Tannochsidebear

Spot on Rab. Next season the Bears won't be calling for heads to roll as long as we see investment, improvement and finish at least second. Not many Rangers managers get a free pass for a season, but third place would always be unacceptable. Obviously we have to play our part and buy tickets and anything else we can do to give the board/manager the resources necessary.

Calm down man, it's a formality! What are you going to be like next week if your having kittens about the diddy cup final against some part time fishermen?!

I stuck a cheeky wee fiver on they two and added Bournemouth at an unmissable 6/5 for a lovely £90 return. Wish I had added Alloa as well and it would have been over a grand but I bottled it!

Good luck with the traffic from the Neptune to Hampden, you better give yourself plenty of time!

There will also be a lot of bears buying a ST that haven't done so through the last 4 years to ensure they get a ticket for the bheasts game, and IMO this number will outweigh those who would give up their ST due to having to pay an additional £100. If the club are sensible and allow fans a DD option to pay it up over a few months and get the emotional marketing right, I can't see it being a problem.

I think there are about 20-30 of us booked in and it is completely sold out mate, sorry! I didn't do any of the organising (our RSC chairman is the owners brother) but we have done this many times before for Hampden games and it's always a great way to start/end the day.

I would love that to be right. I fear the opposite set of results but will hope you have this double nailed mate.

As many here will recall I am no fan of Miller, but it is an absolute certainty that he will start the game on Sunday. I also can't see Ball coming in as a dry run for next week as the opponents and styles are so different it would not be beneficial to do so. He has had plenty of game time recently so doesn't need a game if as expected he comes in to protect our two bombscares next week. Looking forward to Sunday's diddy cup final to lay the ghost of Raith & Alloa to rest. Got a fabulous lunch booked at the Bear-owned Ivory Hotel on Langside Rd with a lot of my RSC and then the traditional walk over the hill to Hampden as I have done dozens of times before for cup finals, and back to the Ivory for a refreshment or two to finish off. I don't think I have ever seen us as such a short priced favourite before mind you! No matter the team selection, it should be a stroll in the April sunshine (it's always sunny for our cup finals right?) for those selected. And it has to be said that what a crowd of bears we have backing our team on for a minor trophy. Getting on for 45000 bears in a capacity crowd will see Hampden bedecked in blue and see Lee Wallace lead the team up the stairs (or does everyone now do it Captain last these days?) to lift the trophy and give us the perfect build up to the big one next week.

I've read it three or four times and still don't get it, or its relevance to our match on Sunday. An otherwise excellent preview Rousseau, many thanks. Ok, I was going to leave it at that but I can't - "rousing" ??? For someone so clearly at ease with the English language, you pick rousing to describe our victory over Dumbarton!!! I'm certainly no wordsmith, but I can think of many adjectives I would use to describe that game and rousing wouldn't be on that list. Drab, dull, lacklustre immediately spring to mind, but I would also agree with historic, satisfying etc.

Am I ever going to have heard of a transfer target again? I know the days of signing Laudrup, Gazza, DeBoer etc are long gone but it would be nice to sign, or be linked with even, just one quality player that you don't need Wikipedia to find out about!

We were talking about this at half time on Tuesday. The prices roughly halved in 2012, and only went up marginally since. The current price of around £350 compares to the bheasts who are up nearer £600 than £500 from what I heard. For us to compete properly, bearing in mind we earn next to nothing from merchandising, Europe or to deals, we have to accept our part and pay accordingly. I am expecting an increase of around £100 for an adult ST, which is still going to be cheaper than what we paid in 2011 and cheaper than our rivals. 5 or 10% is not going to be enough.

McCall has his job cut out to try and get some balance out of that lot. McLoed, English, Houston & Stubbs are 4 Rangers hating pieces of filth - why on earth would any impartial broadcaster run a piece like this and choose this lot to do it? Surely Richard Wilson, Keith Jackson, McCall & another bluenose manager or ex=player would be the better choice. The responsibility to promote and enahance our game as a whole falls to the broadcasters to take good news stories like this and promote them with puff pieces. It seems the agenda has been well worked out for what they were going to do when we got back - full on emphasis of Rangers=bad.

Im not a fan of Paul Murray and have been very critical in the past but he says everything spot on in this interview and I cant think of any reason a Rangers fan could take issue with any of it.

Oh so true mate. The complete polar opposites in reporting our return have never been more obvious - the bigoted, hating-itself-to-death, scottish media with their snidey remarks, fake praise and bheast infected comments is actually from our own country while the rest of the world has been warm, kind, genuinely happy to report our story as a good news story and all about the return of the OF game, while those responsible for talking our game up in our country snipe away in the sidelines. How sad for them, but thankfully we have plenty of alternate media outlets (outwith Scotland) which are happy to play fair.

I wish I was as optimistic as you guys - only one goal and one man down, Thomson will be very upset if that is all the damage he can inflict! We might need the assistance from a pidgeon again for this one!

Did you watch it Ian - anything new to report or just a rehashed version of last nights interviews?

We are judging our squad against where the bheasts are now - I have no doubt they will significantly improve their squad and their attitude for next season so not only to we have to play catch up to where they are now, they will not be as bad as they have been now that they know they will have a real challenge next season, and that challenge is US. That is entirely different from them spouting off in the media about Dolly giving them a title challenge, that is just to try to keep the fans interested, which clearly they are not given the attendances. While we wont need to spend the same wage budget to get to the required level, mainly due to the much lower base we are at just now whereas they have never got away from £20-£25Kpw earners on their books from when we were around before - we will have to bring in a significant number of better players than we have now to reach our goal. I am confident we can do this without taking financial risks we cannot afford.

I will certainly give you the fact we are sp1vless is well worth celebrating.

So sad for a young child to lose their life at such a young age. I'm not a fan of applauding death but I hope the applause gave the family some comfort.

Sorry mate and not being a party pooper but I just can't get that enthused about winning this second tier title at the second attempt. In my mind it has been an absolute certainty all season long. I placed my biggest ever wager on us winning this title back in July and will be collecting a huge amount of cash over the next few days as a result of this (paying for a week in Vegas next year!) so I put my money where my mouth is and I am satisfied that our team got the job done with such little fuss, having led all season long. Since 2012 for me it has all been about 55. Tonight brings that a bit closer. I have visited every ground in Scotland's lower tiers (apart from Albion Rovers!) along the way and won't miss any of them. Lower league football is shit and is unbecoming of a club our size. Im glad and relieved it is almost all over.

We came out at the start of the second half with a much higher tempo, much better movement, and crisper passing. We got the goal and yet again after about 15 mins of this it went back to slow sideways passing. Dumbartons tactics were not a surprise but certainly their style was all about frustrating us. I agree with your Barca comments, we should have beaten them that night with a great chance at the death. What I would give for a centre half partnership of Weir & Cuellar now! A bigger budget than all our 9 opponents put together, the best manager, best facilities, and best players means that anything less than a comfortable stroll to the title is failure IMO, so I don't see the need to be singing and dancing at managing to get across the line at this level a year late. I'm glad that those who stayed and enjoyed the post-match stuff had a great time. It seems a bit fake to me, or perhaps I have managed to retain my ambition for our club at a level I have previously enjoyed all over Scotland & Europe and have seen our "journey" back to the top flight as a huge hinderence to this. Now the real work begins and if we manage to win the title next year, that will be a celebration that will make tonight look like a wake.

Only passing on what my mate told me, he said it had been on social media, which for him probably means FF! It definitely started at 3:00 and ended at 4:00 though so almost certainly not for Jardine.

Mate beside me said it was for a 3 yo girl from a huge bluenose family who has passed away recently.

Not long back from the game and what a total anti-climax that was for a full house of expectant supporters. Dumbarton were predictably defensive with a back 10 and only Nade more than 25 yards from their goal and our play was so slow, sloppy, predictable that the game itself was a total snore-fest. Of course it wasn't about tonight's victory but the end of the beginning of the journey towards 55. I left bang on the FT whistle as I have never had any doubt about winning the title or the margin of victory (got the betting slips from July to prove it!!) and we have only achieved what we should have achieved. The same goes for Sunday. As bad as we have been in the last few games since the SC SF draw was made, it appears our SF opponents are pretty poor too with another shocking display and result tonight at Dens going by media/Twitter so it may come down to who handles it better or who makes fewest mistakes. One point for discussion - does anyone else think we are running on fumes now which could be as a result of this small squad and most players having made a lot of appearances in this (mostly) high tempo hard working side. Losing late goals, not creating as many good chances late in games, only really hitting top gear for 20-30 mins per game recently all points in this general direction. Not such a big issue as the league table shows a stroll to the title, and the goals scored column is also impressive, but I recall discussing this in August that I was expecting this fall-off to be inevitable if we continued with our high energy, high pressing, lots of movement style all season. Something else for the gaffer to reflect on for next season as we won't stroll to the title next year so we have to be just as energetic in the crucial run-in as at the start.

Whats that mate?