“Delaying the play” was what Giovanni van Bronckhorst called it after Kilmarnock lost to Rangers last weekend.
You and I know it better as time wasting, parking the bus or attempting to suffocate the opposition by use of negativity. Union St Gilloise tried the same tactic in their Champions League qualifier against Rangers on Tuesday night, without being able to prevent the inevitable. PSV Eindhoven won’t do it at Ibrox this week in the play-off tie for the Champions League group stage because they have a European pedigree and a strong conceit of themselves as a result. The Dutch also have a manager in Ruud van Nistelrooy who wouldn’t stoop so low because that would reflect badly on his carefully-cultivated image.
That’s all very well and good for him. Nobody would describe Derek McInnes as anything other than a proper football manager with the good of the game at heart. But when his Killie side face Celtic in game three of the league season today, Derek doesn’t have the luxury of polishing his image for public inspection.
