Switch off now, because you know what I'm going to say.
On second thoughts, don't switch off. You might think I'm about to say -
Thank God Rangers Won ('cause playing like that we wouldn't give Hibs much trouble)
And that's a valid point of view, I grant you. But that's not really what's on Chief Grouser's mind.
It's that man Jefferies. Whatever's going on inside his noggin I can't begin to tell you. As a starting eleven, it was an acceptable line-up, though our two best players, Cameron and Jackson, can't seem to produce their best at the same time as the other. They might yet. But Jefferies obviously had an idea about how he expected the game to work out.
When Rangers scored after 10 minutes, presumably that wasn't in Jefferies' projections. So the idea had to be re-examined and if necessary, reformed. It's a tricky one, because the goal was a bit lucky, with Leclerq slipping, but the game has now changed. Hearts have to score at least one, and hope that Rangers don't score two. But we know Rangers will score two, so in effect we know Hearts will have to score two. At least Rangers made it all much easier by scoring again, so tactics go out the window. We need something special now.
It was only by Rangers mysteriously deciding to give up that Hearts got back into the game. They weren't out-fought or out-thought, but because we now had the time and space, we started passing the ball a bit and running into good positions. A nice bit of football around the box, and another great Cameron penalty. Cameron was superb all night. But people who said 'Why didn't we play like this before we were 2-0 down?' are missing the point. Rangers don't play as badly as that when it's 0-0. They don't let you have the ball at 0-0. After all, it belongs to them, just like the referee belongs to them.
When Arsenal were being taken apart in Barcelona earlier this season, the man on the radio said that every team, no matter how badly they're playing, has five good minutes in a match, and you have to take your chance then. And sure enough they equalised during those five minutes, and hung on for an ill-deserved draw. So for the twenty or thirty minutes that Rangers were crap, when Advocat was doing his dinger in the dugout, that was the time to score, because we knew Rangers wouldn't be crap for the rest of the game. We needed a goal, we needed to do something little short of selling our souls for one. If Rangers scored before we did, that was the end of that. So what does Jefferies do? Nothing. In spite of knowing our defence won't hold out for the rest of the game, he does nothing. We have McSwegan, we have Adam. And when do they come on? I don't need to tell you. Is there something wrong with Jefferies' watch, is it quarter of an hour fast? If he's going to bring them on after the game's over, why not wait for the final whistle and they can go on and have a kickabout, three-and-in or something? Someone tell me what's it all about.
Oh: and Severin in, Simpson out.