Panic Stations – Grounds for Alarm?

There is a relatively new phenomenon at Parkhead these days, one which is as common place on match day as the half time windfall ticket aeroplane display or the laziest ball boy contest. An anxiety has slowly crept into the match day experience, not the anxiety you get when you scan your season card and for a split second think the light is going to turn red, no it’s the 80th minute anxiety. It’s been around in the atmosphere for the last couple of seasons but has taken on a whole new level this season and it’s becoming infectious spreading its way to more and more fans.      

Panic n – a sudden, overpowering terror, often affecting many people at once; groundless fear in herds or crowds.

The above definition confirms the prognosis – we as a support are pressing the panic button, usually around the 80th minute mark, although some go as early as the 1^st minute (like the guy behind me). The only folk not affected by the Panic are the perennial leavers who regardless of the score forfeit 10 mins of the match to make a quick getaway, I always square this by assuming they are heading for the vigil. So are there any real grounds for this panic and mass hysteria which might eventually have a knock on effect on the pitch.

In my own mind I believe that the experiences of last season are fresh in the mind and the month of late November / early December 2010 in which we dropped vital points remains a real regret when looking back on that campaign. It is worth noting that in only two games last season did we lose goals in the last 10 minutes of a match, in the matches against Inverness and Dundee United. Crucially the loss of these two late goals cost us 4 points in games which we looked comfortable and in the final analysis were as damaging as the loss to Inverness away or the samaras penalty which are often held up as reasons for losing the title.

But that was last year, we now seem to have a different mentality altogether. Whilst the panic rains down from the stands the players have not wilted and the statistics show a real resilience and trend towards belying the grounds for the anxiety in the stands. Thus far this season we have again lost just two goals in the final 10 minutes of the match against Dunfermline and Kilmarnock - only this time at no cost to our points. Like the goal conceded against Dundee United on Saturday the strike by Kilmarnock that day was from outside the box, nestling just inside the post out of Fosters reach. The goals conceded in this period never came as a result of sustained pressure in which our defence were finally breached, they were hats off, fairs fair cracking goals that the player would struggle to replicate.

Further analysis of our results show that on 8 occasions this season we have won a match by a single goal margin 1-0 or 2-1 which accounts for over 43% of our points tally so far. From this kind of form it could be conceivably argued that in actual fact we are very good at defending and maintaining a slender lead as a result of the teams concentration and discipline. Such winning margins were always the trademark of the Arsenal team of the 90’s whose defence was so resolute that 1-0 margins were the order of the day to the extent it elicited the famous chant of “1-0 to the arsenal”. Like the game against Kilmarnock or Dunfermline when you look back on the Dundee United match on Saturday there were never really any sustained periods of pressure or that the team were showing signs of being over-run.

The management team and players will be taking a lot of confidence from these narrow victories just as much as a two nil or a three nil because it shows that when games are tight and chances are at a premium at the other end, we have the confidence from our track record to believe we can win these games. As Neil Lennon commented post match on Saturday we have no devine right to think these games are a foregone conclusion and there will be more of these types of results to come in season.

The stakes are high this season, we need to stop four in a row and we all would love to see this Lennon team win its first title and push on from there so anxiety is bound to be a natural emotion at the match, however winning games by a one goal margin is part of football and a part we seem to be getting pretty good at so maybe we need to remember that next time we reach for the red button.

Keep the Faith