TheFamous1875
09-08-2016, 10:54 PM
What tonight reminded me of is when we played Greenock Morton last season and were beaten 3-0 at Easter Road. We had just come off a MAMMOTH run where we a League Cup Semi-Final vs St Johnstone and 2 Scottish Cup matches against Hearts on top of an ongoing battle for the League with Rangers with matches against Falkirk and Raith Rovers (our so-called 'bogey' teams).
Every match was huge at that point and it culminated in that dramatic two-match battle against Hearts (our biggest rivals, who were in the league above us, in the Scottish Cup which we hadn't won for 114 years). We came back from 2-0 with 10 mins to go (never let them forget) and went on to beat them at Easter Road.
After that, we had Alloa, when Stubbs decided to rotate the squad. He played a 3-5-2 at home with Boyle and Carmichael in the wide roles - proper attacking wingers who get forward. We convincingly best them 3-0 with a 2nd-string team and that was that. The next match, at home vs Morton, we reverted back to our 1st-string team - the derby heroes who had also brought us to the league cup final and kept our title hopes up in such a hectic schedule. We got pumped.
I said at the time that a big factor in us capitulating that night was due to the fatigue of the players. Imagine having to go from singing 'Sunshine on Leith' in front of a full stadium after just beating your rivals in the Scottish Cup in the fashion that we did, to playing at night in a half-empty stadium against Morton? There's naturally going to be a plateau when it comes to being up for such a match when you've just been knocking your pan in for the last two months in big cup games, big derbies.
I think tonight is a similar case. Two European games vs Brondby, going to penalties, a first match of the season against our biggest rivals for the title in front of a big Hibs crowd and then being brought back down to earth by an early league cup match against QOTS on a Tuesday night in an empty Easter Road.
I don't think the players on the park were up for the task. When it comes to football, there's no way we should have been beaten tonight, but when it comes to being brought back down to earth by an 'unimportant' match, you can see why we got beat tonight. It should have been a case of what happened against Alloa last season where we rotated it for the situation and we got just results. I think tonight is very very similar to what happened against Morton. It should've been like that Alloa match instead.
Every match was huge at that point and it culminated in that dramatic two-match battle against Hearts (our biggest rivals, who were in the league above us, in the Scottish Cup which we hadn't won for 114 years). We came back from 2-0 with 10 mins to go (never let them forget) and went on to beat them at Easter Road.
After that, we had Alloa, when Stubbs decided to rotate the squad. He played a 3-5-2 at home with Boyle and Carmichael in the wide roles - proper attacking wingers who get forward. We convincingly best them 3-0 with a 2nd-string team and that was that. The next match, at home vs Morton, we reverted back to our 1st-string team - the derby heroes who had also brought us to the league cup final and kept our title hopes up in such a hectic schedule. We got pumped.
I said at the time that a big factor in us capitulating that night was due to the fatigue of the players. Imagine having to go from singing 'Sunshine on Leith' in front of a full stadium after just beating your rivals in the Scottish Cup in the fashion that we did, to playing at night in a half-empty stadium against Morton? There's naturally going to be a plateau when it comes to being up for such a match when you've just been knocking your pan in for the last two months in big cup games, big derbies.
I think tonight is a similar case. Two European games vs Brondby, going to penalties, a first match of the season against our biggest rivals for the title in front of a big Hibs crowd and then being brought back down to earth by an early league cup match against QOTS on a Tuesday night in an empty Easter Road.
I don't think the players on the park were up for the task. When it comes to football, there's no way we should have been beaten tonight, but when it comes to being brought back down to earth by an 'unimportant' match, you can see why we got beat tonight. It should have been a case of what happened against Alloa last season where we rotated it for the situation and we got just results. I think tonight is very very similar to what happened against Morton. It should've been like that Alloa match instead.