I hope they catch coin-throwing thug and Rangers ban him for life ... it was a completely moronic thing to do
I REALLY do hope that the authorities can find out who the Rangers supporter was that threw the coin at the assistant referee on Sunday and the club give him a ban for life.
Whoever it was should have the tables turned on them, and have the book well and truly thrown at them.
I don’t think it would be fair for the entire Rangers support or the club to be tarnished because of one supporter stepping out of line though. The vast majority of supporters who travelled to Livingston on Sunday behaved impeccably, and I would hate to see ordinary, decent Rangers fans tarred with the same brush as one idiotic fan who hasn’t given a thought to the damage their actions might have on the good name of the club and the supporters.
Throwing any sort of object, let alone a coin, at anyone at a football match is completely unacceptable.
We all have a go at the officials from time to time through our passion to see our team win, but there is absolutely no justification for using any sort of violence towards a match official. Period.
It should be a zero-tolerance policy and the authorities have to send out a message that this sort of thing is not okay. Nobody should have to put up with the threat of such violence at what is their place of work, after all.
I am only glad that the assistant referee in question, Calum Spence, seems to be alright, if a little shaken up, and that he managed to go on and complete the game.
I am also thankful, as I am sure he is, that it wasn’t more serious injury, because it potentially could have been even worse had it caught him in the eye, for example.
It was a completely irresponsible and moronic thing to do, and Rangers don’t need the sort of fans who think that behaving in such a manner is remotely acceptable.
Frankly, the club and the whole of Scottish football would be better off without them. Hearts are top of the table and deservedly so but, when the prizes are being given out in May, I fully expect it to be Rangers and Celtic that will be battling it out for the title.
Rangers are still gelling and coming together. The early signs have been really promising on the whole in terms of the quality of play and the resilience the side have shown under the new manager compared to anything that has come before over these last four or five years, but there will be the odd hiccup.
And let’s not forget that Celtic have yet to win a match away from home in the league either. Over the years, I’ve learnt that one of the biggest things in football is perception, but you can’t be labelling Rangers as being soft on the road because they haven’t won an away game when Celtic haven’t done so either.
The league is getting harder and opposition teams are getting better all the time, which is good for the game in Scotland as a whole. But it means that the big boys won’t have it all their own way week-in week-out like they might have used to.
Following that logic, then, points will be dropped along the way. Of course that is going to happen. But over the course and distance it will be the two best teams in the league by a country mile in my opinion – Rangers and Celtic – who will drop the fewest.
You will find that the gap between Hearts and Rangers and Celtic will narrow
– and I think that will start this weekend – before they are eventually overtaken and left behind.
There will be a gap eventually between Rangers, Celtic and the rest. The only thing I’m not sure of yet is who will come out on top of those two.
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