THERE was an Old Firm game this week. No, honestly.

It’s a fixture that causes those involved to either feel euphoric or suicidal, while everyone on the outside battens down the hatches and waits for the whole thing to end. Even the pavements in Glasgow can’t escape.

For the majority of football fans in the city, Sunday’s meeting of Rangers and Celtic represented, at least for the victorious half, four years’ worth of anticipation, humiliation and angst that was released in one drawn out but enthralling game of football.

It is therefore predictable that the occasion got the better of some. Even those who really should know better.

In the run up and aftermath of this fixture, Twitter was littered with messages from Scottish footballers professing their allegiance to one of the teams involved. We even had a Partick Thistle player publicly appeal for a ticket in Rangers end before reassuring his legions of diehard Jags fans afterwards that he was now on the lookout for a magic hat. Oh how they welcomed the news.

Just a few miles further west, we saw two St Mirren midfielders in Scott Agnew and Stuart Carswell show their true colours, with the latter tweeting ‘Now bring on the big one’ just a couple of hours after he played in the club’s Renfrewshire derby win. These are just a few examples.

Now let’s be clear here. Footballers, just like everyone else, are perfectly entitled to follow a football team, and no supporter in the land is naïve enough to assume every player who pulls on their team’s jersey was brought up in the ways of that club. After all, everyone involved in the game from footballers to referees to journalists, all got into football because they grew up supporting a team of their choosing.

However, there is a line that has been crossed by these ‘professionals’ who are content to take a wage from one club but publicly support another that they are going to be playing against in two weeks’ time.

Will these two St Mirren players put less effort in when going up against Rangers on the last game of the season? Of course not. Is it the worst thing in the world? Certainly not. But it is it a slap in the face for the supporters who turn up at the Paisley 2021 Stadium every second week and keep them in a job? St Mirren seem to think so

The incident regarding the Twitter Two has led Tony Fitzpatrick, the club’s chief executive, to tell Herald Sport earlier this week that the club are potentially looking at imposing a social media ban.

Many clubs, including St Mirren do have a social media policy in place where players are briefed as to what not to say. Telling them not to publicly support and revel in a rival team’s victory should surely be rule No.1.

It's not a matter of integrity, it's a matter of common sense. You support the team that pays your wages.

Having an allegiance to a football team is not something to be ashamed of, but neither is it a club to wield in public to an audience who are never going to welcome the news that the ‘big game’ is not the one you have just played in but the one you will watch on the telly the following day.

At the other end of the scale we saw Kevin Friend, the English referee, removed from officiating the Stoke City v Tottenham match on an account he lives in Leicester, the home of Spurs’ title rivals.

We are in danger of losing sight of the issue and the reason we all love this beautiful, if not bamboozling game.

You should trust people’s integrity, but you should also be able to trust their restraint, sensitivity and judgment.

Unless they support Airdrie.

AND ANOTHER THING

It was all going so well. Two full games plus extra-time had been played and there were no complaints. No bumps, no injuries and not even the faintest sight of a baldy patch. And that was just Leigh Griffiths.

No, the much-talked about Hampden pitch almost lasted the entire weekend without incident. Almost.

After being laid just a few days earlier, the green stuff that has caused so much of a stir in the last few weeks gave us another talking point with, quite literally, the last kick of the ball in Sunday’s William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final.

As Tom Rogic planted his standing foot and swung his left for the ball in the decisive penalty shootout, TV replays showed the impact of the former cause a loose bit of turf to ride up, pop the ball in the air, leaving the Australian to get underneath it and send the ball scudding over the bar.

In the midst of potential managerial sackings and the trying on of magic hats, it is a plot twist that largely went unnoticed at the time. Let’s hope those charged with its upkeep in the future don’t forget.