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I thought Jack was one of our better players throughout the game - involved in three of the goals, supported the attack well in the first half and did a great job protecting the defence after half time. It's no surprise he's a regular first choice selection.

Tav still had his arms wrapped around the player, and I'd be expecting a penalty 100% of the time if it had been our player who went down..

Genuinely shocked by this. Suggest folk look up the definition of unpalatable. It’s disgusting stuff from the national broadcaster. Let’s get this straight McKenna lost the plot after being bullied by a guy half his size who lashed out like a coward at Morelos and tried to stud him in the face. Lets also get it straight that McKenna started the argy bargy in the first game. Morelos has not committed one bad foul in this league. He is constantly battered by thugs on the park. If he was a white Scotsman playing against foreigners the media and BBC would love him. Sickening stuff - unpalatable describes the BBC better than it does Morelos.

Okay, let's say it's not about his colour for a moment. One of this morning's papers describes Morelos as a "devil" and another as a "nut job" in their back page headlines. I'm sorry, but if national paper had described Neil Lennon as a 'devil' or a 'nut job' there would have been questions in parliament about it. If it's not about his race and it's not about his nationality then why isn't young Scott McKenna being described as a devil and a nut job? After all he was also sent off last night and not for the first time this season. As I said above Lewis Ferguson also seems to be getting judged by different standards. I'm unsure wether this is a case of straightforward racism because of his colour or, more likely, racism around his nationality and background. Funny looking South American who doesn't speak much English, hey lets start with the comedy Manuel stuff, stick in a few narcos/cartel jibes and, oh look, he doesn't like getting intimidated by big defenders, must be a typical Latin hothead, let's throw that in too. It's lazy, racist bullshit and we should be calling it out every time it's used. The story of last night's match wasn't Morelos being sent off, it was his total dominance of the Aberdeen defence up until that point. Last night was a great advertisement for our league. It was competitive, exciting, fast, it had moments of brilliance and moments of farce.

I love Candeias's reaction when Defoe scores. He's as delighted as any of us. He's really bought into the club!

The PQ Narrative. Timeline - Tuesday morning Thursday morning(Sportscene highlights 00.15 to 01.15). Tuesday morning starts with BBC Scotland's website preview of Wednesday evening's game at Pittodrie, 'an Aberdeen win will see them leap frog Rangers into a more familiar second place'. Tyrone(real name, honest) Smith reminds the readership, 'a position they've occupied for the last four years'. To license fee paying Rangers supporters, this has become a familiar narrative, whether it's Aberdeen, Killie, Hibs, .... etc the opposition has aspiration invested. Here are the prizes to be attained. Rangers and Rangers supporters aspirations are ignored. By Tuesday evening's Sportsound, there is a deliberate attempt to not to include Rangers as part of the chasing pack. Resources are to the fore, 'Derek' is proud his team continue to compete given the gulf in resources. Further, 'Derek' has Gerrard's number, this will be a fourth attempt this season, to obtain a victory over the Dandies. Liam McLeod prefers to frame it as, 'Aberdeen against a class above Aberdeen'. Wednesday morning/afternoon reinforces the message, Aberdeen can take second place, in fact a win for both Aberdeen and Killie will see Rangers reduced to fourth. We are still waiting for the possible league placing should Rangers win? Wednesday evening's Sportsound was a car crash, a multiple pile up on the motorway. Big Dick chairing, Liam McLeod commentating, joined by Wullie Miller and Neil McCann. The grievances come thick and fast. Clearly, McLeod does not think Rangers are worthy of a 1-3 half time scoreline. Big Dick puts meat on the bones, he has seen a re-run of the lead-up to Rangers third goal(the penalty) on the paragon of objectivity known as, 'Red TV'. A flickering monitor just to his front tells him there was no foul to award Rangers a free kick, McKenna was claiming offside because Red TV had shown a Rangers player being offside, and McKenna's arm being in an unnatural position, he can understand the ref's award. The clarity of Red TV, maybe we should pay our license fees to them, probably less bias? Pat Bonner's half time report from ra Stydome mentions a heavy challenge from Brown, he was booked, could have possibly been red? After the game, the focus is on McGregor; Liam, Big Dick, and Tyrone want Allan to be cited. There is a hot line from PQ to the Compliance Officer. Wullie Miller offers the defence of experienced player protecting himself from on rushing callow youth, it's ignored. Currently, Morelos has a PQ standing of flawed genius. His red cards are reamed off, must have an impact on his value. We were not informed of McKenna's continuing petulance in these fixtures; well, it might affect his value? Tyrone Smith's post match interview with 'Derek' was a venting of the Dandy spleen. Sportscene spat the most venom. Jonathon Sutherland had watched the game inside the PQ gang hut with the gruesome twosome. All those aspirations had evaporated as soon as Defoe's powerful drive hit the net. Wee Jonny's body language betrayed him, leaning forward, continually turning and extending his arms, helpless in a fugue of hatred. They ran through the litany of charges against Rangers, tried us by TV, convicted us, and passed sentence. The only show on TV without credits did not show Scott bRown's possible red card challenge, we do not know the name of the possible PQ Editor that ensured that particular clip fell on the cutting room floor. PQ conveniently forgot all those cries for transparency, so prevalent last weekend. Sportscene ended where it had begun, Sutherland spat, "title race, what title race, Celtic are a comfortable six points ahead". Still, Rangers and Rangers supporters are denied aspiration.

Candeais is an outstanding servant for us. Caixinha was dross as a manager but he did leave us a couple of decent players from his time. Candeias is one of my favorites - love his work ethic. Gerrard and he also had a big embrace at the end of the game. He has thoroughly bought into us - I also suspect that he has played a large part in Morelos maturing this season (seems a little ironic to say it today - but over the past few months he has matured IMO).

Its racism. Perhaps unintentional bias but racism none the less.

Mark, we wanted cake; we would have settled for brioche; you gave us plain breid.

It's never a red in my honest opinion , as trublue states above , the action by Morelos is actually caused by Mckennas kick out .

I actually thought Jack had a great match, quietly effective in the first 80 minutes then making lung bursting runs to break up play, peg Aberdeen back and indeed for the 4th goal in the last 10 plus injury time. Anyway, see when Lewis Ferguson (young, white and Scottish) put his boot, deliberately, into Allan McGregor this was, rightly, described as retribution. Fair enough. So where are the headlines today describing the young man as an animal, a hot head or indeed a devil? I mean Morelos (young, black and Columbian) was sent off at Pittodrie on the first match of the season it was for attempted retribution, wasn't it? I'm not sure what it is about the two players that could be clouding the media's view on this. Two very similar incidents, although Morelos of course didn't actually make any contact with his kick while Ferguson could have ended McGregor's season.

Madden would have sent him off even if his face had been streaming with blood.

Hopefully this red card will be rescinded - but I doubt it. In any case we still have to be able to win games without Morelos and that will have to mean a different set up with two up front because Defoe isn't going to pressuring defences on his own the way Morelos does.

This time, not just 2 but 8 mins of highlights from the SPFL, including three or four slo-mos from each goal, but also the penalty incident and (a possible trial by TV?) McGregor's save against Ferguson ... where Walker as soon as he saw it again whipped up a little "might well have seen Red" mantra:

Agreed, I think it'd be easier for Kilmarnock to isolate him. Morelos is vital to the way we play and his suspensions have a habit of hurting us. If Arfield doesn't make it then a thus far significantly less than 100% Davis might be asked to do something that his game isn't yet up to. I'd be tempted to put Halliday into the midfield and push Jack slightly further forward. The lead-up to the second goal between Jack and Kent was sublime but isn't talked about because of how good Alfredo's finish was.

My point is Rangers are judged to different standards, that is plain to see in every match Rangers receive more scrutiny by the Rangers hating media

Both players were fouling each other. The pen was given to even the game up - the same with the Morelos red. The referees are (understandably) reacting to the media pressure.

A really important win last night. Second half when down to ten men was overly conservative shall we say but before that we were the only team trying to play football and the scoreline (eventually) reflected that. A well deserved win against a home side that carried minimal threat despite us sitting far too deep for the bulk of the 2nd half. The Morelos stuff is going to be exaggerated as always unfortunately. The problem he has is that he got away with doing similar against Celtic so that was always going to count against him if he did it again. Not much in it really but made it easy for the referee to even it up and I doubt any appeal will be successful because of the extreme anti-RFC narrative in Scotland right now. The McGregor challenge was equally daft and unnecessary in my view but Lewis Ferguson' studs up challenge a few mins later was worse and only worth a booking so I'll doubt the CO will get involved. As always the pressure on her will be massive though from blinkered pundits. All in all, a very good win but we're still lacking that certain something in the team. After the Old Firm victory, I had hoped we'd really stamp our authority on games but we're not really playing well enough for long enough periods. Plenty room for improvement this weekend and beyond.

More comfortable with expectation levels at Aberdeen. Anyone taking the Rangers job in these times has to effectively back themselves to win an outside bet.

Fine margins Memories of the Motherwell 3-3 game kept flashing through my head during a long last 42 minutes of the second half. Aberdeen are a better team than Motherwell and now have some decent attacking options compared to the opening day of the season. It looked increasingly like the sheep would equalise and as so often happens, perhaps it was going to happen right at the death....but we also have more attacking options and Defoe provided the clinical finish to yet another assist from our most important creative outlet, Tav. The referee had a decent game all things considered. I don't think Morelos will have any joy appealing the red but it's worth a go. McGregor was protecting himself, a goalies prerogative in the unwritten laws of the game but one that in time VAR might reduce at the top level. Any argument that says McGregor should have saw red could be leveled with Ferguson's kick at McGregor also a red. Bottomline,....we won the battle up in sheepland. Vital 3 points and an important psychological win.

I've changed my mind on the Morelos red. I initially agreed with the ref as it seemed he had ran his studs along McKenna's groin, but having looked at the slow motion, it seems that Morelos's leg only moved like that because McKenna had hooked his leg around Morelos's, and therefore it's not a red, and probably not even a yellow.

McInnes is getting more bitter by the month. It was his decision (thankfully) to turn down a job that was perhaps too big for him.

All about opinions but I disagree. McGregor has to protect himself. The rest of Scottish football will tell you he tried to injure Ferguson but he had to protect himself too, and the margins are fine.

I agree if it is an honest trial but that is where my doubt comes in.

A white European, let's say a Dane, doing the same things in a Rangers shirt would get the same treatment. I'd draw a parallel with Diego Costa who in some respects was a similar case at Chelsea. It's more about a footballing culture, a style of going about your business and how it stands out when put into a different environment, more especially when at a big club that is forever in the spotlight. Both Costa and Morelos are forward focal points that are prepared to engage in what is a battle with the opposition. One that they are both very good at because they know how to battle and often take the initiative so as to dominate an opponent. They are both prone to leaving one on their opponent and they sometimes get caught. They are the players the opposition fans love to hate and they come under greater scrutiney than their teammates for various reasons. In Scotish football, this co-incides with a general climate that is posionous towards Rangers interests.....and again Morelos has the focal point. It's not all one-way, Morelos seems to enjoy rubbing their noses in it which would be fine but sometimes he kicks the baws out of it #Jekyll&Hyde Morelos is a player that Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid will appreciate, perhaps one day they'll work together.

He doesn't behave and act like a white European so therefore he is wrong and needs to change. Cosgrove had committed four fouls and been spoken too twice no comment from commentators. Morelos commits two fouls and the ref speaks to him for not watching the ball but the player and it's " he will need to watch himself" " he needs to control himself" "lacks discipline" " if he gets a yellow he will be off" Completely different set of rules and expectations for Morelos. Again comments about his face and how they don't like it last night. Disgusting. Nobody said anything about Ferguson's face or need to correct his attitude after his clearly deliberate stamp, not a word about him changing his ways etc

A broken clock is right twice a day

I remember as a young player I was taught how to trap a player, trap his arm under your armpit, fall and drag the player with you, looks a foul all day long. It was a pen, but Ferguson used that tactic, you can clearly see him holding Tavs arm & jersey, clever but a penalty

I think the referee got all the major decisions spot on last night. They were both penalties and the red cards were deserved.

Alternatively, Cardiff could have upheld their side of the contract. A poor show from BOTH teams IMO.

https://twitter.com/durko92/status/1093467642780925953/video/1

Meanwhile ... Defoe has been here for 4 Premiership and 1 Cup game. He's scored 3 goals and assisted another 4. Some return ...

Aye it’s the same with other media outlets. We need some bears to enter the sewer to test how bad the “poisonous and rancid” stench is?? Hats off to them!

Agree Bill but i'm glad that some bears have the stomach to listen and update us on the pish being spat out from their rancid frothing bigoted throats.

In some ways, I think Lafferty and Defoe will work better as a partnership than Morelos and Defoe so that may help us if we want to go two up top. Not a fan of Defoe up there on his own but he certainly took the one chance he got last night perfectly.

Tell you another thing, they conned the ref for their penalty, you can see Ferguson has his arm over Tavs' shoulder and holding his top when Ferguson falls he just drags Tav with him

Silly billy

I don't think Morelos's was a red - he got tangled but he wasn't trying to stamp on McKenna - McKenna, on the other hand, definitely lashes out with a boot.