UNLIKE the Murphys, there was a bitter taste in the mouth yesterday of customers in the Carfin Vaults.

It was not that the owners, John and Bernadette McCormick, keep a bad pint. Quite the reverse.

The bitterness and bile was all directed towards Frank Roy, whose now infamous advice led to the cancellation of yesterday's memorial service at the nearby Carfin Grotto.

Some people might have nodded their heads sagely. This, to many, is the badlands of Lanarkshire, where the economic pulse beats irregularly after Ravenscraig, the county's industrial heart, was ripped out.

This is the badlands where local referee Hugh Dallas had two lounge windows broken by a neighbour after refereeing an earlier Old Firm title decider.

Yesterday, if there was a sound of breaking glass, it was the shattering of Frank Roy's image among his constituents.

About 30 of them gathered at the Carfin Vaults to watch the big match. The noticeable absence of sectarian tensions was symbolised by three men sitting in one corner - one Celtic supporter sandwiched between two Rangers fans, who had designated it the Copland Road end.

Robert Loughridge, 45, a scaffolder's labourer and (closet) Rangers supporter, said: ''If you want to prevent trouble, you don't go shouting about it. Mr Roy is too full of his own importance. If he had kept his mouth shut, none of this would have happened.

''Who was going to cause the bother? People here will stay and have a drink after the game. I have drunk here for 25 years and I have given Celtic supporters stick and they have given it to me. And that's where it ends.''

Gerry Millar, 43, an unemployed Celtic supporter from Carfin, agreed. ''Not many people knew about the ceremony up at the grotto. It's the MP who could have ended up causing the trouble.''

Throughout the match, Mr Loughridge, Mr Millar, and Andy Thompson, 70, the second Rangers supporter, took it in turn to take the mick. Millar and Loughridge could double any day as Morecambe and Wise. Mr Thompson, in turn, does a good impersonation of Bernard Manning.

Rangers went one down and the camera cut to manager Dick Advocaat. ''I can see him going for another hair transplant after the game,'' says Mr Millar.

Bobby Petta is punched in the mouth by the Rangers goalkeeper. ''Bang goes his sausage and egg. He'll have to have scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow,'' says Mr Thompson in one of his rare forays into the English language without using an expletive.

It is Rangers who suffer the sucker punch on the big screen, but it is Frank Roy who is floored in the Carfin Vaults. They are already writing the words for his political memorial.

Bernadette McCormick said the idea that there would have been trouble at the grotto was ''total nonsense'', adding: ''I think the whole thing has been overhyped. Bertie Ahern could have watched the game in peace and quiet and come here with no bother. It has given Carfin a bad image, one it does not deserve.''

The walls of the pub she and husband John have owned for 12 years also speak volumes for an outgoing, liberal attitude to life that is not often put on the credit side of Carfin.

There are postcards from Hong Kong, from Sydney, and from Belgium. There is also a picture of one of the regulars with his employer, Sir Richard Branson.

''Branson said that the next time he's up in Scotland he would come in for a drink,'' said Pat McCormick, 45, another regular from Carfin.

He, too, is keen to redress the balance. He said: ''The memorial stone was going to be erected to both Protestant and Catholic immigrants. I feel our MP has overstepped the mark. He won't get voted back in again.

''He just wanted the limelight so he highlighted himself, not a real problem.

''All he has done is give himself bad publicity.''

The day's lesson is best summed up by George Healy, 65, a retired business studies teacher from Our Lady's High School in Motherwell.

He said: ''Frank Roy was wrong to say what he did. This is not a bitter village. I have never found any animosity between the different religions.

''I had to move out of Newarthill because of anti-social neighbours. Before I moved here I went to the police and asked about Carfin.

'''Is it safe?' I asked. The police assured me I would have no fears.

''It is best summed by a recent Rangers game when they held a minute's silence for the people who died in the Ibrox disaster. I was watching the game here on the TV.

'I was amazed that everyone respected the silence in what is a predominantly Celtic pub.''

It is a respect he and his fellow customers feel has not been afforded their village by its own MP.