ian1964

I'm one who thought he should have been given a decent run in his correct position............how many times have we all said that about a number of players ?????

2-1 Falkirk

1-1 Falkirk scores with a penalty

Haha........McGready misses penalty,Falkirk may live to regret not taking any of their chances,it's all Falkirk

No substance or proof,just the rumour mill saying Spurs have made an offer for Wilson

Agreed with all of that Cal,the problem is anyone can write anything they want,unchallenged

Highlights: Doncaster v Blackpool http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/8337075.stm OOPS!!!, think this is the wrong game :-]

KRIS BOYD took his SPL tally to 149 goals and now is just eight behind all-time record scorer Henrik Larsson.

FOR MARTIN BAIN, the time has come to plea bargain. The Rangers chief executive will know that the violent scenes we saw in Bucharest on Wednesday night cannot go on much longer without the club getting hit with some kind of ban from European competition. Maybe the ban won't be handed down this time, maybe it won't happen next time either. But as sure as night follows day, Bain must be certain that the next incident involving the vermin rump that attaches itself to his club is just aroun Judging from his reaction to the trouble in Bucharest, Bain clearly needs advice. In attempting to divvy up the blame, on a 50-50 basis, between the thugs who broke up seats and flung them at stewards and the stewards themselves, he came across as an ADVERTISEMENT apologist for the moronic tourists. And not for the first time either. It would have been nice to hear him say that the CCTV footage – of outstanding quality, it seems – would be studied and the trouble-makers identified and banned from Ibrox for life. But he chose not to. He was as cringe-makingly wrong in his judgment last week as he was in his assertion, post Manchester, that the riots after the UEFA Cup final of 2008 were spearheaded by English hooligans. So, here's what he should do next. He should discreetly ask UEFA to forget any thought they may have of swingeing fines or points deductions or behind-closed-doors games at Ibrox and suggest instead, off the record, that a one-year ban be placed on Rangers supporters travelling abroad to follow their team. He should do it because Rangers are heading for a significant sanction if some of their supporters keep up their current levels of hooliganism: Pamplona, Villarreal, Manchester and now Bucharest. He should do it because you get a sense around Ibrox that the club is at the end of its tether with these abusive half-wit fans and their refusal to take responsibility for their own actions. If you're Walter Smith, there is no downside to having the fans banned on the road. The constant threat of trouble is just not worth it. Having them banned at home, however, would be a nightmare, in terms of revenue and image and other things. Rangers are moving towards that point, though. Bain needs to pre-empt the doomsday scenario and he needs to do it quickly. We could sit here all day going on about some of the Rangers support and their feeble attempts to deflect the blame for their own behaviour. Not only are these people violent, they are also thunderously stupid if they think that civilised Scotland is buying the excuses they've been trotting out since Wednesday night. We've heard that old one about English accents infiltrating the ranks, the same pitiful argument they put up in the immediate aftermath of the Manchester riots, a bogus defence that came tumbling down around their ears just as soon as all that YouTube footage started to emerge and all those distinctly Scottish accents were heard from people in their unmistakably blue shirts seen rampaging around Manchester, smashing cars and windows, chucking bottles and attacking policemen. And each other. UEFA washed its hands of the Manchester business. Shame on it for that. A city centre under siege and Michel Platini and chums turned and looked the other way. By rights, Rangers should have been banned from Europe for what happened down there. It's always somebody else's fault as far as some Rangers fans are concerned. In Manchester, it was the fault of the local council for not anticipating the size of the visiting support, the fault of Tesco for selling them beer so early in the morning, the fault of the sunshine for frying the brains of the fans, the fault of the big screen for breaking down. In Bucharest, it was the fascist stewards and police to blame and the ***** stadium and the poxy, rundown city and the closed turnstiles and, of course, the guys with the English accents stirring things up. It has to be said that many Rangers fans have grown as weary of this kind of buck-passing as the rest of us, large elements of them condemning outright what went on in Bucharest. Many of them must be fearing a hefty punishment from UEFA on Thursday. Sure, the Unirea officials made a hash of things. Yes, those turnstiles should have been opened and, unquestionably, the behaviour of the Romanian stewards and police deserves investigation. But Rangers shouldn't even be allowed to look at the moral high ground, never mind occupy it. Some of their fans dynamited their own credibility when they ran amok in Manchester and disgraced themselves in European games with Osasuna and Villarreal, not to mention the 17 arrests at the infamous Ibrox beam-back at the UEFA Cup final. At the club's own event there were Rangers fans led away with blood-stained jerseys, Rangers fans handcuffed on the ground, Rangers fans roaming about steaming drunk and looking to cause hassle. And even they could not find anybody to blame that night. There's just a hardcore of hopeless drunken neds that cling to Rangers and won't let go. When they complain about over-zealous stewards and indiscriminate use of CS gas, they forget that the reason security personnel are jumpy is because of the foul reputation Rangers fans now have abroad. They can view YouTube in Bucharest as well, you know. They've seen the videos from Manchester. No Rangers fans should have been surprised to find an aggressive force in Romania. The reputation of the fans precedes them everywhere they go these days. Bain would be doing the club, and their legions of proper supporters, a service if he made representations to UEFA and brought a halt to the trips. For without drastic action, Rangers are on a self-destructive road and are heading for the kind of punishment that will hurt the club to its core. -- Scotsman

IAN DURRANT claims Walter Smith stands on the brink of pulling off his greatest achievement with Rangers. The Ibrox coach has given a rare insight into his gaffer's defiant state of mind as he tackles the club's crippling financial crisis. He predicts history will one day portray Smith as the saviour of Rangers - in the same way Fergus McCann was credited with hauling Celtic back from the verge of ruin in the summer of 1994. Durrant's position as Smith's sidekick in the stand has given him a unique insight into what makes the nine-in-a-row boss tick. He describes the 61-year-old as a man on a mission, hellbent on steering the debt-ridden club through the rockiest times in its 135-year history. Durrant said: "Fifteen years ago, Fergus McCann and all the Celtic boys rallied round and saved their club. Walter's on a mission to save Rangers. And if he's at the helm, Rangers will succeed, it's as simple as that. "In a perfect world I think he could have stepped aside two seasons ago after reaching the UEFA Cup Final. Or even last season, when he won the double, if things had gone to plan afterwards. "I thought at the end of last season, after winning the double and getting the league back - which was the most important thing - that would have been the time to bow out. "But he said to us he had unfinished business and now everyone knows what that was. The club's financial situation has given him that spark again. He's got a motivation now to prove we can get through this. "I look at his desire and the fact is, he doesn't need this. He chose to come back when we weren't as strong financially as we had been, so he had to juggle things about. "He brought in Davie Weir, who has been unbelievable, then Ugo Ehiogu and they steadied the ship. It's been a constant battle ever since, though Walter's never complained. "He will hand the club over - whether it's to Coisty, Kenny McDowall and myself or someone else - and it will still be in place. "Getting us through the next six months will be his greatest achievement. And he will do it, because his desire to succeed will take him there. He's a Rangers fan and it's his club." Smith's contract expires in January, along with that of his No2 Ally McCoist, and there have been suggestions that pressure from the bankers could mean the pair are not offered a new deal or will be asked to take a pay cut. Durrant believes that would be a bigger own goal and costlier blunder than anything seen during the global banking crisis. He said: "If anyone tried to move Walter out, they'd be making a big mistake. "I'm not saying no one else could do it, but it's an unsteady ship and slowly but surely the weight on us has been lifted in the past two weeks. You can see a difference in the whole club. "The one thing about the gaffer is he gets the right reaction from players." As Rangers' money problems piled up, Donald Muir from Lloyds Banking Group was crowbarred on to the Rangers board. It was the first visible sign drastic changes were going on behind the scenes and rumours and counter-rumours began to fly around the Ibrox club. To make matters worse, results started to suffer, culminating in back-to-back 4-1 home thrashings in the Champions League by Spanish cracks Sevilla and Romanian minnows Unirea Urziceni. Smith had seen enough and called a crisis council with his trusted coaching staff then his players. Then he went public with a bombshell statement after a league match with Hibs to say the bankers were running Rangers - and all hell broke loose! Lloyds, then Rangers, issued statements saying Smith had got it completely wrong and the club was still in charge of its affairs. But Durrant believes, as far as what was happening on the pitch was concerned, no one can dispute that Smith got it totally right. He said: "The gaffer had to ask the players for one final push and the boys took a lot of belief from him. It's not a nice position when there's talk of redundancies. It leaves a stale feeling. "You know there are other people at the club who rely on you. People who have been working here for a long time could lose their jobs. "Football isn't their job but they are affected by what happens on the park. We know there's a recession on but we have to get on with it. It's the same with the gaffer. "Obviously, he's the manager of Rangers but he's also a supporter and he was hurting. There were times when he was low - we've all been low. "You want to get on with your job and play the game, but everything that was happening with the club was making the front page of the papers rather than the back. That got to him a bit. "You can hear the tone of his voice change and you know he's hurting. But he sees Coisty, myself and Kenny as a younger group and he sees us being bubbly round about him and he gets a lift from it. He's surrounded himself by good indians. "He'd never come in and let you see him at rock bottom though, he's too proud a man to do that. But since he said his thing about the bank, and it's come out in the open, there's been a freshness about the place. "For two or three weeks the staff were tip-toeing on egg shells and we didn't know what was happening. We were all hearing the banks were going to pull the plug and it creates a bit of uncertainty. "I'm not making excuses for the Sevilla or Unirea games, but there was uncertainty which may have affected the players. "I hope it didn't because that's what we're here to deal with, so we sat down and talked about it. "We weren't playing well and yet we knew we had a good group of players - guys who had bent over backwards for us the previous season by winning a double. "Walter just wondered aloud if that uncertainty was causing problems and since then I think we've played our best stuff of the season against Hibs, Dundee United and Unirea. They were great open games." Durrant has seen the pressure mount on the other side of Glasgow too as Tony Mowbray has come under the microscope in his new job at Celtic. At times, Mowbray has questioned the quality of his players and given them an ultimatum to shape up or ship out. That's an approach Durrant never expects to see from Smith. He added: "It's the hardest job in the world. I've known Celtic boys from years ago and we all know it's the same pressure as being at Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. "You have to win every game. Every minute now, you're being scrutinised. Walter never criticises the players publicly. He takes the responsibility, he's old school that way. In football, you always say 'get the dressing room on your side' and he has that. "He has one last piece of unfinished business and I'll be damned if he doesn't do it." http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_sport/587228/Legend-reveals-how-Ibrox-boss-is-suffering-through-clubs-crisis.html

THESE Rangers thugs just don't get it, do they? Knuckle-trailing morons who attach themselves like scum to decent footie fans are too thick to understand. So I'll explain it simply, just in case any of them can read: If you are a thug and you follow Rangers for a European football clash, the cops are lying in wait. Because your reputation goes before you, in a shameful catalogue of yobbery that few other football clubs have ever been able to surpass. So, the baton-wielding cops are armed and ready with CS gas, and anything they need to beat the s**t out of you. That's how it is. It's not up for debate. It's up to you to deal with it. If you so much as step off the pavement, chances are you will be bludgeoned by some burly policeman who has already made up his mind that you're a waster. What part of that little scenario is difficult to understand? Honest to God. I watched these scenes unfold during the match in Bucharest and I could not believe what I was seeing. The neds who rampaged through Manchester in 2008, tearing up the city, haven't even been dealt with in court yet, and here we go again. Could it be that the sectarian element fosters a mentality that will always be hell-bent on trouble? And I'm sure all the true Rangers fans watching at home, and the decent supporters standing terrified in case they were drawn into a full- scale riot, must be wondering what the hell they can do to shake off these eejits. Every proper Rangers fan I know, who wants to be able to go along to a match and support their team, must be pig sick of the mindless animals who are dragging them into the gutter. Because make no mistake about it. The image of Rangers abroad is in tatters because of these cave dwellers. Long before the Battle of Bucharest, true Rangers fans were treated like lepers when they travelled because of numbskulls latching onto them. They are not fans. You and I know that. Anyone who goes to a football match anywhere in the world looking for a fight is not a fan, he is a thug. But maybe someone can tell me this: Why do there seem to be more thugs attached to Rangers than many other football clubs? Every time I criticise Rangers I get hate mail. The truth is, I have plenty of Gers friends, and I was willing them on to win against Unirea. But it's time Rangers looked inside themselves and asked just why trouble follows them everywhere they go. Because either Rangers are the most persecuted club in the world, or they just attract a bigger hooligan element than anyone else. The sickening scenes we have witnessed in recent years from Spain to Manchester would suggest this is not about persecution. It is about sheer thuggery. So instead of Rangers supremo Martin Bain prattling on about too few turnstiles being open, he should look at why his club is plagued by this despicable baggage. Could it be that the sectarian element fosters a mentality that will always be hell-bent on trouble? We know that where you have sectarianism, you will find thuggery. At Celtic you have morons who still insist on singing IRA songs, when the fact is you could probably write their knowledge of Irish history on the back of a fag packet. They are thugs, not fans. And it's the same for the idiots singing No Surrender - as we could clearly hear during the match in Bucharest. If Rangers are trying to find the yobs dragging them down, then they will find them among these rancid ranks. It's time everyone attached to Rangers stopped blaming everyone else and asked themselves if they are doing enough. That includes supporters' clubs who run buses and deal with tickets, up to the bosses in the Rangers boardroom. Because this great club means a lot to many good people, and it is in a big enough mess without UEFA banning them from Euro tournaments. Agree? Disagree? Scroll down to leave your comments Sadly, for the club and genuine fans, if UEFA decided to do that tomorrow, Rangers wouldn't have a leg to stand on. ANNA SMITH http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=3

The first thing our new leaders,if there is such a thing, should do is tackle this cretin and ban him from Ibrox.If we do get a new leader,or even if we don't, someone from Rangers FC should put this reptile back under the stone he came from. Stand up Mr Bain

Ha ha, tell you what,he is no worse than we have right now and IMO we should not have let him go

Scored a cracking free kick against Scunthorpe

Graham Spiers Another away trip, another bout of trouble. Cue feeble excuses ââ?¬â?? yet again. Maybe this time they will face the music. If you are one of the legions of decent, fair-minded Rangers supporters then maybe you shouldnââ?¬â?¢t read on: you will only find the subject wearying, aggravating, a further embarrassment for your club. In fact, your only conclusion might be this: the humiliations that sections of Rangers supporters continue to heap upon their club appear to be limitless. Villarreal, Pamplona, Manchester, now Bucharest. Why is it that, when Rangers FC and their spineless supportersââ?¬â?¢ spokesmen start groping around for excuses, the common themes of ââ?¬Å?heavy-handed policingââ?¬Â or ââ?¬Å?these are not real Rangers fansââ?¬Â are forever trotted out? Canââ?¬â?¢t any club official, or any supportersââ?¬â?¢ representative, ever come clean on this? Will someone at Rangers finally find the guts to say: ââ?¬Å?We have a major problem with our support and it is ruining this clubââ?¬Â? The scenes in Bucharest last Wednesday night at Rangersââ?¬â?¢ Champions League tie against Unirea were tediously familiar. But almost as bad, in the context of accountability, was Rangersââ?¬â?¢ feeble response to it. It was Manchester and the Uefa Cup final riots of 2008 all over again. Do you remember what happened there? The big TV screens in town went blank so the Rangers fans started rioting. The very next morning, amid some of the quickest gathering of intelligence I have ever come across, Martin Bain and Rangers hosted a press conference at which it was established that this was just ââ?¬Å?a small minorityââ?¬Â of fans who had been involved, and that the miscreants were people who ââ?¬Å?donââ?¬â?¢t normally attach themselves to our supportââ?¬Â. This was about 30 minutes before Sky TV began to broadcast gruesome footage of hundreds of ââ?¬Å?not real Rangers fansââ?¬Â drunkenly setting about anything in sight in Manchester. And it was about 10 months before ââ?¬Å?not real Rangers fansââ?¬Â were humiliatingly strung up like felons on the BBCââ?¬â?¢s Crimewatch programme, as the quest to track them down went on. After the Manchester riots, just like after Bucharest four nights ago, Mr Bain and Rangers revealed an uncanny habit of placing more emphasis on defending, rather than condemning. Literally within half an hour of the aggro in Bucharest, Bain was issuing a 78-word statement, the first 21 of which said this: ââ?¬Å?Obviously, the behaviour of some of our fans in the stadium tonight is not acceptable ââ?¬â? no one likes to see that.ââ?¬Â And the rest of it? Well, wasnââ?¬â?¢t it simply dreadful the way the Rangers fans were treated. I mean, come on, four turnstiles should have been operating, but instead there were only two. And all that CS gas being used on our poor fans. Note the different tone in Bainââ?¬â?¢s statement. The fact that Rangers fans rioted ââ?¬Å?was unacceptableââ?¬Â and ââ?¬Å?no-one likes to see thatââ?¬Â. But the fact the Romanian police used CS gas to subdue them? Why, this was ââ?¬Å?totally unacceptableââ?¬Â. The response of Andy Kerr, of the Rangers Supporters Assembly, was even worse. Kerr actually had the temerity to state: ââ?¬Å?I wouldnââ?¬â?¢t say the Rangers fans did anything wrong. The organisation was very poor.ââ?¬Â And on the very same night we had the official Rangers website stating that ââ?¬Å?our fans suffered heavyhanded treatment by the police.ââ?¬Â Ah, yes, the old ââ?¬Å?heavy-handedââ?¬Â policing line. This is an old Rangers favourite. There is almost an indecent haste, as there was in Bucharest, to soft-soap some of this Rangers loutishness with anodyne utterances about policing, stewarding, whatever. I do not doubt for a moment that the situation in that Steaua stadium was unsatisfactory. One supporter I spoke to who was there testified to crumbling terraces and a bottleneck at the turnstiles, where Rangers fans were attempting to gain access to the ground. But is this a licence for thuggishness? Do decent human beings, in finding themselves in such a situation, start fist-fights, throw seats around, and brawl with stewards, as Rangers fans did the other night? Denial, denial, denial. It does Rangers FC no good. And it assumes that the rest of us are too dim-witted to recognise the cold, hard evidence that is staring us ââ?¬â? and the governing body of European football ââ?¬â? in the face. In the expansive canon of excuse-making for Rangers and their fansââ?¬â?¢ antics, one of the great farragoes that is used is this ââ?¬Å?heavy-handed policingââ?¬Â line. In Villarreal in 2006, when the bigoted chanting by Rangers fans and the attack on the Spanish clubââ?¬â?¢s team bus occurred, there was, if you were prepared to believe certain Rangers supporters groups, ââ?¬Å?heavy-handed policingââ?¬Â which only served to worsen the situation. Then we moved on to Pamplona a year later where ââ?¬â? how unusual ââ?¬â? some Rangers fans chanted bigoted anthems and fought with stewards. The Rangers supporters bodiesââ?¬â?¢ reponse? ââ?¬Å?Really, we cannot condone some of the heavy-handed policing that we saw ... ââ?¬Å? Then we got to Manchester in May 2008. Now, before I go any further here, can I just confirm one thing? The Greater Manchester Police ââ?¬â? have they a reputation for aggression or heavy-handedness? No, I thought not. So we had these garish TV images of hundreds of Rangers supporters fighting, rioting, overturning cars. And what was the supporters clubsââ?¬â?¢ response? ââ?¬Å?While we cannot condone some of the antics of our supporters, we really believe that heavy-handed policing ...ââ?¬Â Yes, yes. I think weââ?¬â?¢ve heard enough. Rangers are the sick man of British football. They cannot gouge out the bigots and the undesirables from their support. There is something of the white underclass about a section of this clubââ?¬â?¢s support which only guarantees intermittent but perennial embarrassment for Ibrox. It is as if a previously arrogant attitude around Rangers FC, now being overwhelmed by a more modern, multi-ethnic, ecumenical society around it, cannot cope with these changes and feels threatened by them. On Thursday Uefa quite rightly stepped in, cut through all the obfuscation around the events in Bucharest, and opened yet another prosecution case against Rangers. For the long-term good of Rangers, I hope Uefa throw the book at them, and I believe they will.

If rumours are to be believed we won't have him for much longer !!!

Well I'll certainly get a rest if he is left out

I think Davis needs to have a seat on the bench for a few games

Difference is he continually does what he is paid to do..............SCORE GOALS

You would think we were there worst fans in the world the way the Scottish press have reacted, whatever punishment is handed out will have to be handed out to most football clubs in the future

Also his attitude has changed, he really has gone up in my estimation, although I am a Boyd fan he has to be the most improved player in our squad,keep up the good work Mr Boyd

I'll go for Wilson again,this guy really has a bright future ahead of him if he continues to learn and progress, so much so that he will play himself to a big move sooner than anyone probably anticipated. Fleck was excellent in the first half,in his correct position, but did fade in the second half mainly due to the fact he was pushed out wide left after Whittaker had to be replaced at half time.

Even the supporters that don't like/rate him have to give him credit for the way he just keeps scoring,let's not forget that scoring so regularly can't be taught/coached it is natural and a rarity that teams cry out for, thank god he is playing for Rangers.He proved today,again, that IMO he should not be left out of the team regardless the opposition, and I agree with what has already been said he has tried to add more to his game and is doing a good job at it,hopefully the fans that don't rate Boyd will finally admit his value to Rangers and cut him a bit of slack,he deserves it,especially when he continually gets left out of our European games then just comes back in and does what he does best..............SCORE GOALS.

Maybe the Rangers fans can do something in return @ the Stuttgart game !!!

By Brian McNally http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/brian-mcnally/Why-Rangers-must-take-responsibility-for-the-hooligans-trashing-their-reputation-in-Europe-article212895.html