04/19/24
May 22, 2005
Rangers win SPL championship: It looked almost impossible, but amazingly Rangers clinched their 51st Scottish Premier League title on Sunday after rivals Celtic blew a 1-goal lead in the last 3 minutes to lose 2-1 away to Motherwell. Celtic had led the race in the last few months, but just as they started their celebratory singing, they were drowned out by the mocking tones of The Fat Lady. Rangers' one goal victory was enough for them to secure 3 points and leap-frog their bitter rivals to snatch the trophy at the death. Nacho Novo struck for Rangers against Hibs, and Aussie hitman Scott MacDonald killed Celtic's challenge with two superb late goals.
posted by Duncan Mathers to soccer at 08:34 PM - 7 comments
This reminds me of when Fat Buddha stole the EPL Fantasy League from the Fooker, at the death.
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:29 PM on May 22, 2005
There's so little revenue in Scottish football - the country has a population about the size of a city, and the lion's share of soccer fans either follow Rangers or Celtic, usually for sinister religious reasons or simply because they know it's the only two teams with a chance of winning a trophy. Many want to see the Old Firm banished to another league to make it more exciting in the SPL but the truth is the game would be on its knees in a matter of months without the revenue the OF generate. No win situation, never gonna change.
posted by Duncan Mathers at 08:52 AM on May 23, 2005
this is the Ranger's 51st title. they made a little hoo ha after their previous one saying that they were the first club team to ever win 50 titles. they added five gold stars to their crest (or something) to commemorate that acheivement. i think celtic has something like 30 or so titles so they aren't going to overtake rangers anytime soon. talk about choke though. they were five points up with 4 or 3 to play, let alone two points up with a clinching win only minutes away. i wanna know where the silverware was. was it in Motherwell until late in that match and they flew it to Easter Rd on a helicopter or something? what a punch in the gut that would be, a celtic fan watching the trophy leave Fir Park and head to Edinburgh. in other news. O'Neill set to step down.
posted by gspm at 10:36 AM on May 23, 2005
I believe the trophy was somewhere in between Motherwell and Edinburgh and was being choppered to the winners. Be funny if, with 5 minutes to go, they'd set off for Motherwell and then heard the scores and said "Awww dammit..." and had to turn around!
posted by Duncan Mathers at 07:05 PM on May 23, 2005
Scottish football is best watched with the television on its side :). But an interesting footnote is that Scott Macdonald (born and bred in Melbourne, Victoria) has a Celtic supporting father and a Rangers supporting mother.
posted by owlhouse at 09:20 PM on May 23, 2005
That makes two years out of three that Rangers have beat Celtic with the right results on the final day (and last year Celtic ran away with it and won with a month or two left in the season). Too bad the rest of the league isn't nearly as competitive with the top two. yeah, having the trophy wait in a neutral position until the results are in makes sense. I used to live near Easter Road. I wonder how close the chopper came or if it just went to the airport (thereby adding another half hour to the trip).
posted by gspm at 10:05 PM on May 23, 2005
I still can't quite understand why the Scottish FA, teams, fans, someone, doesn't do something to give a squad other than the Old Firm a chance to win the title. The SFA and SPL have crap websites so I can't tell but if this is the Rangers' 51st title, and Celtic have won a reasonably similar share, then that seems to be a fair assumption.