Jocks Away...To Wigan

Just typical of Greater Manchester police this isn’t it? This pointless ‘metropolitan’ county’s law enforcers have done my town no favours once again, by allowing Rangers supporters to stop in Wigan before being herded into Manchester for their Champions League game tonight. Apparently, after the naughty incidents during the UFEA Cup final in 2008, where Rangers fans went around smashing things up in Piccadilly Gardens after a big screen went off, it ‘won’t be advisable to allow them into Manchester’. So it’s okay for them to stop in Wigan then?

Now I like the Jocks. They’re on the whole, very nice people. A Rangers supporters club stopped in Wigan in 2003 for a rest stop and as I was passing, one of them engaged me in a chat and handed me a can of lager! The Jocks are always up for a laugh and seem to love travelling away. I believe that the incident in 2008 was a one-off and wouldn’t have happened if Manchester City Council would have put 10 bob in the meter! No seriously, it was just a mindless few that spoiled it for the rest, as per usual with most things in life. The Rangers fans are being punished, simply for going to watch a football match.

The police are apparently worried about ‘revenge attacks’ from the United fans, after the Rangers lot stopped them from having an open-top bus parade for their Champions League final win, a week after the UFEA Cup final. Er..Wigan in 20 miles and a short train/bus ride from Manchester, officer…

I’m just intrigued as to why the police would think it would be okay for them to drink in Wigan but not in Manchester? As soon as they get off the train, pubs will be wide open and trying to grab their custom. Is the public safety of Wiganers, not as high a priory as the safety of city-dwellers, who love to have a spritzer after a hard day making phone calls and writing cheques? If Rangers fans are such drunken yobs, who love causing trouble, shouldn’t we be cowering in our homes? What’s stopping Mancs (who are quite handy, despite being supported by millions of clueless, non-Manc gobshites) getting the train to Wigan and looking for these fabled ‘revenge attacks’?

Fuck Manchester, you’ll enjoy yourselves more in Wigan, Rangers fans. Harry’s Bar is a Scottish theme pub after all…

I just can’t wait to see tomorrow’s Wigan Evening (Rugby) Post front page: RANGERS FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS CAUSE TROUBLE IN WIGAN, after a glass is dropped.