Ibrox was bouncing - and this time it wasn't the cheques

TV VIEW:YOU HAD to wonder what Ki and Cha were thinking. Celtic's two Korean players had to kick off their match against Rangers at Ibrox Park at the ungodly hour of 1pm.

Oh to be a fly on the wall when Neil Lennon was explaining that the early start was in part to keep the levels of bigotry to a normal feverish pitch by cutting down on the time the fans could tank up on their juice of choice.

“Listen lads, maybe in Korea you have something similar but back in 1887 this Irish Marist Brother Walfrid . . . ah forget it, but if you’re taking a corner kick mind the coins.” Maybe Lennon just opened his trunk of memorabilia and showed them the razor blades, the threatening letters, the photographs with RIP scrawled across, the odd bullet.

And so it was a beautiful spring day in Glasgow where you hope for the best but fear the worst in a match that threatened, albeit for a very short time, to add to Rangers’ corporate misery.

It was amazing to think that the last time Celtic won the league at Ibrox was back in 1967. Soon after the May 6th match that year, Billy McNeill’s team won the European Cup and a week later Rangers lost the European Cup Winners’ Cup final. Truly, things really were better in the old days.

Brian Laudrup was interviewed before the match, appearing fresh enough to play. Looking like he’d never had a pint of Orkney Skullsplitter or a tipple from Tennent Caledonian Breweries, the great Dane added his weight to the gloom around Ibrox and a club in administration.

“It really is devastating news. Every single Rangers player will know what’s going on. If they can go out and have a cracking game that’s a way forward,” he said.

Celtic fans could breathe easy. Laudrup, possibly the most elegant player Rangers ever signed, wasn’t togging out. He didn’t need to. Nine-man Celtic fell hard to 10-man Rangers. Such is life on Glasgow derby days.

Cha was sent off, Lennon was ordered to the stands for being lippy to the referee and Ki was substituted after 70 minutes. McCoist, purring that he had taken some of the wind out of Celtic sails, shook the hand of every Celtic player, a significant gesture in divided Glasgow. Ibrox was bouncing. And this time it wasn’t the cheques.

It was all quite confusing. Like Dennis Pugh is every week. Dennis is the man on Sky Golf who analyses the player’s swings and smiles to camera at odd moments. That adds to the confusion.

Dennis, a PGA master professional, shows how to make a golf ball fizz. Dennis can tell in an instant if Tiger is cocked or if he has released. He says things like “two basics and three fundamentals provides the overall swing motion”. There are people who avidly watch the golf every Sunday and do not have a clue what Dennis is talking about. They understand it as much as Cha and Ki twig the Glasgow accent.

“Eyeline parallel to intended target.” Anyone? If you are confounded and addled, it could be your “weak grip” and “early wrist hinge” or, indeed, “the club in a toe down position and even slightly open”.

RTÉ yesterday afternoon doubtlessly caused befuddlement. Hockey on television. Not quite the Glasgow derby but hey. Penalty corner, half-court press and reverse stick became almost common terms these past two weeks as the men and the women’s Irish hockey teams found themselves on the crest of a bit of national interest.

Unfortunately their cameos didn’t close the deal, which was a place in the Olympic Games. The Olympics are going to be like this come summer. Unusual games on the television.

In Belgium it was the women’s turn to fall off the Road to London 2012. RTÉ delivered heavyweights Ger Canning and hockey international Graham Shaw in commentary and Peter Collins in studio with former international players Eimear Cregan and Joe Brennan. All five left familiar with the name of Belgium’s Sofie Gierts to go with Nam Yong Lee from last week in Belfield.

Lee scored seconds from the end of the match to kill off Irish dreams of London, while Gierts scored three goals to give her side a healthy advantage yesterday, prompting Canning to ask “What can Ireland do now?” Disappointingly the answer was very little. Belgium were better. Ireland have to improve even more than they have done over the last four years if the Olympic Games in Rio are to be a realistic target. Overall the exposure for a small sport has shown that if there is something at stake, if there is an emotional connection it not only transforms the sport and exposes it to a wider audience but inflates the interest too.