Terry Butcher: How dare people rubbish the SPL?

PEOPLE go on about the lack of excitement and quality in Scottish football. Do me a favour.

It has always been unfairly fashionable to knock the game up here even when a flood of top quality English players sought sanctuary in Scotland during the late 80s to gain valuable European experience when English clubs were serving the post-Heysel ban.

I remember being at the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy when this cheeky little git called Gazza slaughtered me for plying my trade in Scotland.

"Why waste your time Butch? It's a crap league with no competition, dominated by two Glasgow clubs," was Paul Gascoigne's withering view.

Understandably, I put up a strong defence for Scottish football and told Gazza not to knock it until he'd tried it. He walked away shrugging his shoulders insisting that was never going to happen.

He arrived in Scotland in 1995 and to be honest the first thing he said to me was: "Butch, you were absolutely right, this really is an incredible place to play your football."

You can argue the league continues to be dominated by two clubs but that doesn't make it less appealing than any other league.

It's exciting, competitive and packed with drama and commitment. Call me biased, but I would never use the word boring to describe this league.

An eventful week passed with an astonishing clash with Celtic at Fir Park last Saturday.

I can't deny that I was less than optimistic going into the game. I would be lying if I said I didn't fear a Celtic backlash following their humiliating 5-0 defeat by Artmedia Bratislava in the Champions League.

The astonishing drama that handed Rangers the title in the dying minutes of the final game of the campaign last season had been long forgotten despite the relentless reminders in the lead up to the clash.

And when we went in 3-1 down at the interval I feared the worst. It's a difficult call to say how a team will respond in the face of adversity.

But I guess for 45 minutes Celtic's response was pleasing to the eye for Gordon Strachan, who was under monumental pressure to secure his first win of the campaign. The old cliche about a game of two halves was never more evident. Perhaps an inspired team talk did the trick? In truth I take no credit for an incredible comeback by my lads.

I was immensely proud. We took the game to Celtic and battered them and if we had managed to keep the ball in the corner in an attempt to defend a narrow 4-3 lead with 90 seconds remaining of injury time it could have proved an historic victory.

I can't stress enough how important it is for Scottish football to have a real presence in Europe. Two more clubs go into European action this week, Rangers in the Champions League and Dundee United in the UEFA Cup.

I'm tipping both clubs to win their respective ties. I'm sure Alex McLeish will be quick to warn his players against complacency in light of Celtic's exit and I would be shocked if they went the way of their arch rivals.

They are already celebrating not having to share the pounds 6million European TV money with Celtic!

And in the event they fall at the first hurdle, unlike Celtic, at least they have the UEFA Cup to fall back on.

Success can really only enhance the reputation of the league and even if you are a rival fan it's good practise to get behind our European representatives.

I certainly wish Rangers, Dundee United and Hibs well in their forthcoming campaigns.

European success has been in short supply and it's high time we flew the flag of Scotland with pride, confidence and renewed optimism.

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