BlackSocksRedTops

Agree with all of that John. Feeling less raw at the moment compared to yesterday but I still feel rather disappointed. Having seen what Hearts did to them, I was hoping we would do something similar. A higher line and press would have opened the game up somewhat and there is good chance we would have lost more goals but we seemed to set the tone of the game by sitting deep from the first whistle. Their CB's could have played the game in their slippers in the 1st half. My pros and cons would be as follows: PROS 1. I think a rugged 45 minutes of attacks/corners/free kicks will be a great lesson for our back 4 (especially the CB's) and will hold us in good stead. Despite being about 12/13 games in we look quite settled and relatively solid. 2. We clearly are building a good team ethic/spirit with a team willing to work for each other (as illustrated at the final whistle on Thursday) CONS 1. Our ball retention was appalling (fatigue or not) and only served to make the game easier for them. A similar thing happened in the 2nd half of the Motherwell game and it is a bit of worry. 2. Game management. It was obvious to everyone that we needed to get further up the pitch but the fact that it took so long was kind of worrying. In the end it was a bit Johnny Nash for me ie. More questions than answers

I think the players and management will learn. One of my concerns is that 5pts from 12 leaves us looking for a pretty flawless record until the next OF game as they won't drop many points tbh. I hope playing under that pressure doesn't effect the players.

Asked this question on the game thread.. do they do this after every league game at the cesspit? If not they truly are pathetic. I see the ring leaders were Beavis and Butthead. No surprise there

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

Do you believe we played well?

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.

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

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. ✋

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 ?

That place is sh*thole and patch up job.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

What's the SFA got to do with this?

We didn't lose that game because of the ref

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

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

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

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.