JohnMc

Good stuff Rousseau, thanks. also assume Miller will come back into the side and play a blinder, that's how these things always work.

I think you're 100% correct that we need a pragmatist at the helm. Allerdyce though really worries me. He's from the Sammy Lee/Frank McParland school of economics.

Too many amusing quips from you recently, Billy Boy, we're supposed to be somber and disappointed. * *(Personally I'm elated PC's gone, but don't tell anyone)

Whoever comes in will want to look at Halliday and O'Halleron, both are capable of playing at SPFL level successfully if managed correctly. I was told in the summer Halliday went out on loan because he didn't want to leave Rangers and he felt Pedro wouldn't see out the season giving him a chance to impress his successor.

I'm no cheerleader for Pedro but that's not fair. Jock Wallace had no record of achievement and neither did Alex McLeish or Davie White, Souness had never managed anyone, Walter Smith had never managed anyone, John Grieg hadn't either, and of course Bill Struth. Scott Symon, Willie Waddell, Dick Advocaat and PLG did. Some work and some don't. Pedro's appointment was baffling, not just because he'd no record of achievement but because he'd no experience of British far less Scottish football, he'd only managed at a fairly ordinary level and without distinction. For all McLeish's faults he'd improved both Hibs and Motherwell when he'd managed them. Pedro didn't improve any side he managed. Pedro was a gamble and a peculiar appointment, but it shouldn't discount us appointing someone who hasn't won anything as a manager I don't think.

I couldn't disagree with you more. Kilmarnock are a poor side, the poorest in the league, yet if it wasn't for Fod we'd have lost last night. Frankly the ref blowing when he did was a blessing, our corners are more likely to create a chance for the opposition than they are for us. You blame referees if you like but it's simply excuses, we're not good enough, we've no fight, no leaders and, it seems, we're lacking in fitness. We collapse half way through the second half far too frequently for it to be coincidence. After Sunday's disappointment facing the side bottom of the league, at home, was the perfect next match. We should have horsed Killie, the players should have been so motivated to prove all doubters wrong, to back the manager and to take out their frustrations on someone. We didn't. Something is lacking at the club, whether it's team spirit, pride, organisation, belief or a mix of all of them, but it's not the fault of referees and Ryan Jack is a naive fool. It's not the fault of referees that Morelos isn't being given the time and space he was earlier in the season. It's not the fault of referees Tav doesn't try and cut out deep crosses, it's not the fault of referees that Aaron Nemane looks out of his depth, it's not the fault of referees that Windass and John couldn't shoot for for toffee last night and it's not the fault of referees that Pena really doesn't look like he's suited to the Scottish game. Scottish refereeing is poor, but so is Scottish football. But there's no conspiracy among referees to hamper Rangers, there just isn't, and believing that exists is stopping you seeing what's clearly wrong with our club.

But focusing on the final minutes is too wilfully ignore the previous 90. We weren't good enough to beat the bottom side in our league, at home. That's the stark, cold truth and focusing on the referee distracts from the enormous deficiencies in our squad and club. That's not aimed at you by the way.

Did the ref miss our penalty then? If that goes in it's 2-0 and game over. This hysteria over referees is blinding too many people from the very real problems we currently have.

In Pedro's defence. We played four teenagers tonight, any side with that amount of inexperienced players is going to make mistakes. He's got no leaders. Wallace is injured and Miller out of favour. A lot is expected of Alves but he's not a captain, he's been here only a few months, his English is good but he shouldn't be captain. He's got no luck. Seriously, I know you make your own luck and all that but PC is one unlucky manager. We can't score goals. Morelos is now a known quantity for defenders and no one else in the current side looks like they can score currently. However, in the end the buck stops with PC. He picks the side he decides the tactics. We need to be able to beat the bottom club, at home, when 1-0 up in the 89th minute and just been given a penalty.

Naebodies laughing dB, not tonight.

It's 1-0 to us, at home. It's the 89th minute. We're awarded a penalty. Yip, the ref, realising he'd awarded a penalty by mistake and would be receiving a roasting from Steven McLean and Craig Thomson in the morning quietly suggested to well known arch Rangers hater Kirk Broadfoot that he antagonise a Rangers player so he could send him off, knowing that would almost certainly lead to the penalty being saved and allow another well known Rangers hater, Chris Burke, to score an equaliser. You're right, it's obvious, how could I not have seen it before, it couldn't be any clearer...

I don't think you've been reading the thread then. At 1-0 up and awarded a penalty in the 89th minute there's no way we should draw.

It was, but I've seen them not given. I suggest you watch the match Craig before pulling me up on it.

It's got everything to do with tonight's result dB, keep up.

Thank you, I was beginning to think everyone on Gersnet had taken leave of their senses. How anyone can be blaming the referee for tonight's result is beyond me. We're one nil up in the 89th minute and the ref awards us a penalty. Aye, it's the ref's fault we drew.

You know guys the referee conspiracy theory would hold a lot more water if we hadn't been awarded a penalty in the 89th minute whilst 1-0 up.

Respectfully Boabie, you specifically asked for decisions that have gone against Celtic, so you're right I am missing what you're trying to say. Everyone agrees the refereeing standard is simply not good enough, there's no argument there. But how does starving St Johnstone of away supporters twice a season change that and how does telling our support they can't watch our side change that? All clubs are already struggling financially, Scottish football is in a terrible state currently. The compliance officer system is a nonsense and needs overhauled. To do that we need to engage with other clubs, not piss them off. I mean it's simple human nature Boabie, if I want you to support me on something are you more likely to do it if I'm friendly to you or if I threaten you?

What's my head in the sand about Coop? I've not called anyone paranoid. Do you think Steven McLean is deliberately biased against Rangers or just not a very good referee?

I agree, McLean was terrible on Sunday and citing (thanks for the spelling lesson!!) Alves is bizarre. But how will boycotting other clubs make any difference to that. We need other clubs to put pressure on the authorities to improve the standard of refereeing and to change the brutalist style of football in Scotland. I don't know about you but threats tend not to work so well with Scots in my experience.

Well the penalty Hibs got on Saturday was a terrible decision and their fullback got his jaw broken in the Scottish Cup Final and the player responsible wasn't punished. That's just off the top of my head, they are the only matches I've seen them play recently that didn't also involve us. I've no problem with us complaining about Alves being singled out, it's a complete joke. But to then call for boycotts of matches seems like a massive jump in logic to me.

Serious question; do any of the posters on here think Steven McLean purposely decided to ignore poor tackles and dangerous play because he wanted Rangers to lose on Sunday? Are there posters on here that think Steven McLean is deliberately anti-Rangers? For what it's worth I don't. We need to be careful here. It's not Hearts, or St Johnstone's or Ross County's fault that Scottish referees are poor and quite how boycotting their grounds improves that situation is currently lost on me. I've also yet to read or hear any of the media supporting the ref on Sunday, everyone I've heard has criticised the refereeing performance, particularly the assault on Cardosa. Every supporter I've spoken too since Sunday, even Celtic supporters, agreed it was a terrible decision. I find myself in agreement with Tannochside Bear again. If we want to affect change at the SFA and the SPFL we need to box clever and we need to find allies. Craig, don't judge the world by social media, most people aren't rabid hatred driven moon howlers. I've actually been surprised at the attitude of many supporters I've met recently, most are bored with the 'punish Rangers' narrative still being pushed and are quite happy to 'move on'. The siting of Alves from Sunday is baffling only in that he's the only one. None of us can complain he's been sited, he deserves to be, just why hasn't Bowman been too. I can only assume the booking Moult got on Sunday was for the kick during the Alves incident and so it's been deemed to have been dealt with. But lashing out at every other club in the league is not going to make any difference to this decision or similar ones in the future. One thing we've learned about Scottish football recently is it's propensity for self-harm. If anyone thinks us boycotting going to Kilmarnock matches is going to somehow lead to changes in how referees and compliance officers work I'd say they've not been paying attention recently.

Centre halves get broken noses StuGers, it's not right but it's always happened and will continue to happen. The ex-Man Utd defender Vidic was in the papers at the weekend and told how he'd had his nose broken half a dozen times. Stephen Caldwell had his nose broken by Duncan Ferguson in a reserve match and they were mates with each other. I'm struggling to think of a centre-half who hasn't had their nose broken, or cheekbone or lost their front teeth at some point. It's not just us either. We might not like to hear that but it's the truth. That Celtic full back had his jaw broken in the Scottish cup final and the player who did it stayed on the park and if the penalty that Hibs got on Saturday had been given to Motherwell yesterday we'd have been rightly furious. Football is a physical sport, sometime too physical, but we can either learn to deal with it or we can get used to losing.

Kevin Thomson did a series of interviews recently and he spoke about joining Rangers. The interviewer (an ex-Celtic player I'd never heard of) asked him if he noticed a big difference in the training from his time at Hibs, no, he replied, the Rangers squad I joined wasn't great, PLG had just left and recently appointed Walter Smith was rebuilding. Thomson explained that when playing Celtic Smith instructed his players to turn the game into a fight, a battle. Celtic had better players and if Rangers went toe-to-toe with them football wise Celtic would win, but turn the match into a battle and Rangers would. Thomson said that's what Rangers did. There's a famous clip of Thomson putting a thunderous tackle onto Robbie Keane then throwing him to the ground as he begins to remonstrate. Rangers bullied Celtic into submission. I was reminded of this watching yesterday's match. We actually looked quite good for the first half hour or so. Composed, knocking the ball about and controlling the match, but for all that we didn't create many actual chances and our final ball was poor. But once Motherwell remembered they were in a cup semi-final we'd no answer. They wanted to win more, they'd a greater desire and most damning for me they finished the stronger side when they should have been on ropes hanging on for a result. We chucked it with 15 minutes still to go. That's particularly galling as the Motherwell defence contained more than one bomb-scare in it. I don't remember seeing a more anonymous performance from a Rangers player than from Pena yesterday. Surely Holt, or even Hardie, or dare I say it Miller, would have contributed more to the match? Windass at least was involved in the match for spells, albeit he was poor. Singling players out is unfair though as there's a collective lack of leaders and winners in the side. No team should chuck it with 15 to go in a cup semi-final, particularly no Rangers side. The experienced players, the Dorrans, the Jacks and the Alves need to take responsibility for that. The ref did have a poor match, but so did the ref in the semi-final the day before. If we blame the ref for yesterday's result we're never going to address the problem. Scottish football is physical, too physical, it has been for years. However that's the league we play in and those are the types of sides we need to beat. So buy players and use tactics accordingly. Because rest assured every other player and manager in our league watched that game yesterday and saw a Rangers side that doesn't like a battle and will chuck it when the going gets tough and so will use those exact tactics against us.

Was it? I hadn't heard that. I'm not one of the 'ban all papers' brigade. I've no doubt that today's story came directly from Miller or one of his associates. It's true in so much as it's his version of what's happened. PC might have a different version. I've actually really tried to be less negative about PC in recent weeks, but it's not easy you know!

No it doesn't. This isn't about his ability as a player it's about the respect he commands from his fellow pros. It's about how he deals with his team-mates, how he trains, behaves and conducts himself. It's the same in any walk of life, the best player isn't always the most respected. Fod, Tav, Dorrans and Jack have been first choice picks. Fod has done well, Tav looks no better or worse than last season, Jack's done okay but he not the unqualified success some seem to think he is. Dorrans, for me, has been disappointing, I think he's a better player than we've seen and is largely out of position playing deep. Hodson plays one in five, Alnwick not even that and John has barely played one match. Windass is, at best, inconsistent and McCrorie has played one and a bit games. Hardie isn't getting a sniff and Wallace seems to keep picking up niggley injuries. I don't think managing is just about picking players for the team, it's about getting the best out of them. PC isn't doing that with most of those players. Okay, we'll compare notes again in a few months time. Management is getting the best out of the resources he has. How's that working out then? He can send half of them to the under-20s as long as he keeps winning matches, if he's not then he's got a problem.