Bill

There are no end of ways the team could be strengthened but I believe the most glaring deficit at the moment is desire, hunger, character, belief, fortitude ... call it what you will. We go two up against Thistle and they're showboating. But whenever we lose a goal, especially the first goal, we seem to melt and panic. What that usually adds up to is an issue of leadership, whichever side of the white line you're on. Mostly, I think it's about focussing on the character of players when recruiting, something that served Walter Smith particularly well on the whole.

The gap has clearly closed since last season but the message from today was how far we still have to go to be competitive. At this pace, without huge new investment, it will be years before we have a hope of seeing a league flag flying at Ibrox.

Perhaps the most depressing thing is the way we still can't come back from losing the first goal. Pre-admin we just rolled our sleeves up and went on to win. Now we collapse completely. What Jock Wallace called "character" is in short supply at Ibrox.

Still nowhere good enough but we probably all knew that would be the case. Truth is we were well beaten. These are our Barnes & Brady years.

All eyes on Tavernier - if he makes his usual arse of defending again then both he and the manager will have greatly weakened their standing. Having said that, I hope he in MOTM

Most people will never see this. It needs to be spread across social media until the cows come home.

21 and 22 October. I believe we play second but not 100% sure.

Thanks Pete, diary cleared.

Will doncaster now be sacked?

Like any CEO or MD, Doncaster's role is to carry out the policies decided by the board. Much as I think he's a low-grade wage-thief, it might be prudent to focus on those sitting on the SPFL board rather than make Doncaster a very convenient and hugely overpaid scapegoat.

What date is our semi final please?

Alnwick - 8

Tavernier - 6

Cardoso - 7

Alves - 6

John - 7

Candeias - 7

Jack - 7

Dorrans - 7

Windass - 5

Pena - 7

Morelos - 6

Subs :

Hodson - 6

Holt - 7

Herrera - 6

McCrorie - 7

A lot of positives tonight, not least of which is a growing sense of a squad growing together.

With all we've been through these last few years, you'd think supporters would eventually see less profit in knee-jerk assessments of our managers, or at least accept that unrest in the stands seldom does anything to improve the situation. In due course, time will unveil whether Pedro is successful or not but very little we say or do will have significantly influenced that outcome. We weren't consulted when he was appointed and we won't be consulted on his replacement either. While acknowledging the bumps along the way, let's prefer to project positivity rather than pointless carping.

Rangers to win 3

FGS Dorrans

Here we go again

Apart from the many good reasons given above to end the BBC licence fee, you have to ask yourself ... what is the point of the BBC in the 21st century. It clearly doesn't reflect the British public opinion, it has abandoned its charter obligation of impartiality and it no longer provides a service that cannot be easily found elsewhere.

Nobody cares about Scottish football though!, it's dead!

You're right. It's back where it was before the Souness revolution, an insignificant backwater. And while much of that decline was an inevitability of geography, the decline has been made far worse by the insidious bitterness and petty politicking of nationalism and Irish republicanism that permeates football, like it does much of Scottish life

Over the years I've been lucky enough to be involved in a number of corporate deals, some quite significant. Nearly all of these involved highly experienced and competent businessmen and women. It never failed to disappoint me how many times such negotiations became mired in "personal" animosity, to the extent that you became convinced people had lost their minds. It doesn't surprise me what has happened over this EBT issue. Bigotry and irrational principles hold sway and nothing is going to change that.

This is a wonderful opportunity for Dave King to put the Rangers knee to the Celtic gonads. Not by defending anything that Rangers has done but by attacking the hypocrisy and grasping greed of the Celtic tribe. He should be openly ridiculing the notion that Celtic are motivated by "sporting integrity" and hammering home the desperation of Celtic to gain a partisan advantage they failed to achieve by playing football. King should be aggressively undermining the moral high ground that Celtic has assiduously built for themselves. That's how to win this battle ... on the front foot and by setting the agenda.

The whole point of BBC football coverage in Scotland is to promote the interests of Celtic FC.

Every weekday evening the public broadcasting facilities of Reporting Scotland are devoted to what can only be described as the daily Celtic news magazine. Midweek and weekends sees Sportsound and Sportscene turn up the burners on the Celtic propaganda machine, covering up any possible flaws in Celtic's perfectly manicured image with whatever lies and invention is required. There's no way out of this, the decisions have been taken and policies implemented. Either watch it or don't watch it but forget about complaining.

Could I not care less about this!

Here's the usual, rather neutral and factual preview on the Dundee FC homepage.

 

http://dundeefc.co.uk/news/rangers-preview-2/

Not too bad really, better than some of the bitter shit you see on certain club websites.

The add-ons like the Bobby Sands rant have to stop as does FTP and f*** the Ira,even God save the Queen in Blue sea of Ibrox, before the singing becomes bearable.

We have a multi National squad many of whom will be unable to relate to "sectarian" type songs,I know it will be impossible to stop them ringing out during OF games but they can surely be curtailed otherwise.

I've long wished other people would conduct themselves according to my values but a lifetime of disappointment has taught me to realise that I might not have all the answers after all. So now I tend to do my own thing and worry less what other people say or do, so long as it doesn't cause anyone actual harm. GSTQ and opinions about Bobby Sands or the Pope are not what I would sing about at a football match but other people doing so is, frankly, their business.

There's only one thing matters about MOH ... the fact that he turned in nothing but insipid, feckless performances in a Rangers shirt. Week after week he served up disinterested garbage. Regardless what he achieves for other clubs, he should have been shown the Ibrox door for impersonating lump of wood.

Henderson was before my time? It's Dalglish and Davie Cooper for me.

Again, it's all opinion but from what I saw Tommy McLean was also a far better winger than Davie Cooper.

For more get labelled as "great" than have any right to it. In footballing terms, I go back to the early 1960's and in the 50-odd years there have been maybe a handful or two who could hold there own with the very best.

Dave Mackay was certainly one of them, as was Billy Bremner, Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Eric Caldow, Alan Hansen and Jim Baxter. Willie Henderson was by far the best winger I ever saw and streets ahead of Davie Cooper or Jimmy Johnstone.

In the list of priority projects for our club, this must rank alongside the choice of soap in the toilets and mending the cracks in the Edmonton Drive pavement. We should shelve this until there's nothing better to do with our very limited funds.