BBC snub Celtic stars as 'fabulous' Gilmour mania takes hold

BBC Scotland could hardly be any more gushing as they celebrated Billy Gilmour getting a draw against Switzerland at the European Championships.

The only downside was that he didn’t get to share time on the pitch with Ryan Jack and Young McCrorie as Steve Clarke’s side managed to cling on to the prospect of reaching the knock-out stage, the last 16 of the competition.

There was widespread media fury when Gilmour was left out of the side that opened up with a 5-1 defeat to Germany, especially when Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie were in the Starting XI.

It may have escaped the notice of BBC Scotland, Graeme Souness and the other Ibrox cheerleaders but Gilmour came off the bench for the 67th minute with Scotland almost instantly losing a goal. The Brighton ace played for 23 minutes with Scotland losing two goals in that time.

After the match questions about Gilmour dominated the media conference with the implication being that a 23-year-old without a competitive goal to his name would have transformed a match against the host nation in the opening match of the competition.

Clarke bowed to the pressure last night, the former Murray Park starlet replaced Christie with BBC Scotland able to click publish on the highlighted story below.

And who had that opinion? Scraping far and wide BBC Scotland led with the fading hipster that is Pat Nevin then called in Charlie Adam for reinforcements. Quotes from Davie Moyes were used but didn’t reference Gilmour.

Had Gilmour played for the Hearts, Hibs ot Aberdeen u-16 sides there would barely be any attention on him never mind the Messiah status that he has with the Scottish media.

He is neat and tidy and nothing else, a six out of 10 that never hurts opponents which is why Clarke prefers Scott McTominay, Christie, Callum McGregor and John McGinn in midfield. Gilmour will receive a pass from central defenders, turn and redirect it to a full-back, rarely crossing the halfway line.

When put under pressure, like last night, he will fire a ball to a full back which resulted in Tony Ralston’s rushed pass that gave Xherdan Shaquiri the slightest sighting of goal with the veteran midfielder producing the sort of finish that very few players are capable of.

Ralston was played out of position, at Celtic he is a right-back that revels in that role, seeing the full pitch ahead of him rather than a wing-back to accommodate the limited talent in Clarke’s squad.

The Celtic defender then had a very shaky 15 minute spell with no assistance from his far more experienced team-mates, Gilmour was nowhere to be seen as Switzerland pushed forward.

Typical of him Ralston had a storming second half. He was turned a few times by the superior talents in the Swiss attack but while the superstar from Brighton was substituted in the 79th minute the ‘Celtic right-back’ found a second wind to dominate the right flank.

It was end to end stuff in the final 15 minutes with Ralston providing a steady supply of chances down the right wing, creating far more opportunities than the pin up boy of BBC Scotland.

On Sunday Scotland need to beat Hungary, probably by two goals to advance into the knock-out stage.

Gilmour seems certain to start to keep the media onside, if Scotland fail to go through we know who will be exempt from criticism, walking off with his reputation enhanced with fingers jabbed at Clarke for not playing their goal-less hero from the start against the Germans.

Celtic captain McGregor remains the only Scottish player to have scored at a major competition this century.