Lee Wallace has revealed that he won’t smile until Sevco are in the Champions League.
Five years ago, after going into administration, Rangers trailed Celtic by 22 points with a trail of investors ready to pump money into the club.
Just before 12 noon today Waldo will slip on the armband of dignity and lead out his men trailing Celtic by 33 points with only the faintest hope of still winning the Premiership title.
While the rest of Scottish football has been having a laugh at their expense Waldo has been suffering under the ineptitude of Ally McCoist, Kenny McDowall, Stuart McCall, Mark Warburton and Graeme Murty.
The journey has been full of misery. League defeats from Stirling Albion, Annan Athletic and Peterhead have been matched by cup exists to Forfar, Alloa, Queen of the South and Raith Rovers.
Despite those set-backs Waldo clings to the dream of walking out at Ibrox to face Barcelona, Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach.
Sharing his dreams and nightmares with the Daily Record he revealed: “When we were in the Third Division I said I wanted to be here for the journey back to the top.
“A phrase I used then was getting us back to where we belong – I took that from Ally McCoist.
“And in terms of where we belong, by definition I feel that means winning league titles, in the Champions League group stage and winning silverware.
“So until that point I won’t be fully satisfied. That will be the time when I can smile and be
content with the decision I made.
“I’m happy with the decision but only then will I sit back and feel proud of it. Until then we’re still fighting to get there.
“We still have a few incentives going to Celtic Park. We understand every record they’ve already broken as well as ones they can go on to break if they win this fixture.
“We’ve got them twice more in the league and we want to stop them doing a clean sweep on us.
“There’s also the Treble that’s still out there as well. We’re aware of all that so it would be nice to put a stop to these things by going there and winning. If we do that we’ll generate a bit of belief and confidence and hopefully finish the season strongly.”
If Sevco lose today they’ll be nine points and at least 23 goals behind second placed Aberdeen with ten matches left to play.
THE PAIN OF 5-1
Lee Wallace has admitted that he hasn’t fully recovered from Mark Warburton’s side taking a 5-1 hammering from Celtic earlier in the season.
Waldo and Warbo stood shoulder to shoulder at the launch of #goingfor55 but the former city trader will be watching today’s match from his London home at Waldo goes out to do battle.
At the start of the season it all promised so much after 11 new signings were brought in to work with the squad that had romped to The Championship.
A win over Celtic on December 31 would have cut the gap to 16 points, defeat today will leave Waldo’s side 36 points behind the champions elect with regret high in the air over Ibrox.
Looking at his last visit to Celtic Park Waldo admitted: “That 5-1 defeat hurt. I remember in the press room it was hard to speak. Losing 5-1 in that manner, the emotions an hour or so after it weren’t great. It was one of the low points for guys who had experienced the fixture before.
““It wasn’t about any gap at that point. It was the fact we’d lost in that manner and everyone in the dressing room was hurting.
“We analyse things quite heavily here now but with experience I’ve got better in terms of handling moments like that. In my younger days or when I was just in the door here, any bad defeat would take a long time to get over. But the longer you let it fester the longer the doom and gloom.
“We had to do that after that embarrassing result at Parkhead. And if we lose this one it won’t get to me any more than how I feel about the gap that already exists.
“Whether it’s 33, 36 or 39 points, it has been unacceptable from us. We’ve been really disappointing and that feeling has been there for months.”