So, that was a pretty eventful footballing weekend wasn’t it?
We just need to get The Champions League Final out of the way on Saturday and then we can all detox for the summer.
The three matches that I took in over the weekend were, as follows
The Scottish Cup Final: Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Falkirk
The FA Cup Final: Arsenal Vs Aston Villa
The Scottish Premiership Play Off Final: Motherwell Vs Rangers
Whereas the first two games were great advertisements for the game in different ways, sadly the third game was spoiled by some horrid scenes at the end.
Firstly, Caley Vs Falkirk. The first half of the match was a cagey affair. Falkirk made a concerted effort to keep the ball on the deck and play the passing game they’re known for, whereas Caley played quite a few long balls and weren’t as interested on keeping the ball on the Hampden turf.
Caley took a 1-0 lead before half time, Marely Watkins making good use of an insidious through ball from Aaron Doran to round the keeper and put Thistle out in front. Watkins has previously missed two decent chances, so was understandably delighted to put the third chance away. Caley’s support, who had been somewhat subdued up to that point, erupted and it looked like the trophy was heading to The Highlands.
Falkirk, to their credit, didn’t panic in the face of adversity. Caley had finished 3rd in the Premier Division and were favourites coming in to the contest. The Bairns knuckled down in the second half and kept putting pressure on the Caley defence. Finally, with roughly 75 minutes gone, something came of it.
Carl Tremarco made a poor mistake and ended up bringing a Falkirk player clean through on goal to earn himself a sloppy red card. He left the field distraught, with thoughts of causing Caley’s possible defeat no doubt rushing through his head.
And not soon after, the worst thing to happen to The Scottish Highlands since the introduction of sheep farming too place as Peter Grant headed Falkirk level with a fine header following a smoothly worked set piece.
At this point, Falkirk were in the ascendency and it seemed unlikely they wouldn’t score another or at least force the lottery of penalty kicks. Enter former Kidderminster Harriers player James Vincent to save Caley’s bacon.
A tame Watkins shot could only be parried by Falkirk keeper Jamie Macdonald and the ball trickled to the welcoming feet of the second half substitute, who promptly stuck it home to give Inverness an improbably lead with a mere 4 minutes of regular time remaining.
Despite Falkirk’s best efforts, Inverness were able to hold on and secure a famous victory. The club that had only been formed 21 years previously had managed to win the historic cup after a thrilling 45 minutes of action.
The Final overall was a great watch and I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of sorrow for Falkirk, who’d entered an excellent performance in the second half and were very unfortunate to leave Hampden Park empty handed. All in all, it was a great advert for the Scottish Game.
The FA Cup Final was less of a contest and more of a thrilling dissection.
Arsenal walloped Aston Villa in every sense of the word. They beat Villa down all through the first half but just couldn’t find a way through Shay Given and Kieron Richardson until Theo Walcott finally breached their defences at roughly 40 minutes of the first half.
From that point on, it was open season as Arsenal proceeded to score thrice more in the second half to put the game to bed. Arsenals second was an absolute rocket from Alexi Sanchez and was probably one of the best goals I’ll ever see during my miserable and despairing time aboard this hunk of rock we all dwindle on.
Seriously, if you’ve not seen this goal yet, head to YouTube and have a butchers. Quite simply astonishing.
There’s not much more I can say really. I don’t like Arsenal but they deservedly won the cup. Jack Wilshire got himself in a bit of trouble by joining in with a rude song about Tottenham, but I don’t really see any problem with that. The fact that an Arsenal player doesn’t like Tottenham didn’t seem as shocking to me as it did to others.
I know some reactionary types and other spoil sports often lament about the “tribal” nature of football, but what is football without rivalries? Rivalries are what take any sport from just people playing games to something that actually has a resonance with other people and makes them want to watch. If we as supporters hate our rivals, why shouldn’t the players of the teams we support hate them to? It’s a sentiment that completely makes sense to me.
The only question I would ask is why any Arsenal player or supporter would feel the need for some unprovoked jabbing at Spurs after they’d just won their 12th FA Cup? Arsenal are more successful than Spurs, so why the need to have a pop at them when they haven’t invited it? Seems like some Arsenal fans are dealing with a bit of insecurity to their local rivals, Wilshire included.
Now, if some Spurs supporters were giving it “all that”, I can completely understand why an Arsenal supporter would give them a little back. But on a parade honouring your own club with nary a Spurs fan in sight? I think Spurs have a prominent place in most Arsenal supporters psyche, though they would be loath to admit it.
It’s not like my club are not guilty of this practice of course. When Everton were winning the 1984 FA Cup Final, the amassed Everton support began singing “Are you watching Liverpool?”. The context was a little different to the Wilshire situation though. This chant was to show that Everton were bouncing back after over a decade in the wilderness to reassert themselves in the English game. It was an act of defiance to show Liverpool that they better take Everton seriously. It wasn’t Everton kicking a rival while they were down when there was no need to do so. The difference in context is important, but I doubt most “Gooners” will be capable of comprehending why.
Any mock outrage at Jack Wilshire however, was eclipsed by genuine outrage after what happened at Fir Park on Sunday afternoon.
Following an, admittedly drab, 3-0 Motherwell victory Rangers defender Bilel Mohsni refused to shake the hand of his victorious opponent Lee Erwin. He also threw a few choice vulgar words in Erwin’s direction for good measure. Erwin decided this was out of order and shoved Mohsni in the back. Mohsni replied to this with a roundhouse kick and left hook. The ensuing fracas had to be separated by players from both teams.
It was an unpleasant, but somewhat apt conclusion to a tie that had been played under a dark cloud ever since both clubs decided to cut the others away ticket allocation. The fact that Stuart McCall was returning to his old club as manager of Rangers probably didn’t help the atmosphere.
Following the victory, Motherwell supporters took to the pitch and made a beeline for where the stand in which the Rangers support were seated to goad them. It took police on horseback to finally quell the crowd and get them back into their seats.
It was an incredibly ugly scene.
Though Mohsni was wrong to react the way he did, you certainly can’t claim that he wasn’t provoked. Erwin shoving him reminded me of an occurrence that happened when I was at primary school. We’d returned from half term to find a fully formed and rather large wasp’s nest greeting us at the bottom of the playing field.
One of my friends thought it would be funny to chuck a stick at it. This of course led to the wasps charging from their home to sting anyone in sight. Thankfully, I was far enough to sprint away unscathed, but my friend wasn’t so lucky. He got stung by a number of the angry wasps and was taken to the nurse’s office in tears. He was joined by some other children who hadn’t even been aware of the nest, but had merely got caught unawares by the provoked hoard of angered creatures.
Mohsni’s reputation was well known prior to this match. Erwin claims to be a Rangers supporter, he should know better than anybody what the Tunisian is capable of. He is generally one of the most ill-behaved players in the entire Scottish game. Hopefully, Rangers get rid of him in the coming summer and he moves on to a league elsewhere. The question is; who would want him?
I expect both players to get heavy fines and bans. Mohsni should receive the lion’s share of both sanctions, but Erwin is not blameless in this situation. Motherwell will also likely get fines for the behaviour of their supporters.
Questions will now arise as to whether Stuart McCall is capable of getting this Rangers squad promoted or if the board will keep him on. That though, is another blog for another day.
What a sour end to what was an excellent and at times life affirming weekend of football.
Peace Out
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