BEING accused of an act so heinous that no matter what you say or how much time passes it will never be allowed to float on water under a bridge by the person affected should force one to take stock of their own behaviour.

We all mess up. Some more than most. A few do so on a gargantuan scale. Almost all want forgiveness, the right to move on and show we aren’t horrible. After all, the only person who could ever claim to be perfect was Jesus, and I don’t believe the big man existed.

We are all sinners. It’s what makes us human beings. What as a race we must do is at least try to avoid being deliberately appalling to our fellow folk. As a pal of mine once said: “We need to laugh, dance, grow things, and try not to be a d**k.”

Glasgow Times:

READ MORE: Clint Hill pleased with the strength in depth of Steven Gerrard’s new look Rangers title contenders

That’s some good advice right there.

I’ve been guilty of some truly reprehensible behaviour, which I hope puts me in the same bracket as everyone else. My hope is that whoever I erred against has, or will one day, let it go.

The way Kenny Miller was forced out of Rangers – wrongly as stated by a tribunal impossible and I don’t blame him.

And this is a man with a few million in his bank account, a good family life, nice teeth and at 39 can look back on a football career in which he gave everything – and it rewarded him handsomely. Such successes tend to find it easier to ignore the haters.

Miller is in my top ten favourite Scottish players of all times. Not in terms of how he played the game. With every due respect, I likely could list 100 I’d pick before him in the school playing ground, but he made the most of what he had, never hid away during the bad times, and was known to his many, many team-mates as a ‘good lad.’

The fact he joined Rangers then Celtic then Rangers again (and again) showed his disregard for the formulaic. Boring was never for oor Kenny. I like that.

I don’t know him well at all. However, I know enough about him, and know enough good pals who are close to him, to make up my own mind that we are talking about one of the good guys here.

An example.

A few years ago, inside a tiny office at the Rangers training ground – which should be named after Davie Cooper but that’s for a future rant – it was the-then Rangers captain’s turn to address Her Majesty’s Fourth Estate.

It was the weekend of Gay Pride. Rangers would wear rainbow laces in their boots. Miller was to promote this and give his opinion about the matters of the day of which there were many. Alas, there was a lot to talk about that day and the subject, pathetically still an issue that people who aren’t heterosexual were still people got rather lost in the football chat.

Glasgow Times:

READ MORE: Rangers kid Josh McPake nets winner for Scotland

Miller more than once spoke about the importance that a football ground should be a safe environment for anyone no matter who they fancied. He was sincere. No PR person had to nudge him. This is a grown up.

He’s always been like that. Well-spoken and a deep thinker.

So, when at the weekend he spoke about how he was forced out of Rangers, it struck me that while there are at least two sides to every story, I knew whose side I was on.

“A lot of things happened in my last six months at that football club that were unforgivable — unforgivable actions by people,” said Miller. “It's not about forgiving, or looking for retribution; the word more than any is disappointed.

“I would never treat anybody the way that both myself and Lee Wallace (who was also ostracised) were treated. I'd never treat my worst enemy like that. People at the football club wanted to make scapegoats of people to mask their own deficiencies and Lee and I were hung out to dry.

“Even the following season, Lee was stuck there. I had to leave the club that I love and not in the way that I wanted…there are still people working there now that I knew from 2000, so you're talking an 18-year span.

“I never even got to say "bye" to them, and I know that potentially I'm not even welcome back.”

I believe I know what happened and who he is talking about. It’s not for me to say, at least not here, and it’s also Miller’s story to tell – and I’ve been told a book deal is there if he wants to go down that road.

Glasgow Times:

READ MORE: Clint Hill: Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has raised standards on and off the park at Ibrox

What I can say is that he deserved better. A lot better. Miller over three terms was superb for that football club, especially when Rangers were struggling. It was the old bloke who fronted up on and off the park.

It was Miller who reminded the dressing room what it meant to be a Rangers player. It was Miller who everyone looked up to until they were told not to.

The full story will come out one day and I know for a fact who will emerge it from it as the good guy.

It won’t be those in the shadows for whom life wouldn’t be worth living were they not plotting against someone. What sad lives they mist lead. No, the hero will be the lad from Edinburgh who never cheated anyone, who was honest and open, and can look himself in the mirror.

Miller is right. What happened to him was unforgiveable. A shame, then, that those he spoke about simply won’t care.

AND ANOTHER THING . . .

Jack Ross was ten seconds away from his Sunderland team playing extra-time at Wembley in May.

Glasgow Times:

READ MORE: Jon McLaughlin: ‘I heard that my boss Jack Ross got sacked on WhatsApp’

They were up against Charlton Athletic who scored in the 94th minute to win the Championship play-off. Football is awfully cruel. Ross’s job was to get the Wearside club back into English football’s second tier. He didn’t and after a slowish start to this season was sacked.

Ross won’t want sympathy. He’s not the type. But this setback in no way takes away from the man’s abilities as a manager. He will be back and soon, although a break from the game would be an idea.

Surely his name would be the first on the list of any Scottish club’s chairman when there is a change in the manager’s office. My guess for his next destination would be Leith.