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One of the earliest games I remember between St Mirren and Rangers was the 1962 Scottish Cup Final. The semi-finals had Rangers beating Motherwell 3-1 at Hampden, at the same time as the Grand National. Meanwhile at Ibrox St Mirren were 3-0 up against Celtic when their fans invaded the field. Eventually order was restored and the game ended 3-1 St Mirren. The final was a fairly straightforward 2-0 win for the Gers with Brand and Wilson scoring. Our team that day was: Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow, Davis, McKinnon, Baxter, Henderson, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson -- What a team! George McLean stood out for St Mirren that day and we duly signed him. He was obviously a talented player but did not live up to his promise. He and Jim Forrest never played for Rangers again after the Berwick Rangers defeat. Anyway, onwards and upwards. St Mirren will obviously play a defensive set-up against us on Saturday so hopefully we provide some attacking threat. St Mirren have a new Manager in charge, Oran Kearney, who was appointed in September after the sacking of Alan Stubbs. The former PE teacher had a successful spell at Coleraine winning the Irish Cup for the first time in 15 years and, just before leaving, brought about a 3-0 win against reigning champions Crusaders. Kearney brought swagger and ambition, declaring on his appointment, "I want to win the league because the day I started [at Coleraine] I wanted titles and trophies." Clearly, St Mirren are nowhere near that level, and their start has been bumpy to say the least. St Mirren have lost 6 of their last 7 matches, although they did manage a 0-0 draw against Celtic in Kerney's first game in charge -- perhaps a warning if Rangers don't approach this game with the right frame of mind. Hopefully Tavernier recovers his form after an indifferent spell. I expect the team to be along the same lines as Wednesday, although with McGregor coming back between the posts. Possible XI: McGregor Tavernier - Goldson - Worral - Flanagan Halliday - Coulibaly Candeias - Arfield - Kent Morelos

Good post from a Hearts forum on the whole Lennon situation and not just this incident. Other times when he has been 'having a bit of fun' but obviously never goading an already volatile crowd.

Apologies again for any insults. Ignore function utilised

Lennon and Griffiths are living samples that brain failure does not result in immediate death.

What was it Walter Smith said to Kevin Thompson ... "If you don't get a yellow card in the first five minutes, you're not trying ..", or somesuch?

https://www.thegersstoreonline.com/

When did they ever care about assaults on players?

I take it no 'journalist' at the presser had the couarge or professional integrity to ask him why he held his face and talked about his jaw when the coin hit his chest !

Celtic FC - Ireland's loss, Scotland's shame.

... or more accurately, speciesism

I thought the booing was at the referee.

A agree with you to some extent re Kent. By his direct approach he draws players in and that should allow more space for other players. But as you suggest he does try to overdo it when he should be looking for a smart pass. Being able to do the latter, however does also depend on other players being in a position where they can receive a pass which allows them the possibility of a shot on goal or a pass across the box. With respect to Middleton he looks a promising player but from what I have seen his greatest asset is his directness and pace. Unfortunately, in packed defences his pace becomes less useable because there is no space to run into. I also think that defenders now know that he looks to hit the ball behind them and beat them pace and have adjusted accordingly. He needs to vary his game and his crossfield pass in the last minute against Spartak shows he has the ability to do that. We have to hope he continues to develop and have realistic expectations about what we expect from him.

https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/the-restoration-of-rangers-graves

O'Neill and Rodgers are both NI RCs, who manage or have managed Celtc and neither of them got/get even a tenth of the flak that Lennon gets. He brings it all on himself with his petulant, childlike behaviour. It really is that simple.

Methinks he had some injury earlier in the season, but from the galleries of late, he looks like being back to full fitness. SG said that he wanted him back, but for some reason, he's not been given his chance. Halliday's adaptability - holding MF, left MF, left fullback - when playing might give him the nod ahead of Wallace, who is essentially "only" a good left back. If things don't change, I expect him to leave in January.

Gentlemen, please. There's an ignore function you can all use. Take yer handbag dancing elsewhere.

Since September of last year, Lee Wallace has played about 30 seconds of first team football (Motherwell, 95th minute sub). There is or was an 'ongoing situation' and he is 4th in the LB pecking order and the probability is he won't be playing for us again.

I tend to agree. If he is fit then he would be worth a shout. I'm not sure how long Barisic is out for? I remember a few years back Wallace was the best Scottish player on the park at Wembley (3-0 defeat) and if he could offer performances like that, surely he is a better shout than Flanagan?

Believe me, no-one is rushing to read your posts Bill. If I could screen them I would. With regards to being upset, don't flatter yourself. I'm more bemused why a grown man would insist on being the "smartest arse" on public football forum. These forums are probably the most balanced Rangers forums online and they are known for decent debate on all things Rangers and other topics. There are things that people agree on and things that people disagree on but it's always fair. I apologise to the Mods for using a personal insult but for you to be handing out sermons about personal insults is truly laughable.

Right now, I'd try ... McGregor Goldson - Worrall/Katic - Halliday* Jack Tavernier - Candeias - Grezda - Middleton Lafferty - Morelos If we lose the ball, Tav can drop back and we switch to 4-4-2. Candeias as well as Middleton usually track back well too. Grezda should be given a trial as creative attacker, but I would expect to see Arfield from the start. I have no doubt whatsoever that should Ejaria and Kent be fit, they will both start. *Flanagan had an off-day on Wednesday, but Katic was "worse" the last time he was out there. I'd assume they will be both benched.

Grezda is a must start for me. We need to shake up the final 3rd badly and as someone* else said on another post, we need to start getting players beyond Morelos. *apologies to whoever poster it. I can't remember who it was

Thanks for taking the time to contribute Les - excellent stuff! FWIW, I think we will see changes tomorrow. Coulibaly is well off-form so needs dropped and I think Grezda or Middleton should replace Kent who deserves a rest - or, if necessary, he could be moved centrally in behind Morelos. I think Halliday will play at left back and Jack will start as well as he did well when he came on.

This is a non-negotiable 3 points. St.Mirren are all over the place and alongside Dundee are in a race to the bottom. They had won their first league game against Dundee before they visited Ibrox and started a run of 11 fixtures, with only one draw to show for it. Ironically that was against Celtic in Oran Kearney's first game in charge. Sun 12/08/18 PRE Rangers 2 - 0 St. Mirren View events More info Sat 18/08/18 LEC Aberdeen 4 - 0 St. Mirren View events More info Sat 25/08/18 PRE St. Mirren 0 - 2 Livingston View events More info Sat 01/09/18 PRE Hearts 4 - 1 St. Mirren View events More info Fri 14/09/18 PRE St. Mirren 0 - 0 Celtic View events More info Sat 22/09/18 PRE Hamilton Acade… 3 - 0 St. Mirren View events More info Sat 29/09/18 PRE St. Mirren 0 - 1 Hibernian View events More info Sat 06/10/18 PRE Aberdeen 4 - 1 St. Mirren View events More info Sat 20/10/18 PRE St. Mirren 1 - 2 Kilmarnock View events More info Sat 27/10/18 PRE St. Johnstone 2 - 0 St. Mirren View events More info Wed 31/10/18 PRE St. Mirren 0 - 2 Motherwell A sea of red and numbers you might expect to see in a schools league...... 3 goals scored in 990 minutes 26 conceded Apparently they are bringing in Jimmy Nichol to help coach the team once he is recovered from a recent hip operation but he'll play no part in the build-up to this game. Caution The anomaly in those results is that 2 of the three clubs with the highest goals totals in the league (Hibs, 21 and Celtic, 22) are the two teams that the St.Mirren defence has had relative success against at Home, with a combined one goal conceded in 180 minutes. We are the other team of the three, 23. --------------------- Another unpredictable guess the starting line-up game suggests at one of our problems that we need to sort out during November as we head into a difficult and heavy glut of games in December. - You'd imagine McGregor will be back in goals - Halliday deserves a starting place at LB* or the midfield - I'd bring Katic back in for Worrall* - Drop Coulibally - Shake it up final third * unlikely but not impossible we go 3-5-2

I disagree with both yours and Frankie's post below yours. Kent does very little for me. In 21 games this season he has scored 3 goals and had two assists. In only a few of those games he was subbed so has played 78% thats most of the minutes of those 1890 mins available. I cant remember the last time he hit the by-line. He gets to the edge of the box and then cuts in field mostly to a congested central area and more often than not the ball ends up in or around the D or within 5-10 yards of it either losing it or laying back to one of our CDM's. He never seems to be able to slide/slot the ball through or see a pass to a player making runs into the box. Or he picks the ball up deep and runs across the field from one wing to the other and eventually lays off a short pass to Tav. What concerns me is that he looks busy and because of that players around him give him the ball expecting him to do something with it whereas in truth there is virtually no end product. He loses the ball far too easily either because he's eased off it too easily or because he loses control of it. Although he was more of an inside midfielder we criticized Jason Holt for being brushed off the ball too easily. I'd prefer to apply the same critique here. Contrast that with Middleton who has 3 goals and 1 assist who has had 13 sub appearances and played a grand total of 14% of the available minutes from 23 games, see's defence splitting passes early and makes them and also hits the by-line on a regular basis when he gets a start. Candieas hasn't been much better and has played slightly less minutes/games and has 1 goal and 3 assists so neither of our wingers who have been getting regular appearances have been particularly effective. Ejaria has 2 goals and 0 assists from playing 82% of 21 games so he's not doing much either although at times he looks nice on the ball and has decent close control. Arfield has 5 goals 2 assists from 78% of 19 games which is a far higher return than his team mate in there. The player who is the most productive in the team is James Tavernier who has 9 goals and 7 assists from playing for 95% of 23 games yet people are very critical of Tav when in reality he's by far our best performer and has also had 7 shut outs being a defender also.

I will preview the St Mirren v Rangers game if you want?

We're going to see what the Arsenal revival really amounts to when they face unbeaten Liverpool with home advantage.

We are 4 pts behind the BHEASTS and sitting top of our EL group, at the start of the season I don't think anyone would have expected that! we are going through a wee blip! onwards and upwards!.

I'm sorry but after all the talk about putting on a performance to say sorry for Sunday and then to turn in another abject failure of a performance as a team collective then there isn't a team in the world that wouldnt get the bird after that ineffective garbage last night. I dont go in for that myself, but I dont have an issue with those who do. I also thought most of it was probably directed at the ref who was the latest in a long line of woeful one-sided whistlers. This is Rangers, we have higher standards and demand success. When the only consistency we show is in consecutive sub-standard performances it is little wonder the fans who have stumped up a lot of cash and bought into the hype generated by the club itself are getting antsy.

I thought it was directed at the referee, certainly by the fans around me in main stand.

Going forward, it seems as if we don't qualify for European groups stages or find a player(s) to sell for considerable fee(s) then the year will see a heavy loss. Given the difficulty in European summer qualifers, that doesn't look sustainable to me.

Well said Gary Caldwell