I read recently about the 2 young black guys who have moved to Glasgow from Bolton and have been very successfull with Hillwood Boys Club and have reached the Scottish Cup Final. Unfortunately this success has been blighted by the narrow minded bigotry of opponents who thought it acceptable to racially abuse them.

As a club we have experienced this already this season too. And once again we had to endure it last night as a Third Lanark defender thought it appropriate to call one of our guys a “black bastard”! He of course changed his tune and lied to the referee once this was reported. If these guys are genuine racists why don’t they have the courage to own up and admit their bigotry. If they think its acceptable to racially abuse a person why don’t they own up? Cowardice is my best bet!

I have said it before and will say it again. The game in Scotland is too complacent when it comes to Racism in football. Not enough education is delivered and the punishments for the perpatrators is too lenient. Until this changes this disgraceful behaviour will continue ad infenetum!

For the 2nd time in 4 matches we have lost a game with almost the last kick of the ball. It is incredibly disappointing and very hard to take.

The general theme of this blog is (I hope) to be positive and stimulating. Positivity is a very important thing in most things and in football we use it to try and motivate and inspire. However, it is not something that can be injected literally. Players and coaches need to do their bit in order to lift themselves and those around them.

While we lost 2nd spot on Saturday we still have 4 important games to go. They are important for a number of reasons. Firstly, we play to win; always. Secondly, we want to finish the season on a high. Thirdly, we want to enjoy our football. Lastly, because you never know what will happen elsewhere and you need to keep yourselves “in the mix”.

So, the guys need to pick themselves up. They need to motivate themselves to play in games and do their best. They need to be positive and inspired and they need to understand that there is still a lot to play for.

I can try and help them with all of this, but ultimately, they need to help themselves first and foremost.

One of the most important skills in life is the ability to communicate and this is particulartly true of football.

Perhaps however the biggest misunderstanding is that the most important part of communication is listening. Of course its true that talking and passing instructions or information is a huge part of it but if these words fall on deaf ears they are wasted.

When I was a young salesman starting out one of the most important lessons I was taught was that you have 2 ears and only 1 mouth; and you should use them in that order. The message being that if you don’t know exactly what the customer wants then its highly unlikely that you will sell him something.

The parallels are all there in football. If you don’t listen to the coach then you won’t improve your game. If you don’t listen to the manager’s instruction you won’t understand your role in the team or at set plays. If you don’t listen to your team mates then you won’t perhaps make the right pass or won’t mark the correct opponent. These last 2 can lead to a missed chance to score or to losing a goal.

So football is not just about running around and kicking a ball when it comes your way; it is as we know so much more than that. Its about using core skills and its clear to see that the players and teams who communicate well will be the most successful.

As the Soccer AM faithfull know the word “bouncebackability” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a result of a sustained campaign to get people involved with football to use the word on TV. Although the definition of the word “the ability to recover quickly from a set back” could apply to most any situation, its creation was targeted at Sport and football in particular.

Last night the 1st team gave a performance which could be exactly described as “Bouncebackability”! The guys were very disappointed both that their winning run came to and end last week and also the manner in which it happened. To add to that we have had many injuries to deal with and this continues to be an issue.

However, the guys came out last night and gave a huge performance which although ended in a draw, could very well have been an excellent away win. Character, good attitude, togetherness and hard work were all on display.

To play as we did last night showed great “Bouncebackability” particularly for such a young team (7 players in the squad aged under 21) as well as an excellent maturity. They should be as pleased with themselves as I am off them!

So our excellent run of 1st team wins came to a halt last night in a cruel fashion. The nature of the defeat made it more galling and of course it was disappointing.

However, the fact that the guys were so disappointed is actually a good thing. It shows that they had embraced the winning habit that any succesful team needs. It also shows that they take their football seriously (which wasn’t in any doubt anyway) and that’s a positive.

What we do need to do however is to see things in perspective and show the right sort of character. Despite having yet another player unavailable through injury we still fielded a really strong team with an excllent bench (apart from me clearly). Last night’s very close match was our first league defeat since 14th November 2009. 5 months without a league defeat is a good record in my view even taking the Xmas break into account. Also, 7 consecutive wins was a great acheivement and should be seen as such.

What we need to do now is show good character. Take last night on the chin and continue to move forward. If one run of results ends we just start again on the next one. We have 5 weeks left of the season. In order to make it count we need everyone to continue to work hard and to continue to show their excellent attitude.

We have lost 1 game! There are 7 more we can win!

Click on the link below. It well worth reading.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/apr/06/question-pressing-crucial-modern-game