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Ever been kicked in the balls? That’s what Young Boys injury time winner in Bern felt like. Only the pain from a boot in the chuckies would have disappeared a lot quicker than the gut wrenching, pit of the stomach feeling that I, and other bears had following Fassnacht’s 93rd minute winner. However this isn’t a time for “what ifs” and we don’t know how we would have got on in future games had we not lost the late goal, so there’s no reason to worry about it now. This is the last game of the group stage and all 4 teams in the group could still qualify for the Round of 32. The various scenarios are: 1. We win – we win the group, and I believe it would be the first ever European group in Europe that we’ve topped, which would be a fantastic achievement, particularly as we were bottom seeds. 2. We draw – we qualify for the next round. If Porto beat Feyenoord then we’re second in the group, but any other result means we’re top. 3. We lose – we qualify for the next round if Porto fail to beat Feyenoord, but if Porto win then we’re out. Tactically, Young Boys will likely line up in their normal narrow 4-4-2, with their full backs Janko and Garcia providing the width and a diamond shape in the midfield. Nsame and Assale continue to provide the threat up front with Fassnacht also offering a goal scoring menace from midfield, with all 3 of them having scored twice in the group stages. Due to the diamond shape, Young Boys tend to play the ball forward rather than to the sides. If we can push back their full backs, perhaps by overloading the wings with our own full back and wide player then we may stifle some of their play. They need a win as a draw may not be good enough so they will likely be adopting an attacking approach to the game. Young Boys appear to have some defensive issues. In their previous 4 games before their 1-0 win at the weekend, they’d lost 3 goals in each of their 3 domestic games and 2 goals at home to Porto. They do however remain top of the Swiss Super League by a point. It looks like Davis may still be missing and Helander may be a doubt. Katic would step in for Helander and is a more than adequate replacement. I think that he will stick with the same midfield as Sunday with realistically only the right-sided attacker place being up for grabs. Will he stick with Aribo or go for Ojo’s pace, or perhaps even reinstate Barker? I think that he may surprise us and pick Ojo to try and limit Garcia’s attacking threat. Their centre-half, Sorensen, struggled against Morelos in the first game, so hopefully we will create a lot of chances from wide areas with the full backs overlapping, with our midfielders providing cover, and our wide players cutting in and pulling their full backs out of position. We have the set-up to cause them some tactical problems. Let’s do it, Rangers! You owe us after Sunday and this would be a huge pick-me-up for the club. I value my crown jewels too much for us to get anything other than at least a draw, to allow us to still be in Europe after Christmas, a scenario that would have seemed impossible 18 months ago.

Looks like FARE’s mask has slipped at last. We’ve known all along that this vile, secretive organisation is filled with hate-filled, Rangers-hating yahoos with an agenda against Rangers. They kid on they’re anti-racist but now we see they’re racist themselves by employing this sort of pond life. How many others like this have they got? And spare me the ‘junior employee ‘ nonsense. ? The Rangers board must advise UEFA that these Rangers-hating, racists are no longer welcome at Ibrox for European games. And the SFA must act too (for once) in support of one of its foremost clubs. There is no room in football for this now discredited organisation

Next March will see the 25th anniversary of the passing of Davie Cooper. I am helping to organise a tribute dinner in the Thornton Suite on 28th March (international break weekend) Information is available on www.daviecooperdinner.co.uk Proceeds will be split between the Former Players Benevolent Fund and Rangers Youth Development Company. I hope my Gersnet colleagues will help support the event.

FARE have provided reports this season that has seen UEFA close 6,000 seats at Ibrox over two group games in the Europa Cup. The cost to our club is circa £200,000. Sean Huddleston could have been the FARE representative penning those reports. Sean is born and bred in West Belfast, his tertiary education appears to have been conducted in Scotland. Sean has been a season ticket holder at Sellik Park for five years, and a shareholder these last three. Further, Sean has been a volunteer worker at ra Sellik museum and visitor centre for six years.His social media pages also mention his position as an established writer on the Celtic Underground. Someone should ask Stuart Cosgrove if FARE have an objectivity problem?

Club must raise this with UEFA.

Tom English`s match report, published moments after the final whistle, seems to be rather accurate ... up till the end, when he will lay blame on Rangers feet regarding the missed chances. The bheauty of the cup ... https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50672183

Stuck this in yesterday's League Cup aftermath thread but it's probably relevant here too "Not made any better by the propaganda from Roddy Forsyth on the radio this afternoon that Rangers can have no complaints - not because Celtic scored a goal with three men offside but because we missed a penalty apparently as if the latter somehow justified the refereeing howler that lead to the former. Sorry Roddy, I used to respect you. You used to give an honest opinion, not just suck up to your paymasters. But clearly not for ages. The BBC own your arse and your opinions and your delight at their goal and Alfie's miss were palpable. Let me apply some logic Roddy because you are clearly incapable of it. The two incidents are not related. Penalties can get saved and Forster today was just on fire and Alfie's penalty was poor, so I can live with that. What Rangers and every Rangers fan ARE entitled to complain about is piss poor refereeing and assistant refereeing. One Celtic player offside is unfortunate, two is careless but three of the fuckers a yard offside is certainly grounds for complaint. Complaint that we shouldn't have been behind to a goal that ought to have been chalked off. That's fair Roddy. That's reasonable. Go and find your brain because clearly somewhere over the last couple of years it's gone missing." I don't pollute myself with BBC Scotland but it filters through to Radio 5 Live via the likes of Roddy who is held up as some kind of Scottish Football guru by the assembled BBC pundits south of the border. I used to have respect for Roddy because he seemed fair minded and, unlike many other Scottish hacks, wouldn't be too beholden to Celitc and Liewell but not any more. His updates on late Celtic winners are filled with unfiltered glee and our struggles seem to be accompanied by extra hot scorn. It's sickening to hear at times and that his is the primary mouthpiece on Scottish football to the rest of the UK is simply depressing. We aren't getting a fair crack of the whip inside Scotland - or outside of it. Surely a first trophy for a Gerrard Rangers is more newsworthy and exciting than simply another one for Celtic in this one-sided era. Apparently not. All hail Lennon, the mantra must be maintained. Perhaps 26th has some thoughts about Roddy's fall to the dark side.

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A face designed to be ever covered by a balaclava.

Aye. It's from a video and I must say he is a decidedly poor orator (there's a link I provided earlier in the thread - Page 5, post #44).

Who is going to be the ref? ?

Plenty ammo for the club to go after Fare here, unfortunately the club has no appetite for this, too busy building bridges and getting tough on Rangers fans, so don't hold your breath waiting for the club to go to town on these bias, sectarian bigots

Linking directly to the tweet amplifies this unfriendly fellow's message If you want people to know about it you should really use a cropped screenshot.

Correct, yet some fans just don't to know what is going on and that is the reason we are where we are with the constant bias attacks on us, dignified silence has never worked as you can see the results with FARE constantly trying to cost the club money and trying to damage the clubs' reputation, but hey! just ignore it all and it will go away!!

I wouldn’t let either near a patient with a sore head let alone an MH issue. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour and an embarrassment to humanity.

A nice impartial retweet from impartial FARE https://twitter.com/farenet

McGregor and Davis I have no qualms about a short contract but I think the Defoe wage packet might be better used if our director of football identifies a decent striker at a decent price , if Morelos keeps playing well and scoring it will be difficult to hold on to him once the agents start filling his head with stories of fantastic wages in the premier league .

SG needs to come out at todays presser and make a point of strongly supporting the team and Morelos in particular when it comes to mentality. The team turned up at Hampden and dominated the game. Alfredo kept getting into goal scoring positions and despite missing, didn´t hide. Time to lift the mood, Sunday has gone and we have to minimise scar tissue. The players need some positive public vibes prior to the game tomorrow. Hope the team news is positive for at least one of Jack or Davis because if both are out it´ll be a significant blow.

Reports on todays games against Brentford and Celtic https://rfcyouths.wordpress.com/2019/12/10/two-games-survive-the-weather/

https://stv.tv/sport/football/1443042-davis-defoe-and-mcgregor-agree-to-extend-stay-at-rangers/ A trio of Rangers players are set to follow Steven Gerrard by signing new contracts with the club this week, STV has learned. Steven Davis, Jermain Defoe and Allan McGregor have been in discussions over extending their stay at Ibrox and all three are set to be confirmed on new deals in the coming days. Davis - who missed the League Cup final defeat to Celtic due to injury - rejoined the club in January, initially on a six-month loan deal from Southampton summer before making the move permanent. The Northern Irishman's existing contract is due to expire next summer. The midfielder has impressed under Gerrard and has arguably been one of Rangers' best performers this season. Defoe made the move from Bournemouth on an 18-month loan deal in January. With the former England striker now in the last six months of his contract, Rangers have made an offer for him to sign permanently in the summer and STV understands the 37-year-old will sign a new one year contract on a Bosman deal. There had been suggestions the striker would agree a player/coach role, but this is not the case. Allan McGregor has also earned a new contract. We've learned the goalkeeper has triggered an extension based on the number of first team games he's made since rejoining Rangers in the summer of 2018. STV revealed last week that Steven Gerrrad has agreed terms to a new contract, which will commit him to the club until the summer of 2024. Rangers have rewarded the 39- year-old after guiding the club to the Europa League group stage for two successive seasons and becoming genuine title challengers to Celtic.

Any media coverage on this yet? It is the equivalent of fenian. Simple as that. The excuses they use for hun could easily be used for fenian, probably more so. Why would we really be singing against catholics with a team full of catholics? And yet they managed to get one categorised as racist in euro competition and cause us no end of concern, damage, money and time. It's maddening how bullshit and upside down it all is.

I really couldn't care less what he sings. I really don't care what people say in general. I would however be horrified if one of our players did it because it shows a lack of class. What really does annoy me though is the double standards. If this was a Rangers player it would already be front and centre on the BBC website and there would already be dozens of tweets by MSPs declaring a national emergency. And there would be others reminding us that sectarian chants and child abuse are not as bad as tax avoidance. When Scott Brown woke up on Monday morning he had a winner's medal and another few thousand pounds in his bank account. When Tav woke up Monday morning he had no medal and fewer pounds in his bank, but at least he's the Rangers captain. Brown has to wake up every morning as the scumbag he is and no amount of medals of money will ever change that. I know who I'd rather be.

Frankly, if we continue to vote for politicians who encourage or condone attacks against us then we have little room to complain when a protected minority takes the piss out of us. We have examples of it on this very forum, people who are only too willing to give encouragement and votes to a political elite that clearly despise us. Until this changes and we focus on those among us who actively permit this situation to continue then we should suck it up and write "Hun - kick me" on our backs.