Rangers Vs Motherwell preview: let's not get too embarrassed

So here we are, Hampden park, how I've not missed you. Since Wednesday there's been a bit of a depressing atmosphere around Rangers. And why would you not be depressed, there's no green shoots of hope to see, we have the same manager, we have the same players, so you expect the same results.

Motherwell haven't hit any great heights this season, so I don't think they are going to be coming into this game with some unreal confidence. But then they may do, they're playing Rangers after all. We know they can be direct and they've had good results against us recently. I'm not sure if the manager will try to batten down the hatches with Kasanwirjo again, hopefully Jefte is well rested after Wednesday.

We can't afford to show any fear today. I don't know how confident I am that we won't. I'll try not to descend into a rant about Jose Mourinho again, but these players are steadily getting worse, and lower on confidence. Let's face it, we are there for the taking, and if we somehow win today, who fancies a cup final against Celtic? Not me, that's for sure.

I can actually remember when we were terrible, it took us 4 or 5 bad results against Celtic before we didn't want to play them. Gerrard came in and that switched. Now it seems like Clement has brought us back to that, why would we feel any confidence in playing Celtic. Old firms are something to endure.

But why am I even talking like we are in the final already, that's not something we can take for granted. I think there's some parallels to be drawn between this season and 2017/18. We spent big on the wrong manager in Pedro. We lost the first Old Firm. Dropped points to teams we should beat. Then we lost to Motherwell in the league cup semi,thanks to a Louis Moult double, that left Pedro on the edge of a precipice, and the 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock midweek was the push.

You'd have to imagine that defeat today would leave Clement on a similarly shoogly peg. I never want us to lose, that's for sure. In an ideal world we win 10-0 today and then win every single game under Clement until we bring home the next World Cup and European Championship. But I'm a realist, and I know we won't do that, even a win today would feel like it's staving off the inevitable.

I found himself thinking about some of Josh Windass' goals in 2017/18 the other day. And that's when you know it's bad, romanticising guys who were never good enough to take us to that next level.

I think today I want a bit of endeavour, I want to see people trying things. Not to set the bar too high but I watched Muirend Athletic come from 3-1 down to win 6-4 this morning. So ideally if Rangers can get to half that level of fight, I'd be happy.

That's all for now, and good luck if you're going to the game.