Second Half Away Advantage?

[porcupine]

Why, week after week, do we give our opponents the psychological 'boost' of allowing them to shoot towards their own fans in the Away stand. I cannot remember the last game this season where we had the opposition team playing towards the Sainsbury's end in the second half where there is little atmosphere, even now with the decorative advertising hoardings.

We cannot have lost the coin toss in every home game, surely? Or, is it more intimidating for Accies to be facing the Away support in the second half? OR, has this ever been considered by MC & staff??

[Stevie Clarke]

Totally agree. Surely it's worth changing things around. Of course we can't ever hit towards our fans and maybe they think attacking any fans is a boost and they obviously want the team to start as well as possible but it surely can't be a coincidence that Killie, St Johnstone, Inverness, Dundee and Partick have only scored at the end with their fans, with Hearts getting 2 out of their 3 goals at the occupied end.

Incidentally, and this has been a bugbear of mine for some time, when do you ever see Rangers not attack their favoured ends at Ibrox? Even in their climb through the leagues I've been keeping an eye on it, I can't recall a game when they've not had their own way. Celtic were made to change, presumably anyway, in a recent home game against Motherwell but that was a rarity. Teams must win the toss at these grounds, it's almost as if it's an unwritten rule in Scottish football that you don't break the Old Firm's established routine.

[monkeybones]

Ha !

I raised this same topic 2 years ago on this forum and was met with the usual sarcastic answers.
However it still applies. Crazy to defend an away end in the second half. It ha proven to be an issue for years of leaking goals and giving away teams momentum.

[porcupine]

Great! Support from others!

Now I can't do 'Twitter', but is this something that could be put onto the Club's Twitter feed? It might, just, be seen by someone in the dressing room and be acted upon

[Bomber Harris]

Blame Clownzo

[monkeybones]

So yet again in the rangers game we were faced with trying to defend a packed away end in second half. Fans and noise on top of the goalie and players. We were lucky they couldn't score the umpteen chances they had.
Change this policy please.

[TheThirdProclaimer]

I can't agree with this at all I'm afraid. No-one seems to mention that our players might actually have chosen to attack the Sainsbury's end in the second half as THEIR preferred option. We train in that half every day, warm up in that half before games - it shouldn't be about the other teams, but about us. We got a better 'result' in the 2nd half (draw) than we did in the first (defeat) last night after scoring at the Sainsbury's end.

Also, this is never brought up when we're winning games and scoring goals. I really don't think it's anything to do with shooting towards fans or not, just that most teams in the league are a wee bit better than us over 90 mins, regardless of what ground we're at or which way we're shooting.

[monkeybones]

Actually I have brought up before when we were winning or scoring goals.
We always struggle with stand being busy

[TheThirdProclaimer]

Would you agree it seems to be our players' favoured option shooting towards Sainsbury's in the second half? I always think we do ok the way it is, I really think the same goals would go in at either end if the 'tradition' was reversed.

Generally if the stand is busy it means we're playing a bigger team. That being the case they'll have a good chance of scoring in the 2nd half regardless of which end they're facing.

Anyway, we can agree to differ!

[porcupine]

Still think, as others do, that an away support will rally their team more in the second half when that team is attacking towards them. Seems to me that the visiting team might be less motivated to attack the Sainsbury's end with the lack of vocal and visible support there.

Yes, I know that this means the visitors are facing their fans in the first half, but there should always be more to play for in the second half of the game?

Can't imagine it will make a lot of difference in the forthcoming Celtic game, though. They have significantly better players than the New Rangers.

[TheThirdProclaimer]

Indeed, bit worrying that that game might be out of sight by the time we get to attack the fake fans at the Sainsbury's end!

[monkeybones]

So still think its not a factor to have to defend a packed, noisy away end when the team is trying to see out a match?

Oh the world is round by the way......

[TheThirdProclaimer]

Yes, I've now changed my kind completely...

You've suddenly added 'defending a lead', which hasn't been mentioned until now. The ends are chosen at 0-0, not when we're defending a lead. We've gone ahead and blown it home and away this season against all sorts of teams, shooting in all directions.

Nevertheless, in the last two home games since I posted on this topic, we've played Celtic and Motherwell. We swapped ends v Celtic, and did worse when they were heading away from their fans (they won 1st half 1-0, 2nd half 2-0). Today we kept the usual ends and drew both halves.

[monkeybones]

So still think it's a good idea to defend a busy away end in the second half ? Under any circumstances. Winning, losing, drawing.

Elvis is also dead and the Pope is a catholic...

[TheThirdProclaimer]

Are you just asking the same question again? Let me be quite clear, since I can't be bothered posting the same thing over and over and over.

In my opinion, we have much bigger issues to tackle in order to get some wins than changing the ends we shoot into. Our team is full of ok players (no better than that); our manager isn't a manager; our board of directors clearly have a way of working, part of which includes a complete disregard for anyone else's opinion on any change for the good of the club in a football sense; our signing policy, though understandably restricted, has been a total failure for some time; the entire squad seem completely bereft of confidence.

All of these elements add up to give us he team we have, which in turn produces the results we've had. In my opinion changing ends won't affect our results, so I don't think it's something worth spending too much time on.

However, you keep asking the same question, and I have to keep answering. You're welcome to keep posting about it, and adding a smart arse comment at the end all you like, but I won't be answering after this.

[monkeybones]