The Times
January23, 1995, Monday
Partick and Falkirk slide back towards no man's land
BYLINE:Kevin McCarra
In the premier division, doom comes early. It is still only January, but, on Saturday,PartickThistlefound themselves even more isolated at the foot of the table. Although luck and tenacity allowed them to hold on to a 0-0 draw withCelticat Firhill, results elsewhere were unfavourable. Dundee turned last season into one protracted fall towards relegation; now Thistle seem gripped by that same bleak gravity.
Even if they should gouge a handhold and avoid the drop, one of the other disadvantaged clubs must be relegated instead. Falkirk, for instance, have been plummeting for the past few weeks. This may not seem like much of a sob story after all, sport needs a few wretches for purposes of contrast. They make the winners look good.Perhaps Thistle, Falkirk or some other victim should take the punishment without snivelling, although that bracing outlook has its blind spot. In Scottish football, it tends to be the same few clubs who repeatedly encounter adversity. These sides are involved in something more serious than a crisis. They have become part of a syndrome.
A familiar life-cycle has developed for those with plenty of ambition and a lack of money. Typically, the team wins promotion and then, with nostrils flaring and boots flying, survives for a year in the premier division. It is the second season, when the frenzied desire for survival can no longer be whipped up, which brings relegation.
Since 1980, Airdrie, Clydebank, Dundee, Falkirk and Motherwell have all undergone that experience. A few clubs risk forming a little group who spend their days oscillating between the premier and first division. They do not wholly belong in either.
As Jim Duffy, the manager of Dundee, said: ''It is expectations which get managers the sack.'' No chairman can inspire supporters by promising them year after year of scavenging for survival. Football depends on the myth of progress. Once a team has come through one season in the premier division, it becomes fashionable to talk of aspiring to a European place.
Duffy knows that such chatter is inane. The lofty target, after all, is set for the same group of players who only inched clear of relegation months before.
The premier division, with only ten members, contains no place of refuge for newcomers. The Old Firm, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Aberdeen, Dundee United and, it would appear, Motherwell, are certain of safety. At the weekend, United's startling 6-1 victory over Motherwell, in which they were greatly abetted by Sergio, their new Brazilian signing, stripped the recent fatalism from Tannadice, but Ivan Golac's side is probably not in real danger. As always, it will be the interlopers who are left to wrestle with relegation. That environment guarantees palpitations and does not encourage sophistication.
Dundee and the others faced by the conundrum argue that there should be reconstruction to create a premier division of 16 teams. They claim that it would create a zone without the dread of relegation where teams could risk practising the arts of the game.
Scepticism in the face of such petitions is inevitable. Anyone making the plea sounds a bit like an old lag promising to change his ways if the judge will only give him a suspended sentence. However, those who support the status quo in Scottish football should also be called upon to defend their case.
They must beat off the cogent argument that the premier division has outlived its usefulness. It was devised as a solution to one problem: the domination ofCeltic, who won nine successive championships from 1966 to 1974. As such, it proved a success, allowing Aberdeen and Dundee United to win titles.
Now, however, the premier division no longer guarantees a dispersal of honours. One statistic demonstrates Rangers' mastery. If they alone were still receiving just two points for a win, they would, nonetheless, be only one point behind Hibernian at the top.
David Cooper, the Clydebank and former Scotland winger, is to retire at the end of the season. Cooper, 38, also played for Rangers and Motherwell.
The Guardian (London)
January23, 1995
SOCCER: WALKER BLOCKSCELTIC;
Scottish round-up
BYLINE:Patrick Glenn
STUDENTS of Scottish football form must have reached for the aspirin on a day when logical forecasting was sabotaged by elements which have no place in the calculations.In most of the places where startling results were recorded, the gale-driven rain and sleet and the resultant vagaries of churned-up playing surfaces could be seen as the most obvious influences.
At Firhill, however, it was the feet, legs, arms, head and body of Nicky Walker which accounted forCeltic'sfailure to score against the Premier Division's bottom clubPartick.TheThistlegoalkeeper enjoyed the kind of afternoon which tends to exist only in daydreams, single-handedly denyingCelticwhat could in theory have been their biggest win of the season.
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The Herald (Glasgow)
January23, 1995
Daft day is better late than never. 'I was due one after 15 years,' says Walker
BYLINE:Ian Paul
MAYBE if they had nailed him to a post,Celticmight have found a way of getting the ball past Nicky Walker in thePartick Thistlegoal, but it would not have been odds-on. The much travelled goalie has never had a better game than his inspirational show in the no-scoring draw at Firhill but, as he pointed out, he has paid his dues."After 15 years in the premier division, I was due a daft day. Every keeper gets one." His was magnificently daft. There was nothing much moreCelticcould have done to score. They had a whole array of shots and headers on target, but were defied by the feet or hands of Walker.
His opposite number, Pat Bonner, nodded his head in that fashion which indicates that only keepers really understand these things. "That is the way it happens sometimes and the next week you can go out and lose a soft one," he said with the wisdom of 16 years in the game.Of course there wereCelticfans arguing that the team blew it, that no side should miss so many golden opportunities. And, to some extent that has a validity, but there are occasions when a goalkeeper in brilliant form is admired and supported by the guardian angel of all goalies. Luck was handed out along with the plaudits in large dollops.
But Bonner could well be right when he says thatCeltic, in this form, will give some side a hard time of it one day. Unquestionably, the Parkhead lot were as good as they have been any time since Tommy Burns took over. They conquered difficult conditions with some fine passing movements and, despite Thistle's courageous and willing defensive stand, looked certain to win by a few goals. That would not have been an unfair reflection.
Even Thistle's assistant manager, Gerry Collins, had to describe his team's show thus: "We stole a point." Stuart Gray and Brian O'Neil were outstanding players forCeltic, but Peter Grant, Phil O'Donnell and Willie Falconer were not far behind. Yet all their smart play did not persuade the Jags to throw in the towel.
They are stubborn at Firhill and, even while they were losing the battle, they never hinted the war was over.
Steve Welsh rallied his men time and again asCelticthreatened to run them into Maryhill Road, and they had the audacity to come close to snatching a goal themselves in a couple of breakaway thrusts. But, overall, they will still wonder how they emerged unscathed with another point added to their total.
It would be pointless listing every wonderful save or stop made by Walker, but some were extra special, like one from O'Donnell in the early part of the game, another before half time from Falconer, a fine stop from O'Donnell again after the break, and the piece de resistance near the end, when he halted a Hooydonk header at the far post.
Burns was philosophical afterwards, acknowledging that the keeper was simply unbeatable. He was genuinely pleased, however, with the display of his team and, compared with many efforts this season, he had every justification.
He was a bit miffed by loud criticism of his side by two femaleCelticfans who gave him a hard time from the enclosure. The manager has offered to buy them lunch and continue the debate with them, should they make themselves known to him.
It is perhaps not an innovation he should pursue long. On all known recent form, there are queues of Parkhead critics ready to offer their views. If he is not careful Tommy might need to use a large slice of his transfer bankroll to feed the multitude.
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