Tannochsidebear

While Rino's (and Helander's) comments are interesting, the quality of that piece of journalism from the Rhebel is ridiculously poor. Does nobody check these articles before they go live for spelling and grammar? At least 3 errors in that small piece.

Perhaps revenge is the wrong word, but righting a wrong will be high on our fans minds. Losing to Progres was the worst result in our entire history, and our manager (sic) should have been sacked before we landed back in Glasgow. I was there and it was a fantastic day until kick off. Progres were absolutely awful, lacking in basic ability, and we managed to sink to their level and match them. Since then however they seem to have improved significantly, their European results have been far more eye-opening that what that team I watched should have been able to achieve, so clearly they are on an upcurve and took great confidence from beating a big side (in name only at that time granted), so I dont think we will get this easy at all, perhaps a couple of goals to the good. I cant see it being the demolition that I really want to lay the ghost of 2017 to bed. However anything other than a safe passage to round 3 will be a calamity.

Can’t see anyone getting into top 6 other than the usual 6, and to go down I fancy Palace, Norwich & Newcastle, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Brighton, Sheffield, Southampton and Bournemouth don’t all spend most of the season flirting with the drop zone. I hope Spurs last a bit longer in the race with City & ‘Pool, with Chelsea United & Arsenal in spots 4-6 in any order.

There are new rules concerning drop balls @Gribz, the team last in possession get to keep the ball unchallenged as near to where the ref stopped the game as possible. Not arguing about the rest of your comments, utter guff being dressed up as quality just to suit the equality agenda.

My recollection exactly @compo, couldn’t believe the work rate he put in every time, a very intelligent footballer and linked up great with either Hateley or McCoist which showed his versatility as well.

I know England have brought their transfer window deadline forward to the eve of the league programme starting, does anyone know if we have done the same in Scotland or do we stay at the European deadline of 31 August? Also, does the earlier deadline (Aug 9 if memory serves me) apply to the lower divisions in England as well or just the Prem?

I agree, while I want to see more of Edmundson than 45 mins against a very poor side before I can be too comfortable with him being a big part of our side THIS season, we also have young Mayo who impressed (again with the caveat of a bounce game being all I have seen him in, and not much defending to be done). I would still really love a creative attacking centre midfield player, I think that is the one player we really need to break down 10 man defences which we play an awful lot in our league. Not sure any of the players we currently have can do this consistently.

To be honest it is the celtic forward line of Collum, Beaton, Thomson, McLean and Clancy that worries me much much more than Edouard and Griffiths!

Based on the number of goals and assists compared to number of games played. I don’t think DC provides a good enough return overall. I think we should be looking for better, that’s all. As I said, he is the hardest working and best defensive winger I have ever seen, I’m not against the guy but if we want to take ourselves to the next level, we need a better return in that position IMO.

I’m not going to get too carried away with Ojo just yet. He looks very similar to Odowu and Ejaria who both also started really well but couldn’t sustain any consistency. A good start and here’s hoping third time lucky for us with this type of player.

Very satisfied with that performance overall. First half was a carbon copy of probably about 20 games last season where we have tons of possession but move it too slowly on a poor bobbly pitch and keep trying to thread a needle where the eye is shut. Not enough movement and all too slow, but it is pre-season and this is what you should expect in preseason in that heat on that pitch so I wasn’t as upset as I will be if we repeat that in October. Second half was much better as the chasing side ran out of juice and we got our wide players into a bit more space to create good quality chances, and some good finishing for all the goals. Special mention to Barasic who was excellent throughout the game, apart from a couple of early poor corners. A great free kick and an assist where he got the head up and picked out Jack in space perfectly together with a lot of overlap running for Jones and defensively sound. I hope he keeps that level up as it has been a position of concern for us since Wallace got himself into trouble. I look forward to seeing some other players get some game time both on the next 2 Sunday’s and next Thursday before we play the next round match, hopefully against Progres where we have some unfinished business.

One rule I would definitely change in football is handball. If it hits you on the hand/arm at all it is a free kick. In the box, its a pen. take away all the deliberate/incidental issues, and make it just like field hockey with the foot rule. It is up to the defending player to ensure that part of their body does not come into contact with the ball. It then becomes a matter of fact and not interpretation, which makes it easier for everyone. There might be more penalties and free kicks to start with but players would soon learn to keep their arms out of play.

£5M for a striker with absolutely no top-tier football experience, no thanks. I dont care how good he looks in that overrated league, we simply cannot afford to be spunking £5M on a guy like that. There absolutely must be better options abroad for a striker with top league experience and knows how to win things. Leeds have underachieved since their relegation many years ago. I know the market has gone crazy in England, but that is all the more reason we do not shop there. We sell to there, but we cant buy from there. I'm obviously ok with free transfers and development fees, that is not in question.

I'm delighted that SG has finally had the penny drop when it comes to Candieas. For as hard as he works in tracking back, his position is about creating and scoring goals and his return is poor. His crossing is usually poor and I dont recall a player in a long number of years who so often hits a cross/pass which doesnt find their target. For us to progress at home this year (and this afternoon more relevantly), we must find ways of breaking down stubborn well-organised defences and DC doesnt do that anywhere near enough. I dont dislike Candieas, and he is the hardest working winger I have ever seen, but we need better in that key position this season if we are to achieve our objectives.

While the bookies are not always right, the odds on offer for this afternoon's match has us at a unbackable 1/12. At those odds at 4 or 5 goal victory should be expected, but I have a feeling it wont be quite that easy on a difficult pitch against a team already with competitive action under their belts. After Luxembourg, I take nothing for granted, even at this diddy stage of the tournament and it pays to remember we are here because we are actually classed as diddies ourselves by UEFA co-efficients standards. Absolutely no idea as to what team will be given the honour of starting our season off this afternoon, but I would think it will be the same back 4 and striker as the OP suggests, and that Davis will definitely play but other than that the other 4 spots are anybody's guess. Will it be new boys, or last seasons tried and tested ones? Only about 4 hours till we find out and I cant wait.

15 more points than last season, that would give us 93, if that’s not good enough for the title then fair enough but I think it will be and it usually is. 90 might even do it. We must lose no more than 7 points at home all season. We must win a cup and if we avoid the tims we must make both finals. No more cup losses to Dolly or anyone else. OF cup games are 50/50 so if we come up short in those games it’s not a sackable offence. Group stages of Europa. Only a stinker of a draw should prevent this. For the standard in our league and the investment in the first team squad, I believe this is what we should be expected to achieve.

Mcgregor Tav Goldson Katic Barasic Davis Kamara Jack Arfield Morelos Defoe

I’m happy enough that in matters of fact, like offside, dives, handballs, even the corrupt Scottish refs can’t turn a blind eye if VAR is available. For more opinion based decisions I expect us to continue to get shafted and the tims to be rewarded. But it’s better than the current situation where we just get shafted both during the game and with the Sportscene/CO reviews after it.

I'm hugely in favour of VAR in Scotland. We may well have won the league with VAR in place last season. Think of the last minute penalty we were denied at Easter Road first time round, the Hibs goal in the second match there, several offside goals and penalty appeals that had they been checked and given would have seen us win matches we didnt. You can probably take off a few tims goals as well as some of their red card count increasing. Of course i hope it will get quicker than some of the reviews we have seen recently, but that is mainly down to inept refereeing (which I know we specialise in here in Scotland!), but frankly I am happy to wait another couple of minutes as long as we get more correct decisions. It will benefit us more than any other side in Scotland, I am absolutely certain.

A beautiful one-touch passing sequence between Ojo, Jack, Tav and an easy tap-in for Defoe to round things off. 5-0 FT

Third goal was a lovely cross in which Mayo got a good header on which the keeper could only block, and as the defender tried to clear he could only hit Mayo who was following up and it got bundled over the line. Fourth goal Ojo took advantage of a defender slip to be clean through and a tidy finish in off the far post. Its all very pedestrian and early pre-season as is expected, but the only one who looks to have picked up a knock was McPake who only played 15 minutes. I take my hat off to the bears who have bothered to turn up today for what has been effectively a training session, the crowd looks to be about 15-20K which is absolutely amazing.

Great 70 yard run from Halliday, lovely 1-2 with Candieas and a good finish into the corner, only for the keeper to make a great save to deny us a third.

Good finish from Stewart for the second there, just moments after failing to get on the end of a great cross from Hastie. 2-0

Cheers @ian1964, looks like an early finish on Tuesday then. I have given up on Rangers Travel Club actually doing what they are supposed to do for their money and operate any travel to this match, so it will be a tv somewhere for me. I took out Premier Sports for last season's qualifiers, and only remembered to cancel it in March this year, I'm loathed to go through that again, and give them more money for an absolutely appalling quality of service. I got an email from Premier Sports this very morning advertising the game with a starting time of 5.00pm, so are we missing the first 5 mins or are they just showing how amateurish they are right from the get-go this time?

Has there been any official confirmation of the match date and time for the first leg yet? A lot of guesses out there but I haven't seen any confirmation from the club as yet?