Under 21's vs Macedonia

[Cicero]

I hope that there is never another Scotland match at Tynecastle as there is no parking and crap planning.  The pricing was very reasonable last night and so a big crowd could have been anticipated.  However with only one set of turnstiles and and two food outlets open led to a less than satisfactory experience.

[Senator Frimpton]

Sibbs would have bossed that

[HibeeJibee]

Attended the game but missed the first 20mins or so. Macedonia looked handy when scoring and for a spell thereafter, then successfully weathered the rest of the game only creating one or two other chances.

We had plenty possession and chances but I think the narrative of Sbragia, and Sportsound on the way home - we were great, we lost through bad luck and the ref - is inaccurate. They came and posted a controlled performance, scored, kept a clean sheet and took 3pts. To put it down as unlucky that we lost, or lucky that they won, entirely misses the point - their game-plan was scoring on the counterattack then holding-out.

Much of it was a case of "plenty heat, little light". You're in trouble when the manager is resorting to blaming the ref for correctly changing decisions. This was FYR Macedonia, we played 20mins + 7min stoppage time against 10-men and for much of that time their 'keeper couldn't run or kick, and we still lost 1-0.

I was alarmed by a part of Henderson's radio interview. Basically said "OK we've lost, but at the end of the day it's still youth football, the results aren't anything". Maybe so but did the Macedonians have that attitude? Clearly not - you could see it from their celebrations. I doubt their players 'learnt' or 'progressed' less than our players. If they go on to qualify for the finals, while our players are sat at home, who will be learning and progressing? At this level desire and reaching targets is surely part of development.


Separately - I don't know who was at fault, SFA or Hearts or both, but no more U21 internationals should be allocated to Tynecastle unless they can be properly accommodated. Only one set of turnstiles open for one stand.

Queue at one point stretched up most of Wheatfield Street, the entire length of Wheatfield Place heading away from the ground and all the way back. Some people missed ~30mins.

Limited refreshments inside too, apparently.

If SFA cannot successfully arrange an U21 international, maybe it's no surprise they can't arrange a successful U21 team.

[TheScarf]

That Ryan Fraser boy - 

 

[DA Baracus]

Worth noting that save for a couple of rare exceptions the under 21s have always been gash. The good players always come through though (although there is always a huge number of guys who are capped for the under 20s who don't just not make it but who's careers go backwards fast)

[haggisbeastie]

That Ryan Fraser boy - 

 

I thought Ryan Fraser was poor. Apart from running with the ball (which he was rarely able to) he seemed to have no idea what to do. Should have been pulled early in second half IMO..

[sergie's no1 fan]

I wonder why the under 21s has been moved from Paisley? Ok its a legoland stadium in Feegie but I've never really read complaints like this after a Scotland game.

[HibeeJibee]

Fair point. Indeed at one time they said they would be at St Mirren permanently so they players got used to it.


Similar problems at the last youth international at Tynecastle - for men or boys anyway - a Victory Cup decider v England a few years ago.

Only the Main Stand was open on that occasion, again queues to get in, and part of the front (old enclosure) ended-up overcrowded and they had to lead people into the Roseburn.

As I said - whoever is culpable it's unacceptable and is surely avoidable: the stadium holds several times the actual crowds. If it's not avoidable, plenty other stadiums available.

[Dunty]

So Tynecastle is shit?

So much for being the best stadium in Scotland.

@Elixir

[Dunty]

12 hours ago, MarkoRaj said:

 

Bloody hell. We don't even have a top class coach as the senior manager. What top class coach is going to be tempted into managing our youths? It's a shame we hadn't thought of this before the managerial merry go round in the epl, we could have got pep or mourinho in

 

Gaurdiola and Mourinho are world class coaches. I never said anything about world class coaches. I said top class, ie someone who is very good. They don't need to be a superstar.

I was actually thinking of someone like Ian Cathro who is highly rated and has experience at Dundee United, Valencia and currently Newcastle. He'd be a big step up from Sbragia.

[RandomGuy.]

Cathro 

[HibeeJibee]

5 minutes ago, Dunty said:

So Tynecastle is shit?

So much for being the best stadium in Scotland.

@Elixir

Stadium is fine and perfectly big enough - last night's crowd was ~5,000 and Victory Shield tie (which I've found was Nov 2009) ~3,000.

Nevertheless those are the only mens or boys internationals held at Tynecastle since 2002-03 - have also been some womens - and both have clearly been organisationally sub-standard, with too few stands/gates/etc. open.

[Fraser Fyvie]

12 minutes ago, Dunty said:

So Tynecastle is shit?

So much for being the best stadium in Scotland.

@Elixir

They actually think it'll be better than Easter Road once they've got their shiny new stand

It's inferior in almost every way and always will be. A cramped rusty midden.

[The Grass Is Greener.]

Tynie

 

Absolute shitehole.

[HibeeJibee]

As an illustration... the maximum safety allowance for a turnstile, according to the well-known government "Green Guide", is 660 people per hour - i.e. 11 people a minute or 1 person every 5.5 seconds.

Attendance last night was over 4,500 with all of them in the Wheatfield except the directors box and a few dozen presumably aways and comps visible in the Main.


Only one turnstile block was open. It had 10 turnstiles. Each must have admitted about 450 people, i.e. 70% of the maximum for any stadium. However:

(1) this block - on corner of Wheatfield Place and Street - is oblique to the road, so the queue has to do a Z at the top instead of queuing evenly in front of all 10 turnstiles;

(2) most people were paying by cash not pre-bought ticket, which takes longer - each must say how many, take change, etc;

(3) it wasn't a huge game, and no advice had been issued to turn up early, so clearly the crowd wasn't arriving evenly from an hour prior, or anything like it;

(4) many in the queue thought kick-off was 7:45pm.


Clearly there was never any chance of getting the 4,500 crowd into the 6,000 stand until well after kick-off. That's unacceptable.

[haggisbeastie]

Just been watching some of this game again & we were pretty good, against a decent side. How we lost is hard to believe. Macedonia were very lucky.

I think we definitely have some good young players & things are getting better, if not results-wise at the moment.

[dogmc]

Just been watching some of this game again & we were pretty good, against a decent side. How we lost is hard to believe. Macedonia were very lucky.

I think we definitely have some good young players & things are getting better, if not results-wise at the moment.


[/quote
Macedonia were lucky?????

[haggisbeastie]

They only mustered about one shot on goal the whole game, while we had a number of shots on target & had most of the possession.

Constipation in the last third cost us...[emoji54]

[MarkoRaj]

Gaurdiola and Mourinho are world class coaches. I never said anything about world class coaches. I said top class, ie someone who is very good. They don't need to be a superstar.

I was actually thinking of someone like Ian Cathro who is highly rated and has experience at Dundee United, Valencia and currently Newcastle. He'd be a big step up from Sbragia.

So top class doesn't mean the top class of managers?

Cathro, jesus wept

[cowdenbeath]

5 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

As an illustration... the maximum safety allowance for a turnstile, according to the well-known government "Green Guide", is 660 people per hour - i.e. 11 people a minute or 1 person every 5.5 seconds.

Attendance last night was over 4,500 with all of them in the Wheatfield except the directors box and a few dozen presumably aways and comps visible in the Main.


Only one turnstile block was open. It had 10 turnstiles. Each must have admitted about 450 people, i.e. 70% of the maximum for any stadium. However:

(1) this block - on corner of Wheatfield Place and Street - is oblique to the road, so the queue has to do a Z at the top instead of queuing evenly in front of all 10 turnstiles;

(2) most people were paying by cash not pre-bought ticket, which takes longer - each must say how many, take change, etc;

(3) it wasn't a huge game, and no advice had been issued to turn up early, so clearly the crowd wasn't arriving evenly from an hour prior, or anything like it;

(4) many in the queue thought kick-off was 7:45pm.


Clearly there was never any chance of getting the 4,500 crowd into the 6,000 stand until well after kick-off. That's unacceptable.

We got in just after 7.05 que wasn't too bad then but looked down about 5 or 10 minutes later and it was miles long. Turnstiles wern't very well organised as they were taking both cash and tickets, probably should have had separate ones for each and also opened ones at the Gorgie end and allowed folk to walk round, they allowed people to leave that way.

Think the SFA underestimated the crowd which was 3 or 4 times more than they usually get at Paisley.