SCOTLAND beating Lithuania away in their World Cup qualifier was deserving of praise and some decent marks out of ten when it came to the big match ratings. Happily, we could then focus on Malta.
However, not everyone was happy with the points awarded to our brave lads in Herald Sport last Saturday morning.
A few phone calls and emails pointed out the errors of ‘that clown you employ to do your ratings,’ while another, begged ‘did they actually watch the Scotland game?’ I can confirm they did watch the match and in no way could they ever be considered a clown. But enough about me.
What interested me however, was the players offered up as definite, certain and absolute ‘nine out of tens.’ Scott Brown was one, Matt Phillips another, and Andy Robertson for his wonderful first-half strike. However, did any really merit a nine?
No, not in the slightest. For me, the benchmark is easy; Zinadine Zidane. He scored twice in the 1998 World Cup final against the side generally regarded as the best around at that time, and, won the biggest prize in football for the host nation, France.
And in my book, that performance qualifies as a straight 10 - and quite a good starting point when you are working out your man-by-mans.
This week it was good to see one of Scotland’s best young talents, Greg Docherty of Hamilton Accies, being used to advertise the latest edition of the Topps Match Attax football cards.
However, going by the photo circulated on social media, has Greg shrunk, or, have the cards themselves gone very big indeed?
And if the latter applies, I doubt very much if too many school weans will be carrying their collections to school to swap them.
Last night saw the first BBC Radio Scotland rugby commentary of the new Guinness PRO14 season when Edinburgh faced Dragons at Myreside.
For many, it would have sounded a bit different, mainly because the previous master of the microphone, Bill Johnstone, has retired, with the seat he vacated filled (I wish I could say by popular demand and for one night only) by the capable Paul Mitchell.
Not only were his dulcet tones dancing over the airwaves, but, thanks to modern technology, he was also heard on the red button on BBC Alba. And because of the unique way the BBC is funded, he was probably only paid once.
Scandalous, albeit good value.
On the subject of the Beeb, their co-commentator at the Hamilton-Celtic game, that well-known tennis playing hipster, Steven Thompson, is no stranger to seeing his name appear in print, given that he is after all, The Herald’s voice of a football every Friday.
But he hadn’t expected to see his name appearing in the 16/17 term brochure from MP & Silva, agents for the SPFL’s TV rights across the planet.
Thommo was listed alongside the likes of Billy Mckay, Jo Inge Berget and Mickael Antione Curier as part of the SPFL ‘s talent pool - the irony being that none were playing in Scotland at the time, or in Steven’s case, playing at all as he had retired.
No wonder we struggle to sell our game.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here