Rangers 4-2 Celtic

Sunday 18^th September, the day we will all speak about for the rest of our lives. The day good triumphed over evil and the day The People were the ones singing and dancing! As you know, it was an almighty rollercoaster 90 minutes, which saw The Rangers show the world why our moto is “NO SURRENDER”. Personally I would have hated to be the one left with picking the Man of the Match, as there were 11 warriors on that park, all fighting for the jersey and most importantly each other. After McGregor’s mistake, Rangers of old would have collapsed, and gone on and lost heavily. After half time however, the lads came out fighting, won every second ball, won every tackle and managed to score 3 fantastic goals to set Rangers up for an absolute dream Old Firm win.

Man of the Match was rightly awarded to Big Kyle Lafferty. Was there a blade of grass this lad didn’t cover? I don’t think so, he closed the Celtic defence down, ran at them and was a general nuisance the whole game. He never let them settle once. The fight and composure he showed for his goal again was brilliant, he’s came under a lot of stick in recent seasons but the big man seems to be settling into the team and a run of games is working wonders for him. It would bring a tear to a glass eye the emotion I felt for him when he grabbed his goal, at the end of the day he is living our dream and is fulfilling it to the maximum with yesterday’s performance.  There was many a match winning performances, again Stevie Naismith worked his socks off and weighed in with two goals, I think he must also have springs attached to his boots, because for such a short fella, he can fairly leap! Stevie Davis an unsung hero for me, doesn’t get anywhere near as much credit as he deserves for my liking. Totally dominant in midfield again and almost equalised early on with and absolute wonder strike which hit the crossbar!

Yesterday the fans were delighted to a rare treat from Maurice Edu. Hopefully a return to form for the American after what can only be describe as an nightmare 18 months for him. He has beed on the receiving end of some harsh criticism over the last year or so, and I don’t think it’s been unfair as he has been woeful! Although I believe yesterday we saw what Mo does have to offer, on his day he can be a great player for Rangers and do his job well. Hopefully yesterday brings him the confidence to kick on and start a run of decent form. To be honest I think the additions of Bocanegra and Bedoya have maybe given him some home comfort and helped him fully focus on his football. On the subject of Bocanegra, something that was worrying me about the game before kick off was, has Boca and Goian have enough time playing together to cope with such a big fixture. I think it’s safe to say they proved my doubt wrong. Both were solid and marked their men out of the game! Big Goian just seemed to stroll the game and he seems like a real steal of a signing.

A lot of respect has to go to Allan McGregor also, as much as we’d have all loved to strangle him at half time after what he would agree was a howler, he had to come back out and stand in front of torrents of abuse. That must take nerves of steel to do, from chants of disgusting accusations in his personal life to the hurling of rolled up paper at him. Greegs though proved why he’s Rangers and Scotland’s number one, by keeping a second half clean sheet and standing back and admiring his team mates rip their opponents apart!

Super Ally has come under some harsh criticism in his short spell as manager, no doubt triggered by the two terrible European results. What people haven’t sat back and noticed is, Ally has lead Rangers to 4 points clear at the summit of the table, won 6 consecutive matches conceding only 2 goals and has now comfortably beat Celtic in his first Old firm match. I think it’s now time to accept any doubt about his ability to manage Glasgow Rangers has been wrong and support him even when times might get hard. We cried for 4 seasons at Walter to attack Celtic, yesterday Ally done that and reaped the rewards! Now we have this lead in the run for 4 in a row, it’s time for us fans to now support the team rather than pick out the negatives.

I am going to finish up with a few comments about the fans yesterday, as we were absolutely superb if I don’t say so myself! Even when we fell behind we sang our hearts out in support of our team and you saw that support take effect on the pitch, we really were that cliché of the 12^th man. A special mention must go out to the Union Bears and Blue Order, the noise and colour in that corner was an amazing sight.  I’ve never hugged or been hugged by so many men in my life, but the joy of the events that unfolded at Ibrox Stadium yesterday will go with me to the grave.

WE ARE THE PEOPLE

The Rangers Haters

This week has been eventful to say the least, with the closure of the transfer window last week a lot of attention has been on the £9 million bid for Nikicia Jelavic and the questioning of was it a legitimate bid or, was it made up to cover the fact we made no deadline day signings. The answer? We'll never know I don't think, but to keep hold of Jela has been a massive boost for the season, considering we know Leicester City did put in a £6.5 million bid. Now over in the east end of the city, the usual was going down. Obsessing over everything Rangers. Peter Lawwell sat in a press conference and claimed they had received a bid for Gary Hooper for the sum of £29 million. This was to mock Rangers’ claim of an unknown bidder putting in the £9 million Jelavic bid. What puzzles me is why? Why come out and make these comments, when we’ve just had Government meetings about the tensions between OF fans, players and officials. It seems very unprofessional from my point of view and following John Reids comments at their AGM last year I think it’s safe to say the board of Celtic Football Club need to learn to keep their mouths closed and start doing some talking on the pitch.

This week saw another fans clash with The Odious Creep himself Graham Speirs. It’s not a secret in Scottish Football or Press that Speirs has a hatred of everything Rangers FC. The OC outdone himself this week though by claiming that reference “hun” used to describe Rangers fans by opposing support, was not sectarian. His backing of his comment was that Rangers fans called themselves it, so it couldn’t be sectarian.  Now, I’ve supported Rangers since I can remember, and never in my time at Ibrox, away or abroad, NEVER has a fellow Ranger called or referred to me as a “hun”. Spiers next back up was he heard Andy Cameron use it. A man who has been disowned by Rangers fans for exactly that and also his apologist views about our support. The OC made this claim at Holyrood Parliament, now I don’t know and never will know, why this one sided, Rangers hater was anywhere near a sectarian meeting with Government officials. What has he ever achieved to constitute this, except lie after lie and bias reporting towards our club and also the selective hearing when it comes to sectarian singing during football matches in Scotland! Another football pundit who attended the meeting was Pat Nevin, now as much as I have a strong dislike for this man, he has to be commended for being the only journalist/pundit in Scotland, to speak out against the Terrorist  glorifying that goes unchallenged week after week at Parkhead. A question I’d like to ask Speirs is, how come Nevin can hear it, Sky can hear it, opposing fans can hear it, but when he attends Celtic Park he’s seems to develop a hearing deficiency? Come on Graham, don’t the fans who are on the receiving end of your lies and bile, week after week, deserve that much?

Now the latest statement against Rangers FC comes from the editor of online fans mag Scotzine. Rangers today announced they will be paying tribute to two fans who were crushed at an OF game in 1961. After the release of this statement, Andy Muirheard disgustingly claimed, Rangers were only doing this to intimidate Celtic fans inability to remain quiet and show respect during a minutes silence. I’m beginning to wonder if all clubs planning a silence of respect need to run it past Celtic FC to make sure it fits in with their agendas. Why is it they think the whole world evolves round them? I mean after all, this is the same team who postponed an OF game for a fringe players death and played the weekend after club Legend Tommy Burns dies. Simply because they had many injuries for the January game and they saw fit to postpone it. My opinion is that Muirhead is worried his beloved team are going to show themselves up for the evil vile scum that they are and disturb the silence. Now I said when I started this blog I would keep it simply football, but when people like this are out to get my club week in and out with there lies, then a I feel I have to speak out in any which way I can to defend myself and fellow fans. As for Muirhead and Speirs, I doubt you’ll ever read this blog but the Bears are on to you both and your downfall is imminent.

WATP