***Official Heart of Midlothian v Rangers Semi-Final Match Thread***

[Wee Mikey]

On 02/11/2023 at 19:52, Walrus said:

Line up from when we played them at Hampden in 2019

 

 

At least we had quality on the bench. 🙃

 

On 02/11/2023 at 20:57, AC Mallin_51 said:

Stuff of nightmares 

 

Pereira at the back; MacLean at the front 

 

On 02/11/2023 at 21:07, DC_92 said:

That has to be the least dynamic team in the history of football.

 

😆

 

16 hours ago, Negan said:

That is a truly abysmal team

 

Ya reckon? 😀

 

The full horror. 👇

[dannymack]

19 hours ago, Texaco said:

So the Tynecastle Arms used to be called Campbells by the picture of the bus passing McLeod  st? 

 

18 hours ago, The new West End said:

 

Yes and also Hares

Some of us older guys still call it Campbells

 

5 hours ago, ǝǝɥʇᴉɯS said:

Cool, what else was there?

 

[Go for it 1308]

1 hour ago, dannymack said:

 

 

 

Finest whiskies,  cigars, results by telegraph,  ladies rooms. What more could you ask for? Love it🙂

[Sir PH]

On 02/11/2023 at 12:24, jambmoz said:

Unfortunately playing them last week hasn’t done us any favours, they know what we’re going to do. I go in hope as always but can see a sore one coming our way.

We're meeting them at a bad time. Their tails are up with the new manager bounce, and they've just hammered Dundee 5-0, with five different scorers. 

[Skacelsid]

It should not be parking the bus Livi style we all criticised and like us in the second half last week at Ibrox, that would only delay defeat, we must carry a threat. Would start with Oda and Vargas up top with Shankland in deeper attacking midfield role. We will go three at the back, but really that will be a five with two sitting midfield, fair enough but keep discipline, shape and push up as a unit when in possession. Our patient passing will not worry Rangers but pace can trouble them, get it to those front two. There will be plenty pressure we do not need to invite it, get it forward quickly and even over the top to the front two.

[Horatio Caine]

Today will be last minute preparations as Beaton gives Walsh his final instructions for the match.

[Gundermann]

6 hours ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

At least we had quality on the bench. 🙃

 

 

Pereira at the back; MacLean at the front 

 

 

😆

 

 

Ya reckon? 😀

 

The full horror. 👇

 

Noticed that!

 

Bookends never looked so inadequate.

[Unknown user]

3 hours ago, dannymack said:

 

 

 

Magic

[Gundermann]

Those stats... and against a fairly shit Sevco.

 

 

[Selkirkhmfc1874]

9 minutes ago, Gundermann said:

Those stats... and against a fairly shit Sevco.

 

 

Maybe fairly shit but still a way ahead of us as should be with 4 or 5 times our resources 

[JimmyCant]

10 minutes ago, Gundermann said:

Those stats... and against a fairly shit Sevco.

 

 

Suggests we’ll need to score 3 to go through. Sounds about right to me

[RENE]

8 minutes ago, Gundermann said:

Those stats... and against a fairly shit Sevco.

 

 

Abysmal reading but stats are just stats nothing to do with tomorrow's game.   Having said that will probably be same outcome. ☹. But here's hoping. 2-1 to us.

[Mister T]

1 hour ago, Sir PH said:

We're meeting them at a bad time. Their tails are up with the new manager bounce, and they've just hammered Dundee 5-0, with five different scorers. 

Forget that. We just need to go at them with 100% commitment and concentration. 

And hopefully one of our brave lads snaps that ugly cheating **** er goldson in two.

[Sooks]

The Hun are wildly overrated by the wee Huns in our support . The same ones that were shitting with joy when we signed Halliday probably  

[Sir PH]

21 minutes ago, Mister T said:

Forget that. We just need to go at them with 100% commitment and concentration. 

And hopefully one of our brave lads snaps that ugly cheating **** er goldson in two.

Football doesn't work like that, unfortunately. They need to have an off day, and we need to be at the top of our game and take the few chances that will probably come our way. 

[Sir PH]

I see wee Plooks is still nipping away like a wee yelpy dug. Let me guess, something about huns, blah blah blah 😂

 

 

[Bazzas right boot]

46 minutes ago, Gundermann said:

Those stats... and against a fairly shit Sevco.

 

 

 

 

Tbf, we should never beat them.

 

If a non OF team beats an OF team then it means they have failed miserably. 

 

It's a shite state of affairs but the OF are in a position that no other league has,  they should win every game- comfortably, the gulf is that big.

 

It's not like other leagues were the middling teams, although behind they aren't that far behind as in 5-10x financially behind.

 

 

[Sooks]

Someone keeps hitting the read anyway tab

[Sir PH]

Maybe Killie had the right idea after all. Install a crap pitch and bring the Old Firm down to your level. 

[OmiyaHearts]

If we give them 70% possession and 30 shots, like we did at Ibrox, there's no way we're winning. It'll be a doing.

 

A lot of luck and a good ref performance needed. And a drastic improvement in creativity.

 

Wete really up against it but cup games always seem more likely to provide surprise results.

[Ricardo Quaresma]

11 hours ago, FerryJambo81 said:

Canna mind who but we 'scored' first too, clearly over line on video.

 

It's been done to death but the playing field is not level. Sport should always be about integrity first and foremost. There's even a term, sportsmanship.

 

They will win more often than not on level playing field, yet we have a set up that fundamentally does its level best to give them an additional advantage. Let's be honest, rangers more so. It upsets my soul. How can I teach my kids about winning honestly in our set up. Its not anti hearts or anyone else, it's just pro OF.

 

Still, I kinda fancy an upset Sunday...Hooe springs eternal.

 

Yes, well, at least with goal line technology that sort of thing stopped, I only remember the collum one at Tynecastle because it's collum

 

Only found a small amount of videos online and only 1 of the 'goals', but our disallowed effort cut out; it was posted by a mhank

 

I think the net is closing in on VAR and it's misuse, or non-use, as we've witnessed; it shouldn't be overruled by anyone

 

Here's a vid of behind the scenes, don't know if already posted:

 

 

[Pasquale for King]

2 hours ago, Skacelsid said:

It should not be parking the bus Livi style we all criticised and like us in the second half last week at Ibrox, that would only delay defeat, we must carry a threat. Would start with Oda and Vargas up top with Shankland in deeper attacking midfield role. We will go three at the back, but really that will be a five with two sitting midfield, fair enough but keep discipline, shape and push up as a unit when in possession. Our patient passing will not worry Rangers but pace can trouble them, get it to those front two. There will be plenty pressure we do not need to invite it, get it forward quickly and even over the top to the front two.

Just came on to say that 👍🏽

[Section Q]

Would like to see us have a real go at them. Show no respect whatsoever . . . .

[Philfigo]

2 hours ago, Skacelsid said:

It should not be parking the bus Livi style we all criticised and like us in the second half last week at Ibrox, that would only delay defeat, we must carry a threat. Would start with Oda and Vargas up top with Shankland in deeper attacking midfield role. We will go three at the back, but really that will be a five with two sitting midfield, fair enough but keep discipline, shape and push up as a unit when in possession. Our patient passing will not worry Rangers but pace can trouble them, get it to those front two. There will be plenty pressure we do not need to invite it, get it forward quickly and even over the top to the front two.

100% Correct parking the bus puts off the inevitable, they cranked up the intensity for the last 10mins last Sunday at Ibrox and we folded like a pack of cards. That was a massive mental blow for us last week as we now know we can't hold out under the pressure. Now on the other hand Rangers know exactly what's required. I expect them to come out the blocks with that intensity they had for the last 10mins. We are going to have to deal with a full onslaught from the start for a good half hour, if we can ride that out we have a chance. If we 1 down early it could get messy for us.

[Ricardo Quaresma]

40 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

Tbf, we should never beat them.

 

If a non OF team beats an OF team then it means they have failed miserably. 

 

It's a shite state of affairs but the OF are in a position that no other league has,  they should win every game- comfortably, the gulf is that big.

 

It's not like other leagues were the middling teams, although behind they aren't that far behind as in 5-10x financially behind.

 

Their problem is that they simply won't win all the time and they know who is going to be most likely to take them down, usually a team that's doing well and going through a resurgence

[Horatio Caine]

49 minutes ago, Ricardo Quaresma said:

 

Yes, well, at least with goal line technology that sort of thing stopped, I only remember the collum one at Tynecastle because it's collum

 

Only found a small amount of videos online and only 1 of the 'goals', but our disallowed effort cut out; it was posted by a mhank

 

I think the net is closing in on VAR and it's misuse, or non-use, as we've witnessed; it shouldn't be overruled by anyone

 

Here's a vid of behind the scenes, don't know if already posted:

 

 

Interesting...so, going by that, they would have checked the play leading up to Haring's shirt pull last Sunday and presumably concluded there was no foul.  Except that there was a foul with the blocking that was going on.

[Ricardo Quaresma]

15 minutes ago, Horatio Caine said:

Interesting...so, going by that, they would have checked the play leading up to Haring's shirt pull last Sunday and presumably concluded there was no foul.  Except that there was a foul with the blocking that was going on.

 

Well, watching it, the First Phase of Play they were going on about in the rangers midden match they didn't mention any check for offside or whether a new phase of play was started, not saying that was what happened though, but he should've mentioned that these things are checked for, along with incidents such as the infringement on Haring prior to the shirt pull, which I've not seen yet

 

But he didn't go into that and it seems the games they selected for analysis were probably clean, hand picked examples

 

Thing that quite bugged me, too, was that we should've had a Fullscreen look at it, but they kept it at arms length, so it's all on trust

 

Yeah, right, let's hear the conversation, or complete non-reaction to the 2 penalty shouts before HT at home to killie, the 2 hand-ball shouts in paisley and the heavy contact penalty shout against holt on Wednesday night

 

-

Edited November 4, 2023 by Ricardo Quaresma
agains > against

[TweedbankJambo]

59 minutes ago, Section Q said:

Would like to see us have a real go at them. Show no respect whatsoever . . . .

This!

[Brick Tamland]

59 minutes ago, Section Q said:

Would like to see us have a real go at them. Show no respect whatsoever . . . .

100% this. 
I previously posted this - 
I my opinion you should never respect your opposition, either individually, or, as a team.
As an individual you should want to batter your opponent into submission, belittle them, you should want to win every battle and disrespect the man you are up against as much and as brutally as you can.
As a team you should collectively want to ram it right ****ing up them with no respect shown whatsoever.
The only respect you should show is to the supporters, us, the Hearts fans who support you through thick and thin.
Respecting the opposition and their fans can **** right off. 
Fight, desire, urgency, is what you need to ****ing show and not the opposition some level of respect.

[Ricardo Quaresma]

1 hour ago, Section Q said:

Would like to see us have a real go at them. Show no respect whatsoever . . . .

 

5 minutes ago, TweedbankJambo said:

This!

 

Have we got the players and fitness / Match fitness for this? For the whole game?

[Ricardo Quaresma]

5 minutes ago, Brick Tamland said:

100% this. 
I previously posted this - 
I my opinion you should never respect your opposition, either individually, or, as a team.
As an individual you should want to batter your opponent into submission, belittle them, you should want to win every battle and disrespect the man you are up against as much and as brutally as you can.
As a team you should collectively want to ram it right ****ing up them with no respect shown whatsoever.
The only respect you should show is to the supporters, us, the Hearts fans who support you through thick and thin.
Respecting the opposition and their fans can **** right off. 
Fight, desire, urgency, is what you need to ****ing show and not the opposition some level of respect.

 

Well, that bit's easy, F them all, no exceptions whatsoever

[Sooks]

18 minutes ago, Ricardo Quaresma said:

 

 

Have we got the players and fitness / Match fitness for this? For the whole game?

If we do not then why not . Top fitness should be a given and is one of the things we should be able to match vs better teams . Hard to do much about quality but we should be peak the things we can match 

[south morocco]

Love to see us get the win and get Aberdeen in the final. I just don’t think we’ll win tomorrow, sadly. 

[Ricardo Quaresma]

1 minute ago, Sooks said:

If we do not then why not . Top fitness should be a given and is one of the things we should be able to match vs better teams . Hard to do much about quality but we should be peak the things we can match 

 

Oh, we're definitely getting there, Sooks

 

Are we there yet, though?

 

I don't think we have enough first team players; maybe just, at the moment, but do you want to see halliday coming on tomorrow?

 

It was bad that Nieuwenhof came off last week, too; people on here say he was knackered, so I assume he was, but if he stayed on, it may have made the difference; he was brilliant in that game

[Sooks]

Just now, Ricardo Quaresma said:

 

Oh, we're definitely getting there, Sooks

 

Are we there yet, though?

 

I don't think we have enough first team players; maybe just, at the moment, but do you want to see halliday coming on tomorrow?

 

It was bad that Nieuwenhof came off last week, too; people on here say he was knackered, so I assume he was, but if he stayed on, it may have made the difference; he was brilliant in that game

I assumed we were just resting him when he came off . No I do not want to see Halliday coming on tomorrow or any other game in the future tbh 

[Debut 4]

1 hour ago, OmiyaHearts said:

If we give them 70% possession and 30 shots, like we did at Ibrox, there's no way we're winning. It'll be a doing.

 

A lot of luck and a good ref performance needed. And a drastic improvement in creativity.

 

Wete really up against it but cup games always seem more likely to provide surprise results.

Keep saying it every time leading up to a game like this…..hard work, hard running.    The players need to be primed for that, motivated and something that’s been bred into them.   
 

Of course we need a shape and system but the human elements are key.  
 

The way we played last week for good for an hour or so was ok but it’s always hanging on that borderline of slipping into “too many cooks” in that players start looking at each other waiting on their team mate to make the tackle or close the ball down…..and no one does.  

 

Sitting too deep and always taking pressure ends up affecting how you deal with the ball when you get it too.  Players see it as a minute to take a breath when in reality we need runners and people getting into space to support the player in possession.  

[PortonianJambo]

New song ,to the tune of Ten Green Bottles:

 

One soft penalty,each and every day

One soft penalty,no matter who they play

We all know Rangers,they’ll get them anyway

Coz it’s in the hands of the cheating SFA

 

[ScandinavianJambo]

Currently(except against Livi!) we seem to need at least 5 attempts/shot on goal o to score. That means we will need 10-12 shots to score twice. We had 6 against Rangers two weeks ago...

This, we need more bodies forward to win this game, as a 1-0 is too slender lead . Do we have it in us to push forward and hold tight at the back?

Here is for hoping.

[pettigrewsstylist]

Terrible time to play that lot. Mammoth task to progress to final. 

Use what little pace we have on wider hampden to stand any chance. Think we need to score minimum 2.

Lose anybody to a red in first hour and its curtains.

[gordiegords]

going to be very difficult for us but I’ve a sneaky feeling Oda will be key to any success here, big open pitch for him to hopefully run riot.

 

[Bazzas right boot]

2 hours ago, Ricardo Quaresma said:

 

Their problem is that they simply won't win all the time and they know who is going to be most likely to take them down, usually a team that's doing well and going through a resurgence

 

Very few teams win every game, but they should. 

They need to play poor for us to win, they need to fail, quite miserably.

 

Most other leagues The middling teams get close now and then,  in Scotland the gulf is huge.

 

Celtic drew with A Madrid and Rangers beat another Spanish team recently. 

Imagine what they'd do to us?

The gulf is huge, it's shite.

 

But, they will get beat and drop points from time to time.

Let's hope it's tomorrow. 

 

 

[Ricardo Quaresma]

5 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

Very few teams win every game, but they should. 

They need to play poor for us to win, they need to fail, quite miserably.

 

Most other leagues The middling teams get close now and then,  in Scotland the gulf is huge.

 

Celtic drew with A Madrid and Rangers beat another Spanish team recently. 

Imagine what they'd do to us?

The gulf is huge, it's shite.

 

But, they will get beat and drop points from time to time.

Let's hope it's tomorrow.

 

I don't think it's quite such a huge gulf as people think; this season, they're both needing help to win

[dannymack]

Talking about statistics, anyone got the stats for the 1998 Scottish Cup Final ? 

 

I'm sure Rangers steamrollered us in most parts of the game and I obviously remember the 2 Hearts goals and Tam Flogels header, was there anymore to add ? 

 

Hearts eventually won that game, as if you didn't already know 😏 so the statistics may well be of no use to anyone once the name is on the cup.

[Drumjambo]

                  Clark

Offiah  Kent Rowles Kingsley

                   Devlin

          Beni              Hoff 

   Yoda                       

              Shankland 

     

                 Vargas 

[Bazzas right boot]

35 minutes ago, Ricardo Quaresma said:

 

I don't think it's quite such a huge gulf as people think; this season, they're both needing help to win

 

Agree to disagree,  the league winners will likley have almost double the points of the team in third. 

 

It's a massive gulf, a chasm.

 

 

[Ex member of the SaS]

Anyone placing a bet on the timing of the phrase " penalty to Rangers "? Don't care how well we play the officials will make sure they win.

[By The Light..]

Looking forward to this 2 nil Hearts.

 

Hopeful we have lots of shots on target unlike our last visit to Hampden hit the post early on and nothing else!

[BangkokHearts]

3 hours ago, PortonianJambo said:

New song ,to the tune of Ten Green Bottles:

 

One soft penalty,each and every day

One soft penalty,no matter who they play

We all know Rangers,they’ll get them anyway

Coz it’s in the hands of the cheating SFA

 

Brilliant! 

[Mister T]

5 hours ago, Section Q said:

Would like to see us have a real go at them. Show no respect whatsoever . . . .

I suggested that earlier and got told football doesn't work that way. I mean?

[Ricardo Quaresma]

1 hour ago, Bazzas right boot said:

Agree to disagree,  the league winners will likley have almost double the points of the team in third. 

 

It's a massive gulf, a chasm.

 

Yeah, with help, correct

 

-

Edited November 4, 2023 by Ricardo Quaresma