A Massive Aunty-Climax

  
Good Evening (and please Vote ‘Clumpany’)!

Well it doesn’t happen very often, but Dave King certainly picked a good game to miss tonight. 

The simple fact is that the home side couldn’t handle the step-up at Ibrox.

Yes folks it was utter HUMILIATION for BBC Scotland as they ended their exile from the Crumbledome and put in one of their most laughable displays in recent years as Sevco went down 3-1 to St Johnstone in the League Cup.

It was a good performance from the Perth side, who got their tactics right and showed a good deal of composure to go 3-0 up early in the second half against the hitherto all-conquering Warbmeister XI.

From that point on, St Johnstone had no reason to press forward. They lost some of their composure, but were rarely troubled to any great degree, and the tie was pretty much dead.

But oh how the BBC’s TV commentary team of Liam McLeod and Craig Patterson seemed to be yearning for a turnaround. When Tavernier got a very good goal back for Sevco, the crowd noise went up, and St Johnstone were pushed back for a spell.

And to hear the commentary, you would have thought that St Johnstone were utterly besieged, and hanging on for dear life. Every syllable was seemingly focused on how Sevco were ‘getting back into the game’.

I swear that if they could have stuck an extra-long leg out and tripped up St Johnstone players they would have done!

At got so bad that when another Sevco attack fizzled out late in the game, the prospect of a St Johnstone goal kick was described as if someone had died.  

As the tie went into ‘time added on’, almost all of the commentary was about what defeat meant for Sevco and the Warbolution. Indeed, it was only at the very end of the entire programme that Pat Nevin (of all people) managed to strike the correct note by saying that the night was actually all about a great St Johnstone performance.

Well done Pat!

Presumably if the BBC decides to cover any more League Cup games this season, the presenters and commentators will all be wearing black armbands and holding back the tears as they come to terms with Sevco’s absence?

But enough about the BBC. What about the Warbolution?

You know, that unstoppable juggernaut of footballing excellence that we have been hearing so much about…

A comprehensive defeat by Perth’s finest wasn’t in the script, and I look forward to the media rationalising it away over the coming days. No doubt Cups will be considered a total irrelevance compared to the task of getting into the Premiership.

At least until Sevco play in the Scottish Cup and they can all get carried away by the propspect of them winning it and getting into Europe next season. Somehow.

It would of course be extremely petty to look back and laugh at some of the things said by the media and Warbmeister prior to tonight’s game.

Especially as the mood was very upbeat.

But sometimes The Clumpany can’t help itself…

Here is some of what the BBC reported this morning

Mark Warburton: “People are saying it’s our first big test, I disagree with that. We’ve gone away to Hibs in a cup competition, we’ve gone to Alloa and Queen of the South on a different surface, St Mirren at home, all of these were so-called big tests for us.

“I understand why, it’s the first Premiership team we’ve faced. They’re a regular top six team, have European experience, and we’ll be very respectful.”

“We’re at home, I don’t think the gap between the Championship and the Premier League is quite as big as it is down south. I think it’ll be a good challenge and we’re very much looking forward to that fixture”

And the Evening Shark-Jump carried these words from His Warbiness:

Warburton: Rangers would be ‘faring very well’ in Premiership

“Warburton reckons his squad have already shown they are capable of competing at a higher level as they gear up to face Tommy Wright’s side.

He said: ‘We’d be sitting with a couple of more players as we’d need a bit more depth for that level.

‘I think we’d be faring very well. It’s all hypothetical but you watch us often enough and I think we are a good squad, technically sound, physically strong, we have good tactical awareness and a strong mental belief’.”

Oh dear Mark. It seems there is quite a gap between the Premiership and Championship sides after all…

Nae luck! As they didn’t say in Brentford.

And the Sevco captain may also be feeling a little disappointed this evening following his earlier comments:

Rangers captain Lee Wallace sets his sights on silverware this season ahead of Saints showdown

He said: “Winning cups was one of my main priorities when I first signed, albeit still in the top division back then.

“In my first press conference I mentioned the fact I was coming into a dressing room full of winners and I wanted to become one of them.”

“But I think the fans more importantly have suffered. They are used to winning and watching teams lift trophies.

“It’s not happened for a few years and we’re hungry to do that for the supporters. We want to give them that return. This season I just hope that can be the case.”

Well if it is to be the case, Lee, it will have to be in the Scottish or Perpetual Failure Cups. Because tonight you only managed to add another entry on the ‘Ally McCoist Cup Exits Memorial Board’.

It is easy to laugh at what unfolded at Ibrox tonight. No really… But most of the comedy doesn’t come from seeing The Warbmeister trip up. He always seems a very decent guy. 

No, the real hilarity comes from seeing parts of the MSM fall flat on its face. Again.

They simply cannot help themselves. For weeks now everything about the King Warbolution has been praised to high Heaven. The brand of football on offer has been treated as if the 1970 Brazil team had been resurrected, and comparisons have been made with the winning start made by Bill Struth when he took over at the other club to have played out of Ibrox.

Everything has been rosy, and you would have been forgiven for thinking that Sevco are not that far short of being a side that could compete at the top of the Premiership.

Tonight provided a reality check as the ‘rejuvenated’ Sevco finally came up against a very decent Premiership side and were found wanting by some distance.

Will anyone learn from this reality check?

Errrrrrrr….

#KeepOnClumping

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