SonicWill

Not a great team performance but a clean sheet and our two strikers scored so it’s something to build on. I also thought the Killie left back, Dorsett, was excellent. He was big, strong and completely shut down that side of the pitch. He’s only 20 and is on loan from Reading. I think he’s worth keeping an eye on this season.

Usual disclaimer of it only being his first game and that you can’t draw any firm conclusions. That said, I thought he was really poor today. Physically he looks tiny, so I’m concerned that he might be outmuscled. I also didn’t see him really try and take on the opposing fullback on many occasions. He was also hesitant in the tackle and gave the ball away easily on a number of occasions. Plenty of time to get up to speed with his teammates and get acclimatised to the league, but he’ll need to improve significantly on today.

Slept in and missed the first half, which is probably good for my mental wellbeing. Good second half performance. Thought that Souttar looked very shaky and Lawrence was fairly anonymous, but was very impressed with Tillman. Colak looks a bit one-dimensional but he should have had a goal and is clearly a hard worker. Overall, good start at an awkward venue.

People literally can't afford to heat their homes in this country but let's lick the boots of someone who has a separate Range Rover to drive their crown to Parliament and who lives a life of luxury by virtue of the family she was born into. Hard pass from me.

If it’s the case that this hasn’t been done because of money then just get him paid. The money we’d have to pay to replace his quality (not to mention his impeccable fitness record and knowledge of our system) would take a huge chunk out of our budget. I’d much rather overpay for the devil I know in an important position like CB.

I really hope he's not the direct replacement for Goldson. To go from someone you can rely on to play every game to someone with Souttar's injury record would be a massive problem. And that's before we even address how much better a player Goldson is. Having said that, Souttar was excellent today and is clearly a good option to have in the squad, and potentially as our second starting CB if we're playing Bassey at LB.

Bassey is just brilliant, and is improving at a frightening pace. He'll still make mistakes, as will any young player (or any player, for that matter), but he never hides and will always try and atone, as evidenced last night after his slip. He's got all the physical tools like pace and strength, but his positional play and reading of the game has come on so much this year. I think he's really helped with a senior pro like Goldson next to him, so I have some worries about how he'll initially perform with Goldson likely moving on, but I have no doubt he'll adjust. I love the boy and will enjoy him in our shirt while I can. He'll be away to England or the continent sooner rather than later.

Never been this low after a football match. Don’t care about the Scottish Cup just let me sleep til next season.

I'll preface this by saying that we don't know what goes on behind the scenes or in training. That said, unless he's been training badly, we've treated the lad terribly. He was excellent in his first game against Ross County, getting on the scoresheet and looking dangerous throughout the match. The next game against celtic he was very poor, but so was everyone not named Ryan Jack. Since then, we've seen casualties from that match like Borna Barisic be re-introduced to the first team fold whilst Sakala has been given ample opportunities despite clearly being a poor player and being equally bad against celtic. Every time Diallo has been on the pitch since then he's looked dangerous, but his game time has been ridiculously limited. No one is seriously going to tell me, based on yesterday, that Scott Wright or Fashion Sakala offer more than Amad Diallo? I'd have him back on loan in a heartbeat, but frankly if I was Man Utd, the player or his agent I'd be coming nowhere near Ibrox again after this experience.

Realistically the biggest appeal of 55 was that we got it before they got the 10. If they got 10IAR and we won the league this year it'd be nowhere near as big a deal. I'm more concerned with our success than their failures, so a European cup win is way more prestigious than a league win. I'm delighted we stopped Terry Munro but that won't come close to the joy of winning in Seville, should we pull it off.

Get our first team rested and draft in our squad players like Davis, Diallo, Sands and Zukowski. Bring in some B team players like Lowry, McCann, Weston etc. Bring our starters back for the midweek game against Ross County to keep the match fitness up then rest them again the weekend before the final. It's vital we get fresh, take advantage of our squad and put everything into this final.

Might have a billion quid between them but they don't have John Fucking Lundstram.

I can’t fault anyone last night. You can criticise the performance of someone like Scott Wright but he’s simply not good enough to play at the level of a European semi final. He can’t help that. Everyone gave their absolute all, worked their socks off and played for each other. It took a wonder goal to beat us and we go back very much in the tie. I’ll never be angry with a team that gives their very best. Looking forward to next week and we’ve given ourselves a very good platform.

This is giving me UEFA Cup 2008 vibes and frankly I’m five stone heavier and fourteen years older and my heart can’t take it.

Fuck when you look at that Leipzig side written down they’re really, really good. Even a draw tonight would be an incredible result.

Very good performance, especially after the red card. For me it’s the best Sakala has looked all season, even though his final decision making is still horrific. Disappointed Diallo didn’t get more of a chance as I thought he looked dangerous early on but fully understand why he was taken off. Props to Gio as well. Excellent game management and his tactical choices worked.

Great fucking goal. Well done Sakala as well.

Fuck everything about this last five minutes.

Nope. Doesn’t matter that he won the ball first, he flew in and it was the unnecessary momentum and force that carried him over the ball. Also it’s not a clear and obvious error so VAR wouldn’t touch that.

That’s a red as well. If the Rangers players had rushed the ref before he got the card out they might have pressured him into it.

What a ridiculous challenge. Clear red and the Motherwell boy is lucky he’s not badly injured. No fucking need to put the tackle in like that either and now we’re up against it. Fuck sake.

I think McGregor is a much better shot stopper but McLaughlin is much quicker off his line and better with his distribution - which is really important for the way we play. I don’t think McLaughlin is sufficient quality to be number one but is an excellent backup. Ideally or next season we’d be looking for a new number one that can combine McGregor and McLaughlin’s best traits.

I think there’s clearly flashes of a player in there. He’s direct on the ball, tricky and can stretch defences, but I don’t think he’s quite kicked on like we would have hoped since we signed him. He’s comfortably better than Barker and Jones were as a squad option but I’m becoming more and more convinced that this will likely be his ceiling as a Rangers player. Still, if he can help us out as an impact sub or starter against bottom six teams and chip in with 5 goals a season that’s not something to sniff at, given the low fee we paid and the fact he’s probably on low wages.

I love him. He’s brave on the ball, aggressive, strong as an ox and his end product is improving. He’s still raw and will make mistakes but we’ve developed him brilliantly, he’s 22 and will only get better with more experience. Plus you can tell he loves playing for us. I’m sure we’ll lose him in the next few years for a good fee but that’s our transfer model now and if it works for both parties then great.

I remember back in our last run to the UEFA Cup final in 07/08 that, during an Old Firm at Parkhead, Barry Robson fucking smashed one of our players (I think it was Dailly) with an elbow within about sixty seconds. He got a booking but it very easily could have been a red. I remember thinking that Robson had brought bite and fight to that celtic team and that’s probably what helped them get over the line that year, aside from us being fucking knackered. It’s great to see the roles reversed and for us to have someone that doesn’t give a fuck about niceties and is only concerned with beating them by any means necessary. You get the sense that Lundstram would rather clean someone out in a 50/50 than play a beautiful diagonal pass and you need characters like that in derbies. The fact he can do both is just a bonus. I really worried about him in the initial couple of months after his signing. I thought he looked leggy, unfit and lazy. He also seemed so error prone and slack in possession. I’m delighted he’s turned it around, particularly when it’d have been easy to mentally check out when a new manager came in and he went down the pecking order. In short, he’s the bollocks and I’d probably say “cheers, big man” if he two-footed my gran to get in front of her in the supermarket queue.