It was going to happen at some point, but losing to St Mirren after scoring two goals was something that none of us, and in particular, Steven Gerrard, had in mind.
There were no complaints about the line-up at the start of the game, Leon Balogun has been dependable and Calvin Bassey has looked like he will grow into a decent player for us one day, last night, however, was not his day, but his manager – who to his credit has taken responsibility for the defeat – didn’t help his cause.
By allowing James Tavernier the freedom of the right-hand side and putting a proverbial leash on Bassey, the 20-year old was left isolated, and despite not having many opportunities, St Mirren caused problems whenever they were able to counter attack at him, a problem that could have been fixed by letting him defend higher up the park and have the midfield cover him.
It was a similar issue as the one we had when Jon Flanagan or Andy Halliday used to play at left-back, teams would double up on Tavernier and blunt our attacking options, as soon as Borna Barisic came on yesterday we were able to stretch their defence more.
Who was at fault?
Players
Gerrard
Yesterday, on Vital Rangers, we warned against complacency, about the run that St Mirren were on and that they shouldn’t be taken lightly, the worst thing that could have happened was us scoring an early goal, we thought it would be easy, switched off, and couldn’t get going again.
If Steven Gerrard could have the last couple of minutes back I bet he would bring Filip Helander on rather than trying to wait until extra time, apparently it’s not just fans that are guilty of counting their chickens.