Stephen Halliday: Want to see ourselves as others see us? No thanks

WITH due deference to Robert Burns, there are times when it is probably best not to be able to see ourselves as other see us. Scottish football is presently experiencing one such period when its image in the eyes of those outwith its own environs would make deeply unpleasant viewing.

It is fair to say that this is not shaping up as vintage season for the game in this country, on or off the pitch. The Scottish Premier League completed its first round of fixtures at the weekend with the gulf between the Old Firm and the rest perhaps as glaringly and depressingly apparent as it has ever been.

Just 11 games into the campaign and there is already an 11-point gap between second and third place as Rangers and Celtic romp off in their own private battle for the title without even the merest hint of a challenge from anyone else.

Apart from Inverness Caledonian Thistle taking a creditable point from the champions at Ibrox, no-one else has been able to stall the supremacy of the Glasgow giants. Celtic's 9-0 victory over Aberdeen on Saturday, while highlighting the attacking potency of Neil Lennon's side, has to be regarded as an embarrassment not just for the once proud Pittodrie club, but also for the SPL as a whole. Our neighbours south of the Border, for example, will simply regard it as firm evidence of their long-held view of our top flight being a "Mickey Mouse" league.