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Good Old Archie MacPherson!

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Image for Good Old Archie MacPherson!

I really, really didn’t think that this guy’s commentary could possibly get any worse, but I think auld Archie MacPherson has surpassed even his most ‘superlative’ performances in Rangers matches gone by at tonight’s UEFA Cup final in Manchester.

I’m quite sure that those of us with the misfortune of tuning into STV tonight all expected an evening of salivating over how great and wonderful that Walter’s boys are, but the extent to which they took it tonight was, as Archie himself would say, ‘totally astonishing’.

I think it’s fair enough to have biased commentators when it comes to European ties and I really don’t have a problem with them having pundits and co-commentators with predominantly Rangers connections for tonight’s match. After all this was a BIG game for them and they are supposed to be representing Scotland in Europe, even if the songs being belted out by their fans would lead you to believe otherwise.

But even then, with Archie tonight it was a bit like asking a guy with Tourette’s to go out there and swear constantly for 90 minutes!

‘This is an astonishing atmosphere – it’s like we’re in a wave of….earthquakes’ he beamed as the 350,000 Rangers fans in the 48,000 capacity stadium jumped up and down like….well, like people jumping up and down.

To be fair to Archie he is a guy who does genuinely appear to love his football and it’s much better having commentators who get carried away than those who are capable of literally boring you to death with their monotone utterings – like Paul Mitchell on the BBC. So perhaps being overly critical of him tonight is a bit harsh, especially given the fact that he’ll probably never get the opportunity to commentate on his favourite team in a European final again.

Some of the comments truly were incredible though. There was one particular incident in the second half when a Russian player went down after clearly being elbowed in the face (accidentally), and even after the replay had demonstrated this he was encouraging the guy to ‘cut out his nonsense’, purely because it was wasting valuable time that the Gers could be using to try and equalise!

Then after a certain amount of time had passed, when frustration had clearly set in, he stopped referring to Zenit St Petersburg by their name and simply used the word ‘them’ instead! Could you imagine the uproar in this country if we tuned into an English commentator giving it that sort of behaviour?!

Ah well, in the end you just have to smile don’t you? After all, as we’ve already established, Archie is a big football man and any genuine lovers of the great sport would have been satisfied that the result in the UEFA Cup final tonight was the right one….wouldn’t they Archie?!

















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MrH

Come on the famous!

16 comments

  • Specs Haver says:

    Wwwwoooooofff !! I loved how the views of Archie and Fraser Wishart on the principle of the ball hitting a player’s hand in the penalty box lacked a certain consistency – Broadfoot’s one in the first half were dismissed as “purely accidental”, whereas the Zenit boy in the 2nd half was described as “well, it looks as if he handled that”. Truly astonishing !!

  • MrH says:

    Not much different to normal but because they had a licence to be biased tonight they absolutely revelled in it….the two of them were practically in the vinegar strokes five minutes into the game for goodness sake!

  • StockportJambo says:

    Sorry I missed it. We had some English bloke down here. 🙁

  • MrH says:

    Lucky you! They might actually have described what went on on the field….

  • R.K says:

    Glad to see another dignified post from yourself. Where you in Manchester by any chance? Great night. Scotland’s shame doing what they do best 😉 Disgracing themselves.

  • DigitalTwisted says:

    Ah it’s the resident Papal messenger. F off ya clown. Mr Stein Knew.

  • DigitalTwisted says:

    I just posted that on the completely wrong forum lol.

  • DigitalTwisted says:

    For anyone interested I’m a “Rangers” fan on the Huddleboard. 🙂

  • MrH says:

    Nice to see certain people taking this article for the light-hearted fun it was intended to be!

  • Ra-Ra-Roger says:

    As a neutral I am surpised no one has commented on the superb support the Zenit fans gave. Right from the start. Out numbered but (from my comfy armchair) not out sung. Great bouncing up and down… and did you clock some of the things that were bouncing? Delightful.
    Commiserations to rangers though. Never looked likely winners but fantastic numbers of fans.

  • Genghis says:

    Couldn’t handle listening to Archie last night so tuned into Peter Martin commentating on the radio. he’s a quality commentator and should be used for tv commentary as well.

  • MrH says:

    Aye Martin’s certainly better but maybe a wee touch on the whiny side! Particularly good observation there Roger!

  • itsnomarooned says:

    I opted for ITV1 London in a bid to avoid the Walker/MacPherson calamity show. Not much better to be honest as I felt terribly patronised the whole game. They got off to a bad start by saying “English stadium – Scottish anthem” as the teams cam out. Er….. it was the Foo Fighters !!

  • MrH says:

    …..yeah, and there weren’t many other Scottish anthems being sung throughout the match either!

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