Conceding late goals has been an issue for us all season long. I make this weekend the 8th time this season we've dropped points by conceding in the last 10 minutes of games. A total of 12 points dropped, with 9 of those due to conceding in the 90th minute or later!

Date	Opponent	H/A	Final Score	Minute conceded in	Points dropped
08-Aug	St Johnstone	A	1-1	90	2
29-Aug	Dundee	A	1-1	90+1	2
24-Oct	St Johnstone	H	0-1	90+3	1
21-Nov	Partick	A	1-2	90	1
26-Dec	Aberdeen	A	2-2	90+1	2
27-Feb	Dundee	A	1-1	86	2
09-Mar	St Johnstone	A	0-1	84	1
02-Apr	Motherwell	H	1-2	90+4	1

If we'd have held on to even half of those points we'd be comfortably in the top six, particularly when you look at the teams we've given the points to. The difference between a decent/average season and a poor one.

Wherever we end up when this season finishes, learning how to close games out has to be a priority for next season!

On the other hand

 

Storey 89 v Hearts 2-0

Horner 90+2 v United 2-2

Tansey & Polworth 88 & 90+3 v Hamilton 3-4

Roberts 90+1 Cup v Motherwell 1-2

 

15 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

On the other hand

 

Storey 89 v Hearts 2-0

Horner 90+2 v United 2-2

Tansey & Polworth 88 & 90+3 v Hamilton 3-4

Roberts 90+1 Cup v Motherwell 1-2

 

Discarding the Roberts one as that's a cup competition.  Going by that table we've gained.....three points!  Two again Hamilton and one against Dundee United.  I'm not counting Hearts because we were winning the game anyway.  Well those goals we scored in the last minutes have really made up for the ones we've lost...

I didn't say they did. Just pointing out that we have scored late goals as well. Swings and roundabouts.

Did the late cup goal not get us into the next round.

You could go on and on about things, nine points from County, seven points from Aberdeen. These are the points that are keeping us off the bottom of the table. These lists are endless to be honest.

It is disappointing to lose late goals, but it's also pleasing to score them.

In many of these games they were away from home - we sit in and teams attack us then which allows us to break and in many cases take the lead. Unfortunately we then fail to capitalise when the opposition open up to come back at us and often find that after sustained periods of pressure we fall to the inevitable and conceede. The real issue is our inability to score 2 goals or more to kill off a game - as they say 1-0 is a fragile lead. While defensivly we make mistakes a big part of the problem is lack of goals and goalscorers to relieve that pressure.

35 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

I didn't say they did. Just pointing out that we have scored late goals as well. Swings and roundabouts.

Did the late cup goal not get us into the next round.

 

The cup game is immaterial to our league position.  Swings and roundabouts?  Rubbish.  That would we true had the ones we'd scored late on and the ones we'd conceded evened up.  They don't.

Edited April 4, 201610 yr by Renegade

Interestingly, I'm yet to read our fitness levels being called into question with all the late goals we've been conceding. While a lot of it is obviously down to the psychology and mentality of the players, it seems to me as if fatigue towards the end of the game is a contributing factor. 

Good point - I have been amazed that some players have looked out on their feet with 10-15 minutes of the game remaining. Fraid the late goals are all down to trying to defend a lead and giving the momentum and possession to the opposition.

15 hours ago, tm4tj said:

I didn't say they did. Just pointing out that we have scored late goals as well. Swings and roundabouts.

Did the late cup goal not get us into the next round.

You could go on and on about things, nine points from County, seven points from Aberdeen. These are the points that are keeping us off the bottom of the table. These lists are endless to be honest.

It is disappointing to lose late goals, but it's also pleasing to score them.

Personally I don't the the concession or scoring of late goals as a 'swings and roundabouts' situation whereby its nice when they go for you and bad when they go against but overall they will even themselves out in the long run. This philosophy is more applicable to dubious penalty awards, goals being rightly/wrongly disallowed for offside etc. In other words events that aren't under the control of the team. 

Regardless of whether or not we have benefited from scoring late goals, we should be doing better at making sure we don't concede late on and throw away valuable points. There are probably a number of factors that have caused this: the tactics when defending a single goal lead, physical tiredness, and also mental fragility which only compounds and becomes more and more of an issue every time we concede another late goal. I would suggest that all three of these factors needs to be looked at. 

Losing late goals and points along with Hughes's very late or too late substitutions have been a real bug-bear of mine this season. If we had been comfortable in 4th spot on 48 points, stayed there and Celtic win both the League and Cup then we would be heading to Europe again.

Can't help but feel a lot of these late goals are the result of our pedestrian football which can often see us chasing the game towards the end to either nick a draw or sitting back defending a lead. 

Nearly 40% of the goals we concede are in the last 15 minutes of a game.