The Flag of War

 

This past week has been amazing. Just as things seemed on the cusp of disastrous, yes I'm aware that's very strong language mate, the team has shown fantastic mental strength and desire. A strength and desire I wasn't convinced were there. I'm delighted to have been proven wrong.

Braga

I did think we would likely win this game, but I wasn't quite expecting it to be as dominant a performance as we saw. It could easily have been 5 or 6 for Rangers, and if VAR hadn't stepped in it would have been quite a commanding result. 

That being said VAR was right to step in, and you'll hear no complaints from me about the decisions. It's worked in our favour by making sure correct decisions have been given, and with that territory comes the expectation it will work against us in making sure correct decisions are given also.

It was good to see Borna come back into the team and play well, he looked sharp and hungry. He also showed some backbone on a number of occasions and I was very pleased to see him make me eat my words where I previously questioned his backbone... a number of players I called out have done similar the last 3 games, perhaps Gio stuck my last blog up in the changing rooms?

I kid of course, but I stand by what I said when I said it, and I'm pleased to see those I criticised now turning it round again. All I want is what you guys want, a successful Rangers with players that give their all.

Speaking of giving their all... James Tavernier. Our right-back, our captain, is currently the joint top scorer in the Europa League following his two goals on Thursday, and with only 3 games remaining, there is every chance he could end up the top scorer of the tournament. Imagine that, a right-back playing in Scotland finishing the top scorer in the Europa League. That would be another amazing stat, in a Rangers career filled with amazing stats for him.

Leipzig will prove to be another massive test, but with key players missing for the first leg (Kampl, Orban and Simikan are all suspended) and a team/manager that have shown they thrive in this environment we should dare to believe. It will undoubtedly be a tough task, but at this stage anything can happen... Seville brace yourselves.

Scottish Cup Semi-Final

An early morning start to my Easter Monday saw a trip up to Hampden for the Semi-Final against that lot in a tense Old Firm. This was important on multiple levels for us, not only are we massively overdue a Scottish Cup win but we couldn't allow them to secure a double and we also needed to stop a run of consecutive defeats in this fixture.

With all their talk about how this fixture would see them "going to war under the flag of Ireland" it was no surprise to me to be greeted with comments of "Ya dirty Orange B*stard" and "66 died, too many survived" as I made my way to the stadium with my mates.

Given their history, it was also no surprise to me to hear some of their fans then say "it's only football, no need for all the aggression" after the game... That's some war eh?

That atmosphere on Thursday was amazing, Sunday it was even better... in the Rangers end. Apart from about 2mins at KO and 10 mins after they scored you'd be hard-pressed to say they even had fans at the game. The article title picture is Hampden 1min after the final whistle, that's how efficiently and effectively they left.

Enough about them though, the opposition were simply excellent. To a man you could see they were up for it, especially the blog's unofficial poster boy John Lundstram. He set the tone right from the off and never gave them a second to catch their breath. This was a man who got it. I'm delighted to see him turn his Rangers career round in such excellent fashion.

Jon McLaughlin was excellent in his command of the area, and it was refreshing to see him come out to take crosses and corners. He has earned his right to start the Final and I will be more than happy to see him as no.1 next season. I wouldn't start him ahead of McGregor in the league the rest of the season as I don't see the benefit, Allan has earned his right to see out his career in the appropriate style, but Jon has proven on more than one occasion he is a worthy successor, at least in the interim.

Scott Wright is a player I've often criticised, and I'm not about to say I've changed my mind on him, but if I'm willing to criticise I have to also give credit where it's due. I thought he did a good job when he came on to replace Ramsey. It's not easy coming on to replace a player as talented as Ramsey but I thought he did a fine, if unspectacular, job.

I also noted Goldson's reaction at full-time. He looked like a man wondering if an extra £10k a week at West Brom is worth missing out on what he's experienced this week. That's not me trying to be derogatory to West Brom, I'm sure they and clubs similar to them are fine clubs, but you're not getting the types of experience there that you are with Rangers. He's been a big player at times, he's had the odd mistake, but if there's a way to make a deal for him to stay I'd be doing it. We can't rely on Helander, Balogun is getting on in years and Souttar has his own injury concerns. If Goldson does go I think we're looking at needing at least 2, if not 3, CB's in not including Souttar.

It's important to also give the manager credit. He comes in for a lot of criticism when things don't go to plan, so it's only fair he gets the kudos when they do. His tactics and substitutions were spot on on Sunday. It would have been easy for him to not put Arfield on, especially after 2 howlers when he came on on Thursday, but he put him on and the reward was almost instantaneous. 

Davis was also an excellent substitution at the right time. A calm head to come on the field and put his foot on the ball when needed.

I could probably wax lyrical about every player on Sunday but the article would go on for a few thousand words and nobody wants to read that much about what I'm writing. 

Special mention though to the fans, and in particular the Union Bears, they were absolutely fantastic in creating an amazing atmosphere and making it feel like a home game rather than a game on neutral ground.

The aftermath

As usual, because Rangers won the other side of the city have set their cronies away to work their PR narrative. It's started with a well-known pundit giving his dog whistle to their lot about a bad performance from the referee... which I was very confused by considering he gave them almost every 50/50, didn't flag Maeda offside for the Hatate chance, didn't book McGregor or give the penalty for the opening foul on Kent (and McGregor would have been off later on if he had), didn't give a penalty for Carter-Vickers pull on Sakala, gave a free-kick that was never a free-kick that led to their goal and so on.

The most disturbing thing about this dog whistle though is he should know better, last time this happened a referee and his family were left receiving death threats...

We also saw somewhat known movie extras & professional celebratory botherer posting about "celtic class" and claiming all Rangers fans were racist, before quickly deleting his account when it came to light he'd been harassing a female celebrity with racist and misogynistic DM's, not to mention his very public racist and misogynistic tweets, amongst other more sinister toned tweets.

The important thing here is that we don't let them set the narrative. We challenge their comments every step of the way. We highlight their hypocrisies and head in the sand moments.

Though in the vein of this article it is also important to give credit where credit is due. It's some achievement to go 134 years without ever losing a game that you weren't cheated in...

Bring on Motherwell, bring on Leipzig and, hopefully, bring on Seville.

The Rambling Ger

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