Today's team

[jwok]

Carson, O'Donnell, Gallagher, Mugabi, Lamie, Grimshaw, O'Hara, Campbell. Polworth, Watt, Lang.

In Mugabi, Lang Out McGinley, Long

Fingers crossed.

[skippy91]

That performance was unacceptable........but really expected.
Embarrassing how we seem to have no drive or commitment, unable to move the ball around, continual poor first (& 2nd) touch made them look world beaters that their fans seem to think they are.
Maybe I'm being too harsh its easy to mistake lack of ability for lack of commitment.

[Handsome_Devil]

I only flicked in and out of the first half - and didn't bother with the second - but what I saw was fine. Not great, not terrible, we tried and had the stuffing knocked out of us by two penalties which while correct are utterly farcical. In between a minor mistake you'd get away with against the nine non-OF teams was clinically punished.

It's universally agreed you need luck to beat the OF regardless of how well you play, if you lose penalties like that you just shrug and move on.

I've long stopped caring about performances/results v the OF, the next four games are much, much more important to us. Six points keeps the improvement trundling along, seven would be excellent, eight or better the stuff of dreams...but if it all goes wrong we'll be bottom again. No pressure!

[LawSteelman]

Not caring about games against the Old Firm is exactly why we constantly see gutless and naive performances like today. Back in the 90s when Rangers in particular had better teams than they do now we regularly gave them a game and often beat them. I'm not expecting us to compete with them over the season and challenge for the title but we never give them a game of it anymore and our attitude to these games is all wrong. Other teams are able to beat them in one off games yet we roll over every single time, it's pathetic.

[Handsome_Devil]

Not caring about games against the Old Firm is exactly why we constantly see gutless and naive performances like today. Back in the 90s when Rangers in particular had better teams than they do now we regularly gave them a game and often beat them. I'm not expecting us to compete with them over the season and challenge for the title but we never give them a game of it anymore and our attitude to these games is all wrong. Other teams are able to beat them in one off games yet we roll over every single time, it's pathetic.

Since Rangers returned to the top-flight, there hasn't been a single (completed) season where they've had a 100% record against us. So even ignoring close defeats, "we roll over every single time," is simply not true.

Rangers were better in the 90s but so were we, massively so...the players we had in the 90s which made us good in various spells would never have dreamed of going to the lower end of the English second tier, never mind the third level. We now operate on the level below that - the OF are usually not as good as they were all those years ago but the gap in quality has never been bigger.

The year we lost the cup finals to Celtic, the stat thrown around was they spent 17 times what we did on wages, Rangers this year will be a similarly mental multiple...if you get wound up or annoyed that thumps us, fair enough. I don't.

[LawSteelman]

We have managed the token draw here and there, all while our peer clubs are beating them and in some cases regularly. Kilmarnock, Accies, Inverness, Dundee United have all beaten them in the league during the same time we have failed to do so and when we regularly turn in guff like today we get the usual "ach well, bigger budget, no shame, these games don't count" nonsense from our fans and the club in general.

I've said it a million times before, we are a small time club with a losers mentality and a yellow streak running right through the middle of us.

[Handsome_Devil]

We have managed the token draw here and there, all while our peer clubs are beating them and in some cases regularly. Kilmarnock, Accies, Inverness, Dundee United have all beaten them in the league during the same time we have failed to do so and when we regularly turn in guff like today we get the usual "ach well, bigger budget, no shame, these games don't count" nonsense from our fans and the club in general.

I've said it a million times before, we are a small time club with a losers mentality and a yellow streak running right through the middle of us.

Hamilton have about three league wins against Rangers since WWII ended...

Yes, some teams have beat them occasionally - regularly is a push - in our long run without but these long runs are quirks that happen. when we were beating Celtic regularly in the 90s, the likes of St Johnstone, Dunfermline, Kilmarnock were looking back decades for their last victories. It happens.

"we are a small time club" - absolutely, no one in their right mind would disagree but the rest of that sentence is nonsense.

[LawSteelman]

I'm not denying that we are a small club either, we are and I accept that. However there is a section of our support and indeed in the club itself who merrily thrive on this for some reason or another. These people appear to have no desire to see us achieve anything or compete with the bigger clubs because according to their logic, "oor wee team really shouldn't be competing with these big clubs". We are what we are, I accept what we are, but I don't see the need to actively champion us being a small time club who can't compete.

[Handsome_Devil]

I'm not denying that we are a small club either, we are and I accept that. However there is a section of our support and indeed in the club itself who merrily thrive on this for some reason or another. These people appear to have no desire to see us achieve anything or compete with the bigger clubs because according to their logic, "oor wee team really shouldn't be competing with these big clubs". We are what we are, I accept what we are, but I don't see the need to actively champion us being a small time club who can't compete.

If that's your experience, fair enough - but this is another situation where we move in completely different circles because I do not know a single fan who thinks like that.

I don't by any mean claim to know everyone in the club but of the public figures we have, only Andrew Wilson comes across overly cautiously to me.

[skippy91]

I really don't care who we face on the pitch, OF or not, I expect my team to compete on every occasion, if not win. LSM is correct too many of us seem to accept these results with a shrug of the shoulders as "Ach well it is the OF after all, as long as we beat the diddle team next week".