No wins in 4 games against them to win 2 trophies...

At the end of the day we haven't lost a meaningful game against them since the Scottish Cup Semi final in Ange's first season.

 

Made that point myself a few times. When it matters most, we beat them. That’s what matters.

 

No wins in 4 is a stretch when we beat them in the final, doesn't matter if it was after 90 minutes. I have zero concern, we'll beat them in August/September as usual when it actually matters.

 

We have been pumping them for years, and we are currently 17 clear going for a treble. That'll do for me.

If we had Kuhn/JJ/Jota yesterday we would have won. And we will win most games against them that matters as well. What we need in the team is more aggresive beasts.

 

I don't like the results against them but in the end I will forget about them.

 

The most valuable thing is that we learn from the old firm games.

We cannot ignore that they have shown up obvious and significant weaknesses in our team, in a season where if Rangers were better against the rest of the SPL dross could have been important.

Starting games too slowly, a passive, slow ineffective midfield against a physical, motivated opponent. Poor chance conversion and lack of top drawer #9.
Similar issues that we've also seen on occasion in Europe too.

I hope and expect Brendan will be looking to eliminate those weaknesses this summer.

 

Unfortunately I think the theme of these games now is we dont learn from them.

Set pieces has been a problem against them going back a long time now but it took them all of 2 mins to have a free header from a set piece that they should have scored from yesterday. They could have had several yesterday from set pieces.

Raskin outplays our midfield practically on his own but we dont really do anything about it. No plan for him it seems.

Our quality on the ball is quite poor against them. We struggle to exploit the space they leave. They know how and where we want to move the ball and we dont seem to have the quality to get round that or the flexibility to mix it up.

They will likely have a new coach next season though so who knows how they will set up against us next year. This year they have had the measure of us though in the head to heads.

 

I agree with this, except that's why I chose option 2... It absolutely is all about the trophies, and we have been formidable all season really, but it's more that I can't really stomach people still treating us like we're equivalent to each other, when we're constantly winning 2-3 trophies a year and they're just living off their past profile....

In my mind they're just a bit better spfl team, to our CL level team... That they seem to be able to CONSISTENTLY drag us down, make a difficult game of it and take points from us is not good enough... Sure they'll play well sometimes, or get lucky, or refs will impact things... That's football! But for us to be approaching these games with a SIZABLE section of our support thinking that they're going to win, have our number and we're the ones who have to raise our game for them is bullshit!

 

Ok, but we did go into this game missing our 1st team choices at keeper, CB, RB, LW, RW... We also have a (hopeful) upgrade on LB on the way too... On the back of a season where we've played * knows how many games, have already won the league just last week, several of our players are probably keeping it a bit "cotton wool" for the transfer window... Think that's just reality meeting expectations...

 

Win that first game there next season, and put this run behind us. It's not just them we've been awful at set pieces against though, the sheep in the 3-3 game for example, which is why we can't take the final for granted.

I just don't trust Scales and Taylor with crosses in their area at times.

 

The options are too limiting but it is all about winning trophies I suppose but I wouldn't quite like to win only 1 game against them each season, that said I would take this seasons results again next year if the outcome is a treble again (assuming we win the SC)

 

Ok, I mostly agree with all of that, but there's nothing wrong with constructive criticism! That's not negative, it's positive... The people going off the rails about specific teams and results are, of course, negative; and things should always be tempered with common sense and self awareness when the heat dies down...

Facts are that we have consistently won almost everything available by winning the games that matter most, at the times we needed to... The Huns can't say that, in any manner or form... We have obvious flaws, but they're not as bad as some people say they are...

If we constantly look down at the things that are wrong, and only long for more and more success, we'll completely forget to look around at the fantastic moment we're living in right now for a football fan, and the amazing wins and successes we're achieving at the moment!

 

I remember the bad old days in the 90s.
They'd stroll the league unchallenged.

We'd be utter pish in general. Finishing 4th two years on the trot. Scraping the bottom of the barrell with our signings. Willie Falconer, Gary Gillespie etc...while they were going out and signing European Cup Winner's like that Basil Boli and Laudrup.

We'd beat them occasionally and we'd celebrate like we'd won the league. I can mind Brian O'Neil scoring in the last minute at ibrox and we won 2-1. Lou Macari first game in charge. Celebrated for days on end. When we came round and everyone sobered up and we turned off the Wolfetones cassette. They still won the league by miles and wee victories like that were the only bit of joy we got in a sad existence in general.

Well it's all turned on its head nowadays!!!!

Beating them is brilliant but it's also brilliant not having to beat them. It changes nothing. We are top dogs as per usual. Them beating us, getting a draw, not getting pumped and running us close......do not get them any accolades at all..except the made up ones in their head....the "Next Season Definitely" trophy.....and the. "Four Derbies Without a Pumping" Cup.

Nothing new for the wee hun wumin to polish in their blue room cabinet.......While we are going to need an extension built on our trophy room and another years subscription for copious amounts of Brasso!!!!

Auld rangers still owe that poor wee guy at the paper shop 500 quid BTW...and none of the loaded members of the board of the new club have even had the decency to go in and square thd guy up. Cause that would be acknowledging that their liable for the debt....shocking though...*

 

I wasn't trying to paint any negativity mate, just a strange feeling when in a season that we've been so dominant and essentially wrapped the league up around January that we've failed to win so many games against that lot. Purely looking to gauge opinions as it was heavily debated at the pub I was at too.

In the main, think we all agree trophies count the most, but these games are a still a big talking point every season.

 

Brendan is probably secretly * off, that he hasn't beaten that diddy in 2 attempts.

 

I think there are 2 things here: how they play and the current situation.

It's easier to negate than to build and they are set up to do that. They are actually quite good at that. It's why they can get some results against better teams than them, such as draws at home against Bilbao, Spurs and us yesterday; but it's also why they struggle to beat teams that are worse than them.

I also have to agree with Sween. That game just meant so much more to them than to us. There was literally nothing at stake for us except a little bit of pride and we have a much bigger game at Hampden on the horizon. Meanwhile they just won the moral-victory-we-are-so-back cup. Hope it looks nice in their trophy room. Look at how many more duels they won than us. Every single time there was a 50/50 (with the honourable exception of CCV), I fully expected to see their player emerge with the ball.

And none of this has dented my happiness regarding this season one bit.

 

Thats true but we have laboured against them even with full strength teams. If this were an isolated game Id probably agree a point is an ok result with the players we had out. But these games feel like 50/50 in general now. I dont really think its a case of we just decide ourselves how much we want to beat them and unless theres something significant on the line then we just dont really switch on for them. Our approach to them feels a bit lazy in the sense we dont try anything different and see the same issues repeating themselves. And if we are insistent on playing the same way against them the level of quality in the team to impose our game on Rangers looks to be sadly not as good as we think it is.

Its better to have the trophies, but no reason agains that calibre of Rangers team we shouldnt be dominating these fixtures as well.

 

we aint allowed to make a challenge,let alne go in for a 50/50 one ,think rodgers has sussed out the masons in black will throw yellow cards at our players like confetti which is why you seldom see a tackle in games especially v sevco . look what kenny got booked for yet dessers can pull out a corner flag and nothing

 

Some refs, it can be. We all know who they are. However, I think the officiating was genuinely excellent yesterday. They got all the big decisions right.