weebluedevil

Don’t disagree with any of that, but firstly we’re better than Hearts and I believe we will pump them at Ibrox. Secondly, there was clearly apprehension from our players - either because they were not as sure footed or for fear of injury if they went to ground. We haven’t lost that many 50:50 balls all season and the pitch was the biggest factor in that. We can play on plastic no problem, but what was that abomination of a pitch today? Ironically I hope that Livi finish in the top 6, so that all other top teams have to play there twice.

That Kilmarnock pitch was completely different though and more like our own plastic training pitch. The pitch today was horrific it slowed down slow balls and magnified fast balls, it was slippy due to the rubber ball bearings and made it hard to play like we have been. It wasn’t the only factor in the score today but was a big factor in my opinion.

After the first 10 mins on that poor excuse of a football pitch, I was thinking the worst. I’m not getting sucked into whether this game was a reality check or not. What I do know is that if that was grass we’d most likely have won by a few goals. I don’t think the players really gave everything - I mean they didn’t lay their bodies on the line - no tackles going to ground - no attempts as if their lives depended on it. I can’t blame them to be honest - you’re just not going to take the risk on that surface. Rightly or wrongly. Others will struggle there too, I’m sure. We pick ourseves up and put that horror show to the back of our minds. Looking forward to Thursday and winning on grass again.

When a backside needs kicked, it needs kicked. He must be pissing SG off for him to admit that in public. I don’t see a future for Sadiq after that.

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I agree, so let’s call that a 75 min performance. If we had managed to keep it up for 90 mins we’d have scored 7 or 8. Good but not good enough! Seriously though, we’re looking good for the challenge but I don’t want to say anymore than that right now.

Its a short term solution though. It must be hard to be away from your kids most of the week, every week. I used to travel a lot for work and that was hard but living away isn’t sustainable. Not sure what to make of it, I would really have hoped that his family would be with him, but I know what you mean by the downside of having them in Glasgow too. If Stevie G is going to be with us for 4 years (and I know thee are many fans that think that unlikely) I would hope he makes Glasgow a permanent family home for the time being.

It could be either StJ or Ayr when Middleton gets his first start but I’ll stick my neck out and say it will be Sunday. SG did say he was close to starting and I would hope he is tested for 90 mins against SPL opposition rather than Ayr. I also think the depth in quality allows us to make a few changes to keep us fresh so would like to see Dorrans in an AM role. It’s just great to know that despite the injuries we can field a strong 11 and still have options from the bench.

Very good second half performance and what a result, very proud bear tonight. Our traveling fans were magnificent and out voiced the home crowd easily for most of the match. Special praise to big Laff for the composure to score our second equalizer, and young Middleton was just awesome when he came on. Dorrans is like a new player for us and what footwork to almost snatch the win.

I have to admit I was quite surprised that SG made him club captain, but I don’t think he’s done a bad job so far and that’s two managers that see him as the leader so who am I to argue.

If we have ambition of getting beyond the group stage we have to be agressive and press high. I don’t think we have anything to lose when playing away from home in the group stage. It’ll be interesting how SG approaches this one, but I expect us to set the tone and Villarreal away in game day one is the perfect opportunity to put down a marker.

It was interesting to hear Pete on the latest podcast talking about how our fans are now looking out for the Hearts results, when normally we’re just looking for Celtics result on a Saturday/Sunday. I’m not sure whether that means we’re hoping that Hearts lose so we can make up ground, given we’re already 7 points behind them after their impressive start to the season. I don’t know what others think but I, for one, am looking out for them too, not for a loss, but rather hoping they keep it up. We still have to play Hearts four times - so I’m not worried at all about their position in the league relative to us ( for now at least) but what I do like about Hearts’ momentum is it makes our league that more competitive and Celtic don’t like that. Unless they are storming the league I think they feel the pressure and that can only be good for us. They’ve had it too easy for too long, Aberdeen never really made them sweat when they were mounting their so called challenge over the last few seasons, so I’m glad we have a team that are 5 points ahead of them so early in the season. I’d rather it be us of course, but I welcome the challenge from the other teams for once. If we can go on a good run now and Hearts keep up the pressure too, I think this could be a very exciting and closely fought campaign this season. It’s way too early to start making bold predictions from our side, nobody likes it when we do that. Ironically though, we’re already hearing from sections of the media that Hearts are title contenders after just 5 games, Anyway, bring it on, the more teams fighting at the top of the league and putting pressure on those that prefer ‘easy street’ the better in my opinion. Let’s go!

Great stuff, well done guys! ?

Were we right to cut Celtics allocation at Ibrox? Does a tiny away support disadvantage us more when we play at Parkhead than it will disadvantage them when they play at Ibrox? Or does it make no difference? Does it diminish the global spectacle that is one of the biggest derbies in the world? Question from the wee blue devil.

I agree 100%. I hope we can come to an arrangement to reverse this. It lacks the right atmosphere for an old firm game, but more importantly we had no way of making ourselves heard - especially against them our players could really have been lifted with a stronger support.

He fills you with confidence doesn’t he? Just think how the players must feel when he talks to them, no wonder we’re getting th best out of them. I’m sure he’s raging with AM, but never shows it, totally cool, calm and collected and keeps private discussions and thought about players to himself. It’s the way it should be.

When though? I get why you would take the leniency, softly softly approach particularly with Alfredo, but if he does it again and drops us points, will you still be so ‘forgiving’? Hi team mates certainly wouldn’t be.

If we win on Sunday, there’ll be a few 55 tattoos inked before Sunday evening!

So what you’re saying is that he’s gone from Jekyll and Hyde to Frankenstein! ?

When I originally posed the question, I wouldn’t have been delighted with anything less than a win, but as I said I could accept a draw and stay undefeated. After tonight’s effort, I would be absolutely delighted with a draw. Also listening to DE on the Heart and Hand podcast, he made a good comment about going easy on the team if we lose on Sunday. I think we could forgive that after tonight, absolutely. We still play them 3 more times and we’ll have our chances this season. ‘Anyway, I’m still ?predicting a win!

I’d give Morelos one last chance. As much as I like him for his strength, hold up play and finishing from close range, he’s still not really there in terms of timing his runs to stay on-side and isn’t a natural goal scorer from further out or one on one with the goalie. However, he works hard, can sometimes create a goals from nothing and causes defenses problems. But if he continues to act like a spoilt wee kid then he threatens the team spirit that has been created and will eventually be resented by his team mates. They got him out of jail tonight. If I was SG, I’d be telling him that he does it again and he’s out. We can’t afford to take the risk. I’d also be tempted to drop him on Sunday, but I really want him to score against them and I think we need him. But it’s a close call tbh, because Laff could also do a job against them.

Santa is Turkish, so no problem!

That feels like a loss for me today. Conceding three goals was never in the script, but I guess we came up against our biggest test so far this season. I don’t accept excuses of fatigue - If we want to compete on three fronts we need to be as fit as we all thought we were. I don’t know what went wrong in the 2nd half, we were completely controlled and the equalizer was 100% coming - clear for all to see, yet we couldn’t prevent it. Okay, if we were going to have one off day in these 3 big games, I’d rather it happened today. Let’s see what SG and his team can now do to recover from this. I didn’t think the defence played like their lives depended on it, which I has been characteristic of us so far. No fingers pointed - several players didn’t do themselves justice today. Win, lose or draw on Thursday, I don’t care, as long as we make it to the groups stages, from a revenue perspective. But the league is where we will be judged and we now need to take something from the next Sunday otherwise we could slip 7 points behind Hearts and 5 points behind Celtic after only 4 games, and whatever way you look at it that would not represent a great start.

I was reading some of the journalists giving their views on whether Rangers fans confidence in a result against Celtic, arguably our biggest test this season, was warranted. They felt that our supporters would be delighted to come away with a point. Not for me. Acceptable perhaps, but I won’t be delighted. One draw already at Aberdee, albeit robbed of the opportunity to kick the season off with a win, means we need to come away with 3 points in our next two games if we don’t want to fall further behind the leading pack. We may still be ahead of Celtic if we share the points (assuming we take care of business tomorrow), but that game is the big test for us, and with Celtic not looking their strongest at the moment I would be disappointed not to win there, especially as Hearts have shown they can be taken. A draw won’t be the end of the world, far from it, but I’m not going to celebrate a draw at this stage.

You’re the first, the last, my everything.