At the time of writing, this Leither's view of football is bleak indeed. Second bottom of the SPL and things could not be worse, well they could I suppose if the unthinkable happens and St Johnstone begin to gather points. A friend called me from Germany to ask what had gone wrong down Easter Road way. Bad news certainly travels far. As you would expect I could not explain the downturn in fortunes to him. After the defeat against Dundee United on January 2nd the players left the pitch looking completely demoralised and lacking in self-confidence. You could have put money on not winning at Stranraer considering the form of the team and it was with some trepidation that I set off to watch the replay, and a sense of relief as I made my way home after the much needed victory. I have to say that charging season ticket holders to watch that game was outrageous considering what we had been watching up to then.

I remember when buying a season ticket was a bargain if you intended going to all the home games anyway but nowadays if you miss just one game you are out of pocket. Clubs know that fans buy season tickets out of loyalty to the team, however it would be nice if the clubs were not so blatant when treating us loyal fans like gullible mugs. My current wife often asks me how much a season ticket would have to cost before I refused to buy one. A typically heartless and insensitive question that only a woman could ask which, on principal, I refuse to answer.

To try and cheer myself up and escape from football I went to the cinema to see "Lord of the Rings" Maybe it's just me but when I saw the title I assumed it was going to be a gay porn movie. Sadly, this is not the first time I have been confused by titles as I once looked forward immensely to a Channel Four series called "Snatches of History" only for the content not to be quite what I had hoped it would be. For my fellow cinema fans I can tell you that there is an interesting film starring Tom Hanks and Matt Damon soon to be released. It's about a young soldier who has his pubic hair removed during the Normandy landings. It will be called "Shaving Ryan's Privates". Look out for it.

In the search for other ways of occupying my time I decided to give golf a bash. I played my one and only game with my wife who was stung by a wasp between the first and second holes. I told her she shouldn't have been wearing shorts and that her stance was too wide, but would she listen?

What about the behaviour of those ruffians at the Rangers v Aberdeen game? It seems that suspiscion has fallen on a number of Huns because they were spotted wearing England tops. Imagine that? Soon they will be wearing red, white and blue and singing "God Save the Queen" It's sad that this example of bad manners should have come in the same week that Rangers gave their chances of competing in the Premiership a boost by travelling to England and holding one of their top sides, Berwick, to a draw.

Bobby Williamson complained about the treatment given to one of his young stars, Stephen Murray, at Easter Road when Killie mugged us in January. The bold Bobby reckoned that football fans should be more appreciative of an outstanding talent when they see it. Presumably he insists on Killie fans cheering their opponents off the field at Rugby Park when their team have been turned over and made to look pretty incompetent in the process. I was well aware of the obvious talent of young Mr Murray on that occasion, and no doubt Alen Orman was too, but I was not the only Hibs supporter glad to see the back of him when he went off and the idea of applauding him did not really occur to me.