East Fife edge play-off first leg as Annan end with nine men
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
42 minutes ago
- BBC News
Raskin affected by 'uncertainty' over Rangers future
Rangers midfielder Nico Raskin has been impacted by "uncertainty" over his future at the club, according to head coach Russell Belgium international has been linked with big money moves away from Ibrox and Martin concedes that contact from external parties has had an effect."There's been a bit of uncertainty about him this summer, for sure," Martin said before Tuesday's second leg of the Champions League third qualifying round tie at Viktoria Plzen."Not from people ringing us, but I think from people ringing him, definitely."I think that's affected his approach, not in terms of professionalism and stuff, but he's a young man, of course it's going to have an impact at some point." Raskin started the first three games of Rangers' season, but was left out of the starting XI for the first leg of the tie against Viktoria Plzen, which Martin's side won 3-0 at 24-year-old was again benched for Saturday's Premiership match against Dundee, but impressed as a substitute in the 1-1 draw. Martin expressed his delight at how Raskin has responded to being dropped."He came out of the team for reasons that me and him spoke about, and his reaction has been top, like really, really brilliant," he said."He's a really fantastic player, and he's a young man that I'm getting to know all the time, and actually I really like his character and personality."It's my job to make sure, playing for this football club, whoever you are, the demands are really clear, in whatever position you play." 'Hopefully we can get to end of window' When asked if he expects Raskin to stay at Rangers beyond this summer, Martin said it would take a "mind-blowing" offer for the Ibrox club to consider selling one of last season's standout performers."I don't think we're in a position where we have to sell anyone," Martin said. "I don't think we're in a position where we want to lose some of the best performers last season, that we think can become really top performers for us moving forward."Unless someone comes in and blows our minds and everyone decides, the player, the club, that it's the best for everyone and then we can make sure we're in a position to replace them with someone else. "It's the same for any club in world football now. I don't think there is a club that's immune to that really."Hopefully, we can get to the end of the window. He's played brilliantly. The window shuts, he's still here, and then we can keep improving and keep kicking on."
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Martin on learning from Dundee draw, Plzen 'pressure' & Raskin's future
Rangers head coach Russell Martin has been speaking to the media before the second leg of their Champions League third qualifying round tie against Viktoria are the key points from his press conference:Mikey Moore, Thelo Aasgaard, and Hamza Igamane will all be ready to play on Saturday, "all being well," but none of the trio will feature in the Czech has "loved the energy" from the players since their 1-1 draw with Dundee on Sunday. He says they will be "better for it" and keep getting "better and better".Martin says they "can't get too emotional" about the Dundee result and says it's time to focus and look forward to the second leg against Plzen, into which they take a 3-0 says no decision has been made on whether to postpone Rangers' league match against St Mirren on Sunday, but did say "the plan has always been to play the game".The former Scotland defender says the three-goal advantage does not diminish the pressure on his players and insists they will be looking to also win the second Nico Raskin, Martin says uncertainty over the midfielder's future had "an impact", but was keen to praise the Belgian's "character and personality".Martin insists he expects Raskin to stay at Ibrox beyond this summer unless "someone comes in and blows our minds".
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
'Down to all Dons to help Yengi flourish'
Aberdeen full-back Nicky Devlin says it is down to all of the squad to help struggling striker Kusini Yengi get to grips with life at summer arrival from Portsmouth had another testing afternoon against Celtic and a poor Scottish Premiership debut against Hearts the week prior, with his side losing both games 26-year-old arrived at Aberdeen on a free transfer on the back of a barren second season in front of goal with Portsmouth, although he did net twice for Australia in a World Cup qualifier against said: "It's probably important for the rest of us to give him more opportunity. There were times he was having to feed off balls that weren't great quality into him."He was fighting against two big centre-halves, which was obviously making it difficult for him. I think we have to probably get the ball in better areas, play more to his strengths."It's his first taste of being up here, it's only his second game in the league. It's probably more about other people doing a wee bit more to support him and getting the ball into areas that we know he can be dangerous."We've seen it in training already, we've seen it in some of the pre-season games. We have to play more to his strengths at times, get the ball into areas that we know he's going to hurt teams."We wanted to start the first home game with picking up points, but ultimately I don't think we've done enough in the game to trouble Celtic."Aberdeen now face a wait to return to top-flight action and climb off the foot of the table, with their next fixture on August 31 against Falkirk, owing to their League Cup and European commitments.
