News

Can QOS Beat Rangers?

|
Image for Can QOS Beat Rangers?

Tomorrow’s Scottish Cup final between Rangers and Queen of the South has become an infinitely more intriguing prospect since the two teams won their respective semi-finals at Hampden Park
last month.

Despite QOS’s sensational 4-3 semi-final win over SPL opposition, (Aberdeen) the Dumfries side are still among the biggest outsiders ever to have appeared in a major final in this country. However given the emotional ringer that the Rangers team and management will have been through over the past week or so, then surely this game is now much more unpredictable than it otherwise would have been in ‘normal’ circumstances?

Technically there really should be a big gulf in class between the two sides, even if Rangers don’t have the individually gifted players that they used to. In fact it’s not even a case of saying that there should be a gulf in class – there WILL be one, but one-off cup ties are affected by an awful lot more than simply which team has the better individual football players. For example, psychology can have as big effect on matches as pretty much anything and tomorrow is a huge test for the Rangers players in this respect – their confidence will have been shot to bits after losing both the UEFA Cup final last week and more hurtfully, the league title on the last day of the season last night at Pittodrie. Having led the league for so long (and at times by a considerable margin) this will have been an enormous blow to the club, and it’s impossible to say how they’ll react to it now.

As we suggested might happen a couple of weeks ago, In some ways the position that the Rangers players find themselves in now is similar to that of the Hearts side that lost the league at Dens Park on the last day of the 1985/6 season. That year, just like Rangers now, they had led the league for a very long time and although other teams had games in hand, many people assumed (foolishly) that their lead would be unassailable. The subsequent gut-wrenching defeat at Dens therefore, had a catastrophic effect on morale, to the point where the following week’s Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen was always going to end one way – in defeat.

Now obviously the Rangers situation at Hampden tomorrow is not quite the same as Hearts’ in ’86 – they are up against lower league opposition rather than a successful side who had been among the best in Europe in the previous three years, but in terms of psychology it’s perhaps not too dissimilar. They also have had the added burden of playing an abnormally high number of games in a short space of time, games that have all taken on major significance too. So there’s every chance that their players could be both physically and mentally drained. It will therefore be a very interesting contrast with those of QOS, who’ve not actually played a competitive game of football for weeks.

Personally I can see the game going one of two ways tomorrow: either Rangers come out with all guns blazing and give QOS an absolute doing, or the opposite extreme will happen and they’ll seriously
struggle, which may or may not result in them losing this trophy as well. I’d still probably have my money on Rangers to come through in the end, but it cannot be beyond the realms of impossibility that QOS could win tomorrow, which surely makes the game at Hampden much more of an interesting prospect for neutrals than it otherwise would have been…….

Share this article

MrH

Come on the famous!

11 comments

  • GERS..72 says:

    DONT BE DAFT LOL

  • MrH says:

    At least you can laugh mate – that deserves respect!

  • GERS..72 says:

    it will be 3 or 4 nil, maybe them gettin a consolation, weve not been match-sharp of late, but still reckon we will be far too strong for qos, no disrespect as they are there on merit. would have been nice if it was goin for the treble, but if my sister had balls she’d be my brother

    ps. i dont habve a sister btw lol

  • GERS..72 says:

    u heard any rumours about niemi to celtic? i heard today from my mate, hes actually quite good, and an ex jambo!

  • R.K says:

    C’mon QOTS!!

  • GERS..72 says:

    my mate thats good and an ex jambo, saying that so is niemi lol

  • wishaw bhoy says:

    maybe it would be more pertinent to ask if the rangers can beat the DOONHAMERS ………………

  • MrH says:

    Niemi to Celtic? I’d love him back at Hearts – fantastic goalkeeper – possibly the best I’ve seen. He’ll be a fair age now though.

  • hoopymo says:

    well it depends here, i think one of two things 1. rangers will be on a downer after coming so close to the title then getting pumped by aberdeen or 2. they will go gun ho to salvage the season and pump qos

  • Specs Haver says:

    Good analogy with Hearts in 86, Mr H. Except that this is Rangers, who can probably expecttheir usual slice of big game luck (ahem) from the ref. It would be very good to see our young goalie pick up a winners medal !!!

  • MrH says:

    It would…

Leave a Reply to MrH Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *