BlackSocksRedTops

9 minutes ago, forlanssister said:

They didn't keep cool a group of ignorant idiots rushed to the front where the wheelchair platform pushing, knocking and hitting the wheelchair fans resulting in two severely disabled fans being injured and badly shaken up.

Sorry to hear that Forlan

On a side note...Do Celtic generally do lap of honour after securing 3pts in a league game? 

3 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Your opinion is your prerogative, as craig usually puts it. Don't expect that people will agree though. And IMHO, you are wrong.

Do you believe we played well?

3 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

For some, it seems, the pendulum swings but one way. Over the last few seasons we battered other teams like they did today with us, sometimes winning narrowly, sometimes drawing, and sometimes even losing. And WE were always "poor" for those aforementioned some. There was a whole lot speaking against us getting a win over there today, all of which has been listed above. The glee oozing out of certain mouths and various reports will add more insult to injury, but that's to be expected from that lot, classless as they are. As I said above, when you listen to SG after the game, he analyzed it rather well ... and well enough even for those who have us down at being "poor" no matter what. Perhaps those chaps should start to listen and drink his words, rather than dwelling on their continual gloom. At the end of the day, even with today's game, those two fortunate late equalizers in Sheepland and  Fir Park stopped us from being level on points in 2nd spot ... and that after 3 difficult away ties during the first 4 match days. We'll get some rest now and take it on from there.

 

 

You can't dress it up any other way. We were piss poor today. As we were in the 2nd half against Motherwell. We just need to regroup and start getting pts on the board. 

22 minutes ago, Walterbear said:

But they have been gunning us at Hampden, porkheid, and Ibrox when we have had big supports. I think today it was confirmed that despite obvious progress we have a good bit to go. Decent European teams go there with small supports and do better than we did today. 

Agreed. We did not play poorly because of the lack of travelling fans. There are many factors but that's not one of them

1 hour ago, Doc said:

I am pretty down about today. I thought we would show more going forward and expose the Celtic defence a lot more than we managed to.

 

I am not offering excuses. Their goal probably involved a foul but any one of their shots that hit the post could have gone in on another day as well. We were second best and we have to look at ourselves and not blame the ref or anyone else. We have to be good enough that we take it out of the ref's hands and we can still win despite what passes for quality referring in Scotland.

 

However consider it from the other side. They absolutely had to beat us today. They had the following advantages:

 

(1) Home advantage - 60,000+ unwashed venting their hatred with only 800 Bears stuck off in a corner and a ground we (and I mean more experienced and more expensively assembled Rangers teams) haven't won at since 2010.

 

(2) Experience - they have a settled team who are used to the manager's system, used to playing with one another and used to winning at the Piggery (the loss against Aberdeen where they threw the match to spite us at the end of last season doesn't count). We are improving but we are still very much a work in progress.

 

(3) Squad value - even ignoring the Seville calculator valuations that appear in the Scottish press, Celtic's squad value is at least 3 times ours. They spent more on one striker than we have on our whole defence.

 

(4) Freshness - despite playing later in the day they had a comparatively easy game on Thursday night and took off players in the second half with a view to today's game. We on the other hand had an epic heroic last ditch stand with 9 men against UFA for a third of the game followed by a grueling flight home. While Celtic could immerse their players in ice baths and cotton wool immediately after the game, we had immediately get on a flight and any rehabilitation was delayed until the following day. Ask any sports scientist about delaying rehabilitation and its effects versus athletes who can dive straight into ice or get massage. It showed on the pitch today.

 

So what would have happened if Brendan's expensively assembled team couldn't raise themselves at home, at the Piggery in front of a baying green and white mob to beat a Rangers outfit who were largely dead on their feet after 15 hours travelling and a punishing encounter against foreign opposition?

 

It would have been great to watch but it wasn't to be...

 

Celtic did the minimum of what they needed today. They beat us but they failed to batter us when the reality is that they'll probably not get a better chance all season. We will gel better as a team and we'll get key players like Coulibally back from injury. They probably won't get much better than where they are right now. Their defence had a light job today but it's still a joke and will get found out a lot more than previous seasons.

 

I wanted to win today. An awful lot. But this is a marathon not a sprint and what we need from the matches that come after the international break is a concerted run of home and away wins. Both us and Celtic will find it tough coming back from EL matches on Thursdays and I fully expect league points to be dropped. We just have to drop a lot less than them. Then the chase will really be on.

Great post Doc. The score didn't dissappoint me as much the performance tbh. You've outlined some very rational points that relate to our defeat but there are few things that mildly troubled me today.

1. Lafferty. I wonder what the future set up will be to get the best out of him (Hearts form). The long ball tactic was overused today. I hope it was due to the state of the game (being pressed by them) as opposed to a deliberate ploy because we now have a big guy up front. 

2. Coulibaly. He has been a big loss but regardless of where we are in our development, I would be hoping that we are building a team/squad that's performance will not alter dramatically based on one absentee. 

3. Their defence. All in all I think I'm just dissappointed that we allowed their back line such an easy game. It's clearly their weakest area and one that we did not trouble in the slightest.

I went into todays game with hope. Not necassarily hope that we were going to win. More hope of a better OF performance and us leaving the pitch having had given them something to really think about. That clearly did not happen. 

Apologies Frankie. Partly to blame. ✋

1 hour ago, trublusince1982 said:

How did the woodwork save us??? they missed!! 

 

Couple of those times was our players either saving the day or getting a wee block to put it on to the post

Fair doos mate. Just pissed off at how we performed tbh. Was looking more for a good performance than the score (OF games at CP are always hard). Was a hard 90 minutes to watch ?

7 minutes ago, MacK1950 said:

A mhank fell of a wall and also part of a wall collapsed damaging the falling bricks on 3 or 4 mhanks,probably won't be investigated nor will the flares set-off amid the usual tuneful sh8t they sing.

That place is sh*thole and patch up job. 

51 minutes ago, trublusince1982 said:

Yes we did. They couldn't score without the help of the refs turnover.

 

When in position they managed a whole three shots on target.

 

Sick of our fans tbh. Wage bill of 56m against our 18m and we have to play them off the park away from home.

 

They couldn't get through today. We held them and our game plan was working. You will always need a little luck.

 

The ref ignored the fourth official and was very like some of our fans ready to give a foul against Morelos before he moved.

 

If that is all they have the league is ours ????????

They did get through though. They hit the bar 3 times and had countless opportunities. Our game plan didn't save us, the woodwork did. If the game pkan is merely containing I'm surprised. Today was a mulligan for us. We should have surprised them by being more offensive. If we had lost by a heavier margin, so be it but my biggest dissappointment was we didn't give them anything to think about. It was like watching a game from last season. 

3 minutes ago, StuGers said:

But they didn’t score.

 

The result was 1-0 and the goal was one that shouldn’t have stood.

If that incident ended with nothing they would have kept pushing for the goal. Once they scored they sat back somewhat,

1 minute ago, compo said:

In these games sometimes it's better to forget tactics and roll the sleeves up and get stuck in .

Sorry compo but that will get only get us so far IMO. Let's just be smarter, quicker, braver on the ball, less route one and about 20 yards up the pitch.

1 minute ago, The Shed said:

I think Collum was ok today.....sure he could have given a foul on Jack, maybe it was maybe it wasn't.....tell you what though, he was a lot close to the incident than Stevie G or the fourth official....looking at the game overall, it wasn't the ref that cost us today.

Agreed. Let's not forget he had every right to send our keeper off if he or the other officials had seen it.

Said it also on the main thread but if we are looking at the ref for reasons why we lost today, IMO we are looking in the wrong place

My only concern with Arfield is that do we need to play him with Jack? The both do similar jobs tbh

Just now, StuGers said:

Whilst we didn’t deserve anything, if the ref had called that one correctly, we would have escaped that absolute shambles of a pro-IRA scumbag harbouring midden with a draw.

How do you square that peg? They didn't score in the last minute. There was 30 mins left so by the law averages there was a pretty decent chance they would have scored after this incident

Just now, Rousseau said:

I was disappointed we never got stuck into Broon; he was booked quite early. He himself was diving over the least wee touch to wind up a few of our players. 

He really is a scrote. He was doing his best to get Alferdo booked again. Any game we make him look good and enable him to coast through a game is a poor day indeed.

Just now, Big Jaws said:

For the first time in years I can say that at no stage in that game was I worried about them. It was a game that had 0-0 written all over it. You guys can argue about the tactics, formations whatever all day. But as far as I'm concerned they had that handed to them on a plate by the man in the middle. How he can allow play to continue when Jack is cynically taken out allowing a 4 on 2 break is absolutely beyond me?

 

Its never pleasant being beaten by them but I'm not disheartened by what I've seen today and I'm not going to be too critical of the team or the manager either. We've a team of young new players many of whom were making their Old Firm debut who all played to the managers instructions and in any other country would have walked out of that midden with at least a point today. Stevie G was calm and collected on the touch line but you could see Rodgers was physically shiting it.

 

Theres a lot more to come from this team and don't forget we were missing our destroyer who I think will tear their midfield to shreds when we get him back for the first Ibrox game.

Mmm...not seeing that way mate. If we put all this on the ref and one incident we totally overlook McGregor making plenty of saves and them hitting the bar 3 times. On another day it could have been 3 or 4 nil to them. Outwith an improved defensive performance that was like watching a game from last season

5 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

On a wee sidenote, this was our 13th game of the season, it is September 2nd, BTW. We've just been back from a 6.000 mile journey from the middle of no-where, having had to play with 9 men. Our third difficult away game on the trott. Call it what you will, but that scheduling by the SFA was as shyte as the man in black today.

What's the SFA got to do with this?

4 minutes ago, trublusince1982 said:

If it wasn't for a referring error looking at nil nil.

 

We had couple of first team players out they were full strength and at home.

 

The league is on.????????????

We didn't lose that game because of the ref

1 minute ago, alexscottislegend said:

We knew their weakest point was the defence, yet we opted not to test it! SG must take some blame, surrendering the midfield.

This. At no time were their defender on the ball or asked to make decisions. Our set up allowed their best player (Ntcham) to dictate play 

1 minute ago, rbr said:

Fatigue can dictate tactics , there isn't way we were going to press the ball today , just wasn't going to happen .

Agreed rbr but if we start the game on the edge of our box we can only expect one thing. How many offsides today? Very few I'm sure

Just now, rbr said:

You can explain it , they were at home , playing in front of their own fans , in a game against a very poor team , they were in their beds by 11 o'clock , we player 53 minutes with 10 men , then 9 men against a decent team ,away from home , you would be lucky if they got to their beds before 5am .

 

you simply cannot ignore that , the percentage of teams that play away games in Europe and drop points next game is astonishingly high .

 

im as disappointed as anyone .

Fatigue might have been a factor but I think our tactics played into their hands tbh.

2 minutes ago, Bill said:

I hope no one is going to be naive enough to be unreasonably disappointed after that. We all wanted a win but better Rangers teams than this have come away with worse results from Parkhead. It’s a work in progress and very early days but our improvement is obvious. 

I think it's fair game to be disappointed in the performance than the score tbh. At no time were their back 4 on the ball and thus under no pressure. The high balls from the back are a worry for me.

1 minute ago, Rousseau said:

I thought the contain tactic was OK, it was the out-ball that was atrocious; we couldn't go anywhere when we got the ball and gave it back. 

The front players were to isolated too get any quality coming out of defence. Along with the 2nd half with Motherwell, that's 2 games that we've squandered the midfield for long balls. I hope this is not a sign of things to come because we have Lafferty ie. A big guy up front

Really, really, disappointed. More disappointed by the performance than the score. Outwith some better defending, that was a performance from last season IMO. We gave their ball players too much space and respect. No pressure on their back four whatsoever. Piss poor and much to think about

Started higher up the pitch. C'mon!