But I think it was easier for me because religion was less of

But I think it was easier for me, because religion was less of an issue at Celtic than it has been at Rangers.”McCann’s slight shoulders have been able to carry the excess baggage that comes with Glasgow’s feuding rivals, but he has also been able to carry the burden confronting any player who moves up in the world.”Football is littered with players who did well at smaller clubs, but who could not handle it when it came to playing for bigger teams, such as the Old Firm,” says Provan. “The expectations at Celtic and Rangers are incomparable and Neil’s performances since going to Ibrox show that he can be a great player.” What shocks Provan is that his old club passed up the chance to have McCann all to themselves. “I’ve heard that Celtic were notified by Hearts of Rangers’ offer and given a chance to compete and chose not to,” he said.Such scant regard of the most exciting player in the Scottish Premier League outside of Henrik Larsson does little credit to Celtic’s coach, Jozef Venglos. Another former Celtic idol, Charlie Nicholas, declared: “McCann should not have slipped through Celtic’s net.”Nicholas will be confined to Sky’s commentary box tonight, but that distance only lends greater appreciation of the Rangers winger. “McCann has always had talent in abundance,” he said, “and he also has pace, which is essential in the modern game.

He has the kind of quality that Celtic should have been looking for.”Celtic traditionally used wide players, such as Jimmy Johnstone, but they have not had one since Davie Provan, whom I played with before leaving for Arsenal in 1983 Celtic don’t play with width now. They prefer to play through the middle, which is breathtaking when it works, but it doesn’t all the time. Rangers have not been playing well recently, but McCann has been the one man capable of making things happen for them.”It was Nicholas’s close friend, Jim Duffy, now youth coach at Chelsea, who discovered McCann while he was manager at Dundee. Yet, even then, Celtic resisted McCann’s charms.”Jim needed the cash and offered McCann to Celtic,” claimed Nicholas.

“Tommy Burns, who was the manager then, was keen but was not allowed by Fergus McCann to spend the money required. Jim Duffy always described McCann as someone who was willing to listen and learn, and then graft in training, rather than just rely on his skill.”Hearts walked in where Celtic feared to tread, and were rewarded handsomely with Advocaat’s cheque five months ago. “Advocaat didn’t really use wingers when he came to Rangers,” reflected Nicholas, “but suddenly he believes in them now and that is because of McCann. McCann actually looks superior to the man on the other wing who cost pounds 5.5m [Andrei Kanchelskis]. Being a Catholic, put him under more scrutiny at Ibrox but he’s made the fans accept him.” If McCann succeeds tonight, then fame and infamy, in reverse order, will be his forever in Glasgow.. IT IS A bright, warm spring afternoon but the gloom around Accrington Stanley’s Crown Ground is tangible. The club have just been relegated for the first time in their 111-year history.

Stanley, self-styled “most famous little football club in the world”, lost their Football League status 36 years ago but even that doesn’t seem to compare to the current woes. “They have dragged me out of the canal three times,” the commercial director, John DeMaine, mutters into a telephone, drawing deep on a cigarette. “I was really gutted,” says Stanley’s chairman and saviour, Eric Whalley “I don’t feel right. I am a diabetic and my blood sugar has gone all to cock.”
Despite a five-game unbeaten run leading up to yesterday’s last match of the season, at home to Whitby Town, Stanley finished bottom of the Unibond League Premier Division. It is a savage blow to their ambitions of promotion into the Conference and, eventually, reclaiming that place they held in the Football League from their historic position as one of the 12 founder members in 1888 until 1963.The irony is that, in these times of debt and desperation for so many clubs, Accrington are in a healthy financial state, their prudence buttressed by the steady cash flow provided by people from all over the world who want to own some memento or item of clothing bearing the magic name Accrington Stanley.