andy McLaren (Jerren Nixon).

Brewster's winning goal is always worth a look, United extracting a modicum of revenge on former Motherwell 'keeper Ally Maxwell:

Those lost finals

1973/74 0-3 v Celtic
1980/81 1-4 v Rangers (Replay)
1984/85 1-2 v Celtic
1986/87 0-1 v St Mirren
1987/88 1-2 v Celtic
1990/91 3-4 v Motherwell
2004/05 0-1 v Celtic (United manager was Gordon Chisholm)

Clued up

Last week Walter Smith said:

We have a cup final to play on Sunday. But we have a whole load of cup finals to play if we are going to succeed this season. When you see today’s game, you see the difficulties that you have to overcome if you are going to win a Treble.

I feel just now that talk of winning a Treble, people saying we’ve won the league because we’ve got a gap, is really premature.

I know everyone is saying I’m just playing at it when I say that. But this shows that it’s not the case. I’m making a realistic appraisal of what we have to do between now and the end of the season if we are going to succeed.

We now find ourselves in a really tough replay at Tannadice — and we might still have to go there twice in the championship. So the assumption that everyone is making is, in my view, not taking into account what we will have to do between now and the end of the season.

On Tuesday I said:

I think, and I'm probably not alone, that Rangers delivered the first leg of a treble at Hampden.

This, probably, is why Walter Smith is a successful football manager. And I'm just an arsehole.

Congratulations to Dundee United for having the belief to keep going in both the first match at Ibrox and again last night.

They won't be underestimating Raith Rovers. But I'm sure they'll already be dreaming of a May final at Tannadice.

Semi Final draw in full:

• Celtic v Ross County (Saturday 10th April, Sky @ 12.15pm)
• Dundee United v Raith Rovers (Sunday 11th April, 3pm)

Referee!

When does a conspiracy theory eat itself?

Consider this: An unnamed source at Celtic accuses SPL referees of incompetence (at best) in their handling of the club's matches this season. Some Celtic supporters are already convinced they are conspired against by the authorities and see this as legitimising those claims.

When the BBC report both the complaint and the SFA's denials, some Celtic supporters claim that they are victims of a BBC-SFA conspiracy to undermine the club before Sunday's Old Firm clash.

Thus, I think, does a conspiracy theory become the victim of a conspiracy theory. Seriously, all this is making Richard Nixon look like one of the least paranoid, sane men ever to hold public office.

The distant rumbling that they can hear at Celtic Park is the sound of every non-Old Firm supporter in the land chuckling at Celtic's apparent distress.

Celtic's timing has been bad, possibly fuelled by antagonism between reffing supremo Hugh Dallas and whoever Celtic dispatched to raise their concerns. By allowing someone to go off the record the week before such a big game they've made themselves look petty and desperate.

If the BBC had got hold of the story then Celtic could have said: "We are always keen to discuss issues with the SFA but would prefer to keep those discussions private."

Doesn't kill the story but it would have kept Celtic above the fray, at least in the febrile atmosphere of the build-up to an Old Firm match. Even after the story broke they could have distanced themselves from it, has John Reid never rubbished the claims of an unnamed source before?

It's all a bit grubby, tagging the Robbie Keane offside complaints on at the end of the litany of moans certainly convinced this observer that this was a cack handed attempt to pressurise the officials on Sunday.

Like everyone else I've seen some shocking displays by referees this season (an opinion apparently shared by Dallas himself) and some decent ones. But Celtic have just added pressure on referees, pressure that is likely to diminish quality rather than enhance it, likely to harm any hopes of real accountability.

But then I've also seen some shocking displays from Celtic this season and I'm far more inclined to blame that for their league standing than refereeing standards.

That unnamed Celtic source has managed to shift the focus from an underperforming side as they face a must win game. But even Deepthroat himself will only consider that a job well done if the players actually get a result on Sunday.

If not it looks like sour grapes. Mr Mowbray, it's over to you...

Midweek medley

As the dust settles on an SPL weekend that saw significant results at both the top and the bottom, we can take a breather this midweek and concentrate once again on the Active Nations Scottish Cup.

Aberdeen v Raith Rovers

Will the real Aberdeen please stand up? A draw against Raith at home threatened to join the increasingly long list of joke Aberdeen cup results. They follow that up with a draw at third placed Hibs before sticking four past Celtic in a thrilling draw at Pittodrie. Consistent only in their unpredictability, this is a squad that must be driving the supporters to distraction.

So anything could happen tonight but it probably won’t. Having had their 90 minutes in the sun back in Fife I think Raith will put up a brave fight before capitulating. And so the Dons will march on to play Dundee in what could be the fixture to watch in the quarter finals.

Rangers v St Mirren

To vanquish Rangers you have to take chances when they come along. That is true in 90 minutes (Motherwell were always likely to need a cushion of more than a solitary goal going into the final half hour last Wednesday, Hibs needed to take advantage when they had more of the match in the first half at Ibrox on Sunday) or over two games (as Hamilton proved in the last round.)

And so St Mirren, for whom cup competitions are a welcome distraction from the business of losing league games, have probably missed the opportunity for a famous win. They really dominated the first game but they couldn’t make the breakthrough that would have counted. Rangers will make them pay for that tomorrow night.

I actually think Rangers win over Hibs will be a bit of a watershed for them. With a lot of players hitting fitness at the same time and with a mini wobble (back to back draws is a mini wobble when you’re ten points clear) survived they’ll be raring to go now. With a treble chance looming ahead I really can’t see them losing many games.

Can St Mirren’s cup charm hold up for one more night? I’m afraid I don’t think so. Another comfortable home win.

St Johnstone v Hibs

The one SPL game of this midweek, having orginally fallen victim to the snow. Hibs' defeat at Rangers on Sunday not only ended talk of a title challenge it also made the challenge for third place slightly uncomfortable. St Johnstone’s defeat at Kilmarnock continued their dodgy run of luck but also brought the bottom of the table slightly too close for comfort.

So a cagey game with both sides going for a draw that would buy breathing space. Unlikely with these two. It’s one each in the clashes played so far this season but I can see Hibs turning the screw here and getting the win that they’ll be hoping will at least prove their resilience.

Just the ticket

The world of Scottish football is endlessly fascinating. Where else in our national life would a bout of handbags between the heir to a grocery empire and a former male model provide headlines like "It's War?"

But tonight's clash between Dundee United and Rangers has provoked such a skirmish. It's hardly been an Ali-Foreman type bout but both Stephen Thompson and Martin Bain have been almost fierce in their prolonged game of "he said, she said."

For the record, and without delving too deep into the incident, I believe that most people would expect free entry to a game if they had already paid to watch an abandoned game. United's decision to charge half price for tonight is probably technically correct. After all it's one and a half game's for the price of one and half games.

But I'm guessing that this is not the kind of bargain that built a convenience store empire in Dundee.

In a brave attempt to distract attention from United's money grabbing, Thompson claimed Bain misrepresented the ticketing arrangements in a brave attempt to distract Rangers' shareholders from the Ibrox financial catastrophe.

Which would have been like Gordon Brown distracting attention from the banking bail-out by accusing David Cameron of leaving the toilet seat up after going for a piss.

An easily avoidable contretemps. Gentlemen, grow up.

Anyhow, to the business of the fitba.

Before we were so rudely interrupted I had this to say about the original fixture:

Enough has been written about Rangers this week. Suffice to say they can get reasonable domestic results in the bleakest of circumstances. But I'm going to back a home win here. United will be keen to make amends for their cup loss on Tuesday and I can seem them doing a number on Rangers.

So I predicted a home win. Normally when I do that the away team walks it.

Has anything changed in the meantime? Well, both clubs have continued to impress domestically with much talk in excitable quarters of United maintaining a title challenge.

They slipped up in that aim with a draw at Tynecastle on Saturday while Rangers continued with their almost freakish ability to follow European woe with domestic wins against St Johnstone.

United will take heart from the not inconsiderable scalp of Celtic that provided much hope for a Fortress Tannadice type creation.

I am tempted to back them again. But I won't. Draw.

My record: 34/83. More Chesney Hawkes than The Beatles.