GLF69: Rick's early season review
Ricky's Rant
The close-season has to be the harshest of punishments any football fan has to endure, though this one just done wasn't so bad with the European Championships.Friendlies beforehand and then immediate pre-season games meant there wasn't that void we will all have to endure in a year's time.However, the proper fitba's back, and about time too!
The trials and tribulations of last season will never be forgotten, and, in some aspects, hopefully never repeated.No-one connected with our club, whether you were there or not, won't have been touched in some way by 29th December, nor will we ever forget.It's a real shame that Villarreal seemed more interested in lining their own pockets with a "glamour" away game at Real Zaragoza instead of honouring a true gent and coming to Fir Park.I'd be absolutely certain our club was completely blameless in all this, and that seems to have been backed up by the way Hoffenheim then decided we weren't enough of a draw to play and cancelled our game over there after promising to play.I, amongst many others, was delighted to see Uncle Phil's name up on the side of the main stand.It's a permanent tribute to our late captain, and every time I drive past and see it I am reminded of him.He'll always be there in our memories for sure.
Our own pre-season wasn't quite as successful as last year, three defeats to foreign opposition though given that two of them were very good sides it was excellent practice for the up-and-coming UEFA Cup ties.That feels good to say does it not?!Against Cluj, a game most of us saw on the internet, we played a lot of good football and got to see a star in the making in young Paul Slane.He almost scored a memorable goal but was denied by the upright, before the Romanians rather fortuitously stole the game at the end via a soft free kick.The downside was the terrible injury to Brian McLean, virtually assaulted in the middle of the park, and he's now out for quite some considerable time.Stretch, however, is a truly determined man, and he'll be back in no time at all.Best wishes go to him for a speedier than normal recovery.The one worrying aspect of all the pre-season was only one shut-out, and after the defeat at Tynecastle where we shipped two preventable goals in a 2-3 loss, the need to get a dominant centre-half on board is now glaring.
I've never been the sort-of person to slate players when they are currently at the club, everyone in my book deserves backing, and I'm sure that Mark McGhee is only too aware of the issue.Without naming names, someone needs to be bought to take control and organise things so that goals, the likes of which Hearts scored to regain the lead in the first half, become a thing of the past.Last season our achilles heel was balls in to the box from set-pieces for which we had no tall figure to deal with.Time for major surgery in that area to enable us to go forward.
There is only one game gone in the season I know, but a good start is absolutely imperative as was proven last season.When we hit the sticky spell in February/March time, we'd enough points on the board to ride that time out and it certainly helped in the end.As I say, only one game gone and no need to hit the major panic button, but the problem at the back just has to be an absolute priority now and dealt with as a matter of urgency.With three weeks left until the closure of the transfer window there's still plenty of time left, but given that you'd want our defence settled long before Europe comes around mid-September, the sooner things get done the better.
The UEFA Cup.My, does that sound grand!Most of us will remember the clamour which abounded when we qualified for the Cup-Winners-Cup back in 1991, though I seem to recall it seemed that bit more real when we did it through the league a couple of years later. To me that seemed much more of an achievement, not to demean whatsoever the efforts of the lads in 91, but to win a place in Europe via your league position takes a lot more consistency and I think was a greater thing to manage.
Indeed, 93-94 was a season when we, realistically, should have won the Scottish League title, only finishing four points off the top and having lost two and drawn one of the last three matches.Won all three and we'd have won the league by a point!
European trips mean so much more when they are so spaced apart, this being our first since 1995 and 13 years is a long, long time to wait.Poland, the Faroe Islands, Germany and Finland, where are we going to be sent next I wonder?My most memorable, and probably everyone else's, was Dortmund.Go back a few months and most of us would never have dreamt of seeing the lads up against a team of such stature in a competitive match.But there we were, at times outplaying a team which would win the European Cup just under three years later.The masses of 'Well fans in the Friedenplatz pre-match, decorating the statue with a tammy and scarf (and also a bottle of buckie appeared in his arm), and large quantities of beer floating about in the small fountain keeping cool.The atmosphere was so special, and all the way through that entire three day spell we spent in Germany it never abated.A mad rush from Tannadice on the Saturday to catch a 4.30 am ferry from Ramsgate on the Sunday morning, playing football on the pitch at the Westfalen at half-twelve Sunday lunchtime (before being hunted by a rather angry looking groundsman), memories which we'll never forget.We should've won, we know that, and bar the worst Refereeing display at FirPark (aye, worse than even the likes of Richmond etc etc) from Frisky it could've been all so different.
The Faroes trip was an experience if you haven't done, make sure you do if you can.Early morning flight from Glasgow on a wee Bae146 jet, opening the bog door on the plane to see Toastie with his kecks round his ankles with a "wish ah'd locked that fecking door" look on his face, great stuff.On arrival we'd to wait on a coach (and had my carry-out taken from me to be returned on the way back), to then catch a ferry and another coach.There was no real boozer in Torshavn at the time, but we managed to find the closest thing to that and still got merry.Another long coach trip to the stadium (though now the games are played in Torshavn itself) up on top of a mountain with complete exposure to the elements.A home strip v away strip 'Well fans game pre-match on the astro outside, then a competent 4-1 win before the long journey back home in the absolute darkness. Then we were "treated" to the hideous sight of Jim Traynor going around absolutely everyone stealing their chips and whatever else they had to eat, oh that wasn't pretty at all.
Finland was a little similar in that it was a fairly long trip to Kouvala, though the bar there was a little more "welcoming".The now legendary story of Chick Young (or should that be stories), and at the game quite a few flirting with arrest by invading about 3 inches of the park after we scored our first goal.And, of course, McCulloch (now a bit-player at some other mob) hitting the post in the last few seconds, that was how close we got to Eindhoven.
Strangely, the aforementioned Chick was nowhere to be seen.He'd promised us all champagne had we qualified and, even though we hadn't, rumour has it we came so close he needed oxygen and surgery to remove his wallet from somewhere he'd hidden it…..
Who the draw will throw up this time is anyone's guess, but I imagine there won't be many of us who can't make it.Life-long memories are made of things like these.Draw is on 29th August, Bring it on!!!!!
The thing that sets us apart from Old Firm fans is the way we support the team and each other.Don't lose sight of that.Have faith in the manager and the team, and keep right behind them.Remember, We're All Going on a European Tour……
All's well,Ricky Mullen
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