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Have 1 or 2 tickets available as mate now not able to go. This is a sold out show so wondering if anyone is interested? They are paper tickets and I’m happy to hand over in person at the venue. Face value is £50 each.
I think this is one area where we seem to have made a massive step forward this year. We could in theory rest all 11 players that started today for the cup game with Bristol City and put out the following very competitive team:
Kelly
Wallace Leistner Masterson Kane
Ball Smith
Pugh Chair Shodipo
Mlakar
Think it was actually Clive in the Open all Rs Podcast this week saying that Warburton had gotten the sense that there were too many players in our squad last season who were far too ‘comfortable’. Well, I reckon there’s not a single player in the team now who isn’t looking over their shoulder at someone who can come in and take their place if their performance level drops for even a single match.
*edit: sorry, another Dublin post, didn't spot the earlier one* Hi everyone, Always found this forum superb for getting travel advice, and know we have a healthy contingent of Irish Rs on here, so. Me and the missus have booked 3 nights in Wicklow over Easter, about an hour outside Dublin. Incredibly, it's our first trip to Ireland, so any advice on what to do/see would be gratefully received. Planning to spend a day in Dublin, so especially keen to get advice on how to get the most out of our day there. We also like a good walk/scenic drive.
I don't know how much Warnock's long ball team jibes stung Ollie, but the decision to start with Smith on the bench and go with a tidy, technical midfield three of Freeman, Luongo and Manning did smack of "How d'you like them apples, Neil?!"
Naturally we played with a markedly different style to Saturday, with changes to 5 of the front 6. Not sure how much of this was an attempt to match Barnsley, a very tidy, technical team themselves - whatever, but it did make for a very enjoyable, open and end-to-end game. Luke Freeman was outstanding in the first half and was at the heart of everything Rangers did well. He set up Sylla's smart back heeled finish (did he mean it?) to put us one up and put in another absolute peach of a cross that was met with a salmon like leap from Perch, who was very unlucky to hit the bar.
That said, Barnsley might also have counted themselves unfortunate to go in at half time a goal down. That they did was thanks to an astonishing, instinctive goal saving clearance from Jake Bidwell just before the break. I'm dying to see a replay of this because it had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief and on my feet applauding (I can't remember in which order). Chief owes him a big drink for that one after it was his rick that led to the opening.
Unfortunately there was no hero on hand to spare Grant Hall's blushes who mishit a clearance and sub Bradshaw was on hand to set up the obligatory nervy finish. A real shame as I thought Hall had been excellent up to that point. Thankfully by that stage we'd built enough of a cushion after a powerful run and superb cross by Wsolek which the Barnsley centre half could do nothing other than help goalwards under pressure from Sylla's well-timed run.
Overall, another far from perfect but very encouraging and pleasing performance against a decent side for this level. Darnell Furlong had possibly his best 30 minutes in a Rangers shirt after replacing Perch. Luongo seems to be getting back to his best after a difficult few months. Great to see Sylla get on the scoresheet again - we did miss Smith's aerial presence at times but it probably made us a bit more inventive in our approach, and the result was often very easy on the eye. I think it was ultimately Freeman though who was the difference between the two sides. Faded a bit second half perhaps but was always bright and positive, always looking to make things happen, has an excellent first touch, can pass, can take people on - looks a fantastic signing, especially considering what we paid for him.
The last thing that I left LR with tonight was a feeling that there is at last a genuine affinity between fans and players again. A squad of committed players with no little talent, maybe not quite good enough to challenge the upper reaches of this league just yet, but certainly good enough to be both competitive in this league and, perhaps this is the difference under Ollie, entertaining.
Enjoyable game, decent atmosphere and best of all 3 more precious points. A contrast to Saturday I suppose as we had to grind that one out a bit. Wigan gave us a sterner test than their league position suggested. Omar Bogle was a constant thorn in our side, although the defence coped a bit better with him in the second half. Clinging on a bit at the end with some heroic defending from Ned in particular, but overall deserved to take the points as I thought we had a bit more quality where it mattered. Washington will deservedly take the main plaudits for superbly creating the first and scoring a cracking second but watching Lua Lua take their right back to the cleaners time after time was also a particular highlight. Really enjoying the combative yet skillful Freeman/Manning combo in the midfield although they both rove around a bit and this sometimes left Wigan with too much space to exploit through the middle. But overall, loads more positives than negatives, and with a 10 point gap to the relegation zone giving us a bit of breathing space hopefully we can enjoy watching this team develop and improve over the remaining matches without the spectre of a relegation battle.
Come on then, what are they? 2016 may have felt like the ultimate annus horribilis but at least it's been a damn fine year for music.
My top 6 so far:
Frank Ocean - Blond(e) Underworld - Barbara, Barbara, We Face a Shining future David Bowie - Black Star Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool Michael Kiwanuka - Love and Hate James Blake - The Colour in Anything
Might be able to add a few once I've trawled through this year's album of the year polls but the above (for me) will take some topping.
Announced this Sunday. Last time we were in this division Taarabt and Kenny made the XI. Can't see any Rangers players being selected this time, although Green, Hill, Simpson, Barton, Austin and Phillips could all have been contenders if it hadn't been for injuries and/or Rangers post January slump. I reckon it will be something like this:
Have I overlooked anyone? Buxton at Derby might get one of the CB positions, although Wes Morgan gets selected automatically every season and it's hard to imagine this time being any different considering Leicester's runaway promotion.
OK, perhaps a bit simplistic - if we'd managed to put our chances away in the 1st half it might have been a different story. But I cannot understand why, if he was fit, we didn't start with Onuoha today. It's been said on here numerous times , but we have to play so deep when Hill and Dunne play - especially against pacy strikers - we end up giving ourselves a much harder task getting the ball forward into danger areas behind the opposition's defence and creating clear cut chances. Leicester were well organised 2nd half but we really were so easy to defend against.
Currently on the A37 in a not very sunny Somerset. First time for me to kick off a thread on a match I'm actually going to. Will be the last if this turns out to be the first league defeat of the season.
Not working for me, on my PC or mobile. Anyone else having problems logging predictions?
Going for a 2-0 home win, Austin first scorer. Probably not the only one! We all know though that after unexpectedly grinding out two impressive away wins it would be oh so typical of QPR to slip up in a home game they ought to win comfortably.
Best game in a hooped shirt by far today. Showed good reading of the game and did a great job for the most part sitting in front of the back four and breaking up Bolton's attacks . Not a flawless display - still prone to giving the ball away cheaply at times - but I think we saw today the qualities he was bought for.
13 points from 9 games since Jan 1st, and that included games against all of the top 4. We go just one better than that over the last 9 we reach Redknapp's target and equal last year's total of 37 points.
Interestingly, if each team continues their current form in 2013 over the remainder of the season the bottom six would finish thus:
These results would give us 39 points, 2 more than last season:
A) Newcastle - 1 H) WBA - 3 H) Liverpool - 1 A) Chelsea - 0 H) Spurs - 1 A) West Ham - 1 H) Man C - 0 H) Norwich - 3 A) Swansea - 0 H) Man U - 0 A) Soton - 3 H) Sunderland - 3 A) Villa - 1 A) Fulham - 0 H) Wigan - 3 A) Everton - 0 H) Stoke - 3 A) Reading - 3 H) Arsenal - 0 H) Newcastle - 3 A) Liverpool - 0
Now, I'm not saying we'll get them - in fact I still don't think we'll get more than 30 points - but at least that shows we are not a total lost cause just yet.
Edit - if we were to repeat last season's results in the above fixtures we would finish with 35 points.
Anyone else finding that the site formerly known as liveonlinefooty is no longer available? Have they moved again? My subscription lapsed a few days ago and fearing I may have missed out on site move info.
We were fortunate to stay up with 37 points last season. Just to go one better and finish with 38 points - an average of 1 point per game and even then no guarantee of staying up - we would need to win as many games as we lose over the remaining 25 games of the season after the inevitable defeat today, i.e. W9 D7 L9 = 34 points, plus the four we have = 38.
Think we'll improve under Redknapp but that's a hell of a mountain to climb.
Forgive me for posting a vaguely positive thread amidst a tsunami of negativity but I think Nelsen has been an excellent *free* signing. First name on the team sheet at the moment.
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