Title Race: Not as thrilling as years gone by
The Clydesdale Bank Premier League title is staying at Ibrox this season barring an unprecedented Celtic comeback - or Rangers collapse - and there is still more than a quarter of the season remaining.
Thus, how on earth does the media promote Scotland's premier sporting product until the curtain is drawn on May 9?
The SPL championship race is now Scottish football's equivalent of the parrot in Monty Python's 'Dead Parrot Sketch.' But unlike John Cleese's character in that famously surreal scene, no matter how much newspapers, radio and television might want to rattle the SPL's cage to try and make supporters believe the title race is really alive, fans won't be fooled - so what can we tell them?
Walter Smith's side are 10 points clear of Celtic with a game in hand and it is simply a matter of ticking off the fixtures before the title race is officially over. As expected Rangers beat St Mirren at Ibrox on Saturday and Tony Mowbray's men followed that with a 2-0 win at Falkirk on Sunday. There could be a few more of those tension-free weekends before we finish for the summer.
Many of the SPL's faults have been masked in recent years by the tightness of its title run-in. Four of the last seven have gone to the wire.
Okay, the race has always been between the Old Firm and there have been the usual turkey shoots along the way, including last day games at Rugby Park and Ibrox in 2003 but at times it has been almost the last kick of the ball which has decided the destination of the flag.
It might be too much again to have the drama of Scott McDonald's brace against Celtic which brought Rangers back from the dead at Easter Road or Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink's clincher at Tannadice as the Ibrox men lost at Aberdeen. But what is left to say about the Old Firm's battle this season?
After Celtic's win at the Falkirk stadium, Morten Rasmussen was asked how the Parkhead players will motivate themselves in the rest of the league games. The likeable Dane delivered the expected platitude about 'pride' being all important but it's not, as the Scottish Premier League's marketing department will tell you, a unique selling point.
The media, of course, could turn their attention to the intriguing race for third place between Dundee United, Hibs and Motherwell or the relegation battle between Falkirk, Hamilton and St Mirren. But it won't. Most of the interest centres on the Old Firm. It's one of the unwritten laws of Scottish football.
Celtic's spat with the SFA is on-going and Aiden McGeady put the puffers under it on Sunday morning by claiming referee Dougie McDonald was not "impartial" in the Hoops' recent Old Firm defeat at Ibrox.
As it turned out, the potentially dull analysis of Celtic's win at Falkirk was brightened by the thoughts of Parkhead boss Tony Mowbray, who continues to rail against the Scottish media. He claimed, in all seriousness, it appeared, that his Republic of Ireland star may not have known what the word "impartial" meant.
Mowbray was obviously unaware that McGeady - son of a school teacher and former pupil at one of Scotland's top schools - is one of the more cerebral players in his dressing room.
However, given that their recent attack on match officials backfired Celtic surely cannot hope to get much more mileage out of their conspiracy theories, at least not this season.
Parkhead hopes will be pinned on bringing home the Scottish Cup which might not appease the fans totally but would at least offer hope for next season and buy Mowbray some time.
From a Rangers perspective, their supporters have mentally celebrated their second successive title victory. A win over St Mirren in the Co-operative Insurance Cup final at the end of March will allow the prospect of a domestic treble and talk again of potential new owners will keep everyone on their toes.
But whichever Scottish football stories make the headlines in the forthcoming months, they are unlikely to be about the SPL title race.
