Rangers v Motherwell 05/09/2026

[grizzlyg]

44 minutes ago, Motherwell Daft said:

I must admit I was disappointed with yesterday result, but I have to put it in context of where we are just now with effectively a new manager and a new team, having as others have said travelled across Europe, been put out by the team sitting 2nd in the German top tier who sold 3 players for £120m to our 3 players for £9m, started the SPL with just 1 defeat more points than last season at this point and to a team admittedly not playing well, but having spent well over £30m in transfer fees and at home in front of the knuckle dragger fans.

We have to remember that the season in long and we have started well, we have 10 days now for injuries to ease, players to re charge and AJ finally a chance to bed in his ideas and come back with a fresh impetus.

I agree JT is no No9, Thor cannot be judged on 25 minutes of football after an injury, I think with AJ style he could flourish in the middle with Palmer and Tom Sparrow gives his all wherever he’s asked to play, yes JK is my preferred RB but he’s injured…again, and it’s a fact fir me we miss Oscars energy in midfield although Hodge n Lowry have been good, so on overview we have for our wonderful wee team a great squad of talent that I’m sure we will mostly agree is the best for decades that I feel will do well this year.

We could be like Killie with McCann at the helm shipping goals for fun but no, we score more goals in our first 4 games than we have since the 1920’s.

We need to be calm and be realistic with expectations, AJ and the team will do well this year just give them a chance, we ain’t going to win the league it looks like the horrid Selic will, but let’s win our own league within the league.

Let’s see what a break does for the team and hopefully come back n pump Robbo’s sheep!

 

Excellent post.  Most on here talking sense ( unlike Facebook....jeez!!!)

Considering we had 6 European games and this is our first league defeat in 5 its been an encouraging start.    

Also remember AJ has 11 new players and a horrendous injury list to deal with and hardly any proper training sessions.   We now have a 10 day break to work on training ground and then start to establish what best line up is but loads of options off bench.

RCC and Sparrow main fall guys yesterday.  I've never been fully impressed with RCC but still very important part of squad.  Sparrow unlucky as had to fill in a position which isn't his main one but with plauers coming back he can play further forward.

Said has went off boil a bit but we know will bounce back and JT just needs to knuckle down and work away.    I would really like to see Longelo and Williams on left side,  they could interchange and that would be huge asset.

Final point is remember where we were 18 months ago.   The phrase "night and day" springs to mind.

COYW

[SteelmaninOZ]

56 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Excellent post.  Most on here talking sense ( unlike Facebook....jeez!!!)

Considering we had 6 European games and this is our first league defeat in 5 its been an encouraging start.    

Also remember AJ has 11 new players and a horrendous injury list to deal with and hardly any proper training sessions.   We now have a 10 day break to work on training ground and then start to establish what best line up is but loads of options off bench.

RCC and Sparrow main fall guys yesterday.  I've never been fully impressed with RCC but still very important part of squad.  Sparrow unlucky as had to fill in a position which isn't his main one but with plauers coming back he can play further forward.

Said has went off boil a bit but we know will bounce back and JT just needs to knuckle down and work away.    I would really like to see Longelo and Williams on left side,  they could interchange and that would be huge asset.

Final point is remember where we were 18 months ago.   The phrase "night and day" springs to mind.

COYW

Exactly well said the camp comedian 👏

[grizzlyg]

29 minutes ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

Exactly well said the camp comedian 👏

Oooooo you are awful.........but I like you

Now shut that door! 🤪🤪

[steelman1991]

8 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Oooooo you are awful.........but I like you

Now shut that door! 🤪🤪

Definitely more "Ted" from Hi-De-HI, than Dick Emery, or John Inman .

[texanwellfan]

Again, with expectations……

AJ will not fix everything in the next 10 days !!!

[grizzlyg]

15 minutes ago, steelman1991 said:

Definitely more "Ted" from Hi-De-HI, than Dick Emery, or John Inman .

Cheers Spike ! 🤣🤣

[weeyin]

The bad news from this game is that we just weren't at it yesterday.

The better news is that even under those circumstances, we only conceded one self-inflicted goal.

Also, while Paulsen was obviously at fault, the pass back was also a little under hit which meant he wasn't quite as set as he should have been. So he only takes 90% of the blame from me.

[star sail]

I think the disappointment comes largely from the realisation that in the grand scheme of things nothing has fundamentally changed.

Rangers have been abject failures in Europe this season They have had several attempts at qualifying for the group stage in European competition against really average European sides and have fallen short every time.

We on the other hand won in two ties and lost to a very good German side. It is natural to think that there may have been a shift in momentum, that our gains of the last year have significantly closed the gap to Rangers in particular. To see a display and result like yesterday that mirrors so many Ibrox performances of the past is a real kick in the teeth and a significant reality check.

The harsh reality is that these bang average European sides that we have never heard of are still significantly better than us and the gap in quality is still massive.

This is not to criticise the progress our club has made in the last year. It simply highlights the enormity of the task to transform  our small club into a European standard team than can consistently perform against clubs with bigger resources than our own. 

I think yesterday brought us all down to earth with a bit of a thump. I hope it does not completely derail the early season positivity.

[Yabba's Turd]

Conceding the way we did was obviously a huge red neck, and the efforts we had in their box were underwhelming, combine that with the hysteria before the game and you get embarrassed disappointment, don't think the ref was bad or good either, we have the look to be better than last year once we hit stride. 

[texanwellfan]

16 minutes ago, star sail said:

I think the disappointment comes largely from the realisation that in the grand scheme of things nothing has fundamentally changed.

Rangers have been abject failures in Europe this season They have had several attempts at qualifying for the group stage in European competition against really average European sides and have fallen short every time.

We on the other hand won in two ties and lost to a very good German side. It is natural to think that there may have been a shift in momentum, that our gains of the last year have significantly closed the gap to Rangers in particular. To see a display and result like yesterday that mirrors so many Ibrox performances of the past is a real kick in the teeth and a significant reality check.

The harsh reality is that these bang average European sides that we have never heard of are still significantly better than us and the gap in quality is still massive.

This is not to criticise the progress our club has made in the last year. It simply highlights the enormity of the task to transform  our small club into a European standard team than can consistently perform against clubs with bigger resources than our own. 

I think yesterday brought us all down to earth with a bit of a thump. I hope it does not completely derail the early season positivity.

Not sure I would describe the gap as massive between us and bang average European sides. Might just be a case of plays well enough on the day. Yesterday we didn’t play well enough but I’ll be looking for us to play much better in the return fixture at Fir Park. 

[grizzlyg]

I think a lot of the disappointment also shows how far we have progressed in past 18 months. Any trip to ibrox always filled me with dread but we have win 3 times there in past 18 months and we don't go to park the bus.  We didnt play well yesterday but all teams have off days.

I am still very upbeat about this season and strength of bench shows you that competition for places is fierce.  You don't perform and you are on bench next game

[weeyin]

40 minutes ago, star sail said:

I think the disappointment comes largely from the realisation that in the grand scheme of things nothing has fundamentally changed.

Since Alexander and Kettlewell? Or our wins at Ibrox under Wimmer and JBA?

I don't know what team you have been watching, but if you haven't seen a fundamental change in the past 18 months, it's certainly not us you've been looking at.

Even if you were being very generous to us by saying we were on a par with Rangers despite their massive investment compared to ours, losing 1 - 0 on their patch doesn't seem to be unlikely any more than us beating them 1 - 0 at Fir Park would be.

[star sail]

17 minutes ago, weeyin said:

Since Alexander and Kettlewell? Or our wins at Ibrox under Wimmer and JBA?

I don't know what team you have been watching, but if you haven't seen a fundamental change in the past 18 months, it's certainly not us you've been looking at.

Even if you were being very generous to us by saying we were on a par with Rangers despite their massive investment compared to ours, losing 1 - 0 on their patch doesn't seem to be unlikely any more than us beating them 1 - 0 at Fir Park would be.

I think you need to read what I am saying rather than simply jumping in with the usual 'I know better' response.

Nobody is questioning the progress the team has made in the last 18 months. I said that if you take the time to read it. 

'In the grand scheme of things ' means looking at the bigger picture out with the micro view of our own progression, I am not sure that the progress that has been made has significantly moved the dial in a European context. 

It is not luck that mediocre European sides have beaten Rangers over two legs. They were better teams despite reduced budgets.

Remember Kettlewell got us our first win at Ibrox after a very long time with a performance that was better than yesterday's. We did not perform yesterday against a poor Rangers side. Rangers were the better team.

That does not make Kettlewell's team better than this team but it is a reference point for a poor performance yesterday.

Very average European sides have shown Rangers up over this last month and despite all the progression we have made we were unable to lay a glove on them yesterday. I don't think highlighting that is worthy of ridicule.

You do know which team I have been watching over the last 18 months so there is no need for the condescending tone. I am just trying to comment on why people might have felt a sense of disappointment yesterday. It is because of the progression that we are disappointed. The performance was not great yesterday. I think it is ok to try and put that into some kind of bigger context. 

Anyway thanks for taking the time to chastise me for giving an opinion.