Rant

First and foremost, get well soon Tony. Hearing that the injury is not dissimilar to that suffered by ex-Arsenal striker Eduardo. Also, this writer attaches no blame to Broadfoot, the tackle was a legal one.

However, as the title suggests, there is a rant to be had tonight.

The "performance" of Rangers tonight, and the "tactics" used by the geriatric Walter Smith deserve the most fierce condemnation. Absolutely no attacking intent was displayed, with the sole aim of stopping their opponents. The term "anti-football" has been thrown at them. While I myself am reluctant to use it, one thing is true.

This is not football.

What appals this writer, though, is the reaction to this. Tomorrow's back pages (and probably a couple of front ones, too) will praise Rangers for "a superb defensive performance" and the like. The usual meaningless buzz-words forever associated with Scottish football, "commitment", "desire", "determination", will no doubt be bandied about. The brutal hacks of Lee McCulloch (the worst of which earned him a yellow card in injury-time. It could very easily have been red) will be glossed over as the "spirit" and "composure" of 874-year-old David Weir are praised to the hilt, overlooking the fact that his total lack of pace forces his teams to play incredibly deep to avoid him being exposed.

In a continuation of this theme, I think we all know that the Rangers approach will be adopted by Scotland next month against Czech Republic and Spain. Mercifully, McCulloch is suspended for the Czech Republic game. Even still, playing this way this writer finds it difficult to love the national team under prgamatic coach Craig Levein, and would be ashamed if United or County ever adopted anything like such an eye-wateringly grim approach.

You shoulf enjoy your football. When your team's playing Rangers though, it's difficult

Weekend Betting 3rd-4th September

Now, because some bright spark at UEFA thought that moving international qualifiers from Saturdays and Wednesdays to Fridays and Tuesdays (meaning that this writer msut endeavour to get away from work on time 2 nights as opposed to just 1, and can't enjoy very much pre-match bevvying at all), getting the weekend tips up on Friday simply will not do. So here are a few matches to keep an eye on this weekend (well, Friday):

• As ever, finding value among the qualifying matches is difficult, with many matches expected to be particularly one-sided- for instance, Serbia, Holland, Spain and Russia should all see off minnows Faroe Islands (for whom Ross County centre-back Atli Gregersen should feature), San Marino, Liechtenstein and Andorra respectively
• Still not great value, but Germany are available at a general 4/7 to win away in Belgium, who despite boasting a number of talented individuals, have been rather inconsistent in recent years
• Blue Square also offer 4/7 on Slovakia to beat FYR Macedonia at home- surprisingly generous considering Vladimir Weiss' men getting to the last 16 of the World Cup. 4/7 is a good price considering FYR Macedonia's lack of top-level talent to complement Inter forward Goran Pandev
• Norway impressed in a 2-1 friendly win over France last month, and are available at 10/11 with Betfred to win away to an Iceland side from whom they took 4 points during World Cup qualification. Striker Erik Huseklepp was particularly impressive against France, scoring twice, and he can be backed at a best price of 15/2 with Victor Chandler to score 1st in Reykjavik
• England should be nowhere near as short as the 3/10 general that they are currently quoted at. A much better bet is the half-time draw at 6/4

And remember: Bet safely. Bet Shifty