Esteemed, experienced and "highly thought of" referee, Rev. Mike McCurry.
I have one question to ask him, why does he consistently give Rang*rs F.C. favours to help them win football matches? I apologise for any bitterness, those that know me personally know that I am reasonably fair in my opinion, those of you that don't know me, well you'll have to take my word for it.
I bring you back to my question, why does Rev. Michael McCurry consistently give Rang*rs F.C favours to win football matches? I think the answer lies in the fact he is a minister of the Baptist Chuch. Now I have nothing against members of the Baptist Church (except the afore mentioned McCurry), however they are viewed as Protestants, which again I have nothing against. It is a rule of thumb, in this country, that Protestants generally follow Rang*rs. So the next question I have is why is a Rang*rs fan aloud to referee important, title deciding matches when he clearly has an agenda in the favour of Rang*rs because I cannot see for the life of me, the SFA allowing a priest of the Catholic Church, such as the priest from my parish refereeing the game at Tannadice on the last day of the season involving Celtic and Dundee Utd.
It can now no longer be denied that Rev McCurry has almost handed Rang*rs the title. The events of Saturday 10th of May 2008 will live with me forever. Before I continue, I will concede that Dundee Utd were very poor on the day and I think everyone expected a lot more from them. Goals, however do change football matches, and the influence of McCurry on Saturday's game prevented Utd from scoring and potentially changing the game.
In his wisdom, he first of all denied Utd a stonewall penalty when the score was 2-0. Noel Hunt was simply to quick for Davie Weir, who was the last man, and therefore beat him to the ball. I don't believe that Weir meant to foul Hunt, his momentum carried him into Hunt and knocked him to the ground. Now according to the rules of football, this is a penalty and a red card offence, neither of which were given. I have seen replay after replay of this incident including one which showed roughly where McCurry would have seen the incident and he did have a good view and he did not have any players obstructing his view. The same could also be said for the linesman who also did not give the penalty.
The next incident was slightly less clear cut and could have went either way, but I still firmly believe the wrong decision was made. Mark Kerr was striding forward down the centre of the park at the back four of Rang*rs. David Robertson made a run behind Davie Weir into an offiside position. Mark Kerr, from roughly 35 yards, hit a low drive towards goal. Robertson like I said had made a run behind Weir, the ball hit Weir and deflected to the other side of the goal leaving the goal keeper stranded. Now the linesman flagged for offside. However the ball never made any contact with Robertson and he was not blocking the keepers line of sight, which would have been a legitimate cause for the offside flag. Neil Alexander had seen the ball being struck and reacted as if to save it, unfortunatley he was wrong footed by the deflection off of Weir and could not react quickly enough to save it. Like I said, this decision is slightly less clear cut and could be a matter of opinion.
The last injustice that Dundee Utd suffered came in the shape of an assault on one of their players by the thuggish Daniel Cousin. I liked Cousin as a footballer, I genuiely think he's a good player when he wants to be. He's fast, strong, technically good, and suits Rang*rs' style of play. However the stupidity of the man must bemuse Rang*rs' supporters. He first of all got himself sent off against Fiorentina by headbutting an opponent and gaining a suspension for a once in a lifetime game. Three days later he headbutts Utd's Lee Wilkie. Personally I think Cousin is lucky he still has his nose intact as Wilkie is no

Look, look, I mean come on tae fuck, you lot (Rangers) are the worst footballing team on the earth. There is no getting away from that. fair doos uefa final, (which btw been there done that) but can I jst say, you should have went out the competition long ago. Panathanikos hit the bar and brought out the very best in McGregor albeit from long range. Bremen also brought the best out in Cuellar and Weir (again). It jst happened to be unfortunate (from a green persuasion) that you then came up against the weakest team in 1/4 final, sporting lisbon. A decent team we all thought, at 1st, which to be fair they were until they reached the final 3rd and decided they cood not pick out a pass to save their weans. Also the fact that with small, talented, FOOTBALLERS such as Moutinho, Veloso etc against the grotesque cloggers such as Thomson, McCulloch etc, Rangers really could have came up against a better team to be honest. A pattern emerged. Rangers would play at home 1st, again. Fiorentina came to Ibrox and I really do feel for the poor sods that paid good money to go and watch their team disgrace themselves by not even creating a single decent chance on their own soil. I mean at least when Celtic play big matches at home we like to try and play the game, you know. In the second leg however I was optimistic (or pessimistic if you're in the smeaton corner) that Fiorentina would surely overcome that dark and evil, catenacchio style of playing the beautiful game. Once again, Cuellar was immense, a regular feature of this season. No disrespect to the man, he is a cracking player but for a team to be built round a center half is un-natural and quite honestly embarrassing for Scottish football. I have only ranted about the latter part of the season, I could go on about a certain piece of silverware that has went missing from dundee and the lack of bookings a certain Ranger's player has missed out on this season, but I'll end this blog jst like Celtic will end this season, with dignity, pride, and the fact that we will ALWAYS be better!
hail hail
god bless (the pope)
Chris McGowan

Ace referee Mick McFlurry takes you step by step through a typical Old
Firm day for the match referee:

1. Always a bit of a sleepless night, the night before an Old
Firm game
so I find myself wide awake at 4.30am. Being a man of the cloth
I decide
to spend some time reading extracts from my bible, particularly
the
parts about treating others as they treat you and loving thy
neighbours.

2. Arrive at my favourite ground in the entire world where the
hospitality displayed by all is first class. Receive warm
embrace from
Walter (we go back a long way) and hear one or two tremendously
funny
tales from the cheeky wee chappy McCoist, who happily poses for
pictures
and signs autographs for some of my relatives. What a guy.

3. Go into the away dressing room to share a few words just
prior to
kick off but find Father Burns in the middle of some Rosemary
prayer
ritual with the players and am shocked to find even the
Protestants
giving it Hail Mary! Being a Christian, Father Burns extends an
invite
to myself to join in and share a pre-match spiritual moment to
which I
politely decline and quickly hurry out the room. I may be a
Christian
but I'm not THAT type of Christian!

4. Walk onto the pitch with the teams and am immediately greeted
by a
tremendous roar from the most loyal fans in world football. Get
the two
captains together to toss the coin and receive a friendly grip
of the
hand from Barry.

5. I intend to put my mark on the game as soon as possible and
that
young Australian ruffian McDonald provides my with the ideal
opportunity
after he puts his ankle into the home keepers studs and I
present him
with a yellow card. The ex-convict pleads his case by stating
McGregor
stamped on his foot but I laugh it off as there's no way a fine
young
Presbyterian chap would do such a thing. To prove my point three
home
team players immediately surround McDonald and offer him a
friendly
welcome to our place shove on the chest. Great guys.

6. A little while later that Italian thug offers me no option
other than
to show my second yellow card of the match. Come on an Italian
with his
hair dyed red, its obvious one of Rome's sons has been sent to
wind up
the people from God's chosen country and I will not tolerate
this.

7. Just on the half hour mark and bang, goal for the Teddies! I
see
young Hutton running all the way past the away support giving
them a
friendly wave before jumping on top of Spain's finest
evangelical
follower. It really takes all my restraint to stop joining in
the fun!

8. Dreadful stare by Brown on a Rangers player. Booked!
9. Oh what's that, an accidental clash of heads between McManus
and
Cousin, quick get the medics on.
10. Shame young McManus had to be replaced, I hope he's fit in
time for
the next Scotland game. Oh look, another accidental clash
between O'Dea
and Cousin. I hope Cousin is ok.

11. What's this someone tying their laces without my permission.
Right
Kennedy, you're booked.
12. What a goal by Barry and look at the 20 man celebration by
the
players and all their coaching staff off the pitch. It's
normally a
booking for leaving the field of play but come on, two nil to
the
Teddies, just go with the flow!

13. I see the wee traitor McGeady is coming on as a sub. I'll
soon get
him.
14. Right, got him for sticking his calf into McCulloch's boot.
Done!
15. Big Davie Weir is down holding his face with his fellow
bears
pointing at Jarosik. I can only assume known hardman Jarosik has
jabbed
one of his blonde locks into Big Davie's left eye almost causing
the
classy defender to lose it. I'll have none of that. Booked!

16. Barry is doing a tremendous job not only for the home team
but also
acting as an assistant referee and pointing out little incidents
that I
may have missed. I give him a fr