Back in the spring of 2018 Murty Mania was again sweeping through Scotland.
The bread wrappers had been removed from the heads of grown men, Pedro’s caravan had moved on and the gullible again had belief.
Graeme Murty was the man. After finishing joint third in the 2018 Florida Cup the fans were starting to take to the former Reading utility player. Some fans were chewing on their anorak while others practised hand-stands Murty style.
Greg Docherty and Graham Dorrans added some True Blue steel alongside Andy Halliday, Josh Windass was scoring for fun while Jason Cummings had everyone in stitches every day with his hilarious Edinburgh patter.
Selik were pure there for the taking by the way, with the draw for the Scottish Cup producing the dream pairing.
On the day it was men against bhoys. Ten-man Celtic had won 3-2 at Ibrox a month earlier, the spirit of the Ibrox fans was broken.
Celtic toyed with their city ‘rivals’. Tom Rogic and Callum McGregor scored in second gear; Halliday had a flakey when he got substituted before half-time. Sportingly the Celtic fans sang their support for the man from the Copland Road.
In the end Celtic ran out 4-0 winners, it could have been more with the ‘Rangers End’ virtually deserted at the final whistle.
Two weeks later Celtic clinched the SPFL title with a 5-0 home win over the Ibrox side, Murty couldn’t face the media again and stepped down. He remains on the coaching staff at Ibrox, a ready-made caretaker to step in whenever the hot seat is vacant.
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I don’t think that they fancied it to be honest