The team AND Levein

[soonbe110]

1 hour ago, Enzo Chiefo said:

Who said he isn't going Doug?

Who has said he is? 

[Jammy T]

6 minutes ago, busby1985 said:

You know that the decision to take him off cost us the match eh? We should’ve changed shape when he went off, instead we went with the like for like pre planned subs and never reacted to what was happening on the park. 

 

How do you know that? That the change lost us the match?

 

Please explain.

[Jammy T]

2 hours ago, Dusk_Till_Dawn said:

Levein needs to go but it’s not an argument for tonight tbh

 

It clearly is

[soonbe110]

33 minutes ago, Jammy T said:

All the players were immense but our best was one which our manager took a huge risk to play when he could have taken a much easier safer option - Hickey.

 

That is a manager for you.

 

arguably our second best player was Mulraney - Levein was ripped for signing him at all and our coaches have worked him up better and better all season.

 

That is a manager for you.

 

Levein schooled Lennon today - and Lennon was bailed out by a guy worth basically as much as our entire team.

 

Anyone that suggests otherwise is a Hibs fan.

Can’t disagree with that. Many no doubt will though. 

[Jammy T]

1 hour ago, Prof said:

A good battling performance that made me proud  but completely lacking any flair. Levein has taken us as far as he can. Time to go with grace.

 

Our goal had no flair?

 

Mulraney has no flair?

 

Are you one of the plane nut jobs?

[The Comedian]

34 minutes ago, Jammy T said:

All the players were immense but our best was one which our manager took a huge risk to play when he could have taken a much easier safer option - Hickey.

 

That is a manager for you.

 

arguably our second best player was Mulraney - Levein was ripped for signing him at all and our coaches have worked him up better and better all season.

 

That is a manager for you.

 

Levein schooled Lennon today - and Lennon was bailed out by a guy worth basically as much as our entire team.

 

Anyone that suggests otherwise is a Hibs fan.

 

He schooled his way to a runners up medal and 6th place in the league.

 

 

Whoopee!

[simplesimon]

5 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

So how many front men should we have in our squad?  6? 7?

And our 38 year old front men was THE major player in why we were on top for 60 minutes.  Some of our fans have seriously unrealistic expectations having grown up in the Romanov and Robinson overspend years.  Yes, we could play more attacking football sometimes but with our current budget I think Levein has built a good squad which would have done more barring injuries.  Give him e another 6 months at least

[Spellczech]

3 hours ago, Bozi said:

Play dugshite all season, go with low expectations, play magnificently, still lose the game but massively proud of the team 

 

Thats peak Hearts in a nutshell 

It is the Hearts tradition TBF...

[luckyBatistuta]

10 minutes ago, busby1985 said:

You know that the decision to take him off cost us the match eh? We should’ve changed shape when he went off, instead we went with the like for like pre planned subs and never reacted to what was happening on the park. 

 

5 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

Haring didn't look like he believed that. He looked perplexed at going off, and was right to be. Then Celtic exploited the huge gap he'd left and scored the winner almost immediately.

 

Next.

 

Haring made a gesture to the bench that appeared that he wanted to come off, just a few minutes before he was subbed, mentioned it to my mates at the time.

[busby1985]

6 minutes ago, Jammy T said:

 

How do you know that? That the change lost us the match?

 

Please explain.

Because Celtic burst through the exact position in the park we’d dominated. Simple stuff. I get people want to defend Levein at all costs but these things are clear for everyone to see. We stayed in 451 as was the plan and we made the like for like subs, as was the plan. We didn’t react to what was happening on the park, like we seem to do most weeks. 

[Guest]

We were the better team with the better manager today. Levein absolutely beat Lennon tactically and lost through two individual errors. 

 

Celtic have to be the worst team to win a treble treble. 

 

Levein passed the job interview for another season with that display. 

 

A few additions and we should be in good shape next season.

 

Very proud of the team today. Stuck to the job at hand brilliantly. More of that next season please. 

[Spellczech]

Just now, simplesimon said:

And our 38 year old front men was THE major player in why we were on top for 60 minutes.  Some of our fans have seriously unrealistic expectations having grown up in the Romanov and Robinson overspend years.  Yes, we could play more attacking football sometimes but with our current budget I think Levein has built a good squad which would have done more barring injuries.  Give him e another 6 months at least

That is the crux of it. We cannot afford the players Celtic and Rangers can afford. We have to make do with what we can get, and with Aberdeen currently willing to back their manager with a bigger budget we have to be patient and wait for the likes of Hickey to come through. That boy looks v good...

[shaun.lawson]

3 hours ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

The best team lost and glorious in defeat is nauseating.

 

The best team won, actually. There's a huge difference between playing bravely, gallantly in a final against much higher quality opponents... and actually being the better side. We did the former. We weren't the latter.

 

The reason people are over-stating how well we played is because expectations were so incredibly low coming in. Why were they so low? Because the season's been appalling. If we've now fallen so far that we're hailing a decent performance as some magical sign that world domination is right around the corner, those doing so have lost the plot. And that our expectations have fallen so low is yet another reason why the manager and his coaching staff have to go.

 

I don't think we could've done much more today, and injuries clearly told on us. But what was also telling was what happened the moment we scored. We immediately started losing control of ourselves and the game. Celtic raised it a couple of notches, and they were straight through us sadly. That this happened the moment we went 1-0 up rather suggests the players didn't believe they could win; only that they could keep it respectable, which they more than did.

 

No manager should ever be judged on one game. They should be judged over a whole season. And this season (and last as well), Levein's come up miles and miles short. 26 points from 28 games is unthinkable for a club Hearts' size and with our resources. It's quite incredible that some are willing to overlook that execrable record.

[Jammy T]

L

11 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

Haring didn't look like he believed that. He looked perplexed at going off, and was right to be. Then Celtic exploited the huge gap he'd left and scored the winner almost immediately.

 

Next.

 

**** me - you are some sort of sports scientist/ physio / body language expert now?

 

How do you know that if Haring has been on the second wouldn’t have been scored? Why wasn’t the Berra/Bobby balls up the bigger more match defining moment? We don’t lose the equalIzer and things are much different.

[shaun.lawson]

4 minutes ago, luckyBatistuta said:

 

 

Haring made a gesture to the bench that appeared that he wanted to come off, just a few minutes before he was subbed, mentioned it to my mates at the time.

 

Fair dos. 

[Jammy T]

3 minutes ago, busby1985 said:

Because Celtic burst through the exact position in the park we’d dominated. Simple stuff. I get people want to defend Levein at all costs but these things are clear for everyone to see. We stayed in 451 as was the plan and we made the like for like subs, as was the plan. We didn’t react to what was happening on the park, like we seem to do most weeks. 

 

They didn’t burst through anywhere - Celtic won a header nowhere near where Haring MIGHT have been and Berra lost his man. 

 

There was no burst through anywhere

[jambo1975]

54 minutes ago, Brighton Jambo said:

I respect your passion and commitment. But If you honestly hand on heart don’t believe that one single player of the current crop is worth retaining next season then I’m sorry but no we don’t need you next season.  

So who would u keep? I will concede soutter and cant really offer any option on hickey but the rest of them? Really? I would genuinely have to Google to find out when we last won a game. We are honking, sub standard players in every position this forum is full of people with a semi cause we "gave Celtic a good game" that's the minimum expectation in a cup final. The fundamental issue at this club is the footballers we employ are not fit to wear the shirt of this amazing football club. That is a fault of our management. If we keep Naismith we might improve but he is a year older and more likely to be injured than not moving forward. Folk like me are the reality you my pal are blinkered if u think what we have at the moment is acceptable 

[Jammy T]

Just now, shaun.lawson said:

 

Fair dos. 

Next?

[shaun.lawson]

1 minute ago, Jammy T said:

We don’t lose the equalIzer and things are much different.

 

We were going to lose the equaliser sooner or later. We completely lost control the moment we went ahead.

 

Naturally, you being you, you've taken an individual blunder by Bobby and turned it into a complete nonsense what might have been. What might have been, Jammy, is first neither here nor there; and second, defeat. We were never quite good enough to win today, and were out on our feet late on. No disgrace in that at all - but had it gone to extra time, we'd have gone under. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, busby1985 said:

Because Celtic burst through the exact position in the park we’d dominated. Simple stuff. I get people want to defend Levein at all costs but these things are clear for everyone to see. We stayed in 451 as was the plan and we made the like for like subs, as was the plan. We didn’t react to what was happening on the park, like we seem to do most weeks. 

 

Celtic were always going to get chances. In fact we limited them to pretty much none. They won through errors from our players, not tactics.

 

There are times to have a go at levein, this is not one of them.

[shaun.lawson]

1 minute ago, Jammy T said:

 

They didn’t burst through anywhere - Celtic won a header nowhere near where Haring MIGHT have been and Berra lost his man. 

 

There was no burst through anywhere

 

Oh yes there was. Edouard had the freedom of Hampden. And it happened because Haring wasn't there any longer. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

The best team won, actually. There's a huge difference between playing bravely, gallantly in a final against much higher quality opponents... and actually being the better side. We did the former. We weren't the latter.

 

The reason people are over-stating how well we played is because expectations were so incredibly low coming in. Why were they so low? Because the season's been appalling. If we've now fallen so far that we're hailing a decent performance as some magical sign that world domination is right around the corner, those doing so have lost the plot. And that our expectations have fallen so low is yet another reason why the manager and his coaching staff have to go.

 

I don't think we could've done much more today, and injuries clearly told on us. But what was also telling was what happened the moment we scored. We immediately started losing control of ourselves and the game. Celtic raised it a couple of notches, and they were straight through us sadly. That this happened the moment we went 1-0 up rather suggests the players didn't believe they could win; only that they could keep it respectable, which they more than did.

 

No manager should ever be judged on one game. They should be judged over a whole season. And this season (and last as well), Levein's come up miles and miles short. 26 points from 28 games is unthinkable for a club Hearts' size and with our resources. It's quite incredible that some are willing to overlook that execrable record.

 

Disagree. We played better and were better tactically. It looked like we had a gameplan. Celtic looked all over the place and won because they had a 9m forward on the pitch. Even then we were largely architects of our own downfall - again.

[amadjambo]

46 minutes ago, Jammy T said:

All the players were immense but our best was one which our manager took a huge risk to play when he could have taken a much easier safer option - Hickey.

 

That is a manager for you.

 

arguably our second best player was Mulraney - Levein was ripped for signing him at all and our coaches have worked him up better and better all season.

 

That is a manager for you.

 

Levein schooled Lennon today - and Lennon was bailed out by a guy worth basically as much as our entire team.

 

Anyone that suggests otherwise is a Hibs fan.

Spot on. Agree with almost every word. IMO it isn’t arguable, Mulraney was our 2nd best player today, just behind Hickey.

[simplesimon]

2 minutes ago, jambo1975 said:

So who would u keep? I will concede soutter and cant really offer any option on hickey but the rest of them? Really? I would genuinely have to Google to find out when we last won a game. We are honking, sub standard players in every position this forum is full of people with a semi cause we "gave Celtic a good game" that's the minimum expectation in a cup final. The fundamental issue at this club is the footballers we employ are not fit to wear the shirt of this amazing football club. That is a fault of our management. If we keep Naismith we might improve but he is a year older and more likely to be injured than not moving forward. Folk like me are the reality you my pal are blinkered if u think what we have at the moment is acceptable 

Seriously?  You can't be a Hearts fan if you think SouttAr is the only decent player we have.  This forum is mess these days with so many people who are at the wind up

[Guest]

1 minute ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

Oh yes there was. Edouard had the freedom of Hampden. And it happened because Haring wasn't there any longer. 

 

Haring was blowing out of his arse by the time he came off.

 

I do agree our subs may have briefly made us lose some cohesion. They were positive subs to try to win the game though and in response to celtic bringing on fresh legs. Levein seems damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

[sadj]

1 minute ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

The best team won, actually. There's a huge difference between playing bravely, gallantly in a final against much higher quality opponents... and actually being the better side. We did the former. We weren't the latter.

 

The reason people are over-stating how well we played is because expectations were so incredibly low coming in. Why were they so low? Because the season's been appalling. If we've now fallen so far that we're hailing a decent performance as some magical sign that world domination is right around the corner, those doing so have lost the plot. And that our expectations have fallen so low is yet another reason why the manager and his coaching staff have to go.

 

I don't think we could've done much more today, and injuries clearly told on us. But what was also telling was what happened the moment we scored. We immediately started losing control of ourselves and the game. Celtic raised it a couple of notches, and they were straight through us sadly. That this happened the moment we went 1-0 up rather suggests the players didn't believe they could win; only that they could keep it respectable, which they more than did.

 

No manager should ever be judged on one game. They should be judged over a whole season. And this season (and last as well), Levein's come up miles and miles short. 26 points from 28 games is unthinkable for a club Hearts' size and with our resources. It's quite incredible that some are willing to overlook that execrable record.

 

What an absolute load of ****ing pish. We were the better team , tactics were perfect. We beat ourselves with two mistakes.

 

Aside from that your sports psych pish is bollox aswell. My expectations today were we were going to win. I’m gutted but I am so ****ing proud of every player , coach and every fan today. Gave their all. Many people said at the start of the season it wouldn’t be a fun season. It hasn’t been but even at that the players showed what they can do and what we need to strive to do week in week out. 

 

Celtic woke up a bit when we scored and we got a bit defensive. It was not lets keep it respectable. Shaun we looked the more likely to score. They did not at all at any point aside from TWO mistakes. That and a £9 million player to capitalise on the mistakes were the difference today. 

 

Away and moan on the Levein out thread with your crap today....

 

The team and Levein and everyone involved deserves every plaudit and bit of praise for their performance today. 

[soonbe110]

34 minutes ago, Enzo Chiefo said:

Utter garbage. The guy that loses is never "schooled" by his opponent. Levein set out to frustrate and defend, and it worked for a while but Lennon made a couple of changes and won the game. Edwards "bailed us out" too which makes you wonder why Levein ostracised him for the majority of thr season  Levein will, and should, walk.

 

Sorry to spoil your evening Enzo but check out his post-match press conference. Doesn’t sound like he is going anywhere other than his holidays. ‘Back next season to win a bloody trophy’ 

[shaun.lawson]

Just now, sadj said:

 

What an absolute load of ****ing pish. We were the better team , tactics were perfect. We beat ourselves with two mistakes.

 

 

 

No, we weren't. Celtic raised it; we couldn't live with them. How many chances did we create please? I can remember the goal and a couple of set pieces. They had the extra quality, so they won. Deservedly, however well we played ourselves.

[Brighton Jambo]

5 minutes ago, jambo1975 said:

So who would u keep? I will concede soutter and cant really offer any option on hickey but the rest of them? Really? I would genuinely have to Google to find out when we last won a game. We are honking, sub standard players in every position this forum is full of people with a semi cause we "gave Celtic a good game" that's the minimum expectation in a cup final. The fundamental issue at this club is the footballers we employ are not fit to wear the shirt of this amazing football club. That is a fault of our management. If we keep Naismith we might improve but he is a year older and more likely to be injured than not moving forward. Folk like me are the reality you my pal are blinkered if u think what we have at the moment is acceptable 

I don’t think it is acceptable but I also know that changing an entire squad over the summer is highly u likely to lead to success.  

 

From those in the squad today - As a minimum I would keep Souttar, Smith, Berra (as cover for Halkett/Souttar) Hickey, Cochran’s, Haring, Mulraney, Uche and Clare albeit I am assuming after a pre-season we see more from him as not convinced.  

[sadj]

8 minutes ago, Jammy T said:

L

 

**** me - you are some sort of sports scientist/ physio / body language expert now?

 

How do you know that if Haring has been on the second wouldn’t have been scored? Why wasn’t the Berra/Bobby balls up the bigger more match defining moment? We don’t lose the equalIzer and things are much different.

 

Ignore button soon I think. Absolute pile of shite. The pen was a defining moment. Had it not been given they were never scoring they looked lost. They created little and we marshalled them superbly into areas we wanted them to play in. We looked far more dangerous and we looked in control. They were bound to have a reaction after we scored. You get through that and the game is different. We didn’t get through it because of a penalty (a very very soft one) otherwise they were not scoring from open play. Even at 1-1 they didn’t look dangerous at all. 

[shaun.lawson]

1 minute ago, sadj said:

We looked far more dangerous and we looked in control. They were bound to have a reaction after we scored. 

 

Contradiction City. They had a reaction after we scored. We didn't react at all. So very quickly, that was that. 

 

And on us looking 'far more dangerous': what chances did we create?

Edited May 25, 2019 by shaun.lawson

[jambo1975]

2 minutes ago, simplesimon said:

Seriously?  You can't be a Hearts fan if you think SouttAr is the only decent player we have.  This forum is mess these days with so many people who are at the wind up

I cant be a hearts fan because I think the current crop of players are amongst some of the worse I have ever seen? Give it a rest pal. Just because someone doesnt share your opinion u think I'm at the wind up? Can you tell me the last time you watched this team and felt like we were going to win? Do you feel any connection to the players? We are in a horrendous state without significant changes we are bottom 6 next season easily.

[Doc Rob]

FFS, even Michael Stewart has tweeted that both Hearts and Levein deserve huge credit for today. This is the guy who hates Levein so much that he goes out of his way not to utter his name on air.

 

(OK, he did finish the tweet by saying that it felt like a missed opportunity, but he’s right about that).

[Newton51]

I do think the squad is decent especially with the youngsters coming thru but despite today I think Levein has to go.new coach and ideas and then I think we would be in a better place!

[simplesimon]

2 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

No, we weren't. Celtic raised it; we couldn't live with them. How many chances did we create please? I can remember the goal and a couple of set pieces. They had the extra quality, so they won. Deservedly, however well we played ourselves.

Harring missed a sitter of a header from 8 yards out.  We had more shots on target than Celtic and 2 mistakes cost us.  They didn't win due to extra quality today

[CAI]

I guess I can say Levein to his credit set us up so that we didn't get smashed to pieces by Celtic. In the end, this was a very poor Celtic performance and for once most of our players turned up and put in a shift. 

 

Aaron Hickey was absolutely fantastic and has a great future. Berra was commanding as ever at the back and was very unlucky to slip for one of the chances. 

 

However, I was very frustrated how many times we refused to push the ball forward. Often we would play the ball back to the keeper and looked nervous at pushing the final 3rd with any real sense of pace or urgency. 

 

Clare needs removed asap. The guy jogged about the park without a care in the world and has no class or skill. 

[soonbe110]

9 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

Oh yes there was. Edouard had the freedom of Hampden. And it happened because Haring wasn't there any longer. 

Just a pity your man didn’t score with a free header from 7 yards at 1-0. He made a great contribution but looked knackered for a good 10 mins before he went off. 

[sadj]

1 minute ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

No, we weren't. Celtic raised it; we couldn't live with them. How many chances did we create please? I can remember the goal and a couple of set pieces. They had the extra quality, so they won. Deservedly, however well we played ourselves.

Did you think Celtic wouldn’t try and have a go? We get through that 15mins or so they were not scoring. They could of played all day and not really bothered us defensively. 

 

Hayes had two huge defensive headers. Any goalmouth/box stramashes were in Celtics box.

Edwards should of scored in the first couple of minutes. Haring should of scored. Berra was unlucky in injury time. Mulraney was throwing good balls into the box. Set piece chances we had were still more than Celtic had. 

[upgotheheads]

Quite a lot to be encouraged by. Mulraney beginning to show that he is a good player. The sudden appearance of Hickey: I hadn't even heard of him a month ago. Cochrane re-establishing himself, and he's barely 18.  Anthony MacDonald amongst other young prospects like Keena and Connor Smith. Morrison after recovering from injury  and hopefully kicking on.

The future could be bright but it's difficult to ignore some of the absolute crap we have seen over this season. 

 

We competed very well today against a poor Celtic side, for most of the game they could hardly keep the ball on the pitch. I think  Celtic will regret appointing Lennon and if we had had Naismith available today we would probably have won. We're still short of quality in midfield and up front so I hope there are plans to bring in three or four players. Wighton, Bozanic Lee and Clare (so far) are squad players at best and it's difficult to see them being the core of a second or third place team, I also think we shouldn't be too worried if Djoum doesn't sign.

 

Craig Levein might to be better going back  to Director of football and Academy boss but I quite like the idea of McPhee as head coach. The kick - off,  punting the ball into the corners  to force Celtic into defending deep in their own half, was inspired.

 

Thank goodness for a few weeks off from what has turned out to be a pretty disappointing season. 

[sadj]

3 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

Contradiction City. They had a reaction after we scored. We didn't react at all. So very quickly, that was that. 

 

And on us looking 'far more dangerous': what chances did we create?

Give it up Shaun. You say we didn’t react at all? Most games this season fair enough. Today not a hope that is a fair comment. Very quickly that was that? Bollox shaun bollox. 

 

2 minutes ago, Doc Rob said:

FFS, even Michael Stewart has tweeted that both Hearts and Levein deserve huge credit for today. This is the guy who hates Levein so much that he goes out of his way not to utter his name on air.

 

(OK, he did finish the tweet by saying that it felt like a missed opportunity, but he’s right about that).

??

2 minutes ago, simplesimon said:

Harring missed a sitter of a header from 8 yards out.  We had more shots on target than Celtic and 2 mistakes cost us.  They didn't win due to extra quality today

Spot on. 

 

[simplesimon]

4 minutes ago, jambo1975 said:

I cant be a hearts fan because I think the current crop of players are amongst some of the worse I have ever seen? Give it a rest pal. Just because someone doesnt share your opinion u think I'm at the wind up? Can you tell me the last time you watched this team and felt like we were going to win? Do you feel any connection to the players? We are in a horrendous state without significant changes we are bottom 6 next season easily.

These players are far from the worst I have ever seen and yes I feel connection to players like Berra, Souttar, Mulranney, Harring, Hickey and Smith who give their all every time I've seen them.  You need a summer holiday and a reality check.

[Doc Rob]

5 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

No, we weren't. Celtic raised it; we couldn't live with them. How many chances did we create please? I can remember the goal and a couple of set pieces. They had the extra quality, so they won. Deservedly, however well we played ourselves.

 

No, Shaun, that isn’t fair on either the players or the coach.

 

The BBC stats state Celtic had 7 shots on goal to our 6. We actually had 3 on target to their 2. We had 4 corners to their 5.

 

Stats don’t win games, but they do demonstrate that to say we couldn’t live with Celtic is nonsense. We could and we did. There weren’t a lot of clear-cut chances in the game and they were split evenly. We lost the game due to a couple of errors at the wrong time, and the fact Celtic can spend more on one player than we did on our entire squad.

[Jammy T]

16 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

We were going to lose the equaliser sooner or later. We completely lost control the moment we went ahead.

 

Naturally, you being you, you've taken an individual blunder by Bobby and turned it into a complete nonsense what might have been. What might have been, Jammy, is first neither here nor there; and second, defeat. We were never quite good enough to win today, and were out on our feet late on. No disgrace in that at all - but had it gone to extra time, we'd have gone under. 

You’re the one going on about Haring being subbed. I’m just responding to bad arguments.

[sadj]

1 minute ago, upgotheheads said:

Quite a lot to be encouraged by. Mulraney beginning to show that he is a good player. The sudden appearance of Hickey: I hadn't even heard of him a month ago. Cochrane re-establishing himself, and he's barely 18.  Anthony MacDonald amongst other young prospects like Keena and Connor Smith. Morrison after recovering from injury  and hopefully kicking on.

The future could be bright but it's difficult to ignore some of the absolute crap we have seen over this season. 

 

We competed very well today against a poor Celtic side, for most of the game they could hardly keep the ball on the pitch. I think  Celtic will regret appointing Lennon and if we had had Naismith available today we would probably have won. We're still short of quality in midfield and up front so I hope there are plans to bring in three or four players. Wighton, Bozanic Lee and Clare (so far) are squad players at best and it's difficult to see them being the core of a second or third place team, I also think we shouldn't be too worried if Djoum doesn't sign.

 

Craig Levein might to be better going back  to Director of football and Academy boss but I quite like the idea of McPhee as head coach. The kick - off,  punting the ball into the corners  to force Celtic into defending deep in their own half, was inspired.

 

Thank goodness for a few weeks off from what has turned out to be a pretty disappointing season. 

Only thing id say is Celtic were made to look average today by our performance. Forrest has torn up big games he was non-existant today. Our tactics were spot on and players executed perfectly. 

[shaun.lawson]

1 minute ago, sadj said:

Did you think Celtic wouldn’t try and have a go? We get through that 15mins or so they were not scoring. They could of played all day and not really bothered us defensively. 

 

Good grief. 

 

We were up against a side who've won three trebles in a row and have hardly ever even trailed in a domestic Cup game since 2016. A side who've spent much more money than us and have better players than us. On top of this, we were shorthanded.

 

"If only we'd got through those 15 mins"? We didn't. And high quality coaches would ensure we were prepared for that spell... or more than spell. 

 

What next? "If only Rousset hadn't blundered, we'd have won the '96 final"? We were good today - I'm hugely proud of all of them - but never quite good enough to win. The revisionism from the likes of you is embarrassing tbh.

[sadj]

Just now, Doc Rob said:

 

No, Shaun, that isn’t fair on either the players or the coach.

 

The BBC stats state Celtic had 7 shots on goal to our 6. We actually had 3 on target to their 2. We had 4 corners to their 5.

 

Stats don’t win games, but they do demonstrate that to say we couldn’t live with Celtic is nonsense. We could and we did. There weren’t a lot of clear-cut chances in the game and they were split evenly. We lost the game due to a couple of errors at the wrong time, and the fact Celtic can spend more on one player than we did on our entire squad.

Perfectly put. 

[upgotheheads]

3 minutes ago, sadj said:

Did you think Celtic wouldn’t try and have a go? We get through that 15mins or so they were not scoring. They could of played all day and not really bothered us defensively. 

 

Hayes had two huge defensive headers. Any goalmouth/box stramashes were in Celtics box.

Edwards should of scored in the first couple of minutes. Haring should of scored. Berra was unlucky in injury time. Mulraney was throwing good balls into the box. Set piece chances we had were still more than Celtic had. 

 

Listen:  it's have or should've OK!  Gies a F*****g break!

[Jammy T]

11 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

No, we weren't. Celtic raised it; we couldn't live with them. How many chances did we create please? I can remember the goal and a couple of set pieces. They had the extra quality, so they won. Deservedly, however well we played ourselves.

 

We couldn’t live with them?

 

Are you for real?

 

Rarely read so much pish and that’s saying something.

[Doc Rob]

7 minutes ago, CAI said:

I guess I can say Levein to his credit set us up so that we didn't get smashed to pieces by Celtic. In the end, this was a very poor Celtic performance and for once most of our players turned up and put in a shift. 

 

Aaron Hickey was absolutely fantastic and has a great future. Berra was commanding as ever at the back and was very unlucky to slip for one of the chances. 

 

However, I was very frustrated how many times we refused to push the ball forward. Often we would play the ball back to the keeper and looked nervous at pushing the final 3rd with any real sense of pace or urgency. 

 

Clare needs removed asap. The guy jogged about the park without a care in the world and has no class or skill. 

 

What on earth are you on about with Clare? He was one of our better performers before he was subbed, and it was his wee backheel that set up Edwards to score. He looked as accomplished as anyone else on the park.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, shaun.lawson said:

 

Contradiction City. They had a reaction after we scored. We didn't react at all. So very quickly, that was that. 

 

And on us looking 'far more dangerous': what chances did we create?

 

Did you watch the same game? They swung a couple of dangerous crosses in noone connected to but so did we. We had to put in a couple of great challenges in the box but so did they.

 

Outwith the goals we had the best chance of the game with Haring’s header.