buster.

I've seen too many great prospects come and go without leaving their mark at Ibrox to risk getting seriously excited. Contained anticipation with fingers crossed behind back is where I'm at

Middleton, who will celebrate his 19th birthday at the turn of the year, has a lot to his game and is showing signs of being able to perform at first team level. A young and hungry wide player who can create and finish should be encouraged with enough gametime to continue his development and if he is the real deal, he'll make the first team spot his own, regardless of age.

Borrowed this graph from another thread........ Why would the big English clubs want to leave the EPL ?

So much for collective spirit towards the cause. What you've got .......... - apathy and many players deserting a sinking ship - a lot of the media sharpening the knives for a manager who has been in the job for 180 competitive minutes, won one of them and has if the team play ok, an excellent chance of topping the Nations League group. - an Association with limited funds and options going forward You could see this level of apathy coming from a few weeks ago and I guess it's the International way of losing part of the dressing room. With a press pack that resembles a group of hyenas stalking a 'wounded' Alex McLeish, this appears to be only going one way and the only doubt is timescale. Can Eck prolong his stay and qualify from this immediate group ? Apparently a win against Israel would probably be enough, regardless of the result in Albania. However, if we were to lose in Albania, it'll be tin hats and ear plugs for the squad and players prior to the Israel match.

Being reported that given it's a first charge for the club re. delayed KO, it's likely to be a warning, rather than a 5 figure fine. It is based on the precedent involving Valencia (first offence) at Old Trafford earlier this season. https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/rangers/could-rangers-escape-uefa-sanctions-over-europa-league-tie-with-spartak-moscow-1-4829288

Jack was called up as an injury replacement on Sunday but has now withdrawn himself with a knee problem. DR Record say it's a knee problem. You wonder if it has something to do with his limited gametime of late.

As you touched on earlier. This rule is broken on most European match-days in some stadium, somewhere and it will always end up with a charge.

You still got them. Ryan Jack has just pulled out of the Scotland squad.

But for the excellent last minute corner delivery at Motherwell, we'd currently be top of the league. I think you have to create more than one option regards taking a decent corner. #PractisePractisePractise

He is a young footballer who is selfish and thinks he is better than he is, there are a lot of them. Whether he says it or not, we know he was very much part of it. However, the team being weak in big domestic games has obviously been and still is a problem (without Windass). It could be argued that his presence might have made a difference in this years League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen. The bottomline takeaway from this being, is that we will go no-where until we start winning these types of games.

Bruntsfield Sports ?

Windass seemed to stress the point about the teams weakness in big game situations and I think it a fair one. You look at the Motherwell LC semi-final defeat last season yet we've not been beaten by them in 42 ordinary league fixtures.

The hard, fast and whipped-in accurate delivery from corners is almost essential in modern-day football. More especially in those games that goals are difficult to come by. Seems as though an 18 year old Middleton sees this and is prepared to work hard on this aspect of his game in his own time. A good attitude makes his progression in the game much more likely.

First goal against Spartak as well. When you look at some of the goals we've conceded and our defence has been slated, not much is said about an often excellent delivery. It's a hugely important part of football.

My Dad occasionally mentioned that back in his day Xmas presents were sparse and fresh fruit was sometimes prominent. It didn't stop him and his brothers from putting in the hours playing fitbaw. There were always places they could play (that didn't cost money) and kit was the least of their worries. Those hours enabled one of the brothers to go on and play for Scotland at a WC Finals (1954). Progress had been made since those days (not Scottish fitbaw) but it's now regression for the ordinary guy and the progress tends to be corporate. 100 pounds for a pair of kids football boots says a lot about where we are.

Scoring 32 goals in 12 league games is notable and I think you'll have to go a far way back into the archives to find when we scored more in the top flight. It's certainly notable for a team with creative issues middle to front (the managers observation from Shkupi onwards). If you add 7 League Cup goals, then it's a total of 39 in 15 at an average of 2.6 per match or one every 35 minutes. So where is the problem ? It's in big games and against organised defences. In the domestic games where we have failed to score (lost them all 0-1, Celtic/Livingston/Aberdeen) we have played 270 minutes without even looking like scoring. Each of those three defeats have come in different blocks of matches (between International breaks) or in other words, we had not come up with answers, although tbf we were without Morelos & Lafferty in the 3rd of those 3. Looking at yesterday, do Middleton and/or Grezda look like being an answer ? On the little I have seen, set-piece delivery from Middleton has certainly made a difference.

In PQ podcastland it's as if it never happened. Monday, normally a day to go over significant weekend events hardly mentioned the first seven goal haul of the top flight this season. The Monday edition talked more about the rescinded red card of Morelos at Aberdeen of 100 days ago than our performance in scoring seven goals yesterday. Scott MacDonald offered more analysis on a 7 goal Celtic victory over Motherwell from 2016 than yesterdays Rangers performance. It might have only been 15 seconds but that was more. What was featured was over 20 minutes arguing the toss about whether it was a penalty when McHugh did his Sepp Maier impression. It was your now customary Michael Stewart righteous crusade that dominated the programme, rather than a proportional representation of events on the pitch. Livingston didn't get any credit either but Celtic did manage to sustain the sensational form dialogue as they took their time drooling over why Ryan Christie got his contract extension. St.Johnstone's excellent run of results got some time with Richard Foster in the studio and a couple of the veritable pack of Hyenas prepared the ground for a full-on attack on the Scotland manager in the coming days. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06rjy0f

I'd agree but we need to start defending/organising better and chalking up some clean sheets. In domestic football, we've only managed clean sheets against the two at the bottom, St.Mirren (x2) and Dundee...as well as Championship Ayr Utd. That's why we've needed to score 32 goals to gather 24 points.

Sunday 11th November Livingsto 0-0 Celtic Rangers 7-1 Motherwell Strange but PQ seem to have forgotten to upload the Sportsound podcast for Sunday, they normally do.

Football, politics, whatever................................Michael Stewart, the nearly but never quite makes it man. You can often hear the anxious frustration in his voice. The competitive desperation to prove himself to be the man of vision amongst a group that collectively see no further than Mr Magoo in a pea souper and employ their skewed imagination to guide the nation.

Probably best you do....... #FreedomOExpressionOfficer2

Great boost going into this break. We finished off a poor 3 weeks with a performance that gives us encouragement in the squad to afront the challenge of 11 games in 36 days that awaits. One game at a time though is the only way to go. All eyes on Livingston at Ibrox and it has to be another 3 points.

Desperation to make it big as a pundit after never really getting out from behind the black ball as a player. Only thing, is that what I think he's actually presenting to the nation is one of the main reasons why he never made it as a player. #Gobshite