Goals free us up....no doubt

Earl of Leven

Earl of Leven

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Lots of positive threads but interestingly most focus on the second half. The goal changed everything and the first half was stodgy crap mostly.

It's now apparent that the first goal is crucial for us. Everything seems to flow from it : confidence, wanting the ball, etc.

Is this worrying or just typical of passing teams?
 
Earl of Leven said:
Lots of positive threads but interestingly most focus on the second half. The goal changed everything and the first half was stodgy crap mostly.

It's now apparent that the first goal is crucial for us. Everything seems to flow from it : confidence, wanting the ball, etc.

Is this worrying or just typical of passing teams?
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In a country where fouls are only given if you got the deck, it's easy to close the game down. Berra literally held Morelos down at every challenge without punishment. Once the goal comes, all else is possible.

The sad thing is, had Hearts booted us off the park and stolen a win, they'd get all the praise. No wonder as a nation we are done
 
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Davie Meiklejohn said:
In a country where fouls are only given if you got the deck, it's easy to close the game down. Berra literally held Morelos down at every challenge without punishment. Once the goal comes, all else is possible.

The sad thing is, had Hearts booted us off the park and stolen a win, they'd get all the praise. No wonder as a nation we are done
Click to expand...

Berra also had Defoe by the shoulders and spun him round in the box.
 
Earl of Leven said:
On Sportscene they just praised Hearts first half performance so you're spot on.
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Perhaps they did, not seen it and no doubt wont.
We as a team were poor Imo in the first half so I suppose you could say Hearts held their own, right up until the 45th minute when we scored.
Blasted them off the park in second 45 I thought.
 
amabluestar said:
Perhaps they did, not seen it and no doubt wont.
We as a team were poor Imo in the first half so I suppose you could say Hearts held their own, right up until the 45th minute when we scored.
Blasted them off the park in second 45 I thought.
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We really weren't poor in the first half. Had we scored, earlier I'm sure your opinion would have been vastly different
 
It’s understandable but it is a bit of a concern. We bully teams well once we’re up but we do look less assured at nil.

I thinks the fans have a part to play. A small but vocal minority don’t seem to accept any attempt to work teams around in order to create openings. They want it played forward constantly, to feet and without taking any chances defensively. It’s childishly unrealistic. Even making allowances for all we’ve been through it’s hard to listen to and it helps nobody.
 
Earl of Leven said:
Lots of positive threads but interestingly most focus on the second half. The goal changed everything and the first half was stodgy crap mostly.

It's now apparent that the first goal is crucial for us. Everything seems to flow from it : confidence, wanting the ball, etc.

Is this worrying or just typical of passing teams?
Click to expand...
I agree and know what you mean. When it's 0-0 it's nervy especially at Ibrox and that's why Stevie G pulled the fans and said about patience as the nerves filtered onto players who made mistakes.

However, flip the coin the other side, when we go 1 up or even more so at 2 up, the confidence sky rockets and we pass it about with absolute belief and create chance after chance.
 
Davie Meiklejohn said:
We really weren't poor in the first half. Had we scored, earlier I'm sure your opinion would have been vastly different
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Might have if we had scored but didn't.
Just my opinion was behind the goal today and didn't think we played that well first half.
Now my two sons were in the North Stand and have told me their thoughts.
All people see it from different angles I suppose.
 
25 games we’ve played this season.

The games we’ve fallen down in I.e not won:

Progres 0-0 Tie was over.
Legia 0-0 A fine result away in Europe.
Them 0-2 Major blot on the season.
Young Boys 2-1 Could have won that.
Hearts 1-1 Failed to come out the traps quickly.
Porto 1-1 A simply outstanding performance.

19 victories outside of that. I take from that that the Celtic and Hearts games have been the only disappointments out of 25 matches.

That means that this Rangers team is finding a way to win even when we go behind, are pegged back, and so the first goal isn’t overly crucial.

I’d say that not every game is good for the blood pressure, but it never will be. Poor against Motherwell, Livi, Killie, St Mirren. But all victories.

Walter’s Championship winning sides fair brought on the pressure, but had the will to win. We are showing that quality so far this season.

There are goals in our team, and we are tight at the back. And it’s resulting in Championship winning form.

Consistency is what’s crucial. Playing turgid football, or struggling to break teams down isn’t concerting as long as we are one goal ahead come the final whistle.
 
Hearts were lucky to be 1-0 down at half time.

Kent hit the post, Smith gets his boot to it before Morelos and we win a corner. Kamara sclaff poke at goal, can't remember who it was that hit a shot left side that was on target but took a deflection on route to goal and went out for a corner. Pereira saving from Jack...

We dictated and controlled the 1st half. Hearts resorted to time wasting 20 minutes in and had no interest in getting up the park or attacking. Usual men behind the ball, organised and disciplined. We remained patient but we cut them open and created chances.

I thought the first half was decent enough and like I said, thought Hearts were lucky to only be a goal down at half time.
 
Think we have to take a lot of the blame for that , if we don't score early the nerves start from the stands and filters into the players. Thought we done OK in the first half never felt we weren't going to win
 
The BT wallopers, sadly including Ally, tried to big up Hearts’ first half as something more than it was. We threatened a fair bit, and on another day Kent doesn’t hit the post from that distance... it’s a fantastic goal.

We were creating chances, not putting in a turgid slow performance.... once the 2 quick fire goals went in and the players didn’t slack off - the confidence and the extra fitness combined to give them an even bigger edge over players who were constantly chasing the ball around.
I firmly believe our ability to keep the ball is making a huge difference to games. It’s why a smaller/bobbly plastic pitch levels us right down.
 
Teams are starting to fear us again. Theyre just holding out until we score.
Maclean should have bwen sent off. Only in Scotland would they praise the manager as being astute for subbing Maclean. Now, If it had been Alfie the ref would have sent him off, or the commentry crew would have crucified him.
 
We utterly dominated the full game, I wouldn’t say the first half was stodgy crap.

It was as comfy as I expected. If we’d got a goal in the first ten minutes, we’d probably have got six or seven.
 
We do seem to take great confidence from scoring. Ojo has a quiet first half then when we scored it was like he was a different player altogether.
 
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