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The snowflakes are alive and well within the Motherwell support I see... ...if this was any other team (bar Celtic), we wouldn't be having this bullshit, from an off-the-cuff quip. Rangers have turned into a Club who love to be offended, they love to be the victim, they love to have a reason to say 'see, everybody hates us'...fuck them. The media latch onto this, and before we know it we're putting out grovelling apologies to a Club whose fans have got themselves into bother umpteen times already this season, fighting and coming off second best at home and abroad...this is a Club that condones, by continually turning a blind eye to the 'special atmosphere' created home and away, glorifying in the death and destruction of all things Catholicism. This is a Club, that along with the other cunts from the East End, have consistently bled the Scottish Leagues dry, and we're apologising to them because our captain said that he laughed at the way Cardoso moaned about a broken nose? A broken fucking nose, not a life-threatening injury, not a leg-break or a decapitation...a broken nose, and while the way he put it across was clumsy, its been blown out of all proportion by the victims from Ibrox and their self-serving pals in the media, meanwhile we've got Motherwell fans wringing their hands and worrying about, what the rest of Scottish fitba' thinks of us...I've got news for you, they think we are a team of cloggers and thats down to our style of play and whether Hartley said that or not, they would still think that this morning...our fans are worrying about Steven Gerrards team talk, c'mon tae fuck really? If he needs Peter Hartley to get his team wound up and up for it, then hes in a bit of bother...our fans are worrying about the referees take on it, but its Craig Thompson and he'll fuck us over whatever the fuck we say or do, we could send the physio in to give him a massage with a happy ending before the match and he'll still give these cunts everything on Sunday. I've heard others ask, 'but what if the roles were reversed and it was a Rangers player laughing at our player for being a big fucking lassie'...my answer to that, 'the compliance officer would be giving not one single fuck'.

I took the "funny" part he was referring to as being the over the top whining and media circus as a result, rather than the fact Cardoso's nose was broken. Inarticulate and clumsy from the captain, but I don't think for a second he's suggesting that it's fun to injure fellow professionals.

I'm guessing if the roles were reversed and a Rangers player had come out in the press about enjoying watching a Motherwell player having his nose broke no one would have said a peep about it? Eh...maybe not. Anyway it motivates the opposition, puts Hartley under the spotlight from referees and puts the club in a bad light, this was a lead story on the BBC earlier in the day. It's nothing to do with going soft and everything to do with having some kind of intelligence when talking to the press. When we have a game with a referee who made at least two atrocious red card decisions against us last season why on earth would you go out and talk about some serious foul play that we got away with?

Nose Surrender !!!

Recent chat got me interested in the actual facts about referees and perceived bias of certain officials. First of all I looked at win ratio against referee in charge. Over the last 4 seasons, not including this season, we played 179 domestic matches with a win ratio of 36.8%. Therefore I expected most referee's to be roughly around the 35% mark. I've excluded referees who officiated less than 5 matches. FINNIE P6 W4 D0 L2 66.6% WALSH P7 W4 D2 L1 57.10% MUIR P11 W5 D2 L4 45.4% CLANCY P14 W6 D1 L7 42.0% MADDEN P21 W8 D0 L13 38.0% ALLAN P8 W3 D1 L4 37.5% DALLAS P8 W3 D1 L4 37.5% McLEAN P17 W6 D4 L7 35.2% THOMSON P17 W6 D2 L9 35.2% ROBERTSON P12 W4 D2 L6 33.3% ANDERSON P9 W3 D1 L5 33.3% AITKEN P6 W2 D1 L3 33.3% BEATON P10 W3 D2 L5 30.0% COLLUM P16 W3 D6 L7 18.7% So as you can see most of the referees didn't fall far below our overall win ratio, with two exceptions. Beaton who was almost 7% lower and Collum who was a massive 16% off of where you'd expect. Out of interest the referees who didn't make the 5 match cut were.... COOK P4 W2 D1 L1 50.0% MURRAY P4 W2 D0 L2 50.0% CHARLESTON P2 W1 D0 L1 50.0% DUNCAN P2 W1 D0 L1 50.0% COLVIN P4 W 0 D1 L3 0.00% CRAWFORD P1 W0 D1 L0 0.00% I intend to look into cards issued against us by referees and against opposition by referees but that will have to wait for now.

Hope we give these bams a bloody nose this weekend Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

In the original incident, I didn't see the Bowman elbowing as being deliberate at all and I've watched it several times. Ryan is watching the ball and is levering himself to get airborne. However, the elbowing of Moult in the first half, which no-one seems to talk about in the media, was deliberate. To his credit, Barry Ferguson said he couldn't believe people were still talking about the Bowman incident after a week. "It's a man's game," he said, implying these things happen without malice in a physical game like football. Hartley, in his off the cuff and clumsy way, was saying he was laughing at the "grieving and wailing" of the SoW and meeja, as fat_tony, Richie and others have said, but he really needs to be reminded about the kind of churnalists and presstitutes we have in Scotland. He failed to see the yawning man-trap they had constructed in front of him and he fell right in. His manager is usually excellent at sensing the dangers of the loaded question or anticipating where an apparently innocent question is going. PH badly needs some media training. Being a thrawn type, after originally thinking his remark was embarrassingly crass, I feel we have nothing to apologise for and I have an even greater desire for victory on Sunday, if that's possible. I suspect Craig Thomson will be practising his smirk for the inevitable, though, and we will see more diving than the European Championships from our visitors. I really hate being in the same stadium as them and look back fondly to the years of their banishment to the lower leagues.

The comments ill advised as they were sure beats the hell out of Stuart McCalls vibes on the lead up to the rangers games. Will no doubt come back to haunt us but it was funny.

I know his brother and remember once telling him while we were struggling that if he helped us beat Partick I'd buy all his drinks on a forthcoming Scotland trip. 9 or so minutes in and we get a penalty

Entertain visiting journalists with champagne and smoked salmon sandwiches. That should do the trick.

Always been a big fan of Steve Finnie.

Have never been a Gerrard fan but fair do,s to him in today’s presser got quizzed on Hartley comments and he said Guy was Nieve making they comments but has apologised so time to forget about it and move on . Then asked if ref needs to protect his players on Sunday and said ref has to protect players in both teams so very refreshing to see this response .

As a few have pointed out, Hartley laughing at Cardoso with blood pishing out his face is very different from laughing at the fortnight of shite after it. Looking at it now, I think he was talking about the latter and should have cleared things up in a statement rather than apologise. Anyway, fuck it - adds a wee bit more edge to Sunday and I think Hartley will revel in being the pantomime villain for 90 minutes.

It should, its supposed to be for everyone outside the UK and Ireland. The catch for people "travelling" may be whether they require payment via a card registered to a non-UK/IE address.

That’s exactly how I took it, although that’s not what came out. It would’ve been ballsy, but would’ve been great if he’d clarified what he meant rather than release a half arsed apology.

Yeah, this, every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

The comments haven't done guys like Curtis Main, or any others who aren't frightened to use their physique in an aerial challenge, any favours. Expect to see plenty of reaction from the Rangers players on Sunday, we'll see a few down holding their faces and suggestions of elbows being used. With Thomson in charge he won't let an opportunity to produce a card get past him.

Calm down. We’ve gone through countless years of pandering to the old firm. “We’ll Be lucky”, “they’ll need to have an off day”, “they’re a great side” etc etc. It has got us absolutely nowhere. I’m not suggesting it’s correct to be laughing at breaking someone’s nose, but put it in context. He’s been given a loaded question and answers back in a defiant manner. Was it diplomatic? absolutely not. However, the comment doesn’t have him advocating setting out to hurt someone on Sunday, he’s used it as a spin off point in regards to being competitive within the match and not lying down to two sides (here, rangers) which personify some of the least digestible elements of both Scottish footballing and wider society. Clumsy, but not quite the green-street-preamble blunder moment that some would claim it to be.

2 hours in the pineapple listening to a load of auld shite versus 2 hours at Fir Park listening to these horrible sevco cunts...not sure whats worse