Tannochsidebear

Certainly one of the more difficult draws we could have got for our seeded position, but we got two very entertaining draws with them in the groups a couple of years back so not impossible. I'm hoping to get a day trip to this one, but of more importance is Hearts on Saturday and Killie on Wednesday.

A very difficult one this week, with no real standout for me. Always a bit more difficult watching on tv as well as you dont see the whole game for the work put in off the ball for example, as I was in Lanzarote for the last week and so had to make do with the welcoming and fantastic Bluebells Bar in Puerto Del Carmen which I would highly recommend to any bears that find their way near there during the season. A very poor pitch and another cheat of a referee (where does Peter find them?) were the standout performers but neither in our favour or in a positive manner, so I will give the vote to the captain who joined Greig as our highest scoring defender of all time in just a fraction of the time it took our so-called "greatest ever" to get there.

An absolutely massive two games coming up now against two in-form opponents who are 3rd & 4th in the table. If we can win both we stay at least 2 clear with 10 to play and we have 4 out of 5 fixtures before the split that are, on paper and current form, easier. Of course after these 2 we have Europa and Scottish cup ties as well so it’s going to be important to plan ahead with rotation, avoid further injuries, and don’t allow the momentum to shift.

St Johnstone 0 Rangers 2 fgs Silva

Agree with most comments in this thread about the selection, Wright has seldom delivered from a starting slot and is better from the bench (low bar I know!) and I’m comfortable with Barasic starting as I don’t think there is much difference going forward and he is the slightly better defender but this looks more like the first choice team middle to front. We must start fast and strong. Got a great opportunity to go 2 points clear with 12 games remaining but Levein and the officials will make this very difficult so we need to be right on it.

Is that not 10 goals and 2 assists from that stats table? So 12 goal involvements?

Rangers 4 Ross County 0 fgs Cantwell

Ok I concede St Mirren or Bonnyrigg or ICT or Airdrie would all make for a fun weekend!

From the presser it looks like Jack starts, alongside Diomande and Cortes, so maybe quite a few changes which will be good to see how they perform. Looking forward to a few goals and comfortable victory and a meeting with Morton at Ibrox in the QF for more of the same.

Great performance, great result, great atmosphere. The crowd really got the team going and vice versa. Great performances from Cantwell and Lundstrum. Good contributions from Matondo and McCausland (but will he ever take a man on on the outside?) and good cameos from Silva and Diamonde. With Ross County and St Johnstone in the next week while the bheasts go to Hibs then host Killie, could we even be clear in the lead by Sunday week? Bet365 have us as 4/5 favourites for the title now (before yesterday we were joint favourites at 5/6. Whisper it, but this is looking good if we can maintain this momentum. Obviously the negative was, yet again, Goldson. How many times is he going to be allowed to cost us goals in big games and still remain first choice. £38Kpw wages and 6 years of mistakes costing us dozens of points, cups, the Europa, and he still continues to be the worst defender at the club but first pick by every manager he has played under. I just dont get it? But even Goldson (and Don Robertson's performance) cant spoil the buzz today after that game, bring on the next one. 14 cup finals left to go.

2 absolute standouts Cantwell and Lundstrum. I've gone for the match-winner. If Clement can get these type of performances regularly out of Cantwell it will go a long way towards the title.

Rangers 2 Aberdeen 1 fgs Cantwell

If we win the title - then yes If we dont win the league title - then no It really is that simple.

I’m really worried about this game tomorrow. A Dolly team with some new found confidence after getting rid of another failed yahoo, and then bringing in a hugely experienced manager pretty famous for turning round underperforming teams, alongside Don Robertson being his usual one-sided consistent cheat against us, I’ve got the fear! I will gladly bite your hand off for an ugly single goal victory. A huge test for PC and the players. We must match the fight our opponent will show first and foremost, then hope our better players can win us the game, if allowed.

Cantwell, with McCausland and Silva not far behind. Hope Todd has as influential a game on Tuesday.

Good performance, good result. The bookies now have us as joint favourites for the title. Only concern is we are not ruthless enough and goal difference may be an issue so we have to push on for the whole game every time to get those extra goals. Absolutely huge game now on Tuesday against Dolly who will come and run , kick, snarl all night and we simply cannot afford to drop any more points against them. I’d love an emphatic victory but I’ll take any win.

Like most I would have liked a goalscoring striker to be brought in, I really believe that would have secured the title. While Dessers has had a good game or two recently, he is still for me miles off the standard we need and his misses are truly awful. He needs to be replaced but it wont be this season clearly. From what little we have seen of Silva so far, he again looks like one who prefers to pass or take another touch when a shooting chance presents itself, so will not be prolific enough or greedy enough to get the goals to jsutify his price tag. Hope im wrong on both as we have a treble within our grasp if we can take enough of the chances we create. As for the two late additions, as usual I know absolutely nothing about them and i couldnt pick them out of a line up, but I hope to see them both over the next 4 home games in 2 weeks and be impressed. Certainly better than what they are replacing is the minimum (very low) expectation. The comforting bigger picture is that our opponent didnt strengthen either, so at least we havent lost ground in that sense. It's all to play for. If we hadnt been cheated by referees (lets call it what it was) in the 2 OF games to date we would have a healthy lead, so we must keep beating more of the other 10 than they do and that will take us close. The biggest question is just what the hell does PC do with the Euro squad? With only 3 changes allowed and at least 5 required, he is really up against it and has huge decisions to make and will be leaving out 2 important players no matter what. The Beale legacy continues to harm us. At least he will have a couple of weeks (I think?) before he has to nail his squad so he can see how the 2 newbies settle in and if they look like they are going to take time to settle then they may get Thursdays off. We must surely bring in Balogun and Ridvan as one is our best centre half and the other is the only cover for Borna who seems to be picking up more injuries as time goes on. You would think Silva is certain to be added to the squad. Remove Sima, Davies, Lammers, Roofe, Cifuentes or any of the injured or likely to be injured again anytime soon long list.

I thought this was an easy one, big Souttar was immense, don’t think he lost a duel all day and the block near the end saved 2 points. He was everything that Goldson was not. Yilmaz contributed well but still defended poorly at times, Butland had yet another good game, Lundstrum was pick of midfield and Dessers probably had his best game for us. Despite it being a terrible game, I felt we had a few good individual performances.

St Mirren 0 Rangers 3 fgs Silva

hibs 1 rangers 2 fgs Tav

I think that sums it up perfectly.

Dumbarton 0 Rangers 4 fgs Dessers

Glad the game is on, looking forward to it. Hopefully we come out the traps all guns blazing after the winter break. We have had a few seasons ruined by the winter break in the last few years, cannot afford to slip up this time with so much to play for.

Yet more evidence that pre-season or mid-season friendlies should all be behind closed doors with no tv pictures. They are there for fitness and essentially to break up the boredom of a training camp. Couldn’t care a jot about the result or performance, I just want to know that we didn’t pick up any injuries. The proof of a good pre or mid season is how well you do when the real action restarts.

Absolutely, but I think the exact same of paying £38,000 a week to Goldson. That makes me sick. It is completely reckless for a club of our income to be blowing £2M a year on a centre half. I'd love the person who sanctioned that to be fired but I guess they are long gone. Surely with our income stream there should be nobody on more than £25Kpw?