Well, well, well. I didn't think my initial “A (TV) Watcher’s Point of View” article would stirred so much emotion amongst the great unwashed and I feel that I am duty bound to answer the criticisms and share some facts about my reasons for my article.

First of all, my piece was never intended as a match review (someone else does that) and is only my opinion on what I saw. I felt drawn to write it after having to put with the constant Celtic-loving ramblings of Messrs McLean and Clark, hence the title of the piece, taken from the PM Dawn track, A Watcher’s Point of View. The whole point of the piece is that it was partly about the experience of watching the coverage of Scottish football on the BBC. Let's face it; it's great if you support either of the Old Firm as one of the teams is shown every week. (Livingston fans haven't seen their team on BBC Scotland this season).

I don’t really feel that I have to justify my support for Hibs. I feel I’ve served my apprenticeship – the Tuesday night games at Greenock, the constant Cup disappointments, etc. However, at the end of last season, my wife and I decided to move to Dunfermline. Our flat in Leith was 10 minutes walk from Easter Road - perfect for all games, including Under 21 fixtures, which I reviewed for the Hibees Bounce website. Unfortunately, due to the anti-social behaviour of youths, we had to move for the sake of our health.

For the first time in a number of years I decided not to get a season ticket. Why? Well, not only was I disillusioned with the state of my own club, I had become saddened at the general state of Scottish Football. I decided it was more important to make a financial commitment to my wife even though she was more than happy for me to get a season ticket.

This season I am not ashamed to admit that I have only been to a handful of games. My wife is pregnant and I have no qualms about continuing to sacrifice trips to Easter Road to be with her. It doesn’t make me any less of a Hibee. As long as someone is supporting the first team to wear the green, it doesn’t matter if they have been a fan for 40 years or 40 minutes. As long as you are cheering Hibs you are welcome into the Easter Road family.

Certain ill-informed sections of the media (e.g. Charlie Nicholas) seem to think that Hibs have a monopoly on “glory hunters”. Charlie conveniently fails to mention the Celtic supporters whose first game supporting the club was the UEFA Cup final in Seville or the number of supporters who watched (or should I say failed to watch) the recent Livingston-Aberdeen Scottish Cup tie. Only 4485 bothered to turn up and about a third of them were Dons fans. Four days after a major cup triumph and Livingston can only muster about 3000 home fans. Surely not all of the other 5000 “fans” at Hampden were Hearts season ticket holders!

Scottish football is in a mess and Jim Duffy made several very good points at the weekend. The game is run by self-serving out of touch dinosaurs who pander to the every whim of the Old Firm – the Celtic-Motherwell game being played on the same day as the CIS Cup final being a perfect example. What would they have done if Celtic had got to the final?

Back to the game itself. Once again the Hibs-Celtic game highlighted many of the things that are wrong with Scottish football. The game lacks strong officials who are willing to stand up and be counted when it comes to making important decisions. Dougie MacDonald bottled out of two penalty decisions and once again Neil Lennon got away with another fit of pique. The referee and his “assistant” can be forgiven for failing to punish Larsson for showing studs to win the ball from Andersson as the play happened so fast. I must give credit where credit is due as there is no-one better than Larsson in chasing down “lost causes” and every striker in Scotland/Britain could learn from him.

Any football fan worth their salt would realise that the score flattered Celtic and despite their best efforts the Hibs players heads would naturally go down after so many sucker punch goals. Will I be supporting Celtic on Thursday? To be honest, I’m not sure. The Barcelona game has been shoved down our throats by the weedja meedja and I’m sick and tired of hearing about it.  

One thing I do know is that I’ll be watching it on BBC 3 so I don’t have to listen to BBC Scotland’s Dumb and Dumber.

The Cat

P.S. Nick, “The Cat” is my chosen nom-de-plume on this site. It is not a case of hiding behind a pseudonym as many people on the forums use nicknames. Just for you, you can call me Paul!

P.P.S. Shona, it’s rather naïve of you to think that Celtic are in some way our brothers/sisters in arms. I’m sure there are Celtic supporters who are perfectly decent human beings but sadly these appear to be in the minority, especially in Scotland. The winning of UEFA’s Fair Play award only mirrors over the cracks. They are not as squeaky clean as they are painted. Throwing stones and bottles at Pars fans in August after the 0-0 draw and the “aeroplane” taunts towards Claudio Reyna only weeks after the September 11 disaster are just two examples of what their “supporters” are capable of.