JFK-1

You may be right but difficult to say. Is it fair if the teams in all the other groups get their "pool" share which in total will be a paltry fraction of the Rangers group pool given that we have another match at Ibrox to come? And is it fair if our own share of our own contribution to this pool were so watered down given that our expenses for police etc are much greater than anybody else's? As I say you may be right and it would be interesting to know what the case actually is.

Aside from warm ups this league cup format might also be a little earner. Attendance: 31,628 Might have earned around 400k tonight though i'm guessing half of that will go to Annan which must be a huge boost for them. Rather Annan than Motherwell as far as i'm concerned.

Yeah. A bit like saying a town of 10,000 experienced 10 murders so has a very low murder rate in comparison to a city of 1,000,000 with 100 murders. Where in actual fact are you less likely to be murdered?

Allegedly? I wasn't even there and I saw it. In fact the whole world saw it plastered all over the next days papers. THESE are "allegedly" actual photographs. And again all that's ignored to obsess on "songs" An outside observer would struggle find it believable.

Joey Barton made his debut as a substitute as Rangers sealed a second win from two League Cup group games against League Two Annan at Ibrox. Barrie McKay's superb 25-yard strike after 30 minutes opened the scoring but the hosts missed a string of chances. Martyn Waghorn, Lee Wallace and debutant Lee Hodson all went close before Barton curled a free-kick just wide moments after his entrance. Waghorn eventually made it 2-0 after 74 minutes from Hodson's through ball. Kenny Miller then headed over late on from fellow substitute Harry Forrester's cross. After opening their campaign with victory at Motherwell on Saturday, Rangers' win puts them top of Group F on goal difference, with Stranraer snatching two late goals to beat East Stirling 3-1 after winning at Annan in their opener. More to follow. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36841671

Four year contract. That's confidence in his ability from the manager.

A total of 24 shots with 9 on target. Hopefully start converting more when the first 11 is in place and settled. I fully expect it.

No idea. Even if he were I have doubts that the manager may throw him in so quickly when he is still trying to give others a run. Limited substitutes which is the one drawback of this league cup format as a pre-season.

Excellent. Another piece falls into place while the opposition stumble around with seemingly no plan. Hope he gets into the team as quickly as possible to give us a look at him.

Comment by a Motherwell punter. It doesn't matter what they do. If they were throwing darts at our players "sectarian songs" would still be raised as a more serious issue.

I just want it done and dusted as quickly as possible then get him into the team as quickly as possible. He has pace and has a variety of tricks up his sleeve and is touted as a "more complete" finisher than Waghorn. This might be a step in the right direction regrading our failure to turn our massive possession superiority into goals. The bookies have Motherwell just behind Hearts in the odds ranking for the title. Motherwell overall were totally dominated, the second half possession statistics were 69% for us 31% for them and the whole match statistics weren't much different from that. If we can turn that into goals I feel we could be the highest scoring team in the league just as we comfortably were last year. This team has a lot more quality sprinkled through it and I think there has been plenty of evidence to suggest that the vast majority of the SPL is scarcely different from at least the top half of the Championship. I'm looking for them to bag a minimum 3 tonight otherwise the usual media pundits will spin it into a total failure and label us not up to the title challenging standard we aspire to be. I think we will but even if we didn't I still wouldn't be overly concerned. We need to get all the signings completed and the first 11 on the pitch before anybody can make any meaningful judgement.

While conceding they exist I'm not concerned about the defensive issues right now or at least not as concerned as I would if I weren't aware things are going too look massively different in the next dew weeks and we don't know yet what effect that will have on the team overall. We didn't play our first 11 and the manager has stated more than once that he is still looking for another defender. We have to wait till what is deemed to be the strongest first 11 is on the pitch to get a comprehensive idea of what the team will then look like. Obviously the manager knows as well as we do what the deficiencies are and on the bright side if they can get that sorted out how awesome is this team going to be? And don't you sometimes get the feeling that at least to some extent enemy raids into our territory might look a shade more impressive than they actually are because it tends to come out of the blue after long periods of total Rangers dominance? We have Annan, East Stirlingshire and Stranraer to play next the first and last of those games at home which all things being equal should be a relatively easy workout and keep in mind even though it's a cup competition this is still in reality a pre-season build up. The defensive frailties may look entirely different with Hill and the new midfield in place plus we still have Crooks to come in who aside from being a defensive midfielder is a 6ft 5in tank of a guy who can also play CB and who you would imagine would fall back and take up a suitable position when defending set pieces which have proven to be a problem. I'm looking to the Burnley match to see how we stand. By that time most of the pieces aside from maybe Crooks who still has an injury issue may be in place. Burnley are probably at least as good and arguably even better quality opposition than anything we will face in the SPL and in the match the manager will have the opportunity to mix and match as much as he pleases. Let's see how it looks at that time.

One among them who says that both pies missed seems to grasp the irony of it.

He says they were prevented from leaving at the end and that apparently adds up to a crush in the little crowd they had there. As for the pie throwing one of them had this to say on it.

Yet the Rangers fans filled their quota for an away match and they have televisions at home too believe it or not.

Saw this on a Motherwell forum. Then this. Now this isn't talking about how Rangers fans were being treated but apparently it's shocking how theirs were treated. No outrage about throwing objects at visiting players but outrage at songs. It's inflammatory but throwing things at visiting players clearly isn't? THAT'S what the police are supposed to be doing? Dealing with singing while throwing objects at visiting players is nothing to get in a twist about? You ever wonder if these grunts grasp the irony? Or even have the capacity to grasp the irony. Two games in a row in Scotland our players have been assaulted by opposing fans.

They're estimating a "relatively poor" attendance of 28,000 for a midweek game against less than stellar opposition. How many other clubs in Scotland or Britain for that matter wouldn't be over the moon at such a crowd in similar circumstances or even ANY circumstances? You would think Motherwell for one. How in the world do they expect to get by if a measly 2,000 of their own fans turn up on a sunny Saturday afternoon in July to see what is arguably the biggest draw in Scottish football. A team noted for playing attractive exciting football and expected to be title challengers. Truly as pathetic as the arse who threw the ball away.

Judging from what the manager is saying in this this BBC article I would guess that Doddo wants to sign and we want to sign him and Leicester are willing to let him come to us. All we appear to be waiting for is the paperwork to be completed. We need to get him some pitch time before Hamilton. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36828777

Northern Ireland striker Will Grigg received as many votes as France midfielder Paul Pogba in Uefa's search for Europe's best player. Journalists from 55 member associations voted for their five best-ranked players for last season. Juventus' Pogba and Wigan's Grigg came 25th out of 37, while Gareth Bale and Lionel Messi made the 10-man shortlist. Grigg, 25, failed to make an appearance at Euro 2016 but gained notoriety after a song was adapted in his honour. 'Will Grigg's On Fire' - a parody on Gala's 1996 song Freed From Desire - was written by Wigan fan Sean Kennedy, after Grigg scored 25 goals in League One during the 2015-16 season. The song went on to reach number six in the iTunes chart and was sung by fans throughout Euro 2016. Pogba was part of the France team beaten in the final of the tournament by Portugal, and the 23-year-old has been linked with a £100m move to Manchester United. The 10-man shortlist (in alphabetical order) Gareth Bale (Real Madrid & Wales) Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus & Italy) Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid & France) Toni Kroos (Real Madrid & Germany) Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina) Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich & Germany) Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich & Germany) Pepe (Real Madrid & Portugal) Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid & Portugal) Luis Suarez (Barcelona & Uruguay) No Premier League players made the top 10. Leicester and Algeria winger Riyad Mahrez and Foxes and England striker Jamie Vardy finished 11th and 12th respectively, while West Ham and France midfielder Dimitri Payet came 13th in the vote. The list will be cut to three players in August, with a Uefa panel deciding the winner during the Champions League group stage draw in Monaco on 25 August. Barcelona's Ballon d'Or winner Messi will be hoping to pick up his third award after claiming the inaugural prize in 2011. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36825307

I have no problems with the pictures being removed but would make just a short comment on this point. Is it 100% conclusive? Probably not but if that's what were required in for example a court scenario almost no one would ever be convicted of anything. Does it very strongly suggest he is the guilty party? I would say yes and probably at a bare minimum approaches and maybe even surpasses the beyond reasonable doubt standard required of a criminal case. In the actual video the guy with the blue cap can be more clearly seen irritatedly remonstrating with him in a way he wouldn't be doing with anybody simply looking at it. He is clearly angry about it in a fashion that appears to demonstrate he knows this was the idiot who did it.

There might be a higher attendance than the estimates if there is good weather given that Barton and other new signings are scheduled to appear. I know it would encourage me to go off the cuff if I weren't 5,000 miles away. And saying that just made the damn proclaimers pop into my head but I can't walk across the Atlantic.

While I like you have reservations about Gazaa being photographed in such demeaning circumstances another part pf me thinks but if he wasn't photographed like that would anybody who matters and could make a difference even know he was falling that far? His lifelong friend Jimmy 5 bellies said that he hasn't seen or talked to Gazza in over a year and that was Gazza's doing because Jimmy had been critical of his drinking and drug taking. If it were not for these photographs someone like Jimmy who has known him all his life and could perhaps make a difference wouldn't even have been aware this is how far Gazza has fallen. You have to think that going out to buy alcohol when clearly already blotto and not even bothering to get dressed is rock bottom. He's sitting naked in an apartment drinking himself into oblivion.

One positive thing we can draw from it is that I doubt very much he is in the same desperate condition Gazza currently is. Gazza reminds me of a character in a film starring Nicholas Cage which I would highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it called leaving Las Vegas about a guy who has set out to deliberately drink himself to death. A line from the film always stuck in my head which appears to demonstrate to some degree the total despair. At one point he says "I can't remember if my wife left me because I started drinking or if I started drinking because my wife left me" The film may be so insightful because the author of the book it's based on was bringing a flask to work at age twenty and drinking vodka first thing in the morning at age twenty six. He was thirty three when he died after relapsing and committed suicide. The film is like a biography almost.

I don't think it's a Rangers issue. It's simply something that happens to people like retired footballers who have plenty of time and even more money. It can creep up on them. Couple of drinks here after a round of golf. Another couple after going for something to eat and when their lifestyle is largely golfing and relaxing as I said it can creep up on them and they develop a problem they didn't even know was there until it's too late.

I hope this means he is going to be quickly into the team and settled, he looks as if he could add another dimension to our finishing. We should be scoring more goals with all the pressure. As for Annan we all know what's going to happen. Even if they don't actually try to play a park the bus strategy they're going to be pushed back into it and again we will see a packed box with barely a chink of visible light through it.