[The Exiled Heretic]

The situation has changed slightly but ultimately not alot. Now we have 5 games to play and must win them all. Our margin for error is gone. We have 2 home games to play in the next 7 days and then 3 away games thereafter. Hopefully the anxiety of not being able to beat Hibs and throw away a life will push the team into ensuring they still have the appetite for the league title.

We trail by 7 points with 3 games in hand. By Saturday night we will be looking now for that gap to be down to 1 point with 1 game in hand- with Celtic of course playing the following day. At home we must go out and play to win from the off. We cannot afford to be sitting at half time waiting to be rallied, or awakened. To do that Walter must get his tactics right this time. They were wrong at Easter Road and at home against a 4-3-3 of Motherwell he must surely now stick with his 4-4-2 and go for it.

And these two home games should in theory not be a problem. We are the best in the SPL on our own turf at this point in time. 16 wins in 17 matches is testament to that- nobody comes close. Motherwell though have actually won as many games as us on the road so will be no pushover. But win we must.

Self confessed Celtic supporter Mark McGhee will no doubt shuffle his pack for the visit to Ibrox from the team that lost out to Celtic at the weekend. He'll probably bring back his first choice goalkeeper and the two former Rangers players who are usually mainstays in his team- Hughes and McCormack. It's a game McGhee will be determined to win to get his side into Europe, help his wee ginger pal and also because if you support one side of the old firm you want to beat the other side no matter what club you are involved with.

For Rangers it's simple. Win here or forfeit the title.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Yeah, McGhee's team selection should be very interesting

The players simply know what they have to do now, so they'd better go out and do it. Advocaat made an interesting comment about a reason why he's asked for the games to be postponed, and that was that he felt his players might save themselves for that match and maybe not go for the 50-50 challenges in the league. Our players better not even think of that, because I still say f*** the UEFA Cup and give me the SPL. The UEFA Cup shouldn't exist in the players minds until around 2.30pm on Saturday. Then the players can start thinking about it.

 

[maradona10]

What a lot of pish.

McGhees team took the lead, pressed until the very end and nearly scored 2 goals in injury time.

Thats definately a team that is sitting back allowing Celtic the chance to take all 3 points.

 

[Angle_eyes]

What a lot of pish.

McGhees team took the lead, pressed until the very end and nearly scored 2 goals in injury time.

Thats definately a team that is sitting back allowing Celtic the chance to take all 3 points.

And your point is? If that's what a weakened Well team can do then what would their best team have done? Feel free not to answer that :thumbsup:

 

[maradona10]

We beat there strongest team 4-1 just under a month ago, they also beat us at Celtic Park tho p

 

[Angle_eyes]

The bottom line is that we have to beat every team we play now. There'll be no excuses from me if we don't manage it. Unless there are absolutely ridiculous and blatant decisions that go against us. It's not like we can moan that we didn't beat Motherwell because they played their strongest team against us :howler:

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

Yes it's still in our hands at the moment and with McGhee likely to play his strongest side at Ibrox if we have aspirations to win the title then we should be beating them. The bottom line is apart from at Basra and against Gretna, effectively a home tie although billed as an away game, Motherwell have not won away from home this year.

I can't see them playing defensively, though a point would do them, but really it shouldn't matter how they play. It's about how we play and if we play the way we know we can then we will beat them. Failure to win this match would be failure in application on the part of the team and/or tactics on the part of the manager. Man for man we are better.

It's about time we started using we started imposing ourselves again on the rest of the SPL. Ferguson needs to wake up now and start rallying.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Jesus that was torture. We deserved the win, but it wasn't pretty. Good finish by Ferguson just after I was criticising him for his first half performance. We need to start the first half against Dundee United like we started the 2nd half tonight.

Player-wise I didn't think many of the players were particularly bad. Darcheville had a shocking first half and it annoys me that Broadfoot isn't clever enough to know how to take a throw in correctly, but apart from that I thought Davis and Whittaker did ok and Novo put in his usual amount of effort. As usual big Carlos was immense at the back.

The referee was pish for most of the match. We should have had at least one penalty. McCoist summed it up from the touchline when he was calling him a joke.

PS - Advocaat must have been rubbing his hands together watching us tonight.

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

I can only hope that performance was for wee Dick's benefit. It was really poor and almost on a poor with the game I watched when the unwashed beat Aberdeen. But at least we didn't need the ref to help us out and we got the 3 points off our own back. And let's be honest Charlie Richmond was pish tonight but it didn't matter in the end.

For me nobody other than Cuellar and Weir justified a start in the next game. Maybe Thomson but again he was bordering on another stupid yellow card. I feel your frustration Angle on the throw ins. Broadfoot was doing the same at Easter Road and the crowd were reacting but the referee done nothing. It's the basics. That annoys me. Can't throw, can't pass and can't really do much so what is he doing in a Rangers team?

Great finish by Ferguson who was for the most part anonymous again when he should be imposing himself on these games. And once again it takes 45 minutes and no doubt a word from the management team at half time before we get going.

I'm just glad it's over and we have the 3 points. I expect more of the same against the Arabs on Saturday. Rangers don't look like they have their eyes on the SPL at the moment. I really hope Walter, Ally and Kenny use the next few days hammering into them it's importance.

 

[Teddy Bear]

Poor performance but we deserved the 3 points. Terrible refereeing , which sadly i've now come to expect every game. Havent seen it on replays but looked like we were denied at least one penalty?

I really don't understand what Smith is doing with Buffel - he bring him in from the cold, he plays decent in a couple of games - then he's bombed out again. Not having him even on the bench is ridiculous, he's the only player we have that can come on and offer something a bit different.

Time to start fining Broadfoot everytime he does a foul throw in, that will soon teach him. Nacho too was guilty of it as well. Its really is the sort of thing you'd be embarrassed to see a pub league player doing never mind a professional footballer likely about to play a part in the UEFA Cup final!

Oh yeah and a full strength Motherwell team, what a surprise

 

[Teddy Bear]

btw good to hear the fans making their voices heard on the current admistrative shambles with the '**** the SPL' chant (to the tune of the 'allez' chant) in the last 5 minutes :thumbsup:

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

I really don't understand what Smith is doing with Buffel - he bring him in from the cold, he plays decent in a couple of games - then he's bombed out again. Not having him even on the bench is ridiculous, he's the only player we have that can come on and offer something a bit different.

That is disappointing. It would appear the only reason Buffel got a game was through circumstance and no matter what he done he would be binned when Smith got his players back. If he was watching the game tonight I hope he got on the phone to his agent because it's obvious his future is not at Ibrox.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Poor performance but we deserved the 3 points. Terrible refereeing , which sadly i've now come to expect every game. Havent seen it on replays but looked like we were denied at least one penalty?

Broadfoot getting pushed in the back was a certain penalty. I knew what to expect from the first minute when Bob Malcolm clearly headed the ball out of play and the referee awards a goal-kick to Motherwell.

I'm hoping this was just us remembering how to win again and that the United game will be easier. I know that's probably wishful thinking...

And I agree with you guys. That game was crying out for Buffel. We need guys to make things happen and he's not even on the bench!?

 

[The Judge]

Bob Malcolm got away with a crazy challenge in the box (on Charlie Adam?). What on earth was he thinking???

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

Lol, you never know.

What happened to Papac last night? I can't understand why the right footed Whittaker is playing left back. A couple of times he nearly lost the ball trying to take it with his right foot. His passing was awful last night and was only matched by that of Broadfoot.

The strange thing about the last two matches is that we have missed a creative edge. If we think back we really lost that when we sold Hutton. it sounds daft to say your most creative player was a right back but it's the truth. There is no creativity elsewhere in the team and there is no one that can run at a defence.

 

[Angle_eyes]

I don't know why Papac wasn't playing. I'd have played Whittaker in left midfield personally, because he looks better going forward than he does defending.

As you say, the creativity is missing. In every match I worry about where our goals are coming from. We didn't look like scoring from open play last night. We will score goals from set-pieces, but we can't rely on them for every match.

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

Yes it seems to be only set pieces. Our two goals in the last game at Celtic Park both came that way and last night it was the same. We had lots of chances last night but again they were mostly from corners. It's no surprise though as the players we play wide are not wingers and the we are throwing high balls at Darcheville. Thomson and Ferguson just want to pass sideways or back. The thing with Hutton was he charged forward, took men on and even if the ball wasn't going to him he was creating space.