JFK-1

How lucky do they get.

I'm just hoping this goes to extra time now. I would now rather this goes to extra time and the sheep win than St Johnstone win in the 90. St Johnstone just hit the post two minutes left of the standard 90.

Aberdeen after 75 minutes ZERO shots on target. I presume this goes to penalties if they both fail to score? Hopefully it does btw. Does us no harm whatsoever if they have to play 120 minutes with only two free days to recover before facing us and we will give them a lot more running to cope with than St Johnstone have.

How pathetic is that? They're playing a top 6 SPL side in a cup quarter final while we had 3 times that many for Championship opposition. It's all the more comical when you think they're looking utter crap with an amateur long ball strategy and chanting "bring on the Rangers"

They have just one creative player while we have players all over the pitch. All we need to do is keep their one player out of it. Would have liked Rossiter to be available to take him out of it.

A comment on the BBC live text of the game.

The long ball is largely what they're doing right now against St Johnstone and I mean extremes of it. Even their goalie is just kicking the ball as far up the pitch as he can. That's a football team we should be impressed by? I can see that in Sunday league football.

Probably half the crowd did too aside from the bunch obsessing on "the Rangers"

I'm watching the match with St Johnstone. They have been edging the possession but after 25 minutes haven't brought a single save from the goalie. Incidentally the stadium looks pretty empty and what are there have nothing better to do but chant "bring on the Rangers" The obsession runs deep.

Apparently even a lot of sheep fans are thinking St Johnstone will beat them which I too think is a distinct possibility but that merely demonstrates how illogical their opinion that they can beat Rangers easily is. St Johnstone are a competent top 6 SPL side but no more than that and not only are they no better than they were last season their arguably less potent. We have the guy who was their star man in our squad the loss of whom had to have a detrimental effect and they're not the type of club who can replace that kind of loss. St Johnstone are little more than competent grinders who set up to stop the other team playing which O'Halloran himself admitted in an interview soon after joining us. He said he was having to adapt to a team playing a startegy more or less the complete opposite of that he was used to. If the sheep on their own patch can't convincingly beat a team of competent grinders I see no reason whatsoever for them to have any confidence that they can 'easily' beat us. All the professional pundits are of the opinion that they're highly suspect defensively and that's going to be exploited to the max if our team play as they have been of late. Plus if our defence turns in the kind of stable show they have been of late that should serve to nudge it even more in our favour because I get the feeling that we can pin them back for long periods of the match leaving our defence to deal with breakaways. I have been encouraged by seeing Hill and Senderos too even in the disastrous Old Firm tie reliably clear those troublesome high balls that have had our hearts fluttering all last season while against QoS I saw Wilson make good interceptions and simply punt the ball away up the park into the opposition half. That's all we require of him not silky skills to dribble it out of there. Probably everyone would agree that the last two matches aside we have been playing well below par while the sheep have probably been as good as they are going to get with no missing Waghorn, a Windass, the recently returned Holt, or Crooks to throw into the mix. We can only get better while they are what they are and have no more league points than we do. Of their 3 home league matches they have won only one against a Partick side lying bottom of the table with 3 defeats and a draw from their last 4 games. Now all of this obviously doesn't necessarily mean that we will blow them away but I think it does mean that we can win this match and if we get just an average rub of the green in front of goal maybe even comfortably. It's a key match in the sense that if we can take them on their own patch given that they are reckoned to be solid top 3 then this could go a long way to shutting the mouths of the babbling haters and set us up nicely for a good run back to a challenging position. In saying that mark my words. If we win it will still be portrayed as the sheep played badly, Forrester or any other name you care to mention should have been red carded, we were lucky despite the fact that not only are we due an average rub of the green it might be said we're even due a bit of the luck others have carried against us. We only have to play as we can to take them and turn our season around. Does that give you a start for a positive preview Pete?

The most dignified and karma like response to this would be if we score on the 12th minute. Let's see them applaud that. I would be unable to cheer for laughing.

Look how high he is, that alone is extremely dangerous. He and the refereee forgot he isn't a goalie out there.

It's ludicrous and I think they're just too dumb to grasp their won stupidity. Presumably they're up in arms about a headline from the Record today quoting one of their former captains Russel Anderson who apparently isn't up to speed with the fantasy. What? 'face rangers again??? But how can that be? But this isn't Rangers this is a new team. How can we play a new team we never played before 'again' Baaaa.

The more I look at the Gordon incident the more baffling it is he didn't walk and that really would have changed the game. They would have had to pull an outfielder to bring on the substitute goalie. I think the ref may have had some sort of brain fart in that he forgot when the goalie steps outside the box he isn't a goalie anymore he's become an outfielder and I don't see any other outfielder escaping a tackle like that with no red card. He went flying in studs showing with his boot at waist height with the clear intention of taking the man out. And all that's aside from blatantly taking out a man who had control of the ball and was bearing down on goal. If Foderingham did that Sutton would be in a frenzy about it as would the crowd who were so frantic about the Forrester tackle which was nothing in comparison to this.

I always feel a lot of this comes down to feelings of inferiority and if we were to base it on comparing records there is a huge imbalance in favour of Rangers and i'm talking even recent records. But if this is the way they want to deal with their inferiority complex so be it. It's irrelevant and will simply make them look all the more ridiculous if we beat them on Sunday which I totally believe we can if the same level of play we have seen in the last two games is again on show. Even the latest cup result involving Alloa illustrates how impressive our total destruction of Championship toppers QoS was. QoS are unbeaten in their league and full timers unlike Alloa who are in an even lower league and are part timers. When we play to our capabilities I think we're a lot better than many even including some of our own seem to think we are and further we still haven't even seen the best the team can play.

I totally agree, there isn't as much between them and us as the recent result suggested. They laboured against a part time league 1 outfit and only managed to wrap it up in the final 10 minutes when the part timers legs were beginning to fail them. It looked little different from our match against Ross County the major difference being Ross County are not league 1 part timers and neither incidentally are QoS. QoS are full timers.

I think it's common for players not to hold grudges over such blow outs as this one may have been because it's something that probably happens to at least some degree almost every single day. When the team is largely picked from the training ground as most teams are you have to get right in there to prove yourself and that's going to result in squabbles. Personally I feel though it looks grim right now it would still be best if he could just shut up, get his head down and get fit. He can't go from the best player in the English Championship to worthless in a matter of weeks. If he gets himself fit and playing like he did last season we will have an even more powerful bench rather than shelling out good money for nothing. On the other hand if he has been ultra abusive to the manager that's something else again. They can discuss their thoughts with the manager but challenging his authority with abuse is beyond the pale. And again as you say we don't know what happened so maybe he didn't do that at all.

Good goal by Dembele in the 90th minute to give it a thin veneer of respectability but if that had been us well they're just league 1 part timers.

Maybe puts a bit of a different perspective on our overwhelming superiority against Ross County but just couldn't get the ball in the net? And that's even before mentioning that County are full time SPL pros while Alloa are league 1 part timers.

What would it be if the doll had been given a turban rather than a Rangers scarf and was accompanied by banners proclaiming kill all Muslims? And isn't this exactly the same thing as I just described aside from the target group?

Wonder if there will be any screams of incredulous protest that Gordon didn't walk.

Might have taken the time to punctuate it properly if I had known that but sure.

The QoS cup tie has calmed many nerves regarding our recent tendency to dominate games while displaying an inability to hit the back of the net, and in many ways it couldn't have come at a better time. While still reeling from the disappointment of the old firm loss, we then found ourselves embroiled in the Joey Barton drama which has already been so thoroughly deliberated over and still has much mileage to come that, aside from mentioning it we need not discuss it further now. We then followed the let-down of the old firm encounter with arguably the best display the team has turned in this season yet still failed to take full points in a goalless draw with Ross County. That, aside from anything else, dropped us further down the league which in itself though having no great relevance at this early stage was again a source of concern for a Rangers support spoiled by unmatched success over many decades. Ross County in particular was a massive blow to the confidence of many fans when it appeared that we could overwhelm a side and they were totally outplayed but still not score goals but I would argue that many failed to see the actual positives involved. We dominated the possession and had 16 shots at goal hitting woodwork in the process with 2 shots cleared off the line and struck every limb the human body has in the County defence resulting in the ball being deflected here there and everywhere but into the net. This massive number of deflections resulted in 14 corners for Rangers to just 1 for County. That type of luck on the part of County or bad luck from a Rangers perspective is unnatural and chance alone dictates it just couldn't happen on a consistent basis. County may argue and I have seen their fans do so that they brought a top class save out of Wes Foderingham which is true and one other run of the mill save during the match but isn't that what he is there for? If we didn't expect the opposition to get a shot in on goal why bother playing a keeper at all and I doubt many sides out there would consider that they had been under any pressure in a match where the keeper made two saves. The defence overall which has been an issue not just this season but last also turned in a more confident and assured performance with Clint Hill turning in the type of shift we would expect from a player of his vast experience and undoubted quality. Then to further brighten the state of the defensive worries Danny Wilson also turned in a competent display beside him perhaps coached through it by Hill and Wilson may prove to be a more consistent performer with the experience of a Hill or Senderos beside him. And to top off the impressive overall performance the lack of goals aside due largely to uncanny bad luck a number of the players including the usually reliable Barrie McKay didn't even perform to the standards we know they are capable of and have come to expect from them. Which brings us back to QoS and the resounding 5-0 victory which I would argue wasn't any better a performance than that we saw against Ross County it was simply a game in which QoS didn't carry the same incredible luck County did. And in which all things being equal you would expect very few teams ever will. Now it may be said that QoS are a Championship side which is obviously true but it must also be considered that last season proved that there is not a wide chasm between the top teams in the Championship and the average SPL side. I haven't researched it but I can recall off the top of my head at least 5 occasions last season in which a Championship side defeated an SPL side in cup matches. And in fact 3 of the 4 finalists in both national cup competitions were from the Championship. Turning back again to focus on QoS they are no average Championship side either. They are sitting top of their league and undefeated in their league and further than that have defeated all the other 3 top 4 teams in the Championship. The have beaten 4th placed Falkirk and third placed Raith in league matches while also beating 2nd placed Hibs with a comfortable 3-1 victory away at Easter Road to set up this quarter final tie with Rangers. Taking all of these factors into account and looking forward to the next game at Aberdeen against a side which finished second in the SPL last season and is expected to be a top 3 contender this season I feel we can truly travel up there with a renewed confidence that we can win this difficult away tie. On the evidence of the past two matches we are at long last beginning to look more like the formidable outfit we were last term and I think we can be confident another display like that will give Aberdeen a stern test they haven't yet experienced in a home match this season. Barrie McKay looked more like his old self against QoS chipping in with an assist while Marytn Waghorn also received a huge confidence booster with a hat trick while we also had the sight of Michael O'Halloran doing what we brought him in to do by providing 2 assists on the night. Add to that the fact we are likely to have the hugely impressive Josh Windass in the side with the rejuvenated Jason Holt available we truly have nothing to fear going into this match providing the players continue their recent form. It also comes at a time when we have 4 rest days to prepare while Aberdeen who will play their league cup tie on Thursday against difficult opposition in the shape of St Johnstone with only 2 rest days following it and at a key time everything appears to be running in our favour for once. I say bring it on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggVp5EcVANA

I think that aside from the goals we played every bit as well on Saturday when with a bit of luck we could have had a similar result but don't be expecting the team to get any plaudits for these performances. We have already seen that much when Sutton made his sarcastic remark about Warburton calling Saturday the best performance of the season. Lack of goals aside it was. But this is the type of thing you're going to see about tonight. Not a single mention of how well they played blowing away an unbeaten team sitting at the top of the Championship. That's the key moment of a game Rangers totally dominated from start to finish and won 5-0? A single tackle? I could just as easily say who knows what might have happened if Windass had started and if their guy had been red carded for his tackle on Forrester. It's irrelevant. And why would anyone realistically expect a lot more from QoS against a much superior side which played a blinder on Saturday with absolutely no luck in front of goal? OK since they're so poor I expect hibz to do the same to them this Saturday. Wont be holding my breath waiting for that to happen though.