I know that many people around the country are probably having a good laugh about the outcome of tonight’s Kaunas V Rangers match in the Champions League qualifiers, but seriously, I’m struggling to remember the last time I tuned into a more depressing half hour of football – and this is coming from a Hearts fan who went to quite a few games last season!
It’s difficult to tell whether it was one single thing or a combination of many that made what I saw of the match such non-compulsive viewing. Certainly, the standard of football on display was absolutely appalling – an embarrassment to the name of the Champions League if we’re honest, but was it any worse than the utterly lacklustre commentary of the BBC’s Paul Mitchell and Pat Nevin? You have to admit, it’s a very tough call!
Why oh why do the BBC continue to employ Mitchell as their number one commentator? Are they seriously suggesting that they don’t have anyone else who could do a better job? I honestly cannot think of a more boring, monotone-sounding voice than this guy’s, and when you put a man who sounds like Pat Nevin does next to him it doesn’t really improve matters either – they just send you to sleep…and that’s before the football’s even started.
Not that there was much in the way of football on display in Kaunas tonight, where two dreadfully poor sides did their best to outdo Mitchell and Nevin in the boredom stakes. I suppose one good thing about Kaunas winning is that instead of loaning all their dross over to Hearts in time for the new season starting, they may want to hold onto them for the remainder of their European campaign, giving new Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo the chance to model his side properly. We can but hope, because even though they were better than Rangers tonight, Hearts’ feeder team were still poor – there was no-one in that side that you’d be desperate to see in a maroon jersey any time soon.
As for Rangers, well, their performance was utterly predictable, if not the result they achieved (you always expect them to win for some reason, even when they’re this bad!). This team played to what strengths they had last season, but maybe they used up all of their luck in that one year. They’ve signed no-one in the summer who looks likely to improve their starting XI, and if more teams in the SPL actually start to realise how bad they are (unlike last season when they all continued to suffer from stage-fright against them), then there’s no reason why they can’t make it a real battle for Rangers to finish in the top three this year. That is a big ‘if’ though.
So, not the most inspiring half hour of football I’ve ever seen in my life, but I suppose you can’t have everything. I mean, it’s not every day that a Hearts Reserve side knock Glasgow Rangers out of Europe courtesy of a late goal scored by one of their worst players in recent seasons is it? Chins up!
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Rangers were a disgrace, Smith must take the blame for a shocking team selection, he could have won this match tonight, if he had played a team who would have attacked, instead he did what he always does, he showed us how spineless he is, he tried to choke the life out of the game and it backfired on him.
The poke how did he try and choke the life out the game rangers were ***** granted but choking the life out the game ……..moron
Dearie me…..
I’m sick of you always writing articles slagging Rangers, may I remind you that only a few months ago we nearly won 4 trophies including a European trophy! So if we are a poor side and we finished 2nd last season narrowly missing out on the league won 2 cups and reached a European final, what does that make you then? Your so bad you could’t even come in the top six! If we can play anywhere near the same as we did last year in the league and get the same results we’ll win the league at a canter this season, especially without having the tiredness of playing in midweek! Good luck in your quest to finish in the top six this season, oh and I see you have another new manager I wonder how long he’ll last? A MONTH maybe if your lucky!
“nearly won 4 trophies” LOL
Excellent point about, GregE1873, about Rangers players not being drained this season by extra midweek games – it should make quite a difference in your quest for the SPL title. Celtic will be knackered, and you should win it “at a canter”, as you say. By the way, if you want to avoid being “sick”, it might be a good idea to stop reading articles written by non-Rangers fans.
Specs Haver I’m just trying to make a point that is what has Rangers being knocked out got to do with Hearts or any other team? I agree with roadrunner worry about your own team!
In case you hadn’t realised, some of our players are on loan from Kaunas – and our majority shareholder also sponsors Kaunas. So, like it or not, we DO have an interest in them – especially how they fare against a Scottish club in Europe.
That’s fair enough your entitled to your own opinions but what I’m saying is it even if it was another team that knocked us out tonight I guarentee there would still be an article on here slagging Rangers off saying how poor they are and that’s what annoys me when it has nothing to do with Hearts what so ever. I’ve seen loads of articles on here slagging Rangers for no reason at all and it all comes from people who are as you put it “non-Rangers fans” who support a team who are POOR.
….at least the Hearts got past the second qualify stage….
“nearly won 4 trophies” LOL Well Greg going by your logic. If Hearts reserves can do that to a Rangers team, then imagine what the real Hearts could do to you!! Inverness is as far as your going this season mate! GIRFUY
rangers are *****e, enjoy having no money to play with for the next season, and thats the last we will see of davis, kenny millers undercover work is nearly finnished! walter MUST stay! hahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha
Man it’s gone a bit pear-shaped on here tonight has it not? I don’t see why there can’t be articles about the only SPL team in competition on a European fixture night even if it isn’t the Hearts. I also can’t help but notice that the moment they lost there are ‘gers fans on here checking what Hearts fans had to say about it(lika a wee argument to vent the frustration perhaps?). If you didn’t want a one sided view then mayb you should head to a Rangers forum for some such for some (completely-free-of-bias) chatting amongst yourselves. You can all demand the manager gets fired, tirade against Kenny Miller and fume about a lack of summer signings. We can stay here and bemoan some new craziness from our owner, cry about no striking options and love Larea Kingston. It’ll be great I promise (and noone has to listen to roadrunner ’cause he’ll probably get lost).
Roadrunner can’t tell the difference between his @rse and his face
.
Rangers were an total joke, Smith has to take the blame for tonight. His signings in the close season have been *****e, he has bought players that are no better than what we already have. His tactics and formation tonight were very defensive, we had to win of at least get a scoring draw so what does he do…. he put Kenny “I couldn’t score in a brothel” Miller up front BY HIMSELF. Smith must be the only one who cannot see how bad he is.
Roadrunner – I wish we hadn’t playing in Europe last night and HE did choke the life outta the game, we were a disgrace and nothing to offer.
GregE – I may be mistaken but Vital is a football community so I dont see anything wrong with other teams forums mentioning Rangers.
its funny though, i remember pillibatus (spelling?) being terrible at hearts, and a wonderkid on football manager (yet pish in real life) scoring against rangers, it was on the cards and for rangers i feel if they dont seriously invest soon they will go downhill to the stage celtic were at in the early 90’s
So there are ‘loads of articles slagging off Rangerss’ on here are there? Well….if you mean one every 3-4 months you might have a point, but considering we average around 60 per month I wouldn’t call that ‘loads’, but we won’t split hairs. The point is that while this IS a Hearts site, but last night’s game was relevant to the entire SPL as like it or not, Rangers were representing our league. It was especially relevant to Hearts for the reasons that Specs Haver pointed out. Greg, I can understand why this has annoyed you, but perhaps you should vent your anger at those who are writing articles simply laughing in the face of your club, rather than here where the focus was actually more the BBC’s appalling presentation of an alleged showpiece match. Rangers were bad too, and the decent fans amongst them would acknowledge that – why can’t you do that without trying to turn it on Hearts? We KNOW we’re a mess and we don’t have a problem admitting that.
If Rangers fall flat on their face, its our solemn duty as Scottish people to point at them and laugh. I didn’t see the game last night, but by all accounts (even those articles written by Rangers fans) both teams were dreadful & unlike last season, Rangers got found out. You can argue that it’s a bad result for Scottish football, but based on the way Rangers set their stall out for every game, it’s a victory for *football*. How ironic that it was one of our worst players in recent seasons that got the winning goal. Laugh? I nearly fell over.
R.K don’t make me laugh! The real Hearts, Is this the team that finished 8th last season? Oh and the last time I looked Inverness is the furthest you will be going this season too mate infact it’s the furthest you go every season! And DigitalTwisted apart from this season we have got through the CL qualifiers plenty of times mate and in the 1 season you were in them you got knocked out infact your so bad you got knocked out of 2 competitions, the UEFA Cup qualifiers aswell!
GregE… all that may be true (irrelevant, but true), but nevertheless Rangers were beaten over two legs by Hearts’ B team and are out of Europe before the season starts. All the abuse of other teams will not hide this simple fact, no matter how much you’d like it to. I’m looking forward to our date at Ibrox in a little over a week’s time more than you can possibly imagine. Have a nice day…