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Surely if we want to build the type of club we claim we do, one that develops players and sells them on, then McCrorie needs to be given the jersey and allowed to make some mistakes but ultimately become the best keeper he can be. McCrorie is inexperienced, but has potential. He could become the Rangers number 1 for 15 years saving the club a fortune, he could become our number 1 for 18 months and then sold to England making the club a fortune. Or he could prove a limited keeper and be dropped by October. But we'll never know if we don't give him the jersey and a little bit of slack. McCrorie will be targeted by our opponents, he'll be viewed as a weak link, they'll put a player on top of him at corners, they'll look to rough him up at any opportunity. How McCrorie deals with that will tell us a lot about him and his future, but surely we give him the chance, let him stake his claim rather sign a big name and discourage him.

I fear for the English Channel.

Posted around midnight last night, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt Compo, and assume the sherry had taken it's toll.

The "press the button, Vlad" posts were a wee bit concerning, but Barasic in central defence?! Time for the men in white coats!

Surely if there's any justice on this forum then @Compo deserves a month ban for this outrage.

Big Dick is back on the Viagra? Yesterday's 1-3 victory for Rangers at Easter Road was a reasonably comfortable affair, the goal we lost was in the ninety-third minute. The stats' agree, Rangers had two thirds possession, three times as many attempts on goal and, out passed Hibs three to one. The Hibees in attendance agreed, after Todd Cantwell notched Rangers third, the race to walk away began. The blond haired Englishman has scored in Rangers last three games against Aberdeen, Sellik and, Hibernian. He has become a fast favourite of the Rangers support, regularly voted the 'Man of the Match' award. BBC Radio Scotland's Richard Gordon disagrees, he embraces a different narrative. Big Dick's frustrations grew and grew and by half-time he was ready to explode. It was a bit muddled, scattergun in approach. Firstly, he got after Hibs Keeper, David Marshall, "he should have saved Tavernier's free kick". He was surprised Tav' had the composure to flight the ball, "after Youan running rings around the Rangers full back during the first forty-five". His seethe reached it's zenith and he ejaculated, "it wasn't even a free kick in the first place, we have seen it before, Cantwell jumped into Eagan-Riley". The afterglow was a reinforcement, "Cantwell went down easy, he's got history". Where to start? The Referee, Andy Walker and, Jack Ross all said it was a clear two handed foul on the Ranger but don't let professionals get in the way of another hate-filled agenda being set out by Richard Gordon. Big Dick has history, a ton of it. When we defeated Motherwell last month, the Aberdonian went into a rant, "Todd Cantwell has set out to cheat and hoodwink the Referee". The 'Well player in the melee had back handed Cantwell on the side of his face. BBC Scotland gave 'Well Gaffer, Stuart Kettlewell and First Team Coach, Richard Foster two appearances on Sportscene to back up Big Dick. At the end of that week, Kettlewell issued a statement agreeing with decisions made during the game, after a meeting with Crawford Allan. It is some 15 years past when BBC Radio Scotland did a forty minute biography on Big Dick and embarrassed that he had taken the dosh to don the Rangers blazer and tie to present a number of Rangers annual videos during nine-in-a-row years; he began the piece by stating, "I was raised to absolutely hate Rangers". He has been flashing those credentials ever since, he wanted Filip Sebo caged at Edinburgh Zoo and exhibited. He argued the infamous Simpson tackle on Durrant produced two victims, then went on and on about the trials of the Aberdeen player compared to two years out with injury. Remember, Neil Simpson was only booked for that lunge and, he had history. Finally, when PQ would not allow him to vent, he turned to his column in the Aberdeen Press and Journal, his bitterness dripped from the page. Gordon has found the targeting of a Rangers player and constantly reinforcing his narrative to be successful. Of course, he would be the first to acknowledge the eager help received by Michael Stewart in this regard. Both Ryan Jack and Alfredo Morelos have been subjected to the hate. These two Rangers received Big Dick's concentration and he always ended it with, 'he has history' because he had worked hard to build the history. Morelos received 8 red cards, four were rescinded and, Jack received five reds, two of which were rescinded. Cantwell is Big Dick's next target. The Cove Rangers PRO is utilising his Sunday slot on BBC Radio Scotland to vent his preferred prejudice, it is time the Club did something to remove the wee blue pills from Richard's prescription.

Surely, playing Ridvan Yilmaz in the centre of the defence would be far more entertaining?

Coming for crosses is one of the hardest things a goalkeeper can do and not many 'keepers are consistently good at it. It requires a reading of various factors; weather, flight of the ball, positioning, communication and negotiating a path to the ball. This calculation has to be done in milli-seconds so it's not a surprise to see mistakes happen. It's also something driven by confidence - an on-form 'keeper will seem to claim everything, whilst an off-form one will hold back. Saving shots is more instinctive and arguably easier in the grand scheme of things. As is commanding your box - which is different from claiming crosses. I'd suggest McCrorie still commanded his box fairly well yesterday which allowed our defence to play farther up the park once again. He did drop one fairly easy cross ball early on which was perhaps down to the greasy conditions and I thought he should have stayed on his line when Nisbet headed just wide early in the 2nd half. But he claimed several balls at the edge of his box and swept up one outside his box as well which McGregor often struggled with in the last season or two. Other than that McCrorie was fine. Remember we also had another, younger centre-half playing yesterday so that would have affected communication a wee bit; perhaps making everyone slightly more anxious. Good to see you back on the forum, Pete - hope you're well!

As someone who played keeper with not a lot of height, I always tried to get my fingers to a corner or cross. My reasoning was that a striker/airforce couldn't get their head to the ball, and we could fight for the second ball. I preferred McCrorie having a couple of flappers that were cleared, rather than a McGregor stuck to his line. I am not sure if McCrorie is good enough for our first keeper, but I prefer a keeper that comes for a ball.

Commanding the six yard box is becoming more difficult as teams are now coaching blocking methods. In the old days, it was players of the same height and let them fight for it. Punching is not always the answer, as Marshall found out yesterday at Tav's free-kick. If he had his hand open, then I think he would have saved the ball. Which he should have. While their goal was due to a teenager switching off and letting his man get the drop on him, it is one thing that Alfredo was excellent at was clearing the ball from that area. A keeper coming for a ball breeds confidence in the defence, especially when we are pushing so far up the park. McCrorie has been excellent in that sort of sweeper role.

And good to see how disappointed he was losing that late goal.

Just put him through some punching drills over the summer. I much prefer him to come. At least we have a chance, then. Like I said on the match thread, I thought McCrorie learned: He tried to catch the first couple of corners, which is difficult and he couldn't catch them, and then he started to flap at them, which is better than failing to catch it. Get him punching.

That's very true and is at the heart of the dilemma. What's our budget for a keeper, £2 million, £3 million, £4 million? What kind of keeper will that buy us? It's certainly not going to get us a Stefan Kloss equivalent today or an Allan McGregor in his prime. Jack Butland, who we're continuously linked with, is the 3rd choice Crystal Palace keeper. He's had an ok career, but he's a Championship level keeper with an iffy injury record. At 30 he's a good age for a goalie, but he will make occasional mistakes, he has done his whole career, and he'll be worth nothing at the end of his contract. He might not incur a transfer fee, but his signing on fee and wages will be substantial. Is that a good investment when we could have a great keeper at the club who just needs a run of games? It's a gamble, I accept that, but then so is signing a new keeper too. McCrorie isn't a teenager, he's 25, he's coming into his prime as a player. But he needs games, he needs first team football. The difficult reality is we're not able to compete like for like with Celtic currently. They have bigger budgets and will continue to have for at least another 12 months. We need to develop players, we somehow need to figure out how to do that while winning. It's a conundrum, but it's essential to the long term health of the club. I'd be nervous if we were deciding to replace Morelos with Robbie Ure, or Kent with Josh McPake, but McCrorie feels like a gamble where the odds a bit more in our favour.

Corrected that for you. He ticks a diversity box, and it ain't the one marked Straight, Male, WASP.

I'm definitely of the opinion that a keeper should be in full control of the six yard box. Probably mostly in control of the entire penalty box too.

No because he can’t defend

Some good scores, but @buster. pulls away a little. It looks like a two-horse race going into the final two games. Correct Result (1 pt): Everyone who entered. Correct Number of Rangers Goals (1pt): One, Bill, Lenny, Stewarty, 26th, Ian, MacK and buster. FGS (2 pts): SBG, Lenny, Dado, Ted, buster and r_s. Correct Score (3 pts): One, Bill, 26th, Ian and MacK. Latest Standings:

The question is why is Lundstram now all of a sudden in form and not looking like he is towing a caravan. Also why is he now playing in a more advanced role and not getting a 5 yard pass Davies and making a 10 yard pass to Goldson. I am happy he has hit form as he will be hopefully easier to sell. In the years that he has been at Ibrox he has had about 6 good months. One of the ones that should be sold for a bigger budget.

Lundstram was best player on pitch IMO - found a new lease of life in the last month or two. Cantwell was excellent, Souttar was solid, another goal and assist from Tav and in all honesty, no real criticism of anyone who played yesterday.

I’ve got two issues signing Jack Butland as our first choice GK for next season:- 1) what happens if we sign him on a 3 year contract at £30-40k p.w. & he starts making too many mistakes like Jon McLaughlin did start last season? 2) if he’s so good why has he hardly played these past 2 seasons? Surely someone down south would have signed him by now? I think we need to give McCrorie his chance & we need to sign another young keeper to challenge him for the jersey. I don’t think he looked great at times yesterday but he’s only 25 and we have to be a bit more patient.All GK’s make mistakes.

Basically, it is pretty simple, and it applies, really, to any position: play your best man, until you can lay hand on someone better. That doesn't answer the OP's question, I know. The answer to that is Peter Shilton.

Best keeper in recent memory that comes for crosses is Emi Martinez at Villa. Definite comparisons between him becoming a no.1 late and McCrorie. People are talking as if signing Butland would be the end of McCrorie, if he really is as average as people make out and makes mistakes often then Robbie will be back in and will get his chance. There's nothing to lose with signing another experienced good level keeper on a free in line with the wage bill, we bloody should be imo. It's not a case of either or. And I'm not being funny, if being capped by your country and playing in the Premier League is having an 'ok' career then 99% of goalies are failures.

Late to see the tv highlights. Random observations: Souttar reminds me of the actor who plays the part of Cormoran Strike in the ITV series. Good player so far, Cantwell but if he’s not getting a real haircut he’s got to lose the pale blue ribbon. What would Sammy Cox have said? Hagi’s goal. Right foot then left foot. (But ach, he’s far too slow so I’m told)

Tavernier, Barisic, and Ridvan are rather good wing-backs. One might argue that Tav could play in a back-three, yet all three are IMHO more useful as left- or right-sided midfielders in front of a back-three, when defensive is the order of the day, effectively creating a back-five in times of need. Ridvan is able enough to play left-winger too, but I'd only adopt that if we have actually 2 real strikers and lack other left-sided-true attackers. We have seen though that he has enough pace and ability and is willing to shoot for a more advanced role than pure full-back.

That's fine if we're wanting to just be a club that develops players. I'd prefer that we're the type of club that wins leagues. We can't afford to allow McCrorie to make mistakes. We need the best keeper we have. We saw this year what happens when we have young players in the team and they make mistakes when we played King. We dropped quite a few points and before we knew it, we were too far behind Celtic and the league was effectively finished. It would be great if we could do both challenge and develop but in a league where Celtic dropped a total of 3 points against the other 10 teams before they won it, we can't afford a single mistake.

Scott7, As I remember the incident, it occurred during one of BBC Radio Scotland's, 'Through the Window' broadcasts. It was the evening of the last day of the January'07 transfer window. Big Dick Chaired from 22.00hrs until 01.00hers, he had several reporters reporting from locations on the latest moves before the window slammed shut. There was a couple of hours of broadcasting left on a slowish evening when Dick announced he had received an e-mail which was hilarious. He added he would have to clear it with his Producer before broadcast. It became a tease, the other contributors were anxious to hear the communication. Just after a midnight round up of events and moves, he declared his Producer had cleared the e-mail : "Edinburgh Zoo have accepted the transfer of Rangers player, Filip Sebo. They plan to exhibit him". Richard and his PQ cronies laughed like the proverbial drains. I related the incident on the then FollowFollow forum, it was picked up by two brothers, regular posters who happened to be Solicitors. They took Beeb Scotland Richard Gordon the whole way on their internal disciplinary system. After several months, Big Dick apologised for any offence although, emphasised none was intended. Further, he stated it was the worst experience of his professional life. BBC Scotland refused to name the Producer who okayed the broadcast.

On a point of information, Mr 26th and in fairness to wee Dickie loon, he did not go so far as to say Sebo should be caged and he was not the instigator of the incident. He was, however, guilty as an accessory and is deservedly liable for the same punishment as the producer who set him up, namely excoriation for all time. I’ve just seen the highlights from Easter Road. The commentator wasn’t named. I think it was Squeelum McLeod. His preliminary observations contained remarks that Rangers “would be in for a game today” and “Alfredo Morelos nowhere to be seen as his Ibrox career comes to an inglorious end”. As the teams came out of the tunnel he yelped “Seven years to the day since Hibs’ victory over Rangers in the SCF”. That event was referenced several times during the match ending with the scorer of the Hibs goal accoladed as “one of the 2016 heroes”. Throughout, during attacking play, McLeod’s voice trembled either with excitement if it were Hibs and anxiety if it were Rangers. He’s a wee scamp, so he is. How does a bloke with a voice like that get to commentate on the wireless?

The most controlled, disciplined and effective game I've seen Sakala play. Who knew he could lead the line like this? However, my vote hovers between John Souttar, who was simply the best player on the park, and Iannis Hagi, simply because he's back. John Souttar.

The problem with giving him time to improve is that this is Rangers, where every error becomes a calamity and we can't afford to drop points if the yahoos continue to keep beating everyone. That's 'ideal world' type stuff and we don't live there.

Just a thought have we ever tried Barasic in the middle of our back four

I haven’t seen too much of him to come to that conclusion, he did look a bit shaky today, however I thought he did well last week, I wouldn’t be writing him off yet, not saying you are, however we do need another keeper for competition no doubt

He needs to retire from international football.

17 shots is alright, but our xG is only 1.3. We're not creating good quality chances at all.

I know some fans have turned on him but I like him .Hope he goes to Seville or somewhere like that and has a great career.

800 away fans but nothing has been agreed for next season. If I were in charge, they'd be lucky to get access to the away dug-out.