It’s hard to dress it up as anything other than a brutal watch. Rangers went into a game needing to grab the moment, and somehow managed to make it look like the moment grabbed us instead. You sit there thinking, right, this is where we kick on, this is where we show a bit of backbone. Then it turns into the same old sinking feeling. The hope gets you every time, and that’s what makes it properly sickening.
A plan that played right into Hearts’ hands
The bit that really sticks in the throat is the decision making. If the idea was to go direct, fine, but there’s direct and there’s just gifting the ball back. Watching Jack Butland repeatedly go long, essentially “humping” it up towards Miovski, had me asking the same question as plenty of fans: what on earth was that about? That kind of ball is exactly what Hearts want. They can set, they can challenge, they can pick up second balls, and suddenly we’re chasing it again.
It didn’t look like a side with a clear way to hurt the opposition. It looked like a side hoping something messy would fall kindly. And against a team that’s organised and aggressive, that’s just not enough.
Over the halfway line and nothing
The most worrying thing is how quickly it all fizzles out once we get into the opposition half. We cross the halfway line and it’s like the ideas just disappear. No patterns. No tempo changes. No brave passes. Just a kind of flat, predictable movement that makes it easy to defend. That’s the bit that drains you, because you can take a bad result now and again, but watching us look void of creativity is another level of frustrating.
When you’re playing like that, you need big personalities to drag you through it. Today, it felt like nobody really showed up. Not one player looked like they were taking charge of the game and saying, “Right, follow me.” It was just so, so poor.
Basic lessons not learned
And then there’s the stuff that makes you feel like you’re watching a youth match at times. Hearts took a quick corner and nearly got a 2 on 1. Five minutes later they do it again and this time they actually get the 2 on 1. How does that happen? You can accept being outplayed, but you can’t accept not learning in real time. That’s not tactics, that’s concentration and awareness, and it’s the kind of thing that turns a hard afternoon into an absolute slog.
There’s even the uncomfortable point that Hearts looked better across the park. Some fans will argue over how many of their players would get into our team, but on that showing you could make a case for a good few of them. That’s the reality of it.
Still, you keep coming back, because without hope what’s the point? The problem is Rangers keep punishing that hope when it’s time to step up.
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