Rangers are confident here is an example.
Most clubs have one, and the phenomenon is usually characterised by one team’s mysterious inability to get a result against another, no matter what the competition, the venue or the circumstances.
For fans and players of Motherwell, there is no doubt about which team has been their ‘bogey side’ in recent years. In fact, Rangers’ stranglehold over the Steelmen is so strong that it could be used to define the term in a dictionary.
Motherwell may have made a flying start to their league campaign but the odds are still stacked firmly against them this Sunday. Last season they faced Rangers four times in the SPL and lost on all four occasions. More worryingly though, the scorelines read 4-1, 1-4, 6-0 and 0-5.
Indeed, Motherwell haven’t beaten Rangers in the SPL since Boxing Day 2002, and it would take a brave man to back them to reverse this trend.
Rangers’ strikers will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of visiting their most generous hosts again, and with Nikica Jelavic and Stevie Naismith already on fire this season it could be another heavy defeat for the steelmen.