Barry Ferguson has justified the verbal abuse of Rob Kiernan by revealing that he was called names while shopping for Shreddies!
The former Ibrox skipper is no stranger to controversy- in 2000 after being red carded in a 6-2 defeat from Celtic he went home to change into a club tracksuit and became involved in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.
Former Ireland youth cap Kiernan was targetted for abuse by wealthy fans as he made his way to the Players Lounge as Sevco trailed 1-0 at half time to Ross County.
It seems that winning the double of Championship and Petrofac Cup is no shield to the anger of the people as the watch their side contest for second place with Aberdeen.
Justifying the abuse of Kiernan, Ferguson explained in his Daily Record column: “So there I was at Morrisons the other day, looking for a box of Shreddies Max.
“I can’t find them and I’m starting to get agitated, walking up and down the cereal aisle, face like thunder. This woman walks up and asks if I need a hand.
“She kindly helps me out and points me in the right direction. So I thank her very much and put them in my shopping trolley.
“The next thing I see these three teenage boys laughing at me. One of them shouts something I can’t repeat in the pages of a family newspaper and I respond by saying something along the lines of ‘Wee man, I’ll wrap this trolley around your heid and knock you into those f***** Frosties over there!’
“Five minutes later I’m at the yogurt fridge. Raging. And I’m looking around to see where they’ve gone.
“The same woman comes up and asks me if I’m looking for the three boys. She could tell I was angry and she smiled at me and told me just to leave it. That they were already away.
“Anyway, the only reason I mention it is because – as Rob Kiernan found out at Ibrox last Saturday – this is simply the way of life in this part of the world, when you’ve played for Rangers or Celtic.
“You either deal with it or you let it destroy you. Eventually, you’ll sink or you’ll swim. Unlike Kiernan, at least I had the advantage of being brought up in this city. I knew the rules.”
There you have it, Kiernan, as an outsider to Glasgow, just has to learn to deal with verbal abuse from his own fans in his own stadium. Perhaps if he doesn’t learn to accept it he should learn the words to the Ibrox fans song that contains the line ‘why don’t you go home’.
