Game

I enjoyed a pilgrimage yesterday at the invitation of a friend. It was to a shrine across the water from the sunny West End. People have worshipped there in their tens of thousands since 1899. The venue was Ibrox Stadium, for the Rangers - Falkirk match. A somewhat lacklustre game, but enjoyable enough. I especially enjoyed it when Nacho Novo was brought on from the substitute's bench to the singing of 'Novo Wonderland'. I can't repeat the lyrics here, so you'll need to Google for them. Let's just say that the colour of his boots yesterday are reflected in the colourful words of the song.

It's ten years since my last visit to a Rangers game, and much has changed in that time. There's the pre-match cheer-leaders for starters. Andy Cameron warms the crowd up. I say warms it up - in reality the crowd seemed somewhat subdued for much of the game. Though most of the sectarianism of yesteryear has been banished following strong campaigns against it, my friend tells me that the atmosphere is still electric for an Old Firm match, and that both sets of fans are much more vocal then. It was great to see the number of families at the game - again something I wasn't aware of the last time I was there, though that might have been because I was in the Broomloan stand. And what a fantastic stadium Ibrox is now. A real credit to Glasgow.

The little rituals of football matches always cause me to see the parallels between church and the beautiful game; the greetings of teammates as they begin the match or enter and leave the field of play; the choreographed singing (with drums!); the waving of flags (although in our context it's mostly the kids that wave flags around). There's also the enthusiasm that is engendered at a big match - if only that was what happened at church at every service...

A significant difference is that the crowd eff and curse the players and officials when, in their opinion, they get it wrong. Of course, everyone of us who was watching could have played so much better than the teams yesterday (and a bunch of blokes did get a chance to show that at half-time). Mind you, most of the crowd had payed a lot of money to be there, so I suppose it's only fair to let them have their say.

Imagine a worship service where the congregation remonstrated with the leaders when they got it wrong? 'Decently and in order' it would not be.

Back to yesterday. The result - Rangers 2, Falkirk 0.