JFK-1

So much for the second best in Scotland

Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha faces an anxious wait to see if Bruno Alves and Declan John will be fit for Saturday's Old Firm game. The two defenders were withdrawn during the 3-1 Scottish League Cup quarter-final win over Partick Thistle, and both were treated on the touchline at Firhill. "We were forced to make the two changes," Caixinha told Rangers TV. "We need to wait 24 hours, 48 hours, to see what's going on." Caixinha went into the cup tie without the injured Lee Wallace, who is already ruled out of Saturday's meeting with Celtic at Ibrox. Danny Wilson, the third-choice centre-back, was also not involved in the squad for the cup tie at Firhill. With the game against Partick Thistle taken into extra time by Kris Doolan's 90th-minute equaliser, Caixinha will also alter the training sessions ahead of the Old Firm game to ensure his players recover. Midfielder Ryan Jack had to be treated for cramp during the second period of extra time, and Caixinha praised his players for being able to "run, and run, and run". "We know that we have a game on Saturday, tomorrow was already a day off on the plan," the Rangers manager said. "Because of extra time we need more time on recovery, it's a case of managing the content of the training sessions. We know the direction we want for Saturday's match. "But I'm very pleased with the hard work of the boys." Rangers opened the scoring in the second half through midfielder Carlos Pena - who was making his first start and whose appearance prompted a switch to a 4-3-3- formation. Alfredo Morelos and Daniel Candeias both missed chances when clear through on goal, then Thistle capitalised on the injuries to Alves and John disrupting Rangers' solidity at the back. Caixinha was pleased, though, with the way his team responded, scoring twice in the first period of extra-time through Daniel Candeias and Eduardo Herrera to take command of the game. "Conceding the equaliser at the end is not easy, especially after you have a lot of chances to kill the game, to have a calm game," Caixinha added. "We were punished for that and we were punished because of ourselves, because we could not control and could not score the clear situations we had. The one from Daniel was quite clear. That's what happens. "The team is always working hard to get the second goal and get the levels of confidence to bring the qualities the players really have. The two goals difference makes that. "The two players who came on, Lee Hodson did a very good job but for me Ross [McCrorie, making his debut at 19, is going to be the future of this country, not only this club, as a centre-half. "We are very glad to have him with us. We always knew what he was capable of, he's a humble guy, a hard worker and he'll keep doing his job." http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41328476

The result against Dundee flattered them. Dundee missed an absolute sitter to level it when 1-0 down to a Sinclair penalty and created multiple good chances they just couldn't put away. Two goals in the last two minutes to pad out the score doesn't hide the fact they would have suffered big time against better quality. We can take them.

Enjoyed seeing the Morelos goal again and I expect him to get a lot in that fashion. One very brief touch then a split second later boom.

Agree though I don't know if Morelos could play it like that. If they have a hack at him his instinct is to get right in their faces.

Agree he had a great game but somewhat doubt he will be displacing Wes. Good competition to keep Wes on his toes.

To be fair to Archibald if I were him I may be thinking well everybody else can kick the crap out of them and even grab them around the neck and throw them to the ground and get away with it so why can't we?

An indication of how much Morelos put into it is the fact he had to be subbed. When a 21 year old has run so much he's out of steam you know he's given it his all.

More akin to spying on the enemy from a distance to keep an eye on their disgusting habits. I hope we do draw them and hand them a humiliation neither they nor Lennon will forget in a very long time.

Unsurprisingly the hubz grunts are apparently hoping they draw us because I think that despite the fact they needed a last gasp penalty to get through against Championship Livingston they fancy that they can get away with anything against us. Which doesn't surprise me since Stokes can execute any wrestling move he wants to and Lennon can get it up ye as he pleases. And seemingly their only concern is that referees are bias in our favour. Really, I didn't make that up.

Nobody can just decide to be a professional boxer, you need to have a natural talent for it and becoming a professional boxer at 38??? He could be seriously hurt for the sake of what I suspect to be reality TV nonsense he has been talked into by people more interested in viewing figures than his welfare.

I'm now caught in two minds regarding whether I would have preferred this to stay 1-0 and avoid extra time. The extra time has at this point given us two fabulous goals and a confidence boosting goal for Hererra.

They're going to kick us out of any momentum.

Partick 0 - Rangers 3 FGS Morelos

Only ever seen him wear jeans. And eats a lot of Chinese food plus has been learning Japanese with a view to moving there one day as he has a fascination with Japanese culture. He works part time with us though that amounts to a minimum 30 hours a week and attends college part time. Training to be a structural engineer.

All I have ever seen them drink is Dr Pepper and in the case of Hector I would think twice about calling him anything other than Hector. He's not the typical Mexican who are generally on the short side. He's around 6 feet 3 and an athletic 17 stone. Though is an extremely cordial type of guy.

Ludicrous. But maybe the next step for Stokes. http://www.bbc.com/sport/boxing/41313235

I work with a couple of Mexican chaps namely Hector and Juan who are familiar with both Pena and Hererra who are apparently well known in Mexican football. Juan knew that both had gone to Scotland while Hector knew they had gone to Europe but didn't know where. He does now.

I didn't post this earlier because I thought it may be quickly taken down but it's still there at this time and has the full game. You need to move it forward past a lot of pre match stuff to get to the game.

I don't doubt for a moment he will continue scoring and that bids will start coming in but it would have to be enormous for us to even think about it when he's just started a 3 year contract. He's the reason we already have as many league goals this season as it took us a dozen games to accumulate last season.

So you don't think Pedro has the final say on who is signed? JJ makes signing decisions?

And if we beat them what's the betting the mhedia response afterwards wont be about how good we were but all about how did they manage to lose? What went wrong? No discussion of what we did right.

It doesn't surprise me because unlike some I too think we can take them. They're defensively fragile and if they can lose goals to others in this league which they do then they can certainly lose goals to our attacking threat which is far more potent than anything else they will face in the league when we're in our purple patches. We have to trust the manager to get the darker patches ironed out and as I have said in previous posts I don't think we will see the best of the team till into the second quarter but we can still take them. You have to expect everybody to be up for this because they're not stupid for one thing and they know what's at stake in more ways than one. I don't like to fall back on bad luck when reasoning bad results but it can't be denied that we have been incredibly unlucky over and over and that surely can't last indefinitely. They on the other hand have been incredibly lucky on multiple occasions their recent win over Partick just one example of that. Next week we're also going to need a proper refereeing performance because otherwise broonaldo will be kicking and hacking his way all over that pitch though it's becoming ever more difficult to fathom what would get him suitably carded. Apparently kicking a man lying down in the face isn't enough. Maybe he has to pull out a baseball bat.

I expect to comfortably beat Partick at home in the cup but would rather have had the 3 points and lose this and I think there may be a different starting 11 with an eye on next week. I also expect Morelos to score again since it's unlikely they will come and put 10 men behind the ball giving him more space to operate in.

How the wheels of fortune turn. Newcastle register a third consecutive win to move into the top 4 after losing their first two league games.