pete 2,499 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Don't Mention the War-Partick Thistle vs Rangers Match Preview Scottish Premiership Sun, 7th May 2017, 12:15pm Sitting down to write the preview this week was extremely difficult. Funny enough the first thing that entered my head was a well known comedy sketch in Fawlty Towers.I am sure nearly every one will remember the hotel getting German guests and Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) strutting about shouting “Don't mention the war” That is the feeling I have at this time, “Don't mention the war” The war I am struggling not to mention was of course our 5-1 capitulation at Ibrox last week against Celtic. It was a Bomb blast in the lives of every Rangers supporter. You could say that just like Basil Fawlty and and his waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs) the Rangers team played out a comedy of errors. The difference is watching Basil and Manuel making a fool of themselves was hilarious. Watching the Rangers team make a fool of themselves was far from funny. They always say you need bad things to happen to you to make you stronger so this is one of these times we need to prove this piece of psychology has an element of Truth. Lets face it, If we as supporters can't pick ouselves up and once again get behind the team, then how do we expect the team to pick themselves up and come out fighting with all guns blasting. With that in mind we move on to Sunday where the Rangers team take the short trip to firhill park. I personally have good memories of firhill as being brought up in Kelvinhaugh and later Kelvingrove Firhill was always within walking distance. I have even played there in an amateur trial game(unsuccessfully) and I also remember watching Scotland Schools beating England Schools 2-0 with my boyhood friend Jim Kelly the ex Ross County player and manager, who started his carreer with Partick Thistle under Bertie Auld, playing a huge part in that win I also found it funny when visiting firhill there were also always a number of supporters who watched the game from the hill behind the stadium. I noticed on TV last week they have now placed large advertising boards to prevent that. Commercial interests dominate modern football and every penny counts these days. “Mr can I have a lift over the turnstile” days are long gone. It is more like the song from the flying Lizards, I need money, (that's what I want.) PedroCaixinha may be brining out a cover version this summer. Pedro has stated that he will start telling players next week whether they have a future at Rangers or not as he strives to build a team to challenge Celtic for the league next season and will need a large amount of cash to do so. As for now he has to make the best of what he has and build them up for the fight to finish second in the league. Sundays game will be a perfect opportunity for players to prove to him they have a worth or put them in the shop window to attract other clubs. He wants the players to be professional and fight to the end but as we all know if you know your number is up it is difficult to find the motivation to fight on. So that may play a roll in the games to the end of the season. Picking a team for Sunday may give some insight to what players may be staying and I think he will keep Foderingham in goal even although he had a shocking game last week.(aaahhh Don't mention the war) I personally would like to see what Alnwick can do to be honest as Foderingham regularly makes more mistakes than good saves and for such a big guy he is a nightmare at crosses. Tavernier Hill Wilson and Beerman will also keep their places more out of little choice for change than anything else. Midfield is the difficult place to guess how Pedro will set up. Will he stick with the lightweight trio of Hyndman Holt and Windass or will there be recalls for Toral(if fit) and Halliday. McKay has been a non-starter of late and O'Halloran must have hard skin on his bottom by now with the amount of time he has sat on the bench. Miller is probably the only certainty for a place in attack with Waghorn, Garner, windass and McKay fighting it out for the other two places. I think Pedro's team will be. Foderingham Tavernier Hill Wilson Beerman Holt Toral(if fit) Hyndman Waghorn Garner Miller Lets hope we can all get that losing feeling out of our system and get back to winning ways again it certainly makes a week on the Rangers forums a happier place so from now on remember “Don't mention the war”. C'MON the Rangers 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted May 5, 2017 Author Share Posted May 5, 2017 One thing I wanted to add but forgot was that with Aberdeen and Celtic in the cup final the 4th placed team has also qualified for Europe so St Johnstone will probably be in Europe as well. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,148 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Some suggestions Hyndman will miss the game on Sunday due to a foot problem. Toral didn't seem to train again today but Forrester and Kranjcar did. I doubt the latter will be ready yet but we may see him in the squad sooner rather than later. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,148 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Recent Caixinha selections suggests an XI along the attached lines but surely last week's awful display will mean more changes? I'd rather play Miller up top with Forrester in the 'hole'. MOH, Dodoo & Garner will also fancy their chances of getting in the team. All in all our options aren't great with a very lightweight midfield and next to know physical presence. Thistle will fancy their chances. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFK-1 1,671 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Partick have already achieved their target for the season which was don't be relegated so they may decide to try to play some football for once. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
McHeuss 0 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Very good points in here. I always feel that there might be too much pressure when playing for Rangers. Being behind Celtic now is not a shame because this club hasn't got the funds to buy a team of superstars to compete with them ini their first season in the SPL. Rangers beat Aberdeen away from home to a side on a really high - well, that's what people expect a Rangers team to do right? I thought it needed a great team effort to win there. After the Celtic game that great win unfortunately seems to count nil. All they players who were great against Aberdeen should be sold after the Celtic game. I believe that this team, if gelled together nicely, would have had the potential to cause Celtic some trouble, at least to finish above Aberdeen. why didn't it happen, i don't know - but you can't blame the players alone, it was a strange season, that's what it surely was... As many decent Rangers fans try to bring in is the fact that money doesn't always but success (Leicester), but as long as there are so many people insisting that Rangers must already now (and always) be above Celtic - no wonder players perform like they did against Celtic. It was really hurting to see the team being humilated on the field and even more so by C****c players bragging about how easy it was to beat them , Simunovuc bragging how great his tackle was (it was only because of Kenny's instictive decision of not going into the tackle as well, otherwise that leg would have been broken - but now everybody thinks it was a great tackle - sick) Reading all those stories of Celtic and their neverending disgusting behaviour makes me dislike them even more and on the other hand makes me even prouder that i do support a team like the Glasgow Rangers. Before too long, Brownie and his green friends will be choking on their laughter about Rangers as they did before Rangers went down. If people learn to take the pressure off their own team, the more and the quicker they will succeed. It all starts already this sunday. The Players will be nervous again because of the expectations - so just show them that you support them, be patient if they don't score within the first 30 mins and don't boo them when they fall behind after the first corner (sarcasm) Rangers need the fans support to become great again 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
boabie 230 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Reports that Hyndman is injured and could be out for the rest of the season. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted May 5, 2017 Author Share Posted May 5, 2017 Very good points in here. I always feel that there might be too much pressure when playing for Rangers. Being behind Celtic now is not a shame because this club hasn't got the funds to buy a team of superstars to compete with them ini their first season in the SPL. Rangers beat Aberdeen away from home to a side on a really high - well, that's what people expect a Rangers team to do right? I thought it needed a great team effort to win there. After the Celtic game that great win unfortunately seems to count nil. All they players who were great against Aberdeen should be sold after the Celtic game. I believe that this team, if gelled together nicely, would have had the potential to cause Celtic some trouble, at least to finish above Aberdeen. why didn't it happen, i don't know - but you can't blame the players alone, it was a strange season, that's what it surely was... As many decent Rangers fans try to bring in is the fact that money doesn't always but success (Leicester), but as long as there are so many people insisting that Rangers must already now (and always) be above Celtic - no wonder players perform like they did against Celtic. It was really hurting to see the team being humilated on the field and even more so by C****c players bragging about how easy it was to beat them , Simunovuc bragging how great his tackle was (it was only because of Kenny's instictive decision of not going into the tackle as well, otherwise that leg would have been broken - but now everybody thinks it was a great tackle - sick) Reading all those stories of Celtic and their neverending disgusting behaviour makes me dislike them even more and on the other hand makes me even prouder that i do support a team like the Glasgow Rangers. Before too long, Brownie and his green friends will be choking on their laughter about Rangers as they did before Rangers went down. If people learn to take the pressure off their own team, the more and the quicker they will succeed. It all starts already this sunday. The Players will be nervous again because of the expectations - so just show them that you support them, be patient if they don't score within the first 30 mins and don't boo them when they fall behind after the first corner (sarcasm) Rangers need the fans support to become great again Good post mate and I agree with a lot of it but I disagree about the tackle but I don't want to go through all the arguments about it again. As the saying goes what goes around comes around and our time will come. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I witnessed them and us winning 9 in a row and I hope I don't see a 10 in a row for them in my lifetime and I am not tired of living just yet. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinstein 294 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Reports that Hyndman is injured and could be out for the rest of the season. well they won't be here next season and their clubs will want them intact.......they've done us a turn right enough 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
boabie 230 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Firhill holds many fond memories for me - New Years Day games a couple of times. A match where the linesman brought a player to the refs attention which resulted in a sending off. Right after that a pie hit the linesmans head. Also, I'd a mate who was a Thistle supporter. We'd have 6 or 8 pints in the Bier Cellar in Union St, grab a half bottle of Four Crown and head up to Firhill. I treated it more as a bevvy session than going to a football match. My grandad causing a fight there one game by standing on somebodys foot. Etc, etc. A lot of memories. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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