McGREGOR and LAFFERTY

IT was only a matter of minutes after Allan McGregor's attempt at feigning injury that my phone blipped with a message from an old Maryhill mate who was watching the action in his home deep in the heart of the Home Counties.

His take on the incident was summed up in three words - McGregor an embarrassment - and after I  watched what happened again a few times again, it is a view with which surely nobody could disagree.

What the Rangers goalkeeper did was even harder to understand given the unfavourable publicity and two match ban which came Kyle Lafferty's way following a similar display by him, which resulted in Charlie Mulgrew, then of Aberdeen, being sent off.

McGregor has been luckier than Lafferty in that the referee dealt with his action at the time, by way of a yellow card, therefore no further punlishment is possible under football's laws.

Returning to Lafferty, and the Northern Irishman has been a hate figure, subjected to continual abuse from opposition supporters as a direct result of what he did.

Maybe McGregor, who has had more than his fair share of some vile abuse because of some of his off the field exploits - real and imagined - actually thrives on being in such a harsh spotlight and didn't mind giving ammunition for more, which he soon got  from angry Hibs fans. And who could blame them?

That is a pity, for McGregor is a fine goalkeeper, the best to have provided the last line at Ibrox since Andy Goram was in his pomp, and the save he made in the first half was from the top drawer.

As for Lafferty? Well on the opening day of the season he impressed against Kilmarnock and I remarked that there appeared to be a new maturity and discipline about his play. No more lunatic lunges, dodgy diving or petted-lip petulance.

He also appeared to have learned how to move the ball in a tight situation to create both the angle and space to deliver telling crosses.

Within minutes of the start on Sunday I suspected he was falling back to his bad old ways as he tried to take on two defenders, when a pass was preferable, and lost possession.

Therefore I was hardly surprised when, as half time approached, Lafferty launched an unnecessary and reckless looking tackle which prompted Hibs' Kevin McGuire to thump the ball off him, in turn leading to the Rangers man retaliating and both being sent off.

It was interesting to hear Walter Smith's take on Lafferty's involvement, saying that the player must learn from mistakes and that it something he will have to look at. He must, according the Rangers manager, adjust and discipline himself better than he has in the past.

Seasoned observers of the veteran boss feel that is Smith-speak for a dressing down for his player, and maybe even further than Smith has ever ventured in public by way of critical comment about a Rangers player.

If Lafferty can summon enough nous to ponder on what Smith said, take note of it and change  - to produce what he did against Kilmarnock and not against Hibs - then there is a player in there who can be of good service to Rangers and light up all of Scottish football with a rare talent.

If not , he is a liability to a club which is operating this season with the smallest squad in its recent history. Had McBride not been sent off - and with Iain Brines in charge it can be hard to predict what will happen - Rangers would have been seriously disadvantaged and may not have won.

McGregor and Lafferty should also remember there are plenty of people out there - row upon row of them in the ranks of the media, many of whom were in the Easter Road press box - who just cannot wait to knife Rangers.

Therefore, on a morning when the papers should have been full of good things about a 3-0 Rangers win over Hibernian in Edinburgh, newspapers - as was proper in a news evaluation sense - plastered headlines about the behaviour of the two Ibrox men, with McGregor, again quite correctly, singled out for the lion's share of bad publicity.

Mentions of  a superb hat trick from the always admirable Kenny Miller - a player who I have admired since first seeing him in a Hibs jersey - were pushed down the page.

As was a proper appreciation of Vladimir Weiss, whose contribution after coming on as a substitute looked to have solved what Smith referred to as the search he has conducted for almost four years for a real and natural touchline operator.

There were other plus points too, namely the way James Beattie so intelligently and deftly set up Miller's opening strike, and the stronger Steve Davis grew in his central midfield role as the game went on, culminating in his peach of a pass for Miller to complete his hat trick

Beattie looks as though he is another month away from reaching full match fitness, and when he adds a wee edge to it to compliment his astute football brain and neat touches, Rangers supporters can expect him to make a growing contribution.

Whether or not Lafferty also makes a contribution depends on his attitude to what Smith has said he must do, though I would not be in the least surprised if Rangers decided he has been given as many chances to mend his ways as is possible, leaving him with a lifetime to regret not making the most of fulfiling his boyhood dream of playing for Rangers.


........And there's more

I couldn't help but being a bit surprised at a paragrah in Her Majesty's Daily Telegraph about Liverpool agreeing a £25,000 deal to take Portuguese striker, Iaia Embarlo  to Anfield from Oldham. Embarlo is just 14-years-old. They'll be putting the weans up chimneys next.