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https://twitter.com/gerrymcculloch1/status/450025504805257216 Gerry McCulloch ‏@gerrymcculloch1 @bjm1979 @Eddiek62 ebt's undoubtedly gave sporting advantage in my opinion. We'll see what result appeal brings.

Written by: Admin Saturday, 29th March 2014 It is with utter disbelief that once again our Club and it's support have been dragged into a series of incidents which has resulted in Vanguard Bears deciding to release a statement to outline where we stand with this RFFF mess. The recent legal action carried out by Sandy Easdale against Craig Houston is well documented, what has enraged the vast majority of donators to the RFFF is that certain factions, for reasons only they can explain, saw fit to first release their intentions on Mark Dingwall's FollowFollow forum, a forum which any supporter of any club can join and have a say, to put to a vote for acceptance of monies being taken from said fund to shore up Craig Houston's Legal Defence against Sandy Easdale, should this have made the courts. This action went against the vast majority of donators wishes, despite certain parties assuring everyone they spoke for the majority of the support. The RFFF was set up to fight our Club's corner against our detractors out there, of which there are many, sadly there are just as many from within the ranks of our support these days who are equally as damaging. Many put their hard earned cash into this fund in good faith, sadly thanks to certain individuals with nothing more than self-promotion and mischief on their minds have sought to put this at risk. The anger among the many donators has resonated around the globe, and no one can blame them for their anger thanks to this latest stunt. The seven committee members who voted to accept this should now find their positions in the RFFF untenable. If they had any dignity and feelings for the way in which their latest stunt has left the support enraged and suitably angered, they would resign with immediate effect. Knowing the background of some of them and their past antics, this would seem highly unlikely. It will now be down to the majority of enraged supporters who donated to the RFFF to demand their resignation, and with this in mind a decision must also be taken regards the next move to protect this money falling into the direction of self-promoters, with their own not-so-hidden agendas, to use as they see fit. It should be noted that the VB representative on this committee voted totally against any funds being utilised for anyone's legal defence funds against Sandy Easdale. We also vow to ensure that this cash will never fall into the hands of any self-appointed fans group leaders or hastily nailed together 'new age' fans groups either. We note also that Mark Dingwall in a recently released post on his own forum is once again imploring the support not to renew their season tickets for next season. We find this utterly astonishing that somone who relies on handouts from other supporters to attend matches - whenever he feels like turning up - should ask of many who hold season tickets, and have done so throughout their lives, to give up theirs so he can further destabilise our club and cause further harm to pursue his own and others agendas. VB once again will urge all of its members and beyond to ignore the rants of this troublemaker and self-promoter and to get fully behind the club in its time of need. Dingwall along with Chris Graham and other self-appointed and opinionated 'fans' speak only for a handful of rabble rousers and charlatans, we are sure the decent and vast majority of the Rangers support will see through their desperation to disrupt and destabilise our club and renew their season tickets when the time comes. This group of Charlatans will NEVER speak for the vast majority of our support, make no mistake about this. The Rangers Board now must act firmly and address those that would seek to harm both our Club's finances and reputation immediately, until that large boil is lanced and removed, the uncertainty and divisions will remain. http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/statement-on-the-rfff-committee.html

My gran wasn't too impressed with Colin Stein. Nothing to do with the player himself of course, but everything to do with the grandson who muddied himself on her back green in Anniesland trying to emulate the great man's latest goal every Saturday. The following day being Sunday, there was no way she would take her grandson to church looking anything less than respectful and appropriate for The Lord's House. So the breeks were hand washed in the big kitchen sink, scrubbed at the knees with a scrubbing brush before being rinsed, and then wrung out on the huge brass taps. Depending on the weather they were either then hung out on the verandah, allowing the employees of Barr and Stroud, the factory directly across from my grandmother's tenement, to know that Colin Stein's young protégée was in residence. In the event of inclement weather, an extra lump of coal was placed on the fire and the trousers placed on a screen nearby. Nowadays of course they would be straight into the washing machine and then the tumble dryer - Sorted. Often we take for granted the things which makes life's journey far more comfortable or enjoyable. Having them taken away for whatever reason can leave us with the prospect of having to do things as in days gone by, a fact I was reminded of that recently. Rumour reached me that our supporters bus, The Monifieth Loyal, had folded leaving me facing the prospect of a long solitary drive, to and from Ibrox drive every other week. (The fact that it would also mean an abstention from alcohol on match days was a minor matter. Honestly) It was not something I relished having discovered the considerable benefits of the local supporters bus. It was relief to read a few days later on Twitter that the rumours were totally unfounded and it was business as usual. Whilst supporter's buses may be an alternative form of transport for those of us who can drive, for others they are the only form of transport available. For those in our community who are less than firm, less than able, the supporters bus with it's unique and personalised stops and pick ups is often the margin of success in them overcoming insurmountable difficulties. The sight of the infirm and disabled overcoming the cruel hand life has dealt them to watch their beloved Rangers, is one which is truly inspiring. Then of course there is the “social” aspect of the bus. Yesterday at Gayfield I bumped into and old friend of mine I hadn’t seen for years who promptly introduced me to members and organisers of his bus. Let's just say every one of them were in particularly high spirits, I would imagine the crack on the bus home would have been worth the admission money alone. But it goes further than this. For those of who through work or other commitments have been forced to leave the mother nest of Glasgow for pastures new, the supporter's bus brings together a network of exiles who otherwise may have been strangers to one another, and the many considerable benefits which that brings. The local supporter's bus offers many benefits, financial, friendship, social networking, information, opinions and convenience to name but a few. If you currently don’t travel via one I would encourage you to try it. You will soon find it is not one of life's luxuries, after a few experience you place it in the “essentials” category - and there will be no going back to “the old ways”.

..........gets Rangers fans all fired up to renew Old Firm rivalries. IT was a terrific quote. Nauseating so far as its sentiment was concerned, but a marvellous sound-bite never the less. It was the one Dave King delivered about some Rangers fans who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, put shoes on their children’s feet because they wanted to use the money to buy their season ticket for Ibrox. This was portrayed as evidence of the extraordinary degree of passion some fans have exhibited for the club. It’s nothing of the kind. Putting football before your family’s needs is not and never will be a badge of honour. Indeed it is a source of everlasting shame and there shouldn’t be the slightest hint of dubiety about that. But Dave wasn’t indulging in some emotional flight of fantasy, dreamed up one night while he was lying on a sun lounger as dusk fell on his exotic garden and swimming pool in Johannesburg and thinking about his place of birth. These people really do exist. I was once abroad in the company of an old friend who had a long and illustrious career with Celtic. We had been covering one of the club’s European ties and having a post-match refreshment before turning in when he was accosted by a fan. One who proudly told him his children hadn’t had a holiday in any of the previous three years so that he could travel the continent to support his team. The supporter had managed to turn denial where his family was concerned into some kind of imagined virtue He may have expected the Hoops hero to offer heartfelt words of praise but it was all the ex-player could do to maintain self-restraint after the interloper had invaded his company to spout his ?nonsense. Here’s the thing, though. ?Rangers’ survival as a viable concern is essential to the future well-being of the game in this country. The written media have done their usual first-class job of turning Celtic’s latest title-winning exercise into more column inches than would have been devoted to the Second Coming. But the reality is we need, heaven help us, the return of the rivalry that brings out those whose distorted sense of family values is an affront to decency. That also means unleashing the younger element upon us as they represent another part of the baggage that comes with re-establishing the Old Firm. Rangers and Celtic will play an Under-20 league match at Murray Park on Tuesday afternoon. That’s because the number of police who would’ve been required to enforce security if the game had been played ?in public view would’ve been financially inadvisable in times of austerity. It would have been interesting for normal folk to monitor and contrast the clubs’ youth development set-ups. Particularly at a time when 17-year-old Liam Henderson is scoring in a match against Partick Thistle that confirmed Celtic as league champions. But the youngsters’ match would have been hijacked, as those in authority well know, by the flare throwers, the singers of questionable songs and the rest of the misfits who would leave a family audience in fear of their safety. The match would’ve become an irrelevance to both sets of fans while they hurled sectarian insults at each other. It was the business of using rivalry as a basis for thuggery that put King’s policeman father off football when Dave was growing up. But one day, and it’s not too far off now, we’re going to have to deal with a first-team Old Firm derby that troubles society at large while helping enhance the product known as the SPFL Premiership. King knew exactly the right button to press when he started his propaganda campaign to win control of Rangers by instilling the fear of Celtic winning Ten in a Row in the minds of his club’s fans. And that’ll prey on their minds longer than Rangers’ captain Lee McCulloch’s talk about next Sunday’s Ramsdens Cup Final being a “massive” game. The match with Raith Rovers is a by-product of a club fallen on hard times. Nothing more and nothing less. Only those who would contemplate denying the weans shoes to buy a season ticket will think otherwise. Now the Ibrox board have countered King by saying that fans will threaten Rangers’ viability as a going concern if they decide to withhold season-ticket money The fans are now trapped between two sides, each trading on their innermost fears. And gullibility. I was speaking to a fan on the radio the other night who told me Celtic qualifying for the Champions League group stages next season would be a greater achievement than winning the European Cup in 1967. It was breathtaking nonsense, and a moment to ponder whether some fans actually understand history. Celtic were the first British, not Scottish, winners of the competition. Idolising Neil Lennon's perfectly all right, but distorting the truth while tarnishing Jock Stein's memory isn't. Neil would surely be the first to agree. No-one's dismissing his achievements. But there must be a sense of perspective.

GRAHAM WALLACE, the Rangers chief executive, has revealed that manager Ally McCoist will learn his budget for next season before his review of the business is concluded. Wallace is coming towards the end of his 120-day analysis of all aspects of the club's business, and with Rangers promoted to the SPFL Championship, the manager had revealed a desire to make signings, despite the club's precarious financial position, as highlighted by the release yesterday of their interim results. Now Wallace plans to give McCoist an indication of his likely budget before his review is concluded next month. "In terms of the overall financial number [for the playing budget] we will agree what that is and then work within that on the playing side," said the chief executive. "In terms of determining our football player needs and squad needs that does not wait until the end of the 120 days. "Ally McCoist and myself are in constant dialogue in terms of assessing the current squad. He has his views on areas he would like to strengthen for next season and we are working on looking at the alternatives in terms of meeting that need. Once we finalise the overall financial budget that will give us a clearer indication of what we want to do. It would be wrong for anybody to think that everybody is sitting on their hands waiting on the outcome of the review." http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/wallace-plans-early-budget-for-mccoist.23814048

We are delighted to announce that Walter Smith has agreed to do a night with us in aid of the Rangers Disabled Supporters Club. I cannot state how immensely proud we are to have secured a night with one of the greatest managers in our club’s history. Tickets £20 and include a bite to eat and are available at http://www.thelouden.co.uk/events.html Doors will open at 7pm for the event with the Q&A scheduled to begin at 8pm. Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis and all ticket sales are final and will be collected on the door on the night. One Rangers… No Factions – http://www.thelouden.co.uk, @TheLoudenTavern We Are The People God Bless The Rangers The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium - More than a Pub Official Partner of The Rangers Football Club *We are responsible for The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium, 111 Copland Road, Ibrox, G51 2SL solely and are not involved in the operation of any other premises

MARCH 25, 2014 UNION OF FANS STATEMENT 25TH MARCH 2014 by Union of Fans The Union of Fans (UoF) is delighted that Dave King has publicly stated his impressive plans for Rangers via a number of newspaper interviews. His vision for the club is extremely welcome as is the personal financial commitment he is willing to make. Like all Rangers fans, Dave King and UoF want to see the club back operating to high standards on and off the pitch and in the boardroom. We firmly believe that the involvement of Dave King is the best chance of those standards being attained in the short, medium and long term. It was clear from our discussions with him last week that the £30m+ Mr King is willing to invest is crucial to take the club back to a competitive level and improve the infrastructure and facilities. The club has been neglected, that cannot continue. Only once this investment has been made will Rangers be able to live within its means, something we all want for the longer term future. Until then Dave King has made it clear he will do what is necessary to get Rangers back to where we belong and where we can be self-sustainable. It is also important that Dave King chose to make his views public to the widest possible range of Rangers supporters by conducting interviews with four different newspapers with a combined readership of over 2M people. There can no longer be any criticism of him only speaking privately to supporters groups, though he has pledged to continue that important dialogue in order that the Union of Fans can keep people updated on events. We would now ask the board to indicate publicly, as a matter of urgency, whether they are prepared to accept Dave King’s offer of massive investment. The ball is firmly with the Rangers PLC board, in particular with Chief Executive Officer, Graham Wallace and Chairman, David Somers. Dave King has put a figure on what Rangers need and has shown his commitment to, and ambition for, the club he has supported all his life. Do Mr Wallace and Mr Somers agree with his figures and if they do, how do they propose to raise this large sum of money without Dave King? These are extremely serious corporate matters, therefore they are matters for the PLC board and not for any small, minority shareholder who is not a member of that board and who has no such high level corporate experience. The corporate reputations of Mr Wallace and Mr Somers now rest on their next move. We also note with dismay that Rangers director Sandy Easdale is continuing to pursue what we consider to be a confrontational and frivolous course of legal action against Sons of Struth. We would ask him to remember what it means to be a Rangers director and act accordingly if he wishes to enjoy the privileges of that position.

Alasdair Lamont ‏@BBCAlLamont 1m Rangers transfer Laxey £1m loan to fan and shareholder George Letham at a reduced interest rate.

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/a-shameful-state-of-play.html

Looks like he's going to be replaced by Neil Warnock at Forest. Wouldn't require any compensation now...

Seems that the bros or one of them are suing for £200K. In tomorrow's Record.

IF, LIKE me, you’re proud of the Scottish Cup being the oldest national football trophy in the world you might have issues with it copying other inferior johnny-come-lately tournaments. I’m thinking of the screeching pop music, the balsa-wood stage for the winners, the celebratory bouncing, even the foliage in the managers’ lapels. You were first, Scottish, do your own thing. Don’t be bullied by the Champions League into moving from sacred Saturday to Sunday. And – favourites of this column – let’s bring back the massed pipes and drums and the Alsatian obstacle-course. Some of those changes are modernisms and maybe we have to move with the times. But every year our clubs are writing the cup’s history, a dutiful task like that of the trophy’s engraver. And when future generations of football students and anoraks open up Wikipedia at season 2013-14, what will they see? That Rangers played their semi-final at Ibrox, their home ground. Seriously, that has to be a joke. What an all-consuming tale this is. Truly, our cup runneth over. There’s stupidity, arrogance, incompetence, intransigence, fatuousness, our-club’s-bigger-than-your-club juvenalia, delusions of grandeur, you name it. Let’s deal first with the delusions of grandeur. The Scottish Football Association, who announced as far back as last October that Ibrox would host both last-four ties due to Hampden being out of action, have in the midst of the rammy tried to cite Euro precedent. The Champions League final venue is confirmed a whole season in advance, they point out, and you’ve got to forward-plan. Who are they kidding? Without wishing to contradict myself, the Scottish Cup is not the Champions League. It does not need six months of planning. George Peat, the former SFA president, recalled seasons in the League Cup where the Scottish league would have less than a week to arrange all-ticket ties. Peat said that while the SFA would have signed a contract for Ibrox he couldn’t understand why they didn’t have a plan B in the event of Rangers reaching the semis. Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson reckoned he had a pretty good idea why: money. All current SFA chief executive Stewart Regan, pictured right, was interested in was the commercial benefits, he claimed. “Obviously looking after the sponsors is more important than it being a neutral venue.” Certainly Ibrox getting the semis and Celtic Park having the final sounds very SFA: a divvying up in the grand old tradition. But I do find it astonishing that no one in a blazer thought the cup could pan out like this. If no one did, requiring the plan B that Peat was talking about, then you have to wonder what kind of brains trust is running the game. The SFA have tried to pass the buck for being aware that Ibrox was the home of a club who potentially had semi-final aspirations back to the rest of Scottish football, saying that any concerns should have been raised at the time of the decision. It is here that the story becomes a bit murkier. You can find two different Dundee United responses. Yes, we had concerns and raised them then. No, we didn’t because it would have been presumptuous to suggest we’d be involved in the semis. But this isn’t the crucial aspect, and the second response would have been perfectly acceptable. The duty for organising one of the oldest club football competitions in the world, and avoiding the complete and utter embarrassment of one team having home advantage in their favour to reach the final, rests entirely with the SFA and it is both laughable and chilling that they appear not to have anticipated this could happen, or had a contingency plan, or were unprepared to change the venue when, as Peat says, they still had the best part of a month to do so. The bickering between Rangers and Dundee United was caused by the SFA, although the individual reactions of the clubs were fairly predictable. United laying into the game’s rulers, angry at the SFA’s tone, arguing that given the number of talented young footballers they were producing for the greater good they didn’t deserve such treatment. And Rangers, in the squabble over how many tickets United should receive, labelling their fans glory-hunters. Ally McCoist chose this moment to boast about Rangers’ bigger support. The last time United had been in a semi, against Celtic, Hampden was only half-full. His club’s fans didn’t just turn out for semis, McCoist said, but all games. Not true, of course – Ibrox wasn’t packed for the quarter-final against Albion Rovers – but the basic point hardly needed to be made: a lot of people like to watch Rangers do their special thing. The issue then became ludicrous with McCoist claiming no special benefits for his men from playing in the distinctive Govan air, with yon majestic Broomloan Stand rising up behind them and the classic criss-cross detailing by the great stadium architect Archibald Leitch so known to the team, like the tattoo on the back of a hand. “There’s very little to be taken from home advantage the higher you go in football,” he argued, before being quickly backed up by his striker Jon Daly. Sorry guys, but you’re talking tripe. Daly would not be saying “I don’t see Ibrox as being an advantage” if he was still a Dundee United player and McCoist would not be dismissing the venue as being of no significance if Rangers were facing a Scottish Cup final at Celtic Park against … Celtic. This too was among the scenarios of the SFA’s “planning” last October. They’ve avoided that, but a semi at the Big Hoose featuring its occupants is definitely happening. To be fair to McCoist and Thompson, they’ve toned down the language since the rumpus kicked off. But 12 April is currently shaping up as a dread day in the football calendar rather than one for families to enjoy. The SFA can still change the venue and they should. As things stand they’re doing no favours to Rangers save for stoking the defiance of their own fans and the conspiracy theories of the rest. They’re doing no favours to Dundee United who’ve been dealt a grossly unfair hand for sure but must be wondering if making such a stink could cause their young team to think their abilities to win are being doubted. Most of all, though, they’re discrediting the grand old Scottish Cup. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/aidan-smith-sfa-should-change-semi-final-venue-1-3350659

.......but I'll be happier sitting among our fans, says Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson. THOMPSON talks to HUGH KEEVINS as he stands firm in the face of the latest controversy over Scottish Cup semi-final tickets. DUNDEE UNITED chairman Stephen Thompson has paid a heavy personal price for holding strong opinions. Assailants have done community service for their threatening behaviour. His mobile phone number is changed as soon as it falls into the wrong hands. And even the salubrious surroundings of the Old Course Hotel at St Andrews were recently unable to provide him with a sanctuary from the problems connected with being the high-profile chairman of a successful football club. The glib summary of anti-social behaviour as it relates to people in the public eye is that abuse “goes with the territory”. Thompson sees it as the cost of defending his club’s position, which is why he was again thrust into the limelight with his protests over the choice of Ibrox as the venue for Dundee United’s Scottish Cup semi-final with Rangers on April 12. It’s not that the man who succeeded his late father Eddie as Tannadice chairman six years ago, having been a board member for five years before that, goes out of his way to look for trouble. When you’re in charge of a club that’s eaten up £6million of your family’s money, you don’t look for a show of gratitude that will never arrive. However, you do feel entitled to have your say if you feel aggrieved about something relating to the object of your highly expensive affection. As we sat in the boardroom at Tannadice, Thompson said: “I would have had a different, less stressful life if the club hadn’t been my dad’s passion, which I have inherited. “The money devoted to Dundee United could have set my family up for generations to come after the sale of the Morning, Noon and Night business we ran. “Now it’s millions of pounds that will never be seen again. But that was years ago and I don’t even think about it any more. “I know I’ll never get gratitude because that’s not how football works and I’m not in the game for gratitude in any case. “But I do love the club and I still go to the game with my scarf on, the way my father did.” But when United go to Ibrox for their cup tie, Thompson will sit in the Broomloan Stand housing the bulk of the club’s travelling support. It’s what you might term a strategic withdrawal in the interests of good order since Thompson is still, wrongly, held up to be a leading protagonist in the move to have the Ibrox club relocated in Scottish football’s bottom tier after they went into liquidation. He said: “I didn’t put Rangers in that position. I wasn’t even the first person from another club to speak out about what should happen when the newco asked to be allowed to stay in what was then the SPL. “I think Vladimir Romanov at Hearts was the first one to do that but he lived in Lithuania and I lived in Dundee. And people need to take their anger out on someone. “It hasn’t been funny over the past couple of years and when I got verbal abuse at the Old Course Hotel recently I did find myself wondering again why I’m in this business. “There’s been a price to be paid on a personal level but when Rangers’ situation was being discussed by the SPL clubs I had to listen to my team’s fans. “They were telling us they wouldn’t buy season tickets for Tannadice if United voted to let Rangers stay in the SPL. And pre-season sales that would normally have been around 4000-strong were reduced to 1500 tickets sold. The fans had made their intentions clear. “But that was two years ago and we have to move on. “I’m not snubbing the directors’ box at Ibrox on April 12. There will be a representative of the club in the boardroom before and after the match. “I’ll be in with the United fans because it’s something I do from time to time. I think I’m a down to earth man in that respect. I’ll be happier there on the day.” Winning the Scottish Cup is something Thompson experienced against Ross County at Hampden in 2010. And his memory of that time allows the listener to understand why the chairman this week campaigned to give his team the best venue and the most substantial backing he could in order to help them reach another final. He said: “My father saved this club. When he took over in 2002 we were shedding money at a frightening rate. “At our agm on Thursday night I was able to stand up and announce a profit for the third time in the past four years. We had a debt that peaked at £7m and now stands at £2.1m. Dundee United are in control of our own destiny and one of my ambitions is to be in charge here when we owe nothing to anyone. “For the first time in my 11 years as a board member I’m not worried about money but the game isn’t just about the club’s accounts. “When we brought the Cup back to Tannadice after beating Ross County my wife and I were the last two people to leave the ground following the open-topped bus drive through the city. “We put the Cup in the front seat of a taxi and the driver happened to be a devoted Dundee supporter. He asked me if he could touch the trophy and I said, ‘Yes, of course.’ “The Cup went to every primary and secondary school in the city. It was in every ward of Ninewells Hospital because just seeing it had this effect of making people happy. “You can forget the way football does that to people.” But even if United win access to another final at Rangers’ expense it won’t allow the chairman to exit the consequences which are attached to success. For the first time, Thompson has spoken about the possibility of losing his much talked-about youngsters and his manager, Jackie McNamara. He said: “My father would have loved watching this team with Andrew Robertson, Gary Mackay-Steven, John Souttar and Ryan Gauld. “We sold 650 half-season tickets because they were so good in the first part of the championship and people wanted to see them. That’s unheard of for us. “We’re not under any pressure to sell players because there’s no bank debt at the club any more and therefore no need to reduce borrowings on an annual basis. “But if the right offers come in then players will inevitably go because they’ll want to broaden their horizons and we’ll have a responsibility to the United fans who gave the club ‘friendly’ loans to see they get their money back in a percentage of the transfer fees. “Jackie’s a managerial talent and he’ll move on one day as well, although hopefully not for a few years yet. “We’ve never talked about it between us but if Jackie does move it will be because he has continued to be successful with Dundee United.” And what about the chairman who freely admits to having been turned into an insomniac by the demands of high office? The man who went to see Manchester United play Liverpool last Sunday with a ticket bought in a charity auction and suddenly realised he was enjoying himself because the final score didn’t matter to him. He said: “I don’t sleep properly because I’m always thinking about the future of the club. Uptight is the norm for me. “At the end of my father’s first season in charge we had to avoid defeat to Inverness to stay in the top flight while knowing relegation would have cost the club £2m. That’s the pressure you live under. “My belief is there will be some form of regionalised European league within the next five years and I want United to be ready if that opportunity arises. “There’s no given right to be anywhere and no rightful place for any club. You have to earn whatever you get. “I’ll keep going until we are debt free and have money in the bank. “I’m like my dad because I’m all or nothing and I stick to what I believe in. “I could keep schtum about certain things but I won’t because I need to be true to myself when I’m the majority shareholder at Tannadice.” That’s 53 per cent of the action and 100 per cent of the hassle when it comes to the events of this week.

The Rangers Supporters Trust (RST) is deeply concerned by the comments attributed to the Arab Trust Chairman Stephen Hughes. Specifically that he feels Dundee United fans would not be safe at the upcoming Scottish Cup semi-final between the two sides. In making this statement, Mr Hughes does not provide any evidence to back up his wildly inaccurate claims. Unfortunately, it would appear that the Arab Trust is actively trying to create additional tension between the clubs and fans ahead of the game. Furthermore, the Arab Trust does have a history of trying to antagonise the Rangers support, having called the club and the support 'huns' on numerous occasions on their official Twitter account. We would like to point out that, in 2011, Rangers were awarded the SPL Family Champions Award at a time when the Dundee United Chairman was on the SPL board. There is also a great deal of irony in Mr Hughes' fanciful claims given that an Arab Trust board member is actively promoting a 'family only' bus travelling to the game. This would appear to be yet another unprovoked attack trying to damage the fantastic reputation of the Rangers support. Recent remarks regarding safety attributed to United chairman, Stephen Thomson are also of concern, and we would expect the Rangers board to be actively seeking clarification in this regard

The quality and passion of posters in my Comments section is well-known. The haters gnash their teeth but many Rangers fans admire the community of loyal bluenoses we have on here. Every now and then we get a belter post that simply has to be given a wider platform. Here is one from The Kilty – a regular poster who always has something constructive to say. If it were me, I’d get 30,000 leaflets printed with this on it for the next home game:- For some ungodly reason Rangers fans all see themselves as corporate business men and tax experts. Rangers fans, unless they are shareholders, have no inherent right to be given any transparency. The business dealings of the club have nothing whatsoever to do with any season ticket holder or ticket buying fan unless they have, as I said, become a shareholder in Rangers International Football Club plc and that is the bottom line. The Board only need answer to the shareholders. For some reason this notion of fan power and a false importance have been placed on the rank and file, along with their lust for knowledge that quite frankly many could not understand, including myself. This may spring from bad business conducted by the club in the past but it still does not give any fan the right to have any commercially sensitive information divulged to them. I am sick hearing phrases like “Who are BPH?“ and “We want transparency” as well as “Where did the money go?” We also hear “The Rangers performance was rubbish – we need better players” which then leads to “These players are getting paid too much” and the old favourite of “The board are ****s” with moans that they took bonuses. Unless you are a shareholder, none of that is any of your business. I have heard the standard excuse: “Well ah paid ma season ticket money so am entitled” but sorry, thats not the case. There are a vast multitude of Rangers fans that spend more per week from their wages in Tescos and Asda and some on beers and spirits so by the same argument if I spend £50 a week on Tennents lager I should say who is on the board of the company. My Mrs spends easy £80 a week in Tescos – do you think they would tell me who their investors are ?? Or that I could get a group of my pals together and stand outside with blue cards waving them so that they would listen? As for King, what he is doing is nothing short of trying to muscle his way in using blackmail. Is that what the norm is now? Get off to a great start, take control by default but when he doesn’t do as the fans want, is he a **** or does he have to go too? It has been said often and ignored just as much that you can take a whale out of the pool and put it in a bowl; it’s still a whale with all the needs of that whale. Rangers are that whale, stuck in a fish bowl. Did it cost any less to run Ibrox last year compared to the year before? Did Murray Park suddenly become a free enterprise zone ? We are in the same position as many companies are in and that is experiencing temporary cash flow problems. Many forget with all the transparency gurgling and ****s out pish that these men on the board have ensured we are debt free. All that on the back of reduced season ticket prices due to the division that was being played in. Rangers don’t need transparency, they need STABILITY. That’s what makes teams win by good margins and that’s what makes the share price rise. It’s what gets sponsors, it’s what makes individuals and corporate investors want to part with their investment cash. At the present time no one wants to put money in just to get told what to do by delusional fans or have pathetic displays of disloyalty to men who put their hands in their own pockets to buy into our Club. Im sorry but at the end of the day your ticket gets you in to be entertained at a football match – that’s where it stops unless, as I said, you are a shareholder in the management company. If you are not entertained, don’t go back; that’s your choice. I know that emotions etc complicate things but that is the bottom line.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/19/scottish-cup-success-would-mean-rangers-have-had-a-better-season-than-celtic-4642294/ Thoughts?

Hi, I'm an open and avid proponent of Rangers First - I really believe this can be great for the club and the support. I have been sending this out to my contacts list and thought it could be worth an airing on here: As all Rangers Supporters know it has been a turbulent few years. We seem to move from one crisis to another and I think we are all getting to the stage where the common consensus is that something must be done. The average fan is seeking to have a more open relationship with the club, people who previously had no interest in the on goings behind the scenes at the club are now demanding transparency and openness. There is a swell of support for increased fan involvement at Rangers Football Club – and something that has previously not received a great deal of wide support is now become a possibility. Rangers First is a fan led membership vehicle, backed by Supporters Direct – a government funded organisation, for fan ownership that is seeking to purchase shares in Rangers in order to achieve the goal of the fans having transparent authoritative consultation with the club. The goal is to ensure that every Rangers fan knows exactly where the club are and where we are going – the advantages of which will lead to greater fan engagement of the club ensuring our illustrious history continues into the future. Once that initial goal has been achieved Rangers First has the capability of increasing the revenue potential of the club in order to help us regain our position as the dominant club of Scottish Football. Rangers First is a CIC (community interest company) that is set up to benefit the Rangers Community. There are currently over 900 members who have signed up to Rangers First within two weeks of the launch and have already donated various levels of finance with membership starting from as little as £5 per month in order to allow as many fans as possible to have a say in the club. It was agreed at the initial meetings that Rangers First is not interested in getting involved with the internal politics at the club (who is on the board does not matter) – we are only interested in getting the fans a voice to ensure that they stay engaged with the club and to help ensure that Rangers stays the greatest and most successful club in the country. We are focused on community involvement and fan governance - you will not see any controversial statements coming from us. We are a democratic organisation that seeks to give the fans a voice. No fan involved will receive any financial reward or payment – we are all volunteers trying to make a difference at the club. Ideally we are looking for 1872 people to buy a life membership at £500 which will give us enough cash to buy circa 5% of the club. 5% being an important number in a plc allowing Rangers First several capabilities including the ability to call an EGM. For the good of Rangers, and The Rangers Support, I would ask of you as a supporter of the club to consider becoming a member of Rangers First. If you could take the time to look at http://www.rangersfirst.org it would be greatly appreciated. I myself, and my family are all taking out life memberships in Rangers First as well as a monthly contribution. We are also donating our shares bought at the IPO to Rangers First. This is something I believe can be the vehicle that ensures we get back to where we should be. Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask me. I’m sure we can make a difference. We Are The People - Any constructive feedback?

Tomorrow is an important fixture in our season. Rangers have the chance to progress to the last four of the Scottish Cup and we are looking forward to a cracking match! Come down to The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium for the Quintessential Televised Football Viewing Experience and watch the match amongst your own. We will be showing tomorrow’s game live on our six 60” TVs in full high definition – the way televised football should be shown. We invite any Rangers Supporter who can make it to the vicinity of the home of fantasy football to join us in celebrating the continuing unbroken history of the most successful team in the history of the game. Renowned for our quick service, our staff will ensure you never have to wait long to get a drink. We provide an atmosphere second to none and for clarification – we don’t and never have had a cover charge. Come in for The Premier Rangers Supporters’ Matchday Experience in The Quintessential Rangers Supporters Pub. And of course we will still be providing our much sought after free pies Situated across from Ibrox Subway Station, there is easy access to and from all city destinations. If you are not able to attend our premises we hope that you will use your local Rangers Supporters pub or club. All Rangers minded venues need your help – use them or lose them! Watch The Game… Support Your Own We Are The People God Bless The Rangers The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium - More than a Pub Official Partner of The Rangers Football Club One Rangers… No Factions – http://www.thelouden.co.uk, @TheLoudenTavern *We are responsible for The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium, 111 Copland Road, Ibrox, G51 2SL solely and are not involved in the operation of any other premises

A LEAGUE One title may have been toasted a mere five days ago but it is tomorrow’s Scottish Cup quarter-final replay against Albion Rovers that will determine how this season is remembered for Rangers. In the unlikely event of the fourth-tier part-timers ousting opponents that operate with the second-highest wage bill in the country, their campaign will be captured in that moment. Rangers’ Nicky Law is fully alive to what is on the line at New Douglas Park. “The tie does define our season, because if we lose it, I don’t know what the reaction would be... but I am guessing obviously it wouldn’t be good. With all due respect to Albion we should be winning and bad as we played in the first game, we had chances to do so then.” Progress to the semi-final and an Ibrox meeting with Dundee United would see Rangers “looked upon differently” and not as favourites, Law acknowledged, for just about the first time in a season. “I think Rangers at full strength in the SPL back three years ago lost to Dundee United at home, so you are never guaranteed to win the Scottish Cup.” United have, in fact, eliminated Rangers from the Scottish Cup three times in the past four years. The off-field wranglings over ownership and never-ending concerns over the viability of the club will eclipse anything that happens on the field short of Rangers becoming the first third tier team to win Scottish Cup. But Law would argue that such is the hostility towards the football produced by the Ibrox men, even that redemptive outcome would not spare them from criticism. “If we could win the cup it would be fantastic. I’m sure a few people wouldn’t enjoy it if we did – we would probably be called the worst side in history to win the Scottish Cup I would have thought,” he said. Law doesn’t spare his own team from criticism. Since the turn of the year he believes Rangers’ form has been poor. In mitigation, a subconscious switching off was always likely when the Ibrox men were so far ahead of the opposition. There is reason to believe that the superior players in the Rangers squad will perform to a higher level when faced with full-time opponents of greater abilities in the Championship next year. The candid Law is of that mind. “In that league there are better players and hopefully teams will be 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 and have a go,” he said. “That should make the games better and also make it better for us. No offence to this league but a lot of the boys are too good for this level and it will be good to test ourselves against better teams.” Despite being unbeaten in the league, Rangers have come to be seen as fallible. Albion Rovers manager James Ward has not blanched at stating his side will make the semi-finals. But while McCoist could rest players against Dunfermline yesterday with the league won, Ward had to run with players who were going down with cramp even in the latter stages of the Ibrox encounter. All of which makes Ward’s conviction that his men will prevail sound like a motivational technique. “James is a great man, absolutely,” said McCoist. “He’s positive and that’s the way he should be. It’s up to us to make sure he is wrong. But I thought his team did him proud on Sunday and he is saying exactly the type of thing you would hope your manager would say. I can understand his psychology and fair play to him. I’m obviously hopeful there would be a bit of Ally MacLeod in there.” A man who, it should be noted, made his name with a domestic cup success against a Glasgow club. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/rangers-season-defined-by-scottish-cup-says-law-1-3342254

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/6545-club-statement

...............and staff were threatened... but Raith Rovers chairman Hutton says: I'd do it all again It's now 20 months since Turnbull Hutton stood up to be counted amid threats and warnings of the imminent 'slow lingering death' of the Scottish game. But the only thing dying around Stark's Park in March 2014 is the chairman's latest attempt at comedy on his club's website. With no victories for Raith Rovers in the Championship since mid-December, a tongue-in-cheek message from the 67-year-old to fans declaring 'Don't Panic' and signed by 'Captain Mainwaring aka Turnbull Hutton' has gone down like a lead balloon among the denizens of Kirkcaldy. 'Supporters of other clubs liked it but I've been accused by Rovers supporters of patronising them. I've even been accused of being on the sauce while writing it. I've not had a drink this year,' chuckles the Harvard University-educated former head of United Distillers. His point to the malcontents is that Rovers are, these days, in pretty decent nick. They reached the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup before crashing to St Johnstone and a Ramsdens Cup final against Rangers awaits at Easter Road next month. Grant Murray's team might be just four points from the relegation play-offs, but they are also sitting six points from fourth place in Scotland's tightest league. And, vitally, off the park, Raith Rovers turned a profit last year. After the fall of the SPL that Hutton so reviled, clubs like them are now earning four times as much as they did under the old set-up. It's certainly not the Armageddon chillingly forewarned by the SPL's Neil Doncaster two summers ago; an episode that saw Hutton endure a crash course in fan animosity that makes the current levels of disgruntlement at his Dad's Army stunt seem akin to a spot of love-bombing. In July 2012, Hutton led the fightback against what he saw as attempts by the SFA and SPL to 'blackmail' the SFL into solving an SPL problem, using 'a campaign of misinformation and disinformation'. SFL club reps like Hutton were told by SFA chief executive Stewart Regan that a 'slow lingering death' awaited the national game if newly-liquidated Rangers were sent all the way down to the Third Division. Hutton's impromptu Monty Python-inspired speech on the steps of Hampden, when he branded the SPL a dead parrot, saw him emerge as an accidental hero to a wider Scottish football public unimpressed by the authorities' attempts to give the fallen Ibrox club a softer landing in the old First Division. But the fallout also saw Hutton labelled Public Enemy No 1 by Rangers fans. He still maintains his motivation was to stick up for his under-fire director, Eric Drysdale, who was on the SFA's supposedly-anonymous panel that, in April 2012, handed Rangers a one-year transfer embargo and banned Craig Whyte for life from any involvement in Scottish football after he ran the club on to the rocks of ruin. Despite a particularly nasty backlash, however, the redoubtable Hutton says he would take the same stance if it happened again. 'There was all this talk about Armageddon and the slow death of Scottish football, but the best thing to come out of that whole episode was the death of the SPL,' he said. 'I didn't need or want that kind of profile. People forget that situation did not come about because of the Rangers financial situation. It was because of the involvement of Eric on that three-man panel. 'Ally McCoist's famous "who are these people?" speech kicked off a whole series of events that placed me to the fore. Eric was eventually outed, we had threats to our staff, supposedly viable threats to burn our stadium down. 'Eventually you think: "To hell with this!" How could I support the rule book being ripped up for Rangers? I came out on the steps of Hampden, had 25 reporters in my face and I told it like it bl**dy well was. 'But you stick your head above the parapet and suddenly you're all over the bl**dy internet and it spiralled out of control. I became "Turnbull The Tim", which I found quite amusing. But pro-Celtic - or anti-Rangers - had nothing to do with me taking the stand I did. 'I got some charming personal emails. One said: "I hope you die of cancer" and "The only slow lingering death I want to see is yours, Hutton". 'But there were far more supportive emails than nasty ones. I tried to answer them all but it got too much. I stuck them in a "love" file and a "hate" file on my computer and I've still got them to this day. 'Looking back, would I play it different if it started today? I don't think I could and I don't think I would. 'You've got to stand up for what you believe in. The consequences of speaking your mind are beyond your control but I'd do it all again. Everything that's happened since then suggests my view was the right one.' In a month's time, Rangers - still mired in a financial maelstrom - are due to cross paths with Raith Rovers for the first time since that fateful summer. Hutton expects a backlash. 'Ally McCoist is the only one from Rangers we've spoken to,' he nodded. 'He came to see us playing Dumbarton. Eric Drysdale and I passed the time of day with him, and it was fine. But the other faces at Rangers keep changing and we've never played them since. 'There's still a hangover from when that whole episode was at its peak, with the likes of Sandy Jardine mouthing off about boycotts and stuff like: "We won't forget". 'I don't know if we are still on a boycott list but I'd imagine the Ramsdens Cup Final won't be a happy family day, filled with brotherly love. 'I've been involved with the tournament from its inception and there have been some wonderful finals over the years, like Dundee United vs Stenhousemuir and Alloa vd Inverness. They were all happy family days out but I've a feeling this year's won't be.' This season also 'marks' the 10th anniversary of another dark episode in Hutton's colourful Stark's Park tenure. Not even his formidable 35-year business background could have prepared him for the crazy five-month tenure of Claude Anelka, brother of France's enfant terrible Nicolas. Claude's previous job had been as a DJ in a Miami nightclub and he arrived with a fearsome sidekick named Styx amid promises of luring a stream of 'new Thierry Henrys' to Kirkcaldy. 'It was Monty Python stuff, frankly,' says Hutton, who joined the Rovers board in 2000 and found himself increasingly 'sucked in' to becoming a 'reluctant chairman'. 'I took a stroke in April 2004 and I was out of the frame for around eight weeks, which was unfortunate, because at the same time Claude Anelka surfaced. He promised £180,000 per season for the playing budget and, as a struggling First Division club, the board had to look at that. 'He was going to be director of football, with Antonio Calderon staying as manager - but Antonio couldn't work with him and he packed up and returned to Spain. 'Claude became boss and, unknown to me, held a press conference and gave a line about making Raith Scottish football's third force. 'Then Styx arrived with all of his belongings stuffed in the back of a Peugeot van; a pile of soul records, 10 to 12 pairs of trainers and a heap of unwashed jeans. 'We had supposed "young superstars" turning up who had never played 11-a-side before. There were Czechs, Muslims, French players, English guys and the odd Scot. You name it. 'Raith at the time had more rented housing in Kirkcaldy than the Scottish Special Housing Association. That came back to bite us when they all disappeared and we were left to pay the outstanding council tax and electricity arrears. 'Anelka did put the money in, but the additional costs far exceeded his investment. It was a pretty big fiasco and, when it came to a halt, we were left to pick up the pieces. 'There were meetings with our local MP (and future Prime Minister) Gordon Brown, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, as the Reclaim The Rovers campaign gathered pace. 'But some investment failed to materialise and that rescue deal was seriously under-funded. We've been battling that legacy ever since. 'Ironically, it's only in the last two years we've seen a turnaround, helped by league reconstruction. Before it was £60,000 to win the First Division, now it's £60,000 per place.' Hutton has seen high times with Rovers, particularly when Jimmy Nicholl's team stunned Celtic to win the League Cup in 1994. He was also in the Olympic Stadium with his son and daughter the following year for a 'once-in-a-lifetime experience' when Danny Lennon's goal saw the famous, if short-lived, scoreline: Bayern Munich 0 Raith Rovers 1. Given the club's chequered financial history in the modern era, however, in typically blunt fashion Turnbull prioritises Championship survival over a potential first Scottish Cup triumph in Raith's 131-year history. 'If I had to make a call, I'd rather we stayed up,' he says. 'I don't want to be a Wigan and win the Cup and go down. I know some supporters would take a different view but balancing the books is paramount. 'Winning the Cup would be a fleeting moment of glory and then a short-lived trip to a Russian outpost. Cup success would also bring its own financial challenges in terms of stadium improvements for a one-off shot at European football. 'I'd be more excited about the St Johnstone game if we weren't on a disastrous run. St Johnstone's Tommy Wright and Callum Davidson came to see us against Hamilton last month and we were 4-0 down at half-time. I hope that lulled them into a false sense of security.' With that, the chuckling Hutton heads off to an appointment with his dentist. 'His name is Graeme Smart and he supports Hibs, who we beat 3-2 at Easter Road in the last round. His brother Gordon is married to Kate, daughter of (Dunfermline legend) Jim Leishman. If Graeme goes above the usual pain threshold this time, I'll go for him …' Whatever else has been said about this Burntislander, and there has been plenty, nobody would ever describe time spent in Turnbull Hutton's company as akin to pulling teeth. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2576251/Rangers-supporters-branded-Public-Enemy-No-1-stadium-staff-threatened-Raith-Rovers-chairman-Hutton-says-Id-again.html#ixzz2vs7DmEeS Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

We will be open from 4pm for tomorrow’s title decider against Airdrieonians. We invite any Rangers Supporter who can make it to the vicinity of the home of fantasy football to join us in celebrating the continuing unbroken history of the most successful team in the game. Renowned for our quick service and great pints, our staff will ensure you never have to wait long to get a drink. We also provide free rolls, free pies, an atmosphere second to none and for clarification – we don’t and never have had a cover charge. We also never do tickets for a Rangers game, all supporters are welcome. Situated across from Ibrox Subway Station, there is easy access to and from all city destinations. Although not completely finished, the outside drinking and smoking area will be available to enjoy our wonderful winter climate… We also have a bottle bar there that will get those in the beer garden served in no time. In addition to the premier pre-match atmosphere we will be showing live football games on our six 60” full HD televisions in the bar area and five big screen televisions in the lounge area for an ideal sports event viewing experience. Come in for The Premier Rangers Supporters’ Matchday Experience in The Quintessential Rangers Supporters Pub. One Rangers… No Factions – http://www.thelouden.co.uk @TheLoudenTavern We Are The People God Bless The Rangers The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium - More than a Pub Official Partner of The Rangers Football Club *We are responsible for The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium, 111 Copland Road, Ibrox, G51 2SL solely and are not involved in the operation of any other premises

KEITH says the resurgence of Aberdeen under the impressively astute Derek McInnes is something that should be cherished and encouraged at a time when Scottish football is struggling. DEREK McINNES has done the first part of the job. A huge red monster has been poked in the ribs. Consciousness has now been successfully regained. But here’s the trouble with waking a sleeping giant. You better make sure it gets out of the right side of the bed because you wouldn’t like it when it’s angry. And you most certainly don’t want to be the cause of its ire. For example, if McInnes does not win the League Cup Final – after watching the abysmal manner in which Inverness Caley Thistle self-destructed against Dundee United yesterday – then he may suddenly find himself with some explaining to do. Worse still, even if McInnes does deliver the Pittodrie punters with their first piece of silver since 1995 on Sunday, he might still be chased the length of Union Street by the natives should somehow fate dictate that he loses a Scottish Cup Final to Rangers. Now don’t laugh. I’m serious. Okay so first Ally McCoist will have to find a way of getting past Albion Rovers in a replay next week. And you wouldn’t bet bad money on them doing anything of the kind. Then – against all odds – they’ll have to deal with the effervescence of Dundee United in the semis. At the same time, McInnes will have to negotiate a way past St Johnstone. But the truth is if Rangers somehow make it to the Final, McInnes might never recover from the shame of not seeing this lot off. In fact, the most damning thing about this latest Rangers humiliation is it did not even register as a shock to see them scrambling to salvage a 1-1 draw against a team of part-time kids on £20 a week. A mild surprise? Perhaps. Shockingly unprofessional? Absolutely. But anyone who was actually, genuinely left slack-jawed in amazement at what went on at Ibrox yesterday afternoon has clearly not been paying due attention to the mess this club has made of itself on and off the park in recent times. So woe betide McInnes then if he should somehow find a way not to do away with his old club. Aberdeen, you see, are standing on the shoulders of history. For more years now than anyone cares to remember this has been one big Incredible Sulk of a football club. Consistently, almost without fail in fact it has punched way below its weight. Often embarrassingly so. But two cups and a second-placed finish in the league can end all that. To put it simply even though there was a similar high point back in 1990 the recent years of bottom-six finishes and the ensuing onset of being comatose this could be the single greatest Aberdeen awakening since Gothenburg. Or it could take crestfallen to new levels. But before it goes one way or the other let’s add a sense of perspective to Aberdeen’s rise while remembering “In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is King”. We could rework that old saying for the modern-day game in this country. In the land of the incompetents, the mediocre man wins medals. And before this mighty and mobilising Red Army starts frothing at the mouth let me make one thing clear. Recently in these very pages, not only did I write that Aberdeen are now well and truly back but, what is more, all of Scottish football should be glad about it. The fact they have shifted more than 40,000 tickets for Sunday’s cup final at Celtic Park merely confirms that a healthy, vibrant Aberdeen is good for business. The game in this country doesn’t have a lot going for it right now but the resurgence of this club under the impressively astute McInnes is something that should be cherished and encouraged. They have been out cold up north for far too long. But while all of that is true, it would be absurd to start fawning over this Aberdeen team or to mistake McInnes’s players for a new batch of Willie Millers, Alex McLeishs and Mark McGhees when evidently they are not. In today’s world they do not need to be. Aberdeen must only achieve competence to emerge as this country’s second force. McInnes has simply been smart enough to recognise this as a fact. Just look at the slapstick defending that cost Inverness their place in the semi-finals yesterday. Some of it was hysterical. Much of it was beyond parody. And this from a team competing in the last eight of the Scottish Cup? It would not seem unreasonable to expect better of a team playing on a public park. In the current climate, simply being competent, resolute and organised is enough to turn any team into genuine contenders. The difference at Pittodrie is McInnes is both smart enough to realise it and capable enough to make it happen. When he brought in Barry Robson and Willo Flood in the summer, McInnes was hanging his hat on the tried and tested. Men who have been over the course and back again. Even at the peak of their powers they were never considered to be world beaters. Their career highs came and went more than five years ago when both of them ended up at Gordon Strachan’s Celtic. The truth is, they’ve been on a downward trajectory ever since. The fact they are now the joint powerhouses in Aberdeen’s engine room suggests clearly the decline of the Scottish game has been a great deal steeper and faster than that of their own. McInnes was shrewd enough to identify even if this pair’s best days are beyond them they are still better than most of their contemporaries. And it was the same in January when McInnes pulled off another fine piece of business in bringing Adam Rooney back to the Scottish top flight. That signing, in my view, secured second spot in the table. It may well turn out to have bought McInnes a cup double too. And yet the reason Rooney was available for free was because he had just been released by League One outfit Oldham, despite his previously prolific stint in Inverness. On Saturday, Rooney scored his sixth goal in eight appearances for Aberdeen to knock Dumbarton out of the Scottish Cup quarters. McInnes conceded after that nervy 1-0 win some of his players are starting to feel the pressure that comes with the weight of expectation bearing down on their slender shoulders. That’s human nature and perfectly understandable. But they should worry not. They are the best of the rest and now is no time for self-doubt to get in their way and stop them from reaching out to claim what is theirs. It’s not rocket science. They have the second-best team in the country because they have assembled the second-best group of players. McInnes has spent well. His squad’s wage bill is significantly short of £2million and miles shy of the £6m currently being wasted by Rangers. Which just goes to show sound management is not just as simple as signing big cheques. Yes, McInnes has made Aberdeen a force again. He had better not blow it all now.

.......can only trade on his past glories as a player for so long. HUGH believes the Ibrox manager misjudged the mood after the draw with Albion Rovers and has only increased the pressure on himself from the supporters. IT would take James Ward, at his current rate of pay with Albion Rovers, 100 years to earn what Ally McCoist gets in 12 months at Ibrox. That’s not a flight of fantasy plucked out of the air for dramatic effect in the aftermath of Sunday’s 1-1 Scottish Cup draw between the clubs at Ibrox. It’s a cold fact underlining what two opposite worlds look like when their differences are written down in black and white. Football is indivisible from money, and that holds true with a vengeance at hard-up Rangers, where they’re borrowing money to look after their borrowings. What Albion Rovers did at Ibrox was to come within 13 minutes of eliminating the home team from a competition which would be worth £1million to Rangers if they won it. That’s also how close Ally came to losing his job as manager for non-commercial reasons. Defeat from Rovers would have been the most humiliating result in Rangers’ history and formed employment law’s grounds for constructive dismissal. It didn’t happen in the end, and slipping the noose is perfectly allowable in football. Sir Alex Ferguson, the greatest manager of them all, did it when he went through the barren years in his start at Old Trafford. Neil Lennon was forgiven a 2-0 defeat from Ross County in a Scottish Cup semi-final and promoted from interim to permanent manager at Celtic Park in spite of that embarrassment. But there are those who believe Rangers’ off-field problems have disguised McCoist’s shortcomings on the managerial front. Not any longer. The manager’s declaration that a replay against Albion Rovers did not represent any kind of embarrassment has resonated badly with the Rangers fans. It has focused their attention on matters on the field while they wait for the next battle in the civil war for power at Ibrox to commence. Ally said he was withdrawing from the front line on that issue to get on with being the manager. And he was quite right to do so. McCoist has compromised his better judgment and given public support to individuals he might otherwise have left well alone over the past couple of years. But his desire to see Rangers emerge from the morass created by administration, liquidation and manipulation by people who used the club for their own ends got the better of him. Now he’d be better advised to focus on himself because too many Rangers fans are questioning his judgment as a manager. Ally might genuinely have been trying to be respectful to Ward, his counterpart, and all associated with Rovers when he said there was no embarrassment attached to being taken to a replay by them. That’s not how the Rangers fans saw it, and they’re the barometer of public opinion the Ibrox boss has to be aware of at times like these. The season started with a League Cup defeat suffered in extra time against the part-time professionals of Forfar Athletic. Not much changes, it appears. Ninety-five minutes against a League Two collection of gas fitters and office workers wasn’t enough time for Rangers to remove Albion Rovers from the Scottish Cup. There comes a time when past history as a player becomes an irrelevance. The greatest of them all on both sides of Glasgow’s great divide – John Greig, Jock Wallace, Billy McNeill, Tommy Burns and Davie Hay – were dispensed with when considered to be unfit for purpose. Reputation saves no one if your face no longer fits. It’s astonishing to think Ally will, in all probability, win a second, straight league title tomorrow night when Rangers host Airdrie while bedlam breaks loose all around him. But he’s lived in that frenzied environment since he signed for Rangers from Sunderland just over 30 years ago. Ally’s in the dock, and his list of “previous” where domestic and European failures are concerned has been brought up to be used in evidence against him. Uncertainty is in the air at Ibrox as Dave King prepares to fly into Glasgow tomorrow and challenge the club’s idea of proper governance at boardroom level. The manager will sit that one out as he prepares for the replay with Albion Rovers on Monday night at Hamilton’s New Douglas Park. Defeat is unthinkable. If you want to be judged purely on what you do as a manager then you must expect a jury to be formed for that purpose. And there are more than cinema’s Twelve Angry Men waiting to pass sentence on Ally unless he can offer a more convincing case for the defence than was evident at the weekend. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hugh-keevins-rangers-manager-ally-3228364