Celtic vs Rangers kick off time at Hampden will be delayed fears man who is utterly sick of the baloney

We now know the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers, which is scheduled to kick off at 3.30pm on December 15, will start sometime nearer to four o’clock.

The weans will have to play with their toys first of all and one lot of supporters will have to out-ultra the other because that is pyrotechnic protocol. Visibility will be impaired and the whole business will be a tiresome waste of time. Don’t give me the baloney that pyro heightens the matchday experience. Celtic’s six-goal shimmy around Aberdeen in the first semi-final last week was more entertaining than smoke bombs. It’s the football, for better or worse, that lives on in the memory.

Meanwhile, this evening at Ibrox would be as good a time as any for Hearts’ Lawrence Shankland to rediscover his job definition as a goalscorer. The travelling fans would even forgive the boyhood Rangers fan if he lifted his hands by way of apology after he’d put the ball in the net, which is something Shankland has managed to do only once this season in any competition, domestic or European. And that was in September. Scotland manager Steve Clarke wouldn’t mind seeing an end to that barren spell when his choices up front for Friday’s Nations League game against Croatia could come into the limited category.

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Torino’s Che Adams is an injury doubt. Lyndon Dykes is currently part of a Birmingham City team playing in the third tier of English football. And Middlesborough’s Tommy Conway is presumably the last resort. A goal for Shankland might not be thought impossible if you adhere to Philippe Clement’s belief that “miracles are possible if you go for it”.

Clement expressed his philosophy after the Europa League draw with Olympiakos, which continued his game-by-game trial currently being conducted in the court of public opinion. It was thought it might be Acropolis Now for Clement in Athens – but he negotiated the hurdle at the city’s port town.

Winning three points against Hearts this evening is now necessary to avoid a guilty verdict being delivered. Rangers could win the Europa League and the fans would still regard the season as a failure if Celtic win a Treble. This is about symbolism and tribalism. If Celtic win the League Cup they overtake Rangers in terms of trophies won during the lifetime of both clubs. A title win for Brendan Rodgers puts them equal with Rangers on 55 championships. Stopping that from happening is the miracle the Rangers fans want to see happening. Nothing else matters to them.