If Heineken refreshes the parts that other beers cannot reach, the Hotline reaches the parts other forums cannot reach. I mean, where else will you get calls from Palm Beach, Florida and Vancouver, Canada, to talk about the wacky world of Scottish football? And there were plenty from the usual ports of calls as well, concentrating - surprise, surprise - on the Old Firm and that clash at Ibrox earlier in the month is STILL causing angst.
Scott Gowers, Edinburgh, said: “Handball wasn’t the only breach of the rules during the Old Firm game that went unpunished as many Celtic fans have been gloating about what one of their players said to Morelos. I’m not naming and shaming but calling someone fat is an ism and the player should be punished accordingly for bringing the game into disrepute. Isn’t it strange that rule breaches are acceptable when a Celtic player or team get away gets away with it? Just ask yourselves who used EBT and who weren’t punished. Us Rangers fans can go on the same bandwagon, ie. one rule for one another for another.
George Wilson, West Sussex, emailed: “I’m backing Jimmy Stangers comments about Bud Hay who is always on about going to the moon. I wish he would just go there then and take all his paranoid Celtic compatriots with him. This is a club that has had all sorts of benefits just handed to them on a plate in the last few years but they just never stop moaning that everyone and everything is against them. What with all the talk recently about favours for Rangers, pressure has been put on the referees and I will be surprised if Rangers don’t get a penalty awarded against them when they play Aberdeen on Sunday.”
Alan Clark, Barrhead, had a word for Hotline regular Eddie Easson. Alan emailed: “He says if the ball hits your hand it’s a foul. Wrong. The rule is, if the ball hits your hand when your hand is in an unnatural position, it’s a foul. Learn the rules Eddie.”
Chris Lowe, Yoker, emailed: “Congratulations to Liel Abada on passing his driving test first time. But imagine he failed it...we would have got two weeks of ex players , managers and pundits calling it a fix and demanding foreign test examiners and a complete overhaul of the DVLA.”
But exiled Rangers fan Robert Livingstone, Palm Beach, was more annoyed with his own club, saying: “The Rangers Board and Ross Wilson are shopping for Bosman recruits, free transfers, loans or bargain basement players. They should have learned their lesson with Aaron Ramsey. Plus, they are still stuck with a huge wage bill of unwanted contracted players they can’t offload. The fans deserve better and winning the two cups would help.”
The Celtic support wasn’t shy in coming forward either.
Charles Buchanan emailed: “Rangers wouldn’t handle an in form Celtic team. Even an under par Celtic should have scored two more after their first goal at Ibrox, with balls across the box that would have been tap ins. Celtic scored two legit goals to Rangers’ one. And if we had got what was a blatant penalty and it could have been 4-1 to Celtic.”
But Sean Beech, Hampshire, reckons it’s Rangers fans who are the ‘only if’ brigade. He said: “They say ‘we would have won the Old Firm game only if Morelos had scored, only if Malik had scored.’ I thought that phrase was the reserve of children who want to believe ‘only if fairies existed’. The truth is the game ended 2-2 and if both penalty decisions had been given or denied the other way round those same ‘only if ‘ brigade would be frothing at the mouth.”
And Paddy Gowans emailed: “If Rangers were playing rugby in Scotland, they still wouldn’t get a penalty against them.”
Finally, Killie fan Alan Campbell contacted the Hotline from Vancouver to say: “In yesterday's Hotline, Peter McBryan had a go at Kyle Lafferty for apparently doing 'star jumps' outside of Killie boss Derek McInnes’ door. First up, he likely wasn’t doing star jumps, use your brain Peter. More likely Kyle was just eager to get his boss’ attention after a 10-game ban. Secondly, what do you want, Peter? A pound of flesh? The guy has served an incredibly long ban for a stupid, throwaway comment made to Celtic fans who set him up. Yes, sectarianism is a sickness in Scotland and is rightly condemned when it surfaces. But he’s served his massive ban. Time for Peter and Co to move on.”
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