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Swiftian Times. I attended Sunday School as a child, we all did then. I endured endless hours of parables followed by Bible study. Sometimes, it was in the form of a quiz; the Minister asked for an new testament character beginning with 'N', I would answer, "Nicodemus" and be rewarded with a sweetie. I suspect Sunday School was sponsored by Dentists? Nicodemus, now there's a name that would benefit all at PQ, he told the Sanhedrin that a man should be heard before being judged. Every week, they tell us they want to hear from Rangers supporters, which seems a pointless exercise, since we are already judged. Attending Sunday School was rewarding, well constant or 'good attendance' meant an improving book was handed over; in my case, 'Gulliver's Travels' by Jonathon Swift. I read it first as an eight year old and have reread the tome on a dozen occasions since. The genius of the book is that it works on a number of levels, from a pacey narrative to the biting satire of the human condition. Society trumps the individual, differences between religions are petty, are men corrupt or are they corrupted, .......................... etc. It's all there and the hook is that it means differing things to different people. Three hundred years past, Swift was taking on the persona of modern, liberal society and examining the cost on such a society which embraces and celebrates policies pursuing scientific progress. I wonder if the then recent case of Galileo's excommunication at the hands of the inquisition was uppermost in Swift's mind? Galileo's crime was to claim the earth orbited the sun as opposed to vice-versa. The RC church lifted that excommunication only twenty-five years ago. We accept travel broadens the mind. Gulliver is large is shipwrecked, then abandoned, attacked by both strangers and crew. He reaches Lilliput and encounters small folks who are constantly politicking, unscrupulous, and vicious. These last several years, you can see an easy analogy there between Rangers and BBC Scotland. Our very existence antagonises PQ, as a grouping we are perceived to be bad, but individuals may be good. Their constant cry to hear from us, will never succeed(they don't want it to) and because of the constant marginalisation and demonisation, they have in part created a support that don't want to talk to them. Those individuals perceived to be good are Billy Dodds and Steven Thomson, both paying penance for toting EBTs. Our excommunication will supersede poor Galileo's? Last Thursday, we played a final Europa Cup game in Vienna, ra Sellik played a Champions League fixture in a Champions League grouping of the Europa Cup. The Irish and Australians championing the Champions cause, told us so, repeatedly. Liam McLeod and Billy Dodds were in Vienna, because they did NOT have to travel on the team charter. Other, cheaper air travel options were available. It was a relief to PQ that after fourteen Euro games, Rangers exited the competition. Of course, ra Sellik qualified for the last 32, and the show ran on for a further forty-five minutes to celebrate. It was a usual Hippo and Oxpecker production. The ever annoying Jonathon Sutherland doing pitch side and interviews fitted right-in, he can tongue arse and chew shit with the best of them. Sunday was quite different. Before events at Easter Road, Killie's rise to the top of the pile again, was being eulogised. Sellik were expected to replace Killie as Premiership leaders. Paul Hartley and Kenny Miller(in dispute with Rangers) told Big Dick the green'n'grey would establish themselves and kick-on, creating a cushion before the winter break. After ninety minutes, everyone agreed, a deserved Hibs victory. Neil Lennon came to Brian McLaughlin's microphone post match. The first time the Depressed One has participated in three weeks, his Deputy had been doing the gig. Big Dick celebrated Lenny's return, enthusiastically wondering what became of the Lennycopter? Paul Hartley expressed a hope of seeing it again, "this coming Wednesday"! At 14.45 hours, Big Dick gave the Rangers team, then announced he was handing over to fellow Dandy Don, Jeff Webster who was presenting live coverage and commentary of Newcastle against Edinburgh. Euro rugby union had displaced, 'being right across events at Ibrox'. Again, a relief, allowing Billy and Steven to get off the naughty step and conduct some Christmas shopping. License fee paying Rangers supporters can fcuk right-off, although to be fair, they still want to hear from us. Of course, we will hear them hearing from us, on the day they tell all about Leigh Griffith's 'illness' and suggest three former Chairs of Sellik's boys' club being convicted of child rape and molestation in six weeks, might constitute a paedophile ring? Are Rangers top of the league? Gulliver's travels conclude when he is rescued by Captain Pedro de Mendez. Bad news for license fee paying Bears, at PQ he sounds a lot like that h-u-n and typical orange wanker that used to play for Rangers, no need to look any further.

Every time we've got cocky since the 2016 cup semi, it has come back to bite us on the arse. That's a fact, nothing to do with superstition. As for the away form table, that is genuinely embarrassing. I hope Gerrard is looking at that and is shaking his head.

Thats a fucking stone wall penalty !!

I thought Borna Barasic looked a real class act tonight. Little wonder there’s rumoured interest in him already

That is crap Kamberi threw his arm back hitting Goldson in the face.

I think if Arfield hadn’t got injured we may have won. He has that quality in front of goal and far more creativity than McCrorie.

Also when you see Joe Worrel is coming on for Gareth McAuley

I would refer to Gaffer's excellent post earlier in the week about corners. We need to be smarter than simply supplying the same cross in all the time. When we get a corner I never think anything will happen

I actually think we are giving them far too much respect, let's get at them Rangers!

60% possession to Hibs? Eh? Must have watched a different game

Agreed, we must up the tempo and if we do they are there for the taking

Whittaker is there for the taking. Need to get Grezda running at him more often

The challenge going forward is to successfully negotiate summer qualifying to get access to group stages. We could have a better squad but simply get an unlucky draw.

Prize money from qualification: £4.6m Prize money from group stages: £8.7m Returning pride and Euro nights back to Ibrox: Priceless

Another excellent pod from you guys. Let's hope it's equally as positive by the time the next one is recorded on Sunday. ??

Superior host...

A year and 6 days ago we beat Hibs 1-2 at Easter Road. Since that game, the Edinburgh side have lost only one home competitive game (St.Johnstone in November). For context, in the same timeframe we've lost 4 competitive games at Ibrox. Celtic, under Rodgers, are yet to win a League game at Easter Road (DLL). In other words, to come away with three points tonight is a bigger ask than most of us seem to think.

I think he has a lot of ability and yes you saw flashes of that tonight, but yet again all we really saw was his potential. He underperformed in the key moments and as a fan of his it was disappointing that he’s still not proving his doubters wrong. There was one moment he got in behind and bizarrely rather than running to the byline he ran inside and passed it back to Jack ??‍♂️

I saw someone say they’d prefer McCrorie over Coulibaly because McCrorie would run himself into the ground for Rangers. Well Coulibaly ran himself into the ground and put his body on the line for Rangers tonight. I feel for him because he’s being forced to play in a more advanced role than he’s comfortable with and his pace, strength and energy are great but he’s never going to be a playmaker and you can’t blame him when his pass is overhit or he fails to slice open the defence. It’s not his game.

Lol. The “other” Thomson....

And I don’t know what’s wrong with Grezda. I’ve been a big advocate of him because I think he possesses the quality but he really isn’t performing. You can see he has it in him but he makes poor decisions and loses composure with general slackness. He needs to get it sorted fast.

To be fair to Worrel, we looked less vulnerable when he came on. McCauley is an old head but he very slow on the ground. Worrel is also less inclined to go long which I like.

That tackle by Porteous was disgrace and should have been a red all day, shocking assault!

Good strong performance but.............frustrating not to take full points. Injuries mounting up ain't good

Morelos made most of his own chances tonight. He needs to look up sometimes though...Grezda was free behind him at least twice.

It is an issue but we were very unlucky tonight so I'm not going to be too harsh. That's the level of intensity we have to play at every week and the goals will come.

Tav and Candeias both had a poor game.

This Hibs team just beat St Pats' FC, we haven't done that yet!

One of our best performances this season. We were unlucky but hopefully that spurs us on. Morelos looked unstoppable at times.

Whilst that's a decent statement it also shouldn't be forgotten that this very same Hibs team beat Celtic at the weekend and, from what I have read, could have won 3 or 4-0. Yet tonight we absolutely schooled them. Tavernier's was the best chance IMO. All he has to do is place the ball either side and completely airswipes it.

We absolutely pummeled them in the time I watched - started watching at about 25 minutes. As Andy Little said on RTV - Hibs are doing nothing but feed off scraps. We pummeled them. How Thomson doesn't see that stone wall handball is criminal. I'm actually seething at how often "honest mistakes" are happening against us and how many points they are costing us. Thomson is literally staring that one down.

Ach, that's really frustrating. We played really, really well in that game - as well as we have done for a while - but just couldn't score. Not even bad finishing really, just a combination of decent goalkeeping and bad luck. Denied a clear penalty as well but ultimately it's another two points dropped.

Only thing I can complain about tonight is not scoring, that apart I thought we played well and dominated this match

The ref is right in line with that and conveniently “doesn’t see it”.

If Morelos had commited any of the fouls that the Hibs players have , he would have been booked every single time , hypocrisy and poor refereeing yet again

God knows why but for some reason I have a good feeling about tonight. Recent away form suggests otherwise but the fact that Hibs will be the most open team we have played since beating Hearts, gives me more hope than fear.

Last team to beat them by 3 goals at Easter Road was Morton, nearly 3 years ago. Last team to best them by 4 goals was Rangers, 2-6 with Tav and Halliday scoring crackers (July 2015)

Ultimately it's money that we won't have planned for so every extra penny is important. Hopefully it will allow us some flexibility player wise over the next month but we really need to get rid of the dead wood (e.g. Pena, Herrera, Dodoo, Holt etc) that aren't going to feature again.

A cold winter's day is about to warm up later as Rangers travel to face a confident Hibs. Other than Morelos, I don't envisage any further changes to the team that started against Hamilton Acas though I do wonder if Gerrard might dispense with Grezda in favour of the kind of system we seen in Vienna last midweek. I do note @Stevie - 4lads Blog is suggesting Worrall may replace McAuley which is a big call from the manager.

That’s not all profit & we need to be careful on that Profit will be closer to £8-9m

I think one of the reasons we've been so successful throughout our history is because we compare ourselves against the high standards we've traditionally set, not against our rivals. I don't ever want us to be satisfied with just being better than our domestic rivals, although I do accept that it's an important first step. We've done well in the transfer market, but equally we have a long way to go before we have the standard of player we all want to see at Ibrox.

Huge boost, but the associated expenditure will obviously take a chunk out of that.

Hibs have 4 games in 11 days (Rangers, Livingston, Rangers, Hearts) and can't realistically play the same high intensity game in all of those. You add that to our creative weakness when up against an organised defence and Hibs ability to counter-attack with speed and precision and I think they'll probably spend chunks of the game soaking up pressure and looking to counter. I think the first 10-20 minutes will be about a Hibs attempt at a high press. We have to try and make use of the space in behind them early doors. -------------------- IMO Morelos has to start (Lafferty has lost confidence in front of goal and will probably start on the bench.

Saw 10 mins highlights of their game against the Scum and they were flying throughout. Obviously, I can't tell about the remaining 80 mins, but I do remember last season's last game against them, was it 5-5? We have better players now, but we need to be on the top of our game for encounters against them. Let's also hope that Thomson follows this game up with a similar performance of his last with us, where you could actually see him handle a game like a normal referee would. Unsure whether we should start with Morelos straight away. Lafferty dislikes that lot very much and can cause quite a bit of bother for them, if supported by Candeias, Grezda and Arfield again. Wouldn't mind us going a 4-4-2 later on.

I am basing my optimism on the law of averages. Surely, we are due a performance?

I would be wary about mocking the Leith tramps' league position just now. Give it seven days...