Leaderboard

I lived just north of Belfast for a few years during the 1990s. I was there during the 'end' of the troubles and for the Good Friday Agreement, indeed I voted in favour of it. There were 322 people killed during the 1990s alone, 854 during the 80s and over 2,000 in the 1970s. Everyone in Northern Ireland was affected, directly or indirectly. As a Glaswegian I arrogantly thought I had a grasp of the place before I went, I didn't. Like so much in life Northern Ireland is far more nuanced and complicated than some like to portray it. The Good Friday (or Belfast) Agreement was a compromise. It was very difficult for some people to accept it, I knew people who couldn't. I understood why too. For me it came down to stopping the killing. Those numbers of dead above, that would have continued. There are people today alive who otherwise wouldn't be. It's that simple. No one got what they wanted. Republicans had to admit they weren't getting a 'united Ireland' through violence, the only way that was going to happen was through democratic means and that might take generations, if ever. Unionists had to accept that a 'united Ireland' was a legitimate aim as long as it was achieved through the ballot box. Everyone had to accept murderers, sociopaths, gangsters and monsters were not only going to get away with their crimes, but be allowed into civil society, take up important roles of state and have their past whitewashed. Northern Ireland is a better place to live in today than it was when I moved there. It's certainly not perfect, far from it, but police officers can now tell their neighbours what they do for a living, teenagers can work anywhere in the city without the genuine fear they could be abducted and murdered on their way home. That's progress, believe it or not. The price of this is accepting people who were responsible for a lot of the violence, anger and murder now have important roles, make decisions, and walk like statesmen and women. It's a bitter, bitter pill, but surely better than the alternative. I think so, at least.

Might have been a different story if the referee had done his job in the first half and awarded a penalty & sent off the defender.

Jose Mourinho was right. UEFA are corrupt.

When you can barely trap the ball, are unable to pass the ball to a member f your side, and when your movement, at its best, is sluggish, then you are unlikely to win the match, irrespective of strategy, tactics, formation, etc. The paucity of basic skills, clear for 80% of the game, was, frankly, embarrassing.

Season over, let's put all efforts into getting the takeover completed and ready for next season.

Yes, we need to be pragmatic against better opposition but we're sitting too deep and failing to look after the ball yet again before the inevitable brain fart costs us a silly pen. I also don't understand the substitution moving our best midfielder to left back. Nsiala > Ridvan?

Last man, DOGSO, shirt pull. Yet Dessers was booked.

Got a horrible feeling that there has been too much of an optimistic vibe since the first leg, albeit generally cautious. Would prefer to be going into this with our chances of going through being dismissed by most. Tends to be when the unbelievable happens, eg. Dortmund, Istanbul. Would like to see Tav up against Nico Williams with Nsiala alongside Souttar and Balogun. Yilmaz on the left. Not so fussed about the rest of the team. I reckon the coaching team can sort that out. A bridge too far for me but whatever happens tonight, this team have given us another tremendous European season.

The decision to move Diomande back and bring Barron on was brutal.

One last ffs tav moment to end the season.

Look on the brightside, I got a full house in the prediction league 🥳

Tav lost us the match tonight! 🤣🤣🤣

Totally outclassed tonight.

The Final, of course is in Bilbao......So

I do agree that Nsiala should've come on instead of Barron but it's hard not to feel hard done by after Dessers getting his shirt ripped open but getting carded himself

Never seen anything like that. The game is a bogey.

Similar to Buster, between 1978 and 1990 I completed six tours of the Province; two six month affairs, the rest were 3-4 emergency stints. Sinn Fein/IRA came to the table and signed the Good Friday peace deal because they had ran out of road, they had no room to manoeuvre. The Int' chaps, the crystal gazers always spouted the IRA needed at least 2,0000 operatives to stay relevant and effective. We are talking balaclavas on the trigger, bomb makers and layers, recce' groupings, safe house holders, watchers, sympathetic farmers, Doctors, medical professionals, drivers, journos, quartermasters, artificers, .......................... etc. By 1990, the IRA had over 1,500 folks in GB, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Euro, North, Central and, South American jails. There were a few dozen more banged up in the tin pails of Australia, South Africa, Canada and, New Zealand. A few spectaculars, the Barrington sniper rifle campaign and, the desperate proxy bombings were the last gasps. Danny Morrison, the broth of a bhoy that came up with, "who in this room would disagree if the Provos took control on the island of Ireland with an Armalite in one hand and the ballot box ion the other" was in the jail for conducting a pistol whipping a catholic pensioner in a Sinn Fein office, who refused the use of his house as the base for an ambush. The IRA were defeated by professionalism. The civil authority in the UK lost the peace because Blair washed his hands after signing the peace deal. Paul Maskey at Ibrox and a former member of my Regiment facing charges for actions on the day of Bloody Sunday are evidence of that fact.

I have a positive feeling about the game tonight. C'mon The Gers

Well said John ! As a marine, I did 2 six month tours in the early 80's in West Belfast and down by the border. Haven't been in years but it can only be better with relative peace. Diplomacy to stop killing and mayhem, always very difficult, seems to be a dying art.

I agree with you about the innocent murdered by both sides, a fact often ignored by some on here.

Don't you dare bet on us. Guaranteed jinx.

Fair pal, thought you were meaning I was out of line for holding that opinion. But yeah, there are always people willing to lay down everything people have stood, or even died for, in the name of appeasement or not wanting a bad name. I say ram that, and if any Sinn Fein or IRA dick ever directly approaches us, no matter the circumstances, I expect them to be told to bolt.

Totally agree with everything you said , I meant theres always one of our '' support'' pandering to the filth. Some of the things going on at the club now are mental , we must be up there with the most woke clubs in the whole of the UK.

Let’s not forget all the innocent people murdered by the loyalist mobs either in places like Greysteel and McGurks bar and people like Victor Arbuckle an innocent policeman murdered by the UVF the first of many police officers murdered by terrorists what Blair’s government did was wrong we should still be hunting down the murderers from all sides

Brilliant performance from Arsenal, thats how you go away from home against a big team and play when defending a lead. Real Madrid were equally awful. Saka was a lucky boy with that penalty miss, imagine that had cost Arsenal! Only downside was Partey getting a silly booking late on when they are already through and now he misses the first leg of the semi - which is at the Emirates. Seems to be a common denominator that PSG are now a machine type team and RM are now individuals = Mbappe. None of the big boys turned up, Bellingham was poor, Vini Jr couldnt have an impact. Fair play to the Referee - he went back and gave Arsenal the Pen in the first place which was a pen all day long and then he corrected the RM Mbappe penalty and rightly so infront of 75000 RM fans - hats off! Inter did their job and a nice Semi final line up. Barcelona v Inter Milan Arsenal v PSG Picking the finalists is difficult enough, never mind picking a winner. But I have to stick with Barca.

Do you really not know? Or are you just trying to take some sort of position on the fence that ach it's all fine now? Because I'm sure the countless Rangers supporters from Northern Ireland, that actually lost people in the Troubles, would argue that latter point. Especially those that have to see the terrorist scum bastards that were involved in their loved one's deaths parading about as some sort of politician that just wants to do good. I don't care how reformed they preach to be, they stood once, masked up with their banners and guns. Someone earlier in this thread said should Rangers really turn down an MP, if they approached the club directly etc about whatever charity thing they were doing, just because we don't like that party or ideology? Absofuckinglutely. Where you drawing the line? Letting Hamas fundraisers happen?

Sadly the club is nowhere near the club we all knew and were brought up on.

Gutted. The Dessers pen and sending off aside we were set up to lose.

We deserve an explanation

Season was done a long time ago!

Well it was good while it lasted 🇬🇧

Or just knock out Nico Williams.

Diomande has been pretty decent so far!

In boxing parlance we need to knock them out to get a draw.

That should've been a penalty imo.

Need to take any half chance can't afford to fanny about in front of the opposition goal you get a glimpse you let fly

We'll miss Sterling as he helped to keep Nico quiet. Not sure who can step in to help Tav.

This isn't anything official but interesting while there are no concrete names knocking about.... TL; DR... Kevin Muscat Adrian Siemieniec Wilfried Nancy Kim Hellberg Qurban Qurbanov Henrik Rydström Pat Noonan Go Kuroda Jose Riveiro Eric Ramsay

This charity visit is one of the terms imposed when Blair surrendered.

Theres always one.

I don't know why fans should get upset about an IRA/Sinn Fein man in Ibrox that war is over the gubs won the day Tony Blair's government surrendered by signing up to the good Friday document in doing so giving mass murderers on both sides of the divide exemption for all crimes committed

Can say that again.

I’m not saying that at all, I’m saying we should measure ourselves by our standards. Which seem to have been long forgotten sadly.

I never said directors. If the toilets aren’t clean I don’t expect the directors to clean them. I do however expect them to create the correct structure to ensure the toilets are clean. Ask yourself if you think the same thing would have happened across the city with someone involved in a pro union death cult getting photos taken with Tom Boyd’s stupid face. You know it wouldn’t.

Has to be this currently on sale item . Yup, it's a Jack Butland draught excluder , and yes, you guessed it...it doesn't keep the draughts out either.

I think it’s sensible for business to know beforehand who will be attending so the relevant personal can vet attendance. I mean saying ‘it’s for charity’ shouldn’t mean free passes for any individuals to gain access. Look at Jimmy Saville.