Old Firm League Cup victory can kick-start Rangers’ season

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Old Firm League Cup victory can kick-start Rangers’ season

Let’s not beat
around the bush; Rangers have been disappointing so far this season. Naively,
most Scottish football fans expected the Gers to go toe-to-toe with arch rivals
Celtic at the top of the division in their first season back in the top flight
but it hasn’t exactly panned out that way after a difficult start to life in
the Scottish Premiership.
However, there is
still plenty of time for Mark Warburton’s men to turn their form around as they
look to build a title-winning side in the coming years. Who knows,
a victory against Celtic in the Scottish League Cup semi-finals
could go a long way – and a derby day success would certainly go down well with
the fans after their recent 5-1 defeat.

Being honest, the
League Cup wouldn’t have been Rangers’ number one priority at the start of the
campaign but silverware is silverware at the end of the day. Furthermore, the
chance to get one over on their closest rivals is almost too good to turn down;
and that is why the Gers should harness all of their energy on that fixture.
It will take a
major meltdown for Rangers to pip Celtic to the Premiership title now but a cup
success would hinder Brendan Rodgers’ plans of winning the treble in his first
season at the club. At the time of writing, Warburton’s side are priced at 10/3
in the
latest online betting odds at Betway.com and plenty of Gers fans will fancy an
upset in the semi-finals.
On paper, Rangers
stand a decent chance of advancing to the final – confidence is a huge factor
in how the rest of the season will pan out. If Warburton can get his players
believing again, Rangers could surprise us all and challenge for silverware in
both cup competitions; AND they could still pip Aberdeen to second in the
Scottish Premiership.
Whilst Warburton’s
men should be aspiring to achieve much more than second-place, a cup success
and a runner-up spot would more than suffice for their first season back in the
top flight. Remember; this is a long-term project. Fans shouldn’t lose hope
because of a rough run of results in September…
Fine margins may be going against Rangers at the moment but their luck will change
for the better at some point. Without a doubt, Mark Warburton is a man under
pressure but fans should keep faith. After all, a victory over Celtic in
October could completely transform the mood at Ibrox…

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27 COMMENTS

  1. Its a very long shot, and Rangers fans know that, Could it happen? Of course, but there's a much a chance of that as there is of Celtic notching up a big victory,
    In fact I believe there a better chance of a significant win for Celtic than there is for any Rangers victory.
    At this stage of proceedings there are no grounds for Rangers fans to be optimistic about the semi final

  2. Fine margins or luck as it's otherwise known go for and against us.

    We have been lucky with some bad Forrester tackles and him staying on the park.

    Losing a free kick to Aberdeen at the death is a moot point, the ref makes calls all through the game that can go for or against you. But it was not luck when they scored the winner, that was just quality, like Tav's against Killie.

    Like I said these thing will work for you sometimes and against other times.

    Aberdeen were poor last week but we squandered a couple of very good chances that was not the 'margins' that was just lack of quality. So the manager has not got that correct imo.

    Celtic seem to be improving and the manager getting the best out of their players, we do not seem to be making that progress regardless of what positive statements Warbs picks out of his coaching manual.

    Wining the LC would be a major achievement for us this season, it could even be the best we hope for based on what I have seen, heard and where we are going. A good SC run maybe and a top 3 finish seems a good achievement in our first season back.

    Gets us into Europe. I fully expect that we will lose 4 or 5 of the current squad for next season but we need to invest in Quality for next season's campaign as Warbs has got the new signings this season spectacularly wrong for me.

    Good young talent in Scotland might have been a better choice for us to build on maybe a transfer fee but certainly better value in what we pay them. Big names and reputations do not guarantee a happy successful squad, I think Warbs is realising that now. A manager who lacks experience and a board similarly is not the best combination.

    Nothing is going to change soon so we need to move on, get on with it and take every game at a time. Miller made a difference on Sunday, maybe he and Wags is best up front and give Garner more time to settle as i think he needs time to get up to the quality of the SPFL.

    • Feck off and away and crawl back under a rock you to me are the mindless deluded one. Its a feckin rebuilding job from top to bottom at our great club and anyone who cant see that needs a reality check. Seems to me as if a lot of fans seem to have forgot about our days watchin dross under ally and our subsequent dire failure to even finish 2nd in championship and to add in the ashley retail saga amongst other things im pretty satisfied with our work in progress that i think we will strongly challenge for 2nd place then kick on next year. At last a positive piece from this site

  3. They may have a decent lead but they are still only interested in the Rangers.
    The first four comments confirms this.

  4. Sadly Warburton will not turn this around. Why simply he will stick with the failed 433 system in addition to playing players in the wrong positions i.e Waghorn on the wing and Tavs at right back.If he changes then we have a chance to get back on track starting on Saturday if not how long can he survive?

  5. What a load of mince, you have NO CHANCE of beating Celtic, you will be thrashed again. You also say MOST Scottish fans expected kid on gers to challenge Celtic, no they didn't only Se/co fans thought this, every other clubs fans know Se/co are rubbish and will be very lucky to make the top six. SE/CO fans VERY DELUDED.

    • Why are you here?this is a site for Rangers fans you are clearly an obsessed troglodyte,so you go away and polish your Jim'll fixed it for me badge and we will see you and your effigy hanging scum kin at Hampden

  6. last night was a sore one for youse but jist shows celtic are miles in front,a major shock would be reported should you win,,should celtic win 4,1,,,3,0,,you would try to convince yourself your iproving,,if your happy 4 that fine,,mind celtic supposedly never pulled away in the 4 year you where away,,bang pulled emphatically away in 4 mnths,,,money talks bull shit walks,,

  7. It's comments like these that are hard to swallow from our club site..

    BUILDING ON FOUNDATIONS:
    "MARTYN WAGHORN reckons Rangers must build on their performances from recent weeks in this weekend’s game against Partick Thistle. The last three games have seen the Light Blues reach a much more familiar level of form, and while those matches have yielded just one victory, Waghorn hopes they can carry on and better their more standard showings against Partick Thistle this Saturday at Ibrox."

    This is the PR BS we have been getting fed all year. We have taken 2 points our past 4 league games.

    We need to set a proper expectation as stated above by James 2nd and celebrate anything beyond that.

  8. My concern is our scouting system. I watched the beggars last night and wondered, how can they get a top quality centre forward, scoring 2 champion league goal, for £500,000 and we get a sub standard centre wimp of a forward in Garner for 1.5 million,, is it me?!,,, or is Frank McPartland really as good as they think they are?!! Garner isn't Rangers class, let alone a player of that price. As for beating the manky mob in the semi, yes, it is possible as long as we keep Kiernan, Barton and Wilson at home, then we may stand a chance. My heart want to pump them in the cup, but what we have seen since beating them the last time, I dont hold much hope, but i would love to be proved wrong.

  9. I cannot see us beating celtic in a few weeks or in the future as we need cash and quality it's going to take us years to compete with celtic ,I really wish a lot of the rangers fans would wake up and smell the coffee,I hope iam wrong WATP

    • You are wrong because Hearts made the transition between championship and spl with a fraction of the resources Warburton has had. We have not kicked a ball since the semi final and I think the lack of experience that the management team is showing through from signings ,tactics and scouting we are way behind the likes of Hearts. In the bad old days of McCoist every fan could see what the problems were well its the same now. The defence should have been a priority in the summer and it wasn't and like Ally before him he has signed on big wages a bunch of has beens. That is the brutal truth and as with Ally he does not seem to have a clue when it comes to changing tactics or personnel when it comes to different games. As for progression we showed great promise last year for the earlier part of the season and I like every other fan thought Warburton was the real deal unfortunately he has turned into a one trick pony incapable to date of acknowledging his own part in what has been a very disappointing start to the season.

  10. I always TRY and be positive concerning the Gers. but I just dont think we can win against them, anyone who does is living in a wee world of there ain'.
    That kid dembele, who I hate to admit, is SOME player, has scored more goals himself than our whole team combined. then factor in the rest of their free scoring players, who is gonna score for us?
    Then we have MW who seems to be losing it more and more each game then sadly I just dont feel confident at all at the minute, and Im not alone. Too many living in fantasy world to see the bigger picture.

    • 10 goals in 9 games v 24 goals in 8 games, tells it ' s own story.

      Waghorn strolled through the Championship scoring plenty of goals but has now been found out……….his score ratio was one in 5 games down South.

      Dodoo………not good enough.

      Garner v Dembele…..no contest.No idea why we signed him, will have more bookings and sending offs than goals!
      Anyone thinking that we can make a game of it in the cup tie is living in dreamland. If Warbs sticks to his non productive 4 3 3 set up we will be hammered.
      Rodgers has more tactical nous in his little finger than Warbs has in his whole body and is not shy of changing his formation halfway through a game.

      It's not just the defence that's the problem, we can't score goals

  11. C'mon there's more to the season than beating Celtic in the League Cup, how about max points off everybody in the SPL ?
    If beating Celtic is to be the only yardstick then we're in big trouble.

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