2015/16 Match Preview Schedule - Volunteer to write a Gersnet Match Preview!

Zappa · September 12, 2015

I'll do Morton if you like.

Great stuff, thanks! That's your name down for it.

We're constantly looking for volunteers folks, so if anyone fancies writing a preview for a certain match just say which one and we'll put your name down for it.

_____________________________________________________________

Upcoming:

SEP 19 - Dumbarton v Rangers - SPFL Championship - LucyBlue

SEP 22 - Rangers v St Johnstone - League Cup R3 - Pete

SEP 27 - Morton v Rangers - SPFL Championship - Germinal

OCT 03 - Rangers v Falkirk - SPFL Championship - ???

OCT 09 - Rangers v Livingston - Petrofac Training Cup QF - ???

OCT 17 - Rangers v QotS - SPFL Championship - ???

OCT 25 - St Mirren v Rangers - SPFL Championship - Frankie

_____________________________________________________________

Completed:

JUL 25 - Hibs v Rangers - Petrofac Training Cup R1 - Frankie (done)

AUG 02 - Rangers v Peterhead - League Cup R1 - Pete (done)

AUG 07 - Rangers v St Mirren - SPFL Championship - 26th of foot (done)

AUG 16 - Alloa v Rangers - SPFL Championship - Rousseau (done)

AUG 19 - Ayr Utd v Rangers - Petrofac Training Cup R2 - Germinal (done)

AUG 23 - Rangers v Hibs - SPFL Championship - Zappa (done)

AUG 26 - Airdrie v Rangers - League Cup R2 - Frankie (done by last minute stand-in)

AUG 30 - QotS v Rangers - SPFL Championship - Rousseau (done)

SEP 05 - Rangers v Raith Rovers - SPFL Championship - JohnMc (done)

SEP 12 - Rangers v Livingston - SPFL Championship - andthefoxsays (done)

_____________________________________________________________

Germinal · September 12, 2015

***Warning**** will contain extra pretentiousness and tenuous allusions

Germinal · September 25, 2015

Swing, Hammer

As my kids enter their middle teens, I find myself missing the time when we actually enjoyed each others company. Having been replaced by an electronic Dad in the shape of Bill Gates, I cling to the few things we still do together...eating, although watching a young man shovel food in his gaping maw while periodically grunting in response to questions has rather lost its charm, and...er, that's it.

When they were younger, I loved experiencing things I had forgotten from my own childhood. The smell of Airfix modelling glue, the taste of Rusks, rolling plasticene worms and making Lego: maybe it's as well we don't comprehend the sheer scale of information the brain retains, since I suppose there's as much unhappy as happy memories stored up there. But they were nice days, even allowing for the triedness. The difference in energy levels between the very young and 30 somethings who have just gone through four years of sleep deprivation is something which cannot be described, only experienced.

One experience I looked forward to sharing was going to Ibrox with my sons. Sadly, the eldest hates all sports but the youngest was happy to get kitted up and head up the motorway when he was younger. The size of the stadium, the noise of the fans, the smell of the food...it all came back, although admittedly the smells back in the 80's, when I started going, were less worthy of appreciation than today's clean ground filled with aromatic smelling fans. I'm not sure deodorant was widely used in the early 1980's, being seen as so effeminate that a grave suspicions were harboured about those who did use it. It was strictly soap in those days. Imperial Leather! Wright's Coal Tar! Shield!

Like so many bars of soap, though, my boy's toleration of football played the McCoist way washed away to nothing after two seasons of it, and I am slightly ashamed to admit I was relieved to have an excuse not to endure it myself. Those were dark days, and despite Tuesday's reversal in the League Cup most Bears are surely still happy to head to the match rather than having to force themselves along as before. Not even I would wish what looks like being a chilly day in Greenock on my child, though.

Greenock must have had something going for it once, to go by the high status Victorian architecture you can see as you hurry through to the nice bit that lies beyond, Gourock. Having worked there and in Port Glasgow during the 2000's the only industry on view seemed to be shop lifting and drug taking, a sad reflection on the decline of the heavy industry, primarily shipbuilding, which once put money in men's pockets and used up their energy in pursuits more worthwhile than sticking a needle in a vein.

No doubt Greenock grandfathers of a certain age look back at their youth and wish they could share their experiences of the town when it was alive and kicking with their grandchildren, but in all brutal honesty revitalising the area will be a huge task. Far easier to breathe new life into a football team, and both Rangers under Warburton, and Morton under Jim Duffy, are taking strides in the right direction. Defeating Motherwell, as Morton did on Tuesday, may not be much of a coup but it was more than we could manage so fair's fair.

Two clubs, then, rebuilding in the shadows of their pasts, looking to fire the imaginations of fans young and old. If Morton beat what is a swashbuckling, freewheeling Rangers side it'll live long in the memory of Morton fans, and it would hard to grudge them such a day, given they must bear the heavy burden of being associated with certain low rent omnibus operators - hard to grudge, that is, were they playing someone else.

Because we have as much need to start building memories of our own. I'm just old enough to remember the Gers playing at Cappielow in the early 80's now and again, and while my memories are mostly of being freezing cold the point is that I have the memories at all. With mild chastisement ringing in their ears from Tuesday night and hopefully, a desire to make someone pay for the first defeat of the season, there's a good chance we'll see a good showing from Rangers on Sunday. The pitch at Cappielow, relaid in the summer, is in stunning condition which should suit the way we play. No doubt this will be seen as the usual Rangers arrogance but if we play as we can do, we could rack up another 5 or 6 goal win. What a memory that would be for some young fan!

Let's go to work.

Edited September 25, 2015 by Germinal

pete · September 25, 2015

Cheers Germinal another great read. While I can't really remember ever going to a game at Cappielow I had an uncle who stayed on the hill above it so I probably passed it more than any other football ground other than Ibrox. As I worked for a time in the Royal Ordanance factory in Bishopton I knew many workers from Greenock where many were female. I was then a young 17\18 year old who was brought up in general in a no swearing family and for females it really was a real no,no.

Well the year+ that I worked there I certainly learned swear words from the females that I never even knew existed. Adult females telling me they would love to get a hold of me and screw me was totally alien to me. All the buildings at the ROF are covered in grass mounds for explosion safety and regularly on the night shift you could hear the sound of sexual grunting at the back of such a mound. On a few nights out to Greenock I was just totally shocked by the language and females telling explicitely of their sexual wishes in a greenock slang sort of way. Maybe it is unfare on all the inhabitants of Greenock as a whole to have these memories, but as a young 17 year old it certainly made a big impression on my thoughts of their city.

Germinal · September 25, 2015

How do you get an image or an attachment into a post?

Edited September 25, 2015 by Germinal

Frankie · September 25, 2015

Email it to me mate and I'll include it when I publish the preview here and on the main site...

info@gersnet.co.uk

Zappa · September 30, 2015

Roll up, roll up!

Who's up for writing a match preview for this weekend's game against Falkirk?

_____________________________________________________________

Upcoming:

OCT 03 - Rangers v Falkirk - SPFL Championship - ???

OCT 17 - Rangers v QotS - SPFL Championship - ???

OCT 20 - Rangers v Livingston - Petrofac Training Cup QF - ???