Tannochsidebear

It’s a really difficult one given the range of offences highlighted and the different times these offences occurred in. As I said at the start, I would normally be on the side of rehabilitation, but on this occasion with so much at stake and with emergency laws brought in to try to keep the pandemic in check I find it indefensible to attend a house party. The stupidity, arrogance, selfishness is, to me, off the scale and only blind luck meant they got caught out before they could rejoin training and force us to self-isolate a much larger number of our squad, perhaps causing us to withdraw from Europe, and get domestic games cancelled. The only other case I can think of that is also off the chart indefensible is Gazza’s wife-beating, which I personally find reprehensible and should have seen him sacked in my opinion. The other cases you mention, would have seen them sacked in Struth’s era I would guess, but in the 90’s were not really seen as being quite so bad on the scale of the moral compass, so other disciplinary routes were seen as enough punishment and I can’t recall disagreeing with how we handled those cases at the time. If all that makes me a little hypocritical, then fair enough. I’m glad I don’t have to make the decision!

Top class, absolutely top class.???

Yes we were certainly starting to get a foothold around the time of our first goal but United were still looking better and more dangerous up until we scored I thought. Thankfully that’s why we have a world class keeper and we don’t panic anymore in these situations and we have the belief that we will turn things around.

The most significant contribution came from McGregor. We could have been out the game in first 30 mins were it not for his vital saves. Aribo was top drawer today, a joy to watch but it’s the keeper for me.

Thought we were second best all over the park for 30 mins then we got a goal against the run of play and never looked back. A lot of that is the shape and effort United started with had us on the back foot and we had to rely on some great saves from McGregor to keep us in it. I give United a lot of credit for the way they shaped up and played, if they match that in a couple of weeks, we could be crowned at Tannadice (again) without playing (I think!) Once we hit them with a quick fire double the result was never in doubt and we created a lot of chances and played some good stuff. Only negative in second half was conceding a consolation goal, that shows how picky we are getting! Delighted with the win, 3 more points closer now, and hopefully Ross County can complete the Carlsberg Sunday and bring us even closer.

Rangers 3 United 0 fgs Morelos

Love that series, a great insight. Antwerp’s penalty looks even more ridiculous from the RTV angle. Love the reaction at the ft whistle, a few understated fist pumps, no OTT celebrations, we know it’s not over.

I must admit I’m more than a little worried about this game tomorrow. After such a roller coaster of a game on Thursday, and considering it is always difficult coming back from an away European game, I am hoping we can re-focus on this massive game in front of us. Clearly, we need to re-jig the line up again with the injuries picked up and unavailable players, and our opponent will be well up for this one also. I will take 3 points any way they come and get us closer to the finishing line, but I’m not expecting a similarly exciting game. We must start in the right fashion with a high tempo, try to get the game won early. Hopefully the return of European games is enough to break us out of our recent domestic sludge where we have struggled in many recent games to find and keep the right tempo. We know we have to play at a much higher level to go further in Europe, and we might see that level filtering into our domestic games now. I would love to put in a great performance, score a few goals, clean sheet, and put even more pressure on the bheasts at Dingwall later tomorrow. A Carlsberg Sunday would take us to 2 wins away from the title!

There is an often used statement that there are no easy games in Europe, and that it is difficult to win away from home in Europe. Our amazing form this season makes a mockery of those statements. Lincoln Red Imps 0 Rangers 5 Willem II 0 Rangers 4 Standard Liege 0 Rangers 2 Benfica 3 Rangers 3 Lech Poznań 0 Rangers 2 Royal Antwerp 3 Rangers 4 P6 W5 D1 L0 F20 A6 I can’t quite believe these stats when looked at collectively, and I’m pretty sure if a certain other mhob had such a sequence of results an awful lot more would have been made of it. I was in Luxembourg to see the worst result in our history just a few short years ago, when we were the laughing stock of Europe, well they are not laughing at us now! I salute the management and players for this fantastic effort.

Add me to the Morelos list, fantastic performance only spoiled by his failure to convert the one on one. Cant think about giving it to any of the defenders as we conceded 3 goals and it could have been more, our back 4 were all over the place. Davis was very good and Kent ‘s performance from the bench was outstanding.

I can appreciate the comments of BD and others who say rehabilitate, only a teenager, we all do something stupid sometimes, etc. In any other situation I would probably be on that side of the argument as well. However, the seriousness of this situation cannot be minimised. A global pandemic, emergency laws brought in to control the spread, and for players they are told how important it is to keep to the rules, as all it takes is for one player to catch this by being at a party and not get caught, then the virus spreads through our whole squad. Or, we have half our squad having to isolate. This was pre-meditated. You dont end up at a party in a lockdown, and can put this down to a spur of the moment mistake. You choose to go to a party in full knowledge it is illegal, dangerous, and goes directly against what your bosses have told you that you can do. It is that level of stupidity and ignorance, coupled with sticking two fingers up at Gerrard, his coaches, teammates, and fans just so he can go to a party. I just cant get my head around that at all. Any player who doesn't stop to think about that before they proceed to go to the party, and who doesn't have the right people around him to tell him how ridiculous even the thought of that is, is NEVER going to be Rangers class. If Tav is out for the rest of the season, and the lack of cover with Patterson sacked costs us games either in Europe or at home, that is down to him and our rage and ire should be solely in his direction. For us to say, here's a fine and say you're sorry and you wont do it again, is just so out of step with the actions. It is nowhere near enough. I really dont get the comparisons with Gazza, but for what it is worth, I was one of the minority of fans who wanted Gazza sacked as soon as it was admitted he had beaten up his partner/wife. That type of person is not welcome at our club. His sale probably cost us "the 10" but I wasn't sorry to see him go as a person, despite his talents on the field which were simply sensational. I didn't want Flanagan anywhere near our club for the same reasons. Ricksen's constant off the field antics should have seen him shown the door also. Being a Ranger is so much more than at any other club. The standards are higher, so much higher. We have class and dignity as the cornerstones of our existence. Has been that way since the start. No other club comes close to us. We must guard that with everything that we have. No excuses. No lowering of the standards.

Interesting to see that there was only 3 home wins in the 16 ties this evening. Not much joy there for unseeded sides. Compared to last season when our first leg victory over Braga was one of 9 home wins for unseeded sides. Last season only 6 seeded sides made it through to the last 16 from this round. Looks like being a higher number this time. I see Arsenal are 3rd favourites for the tour, I don’t fancy them getting past Benfica next week. We are now 25/1 to win the trophy, about 12th in the list.

Worth noting that Morelos, after missing an early great chance, had a hand in all 4 goals. It is no coincidence that after 3 games of only scoring once he comes back into the team and we get 4 against a good opponent. Hope he can add goals too as we will be depending on him to score now that Roofe is out for another 6 weeks or so. So many talking points in this one, not going to be getting much sleep tonight!

Good luck to @Govan Rear Bear in trying to keep a match report to under 10,000 words for this one! Quite incredible, proud of our attacking play, great fight and desire, terrible defending at times, 3 pens, 6 yellows, a red, some great goals, some sitters missed, injuries, VAR, some ridiculous refereeing, this game had it all.

6 mins added, so that will be 15 to go then

Yaaaaassssssssss Borna again

Another pen and a red come on!

It’s all went mental in last few minutes, glorious chances for both sides

Oh that’s just reckon superb

Comfortable enough for 40 mins then ref decides to take over, coupled with us totally switching off and defending like the bheasts. Roofe = Tierney, chocolate muscles. Another month out for him no doubt. Tav’s injury is hugely worrying, that might be his season over. I know the forward dives but wtf is Davis doing sticking his foot in there, really unlike him. We’ve got it all to do in the second half to keep our unbeaten run going and give us a decent result to bring home for next week.

Also very possible!

From Gerrards prematch interview Kent is injured and Jack is rested. Not gambling with his favourite players makes it sound like SG thinks this won’t be too difficult. Interesting.

Antwerp 0 Rangers 1 fgs Morelos

Zungu is a strange one. In his first sub appearance he looked an absolute world-beater, and i'm watching that thinking, wow, what have we got here! He didn't quite reach that same standard in starting appearances or subsequent bench appearances, but looked a tidy player to me, has some attributes and of course could certainly have become a much better player for next season once he settles into the foreign country and lifestyle a bit better, and our coaching team get to work on him. Of course, now all of that is highly unlikely due to a reckless decision. Send on first plane home and let him wallow in regret.

Surely it can only be 4 Rangers players. Zungu is here on loan, so is not our player. But if you count Zungu as being our player as he is registered with us as a loan player, then Mebude is not our player as he is at QotS on loan. I know it is being picky, but you know pretty well this is how it would be reported if it had happened elsewhere (if reported at all). I have zero tolerance for anyone going to house parties. There is no grey area. It's totally illegal, as well as being stupid, reckless, selfish and dangerous. I hope all players involved are sacked immediately. This isn't wee boys doing something stupid, like getting into a fight outside a nightclub, or letting off fireworks at a neighbour. This is a global pandemic in which the rules have been very publicly laid out. There are some concessions to football clubs to allow them to continue playing, but not for anything outside of matches and training. There has been plenty of warnings, and they seen how the careers of Edmundson & Jones were affected by similar actions, and we know all players were warned and made fully aware of the consequences of breaking the rules in this area. Yet these players showed they have no respect for our club, our management team, our fans (who have to abide by these rules and who have paid or a full season that we wont see), or for the nation as a whole. To me it wouldn't matter if it was these fringe players or our biggest assets, instant dismissal for gross misconduct for anyone going to a feckin party under these current restrictions.