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Good luck to @Govan Rear Bear in trying to keep a match report to under 10,000 words for this one! Quite incredible, proud of our attacking play, great fight and desire, terrible defending at times, 3 pens, 6 yellows, a red, some great goals, some sitters missed, injuries, VAR, some ridiculous refereeing, this game had it all.

I saw this in The Guardian, and thought that I should post it here. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/feb/18/burton-kane-hemmings-i-get-scared-before-games-im-not-embarrassed-saying-that Interview Burton's Kane Hemmings: 'I get scared before games. I’m not embarrassed saying that' Ben Fisher After years of suffering in silence the former Rangers forward is able to open up about fear of failure and mental health problems Thu 18 Feb 2021 14.47 GMT It is a couple of years since Kane Hemmings put his feelings down in words. A professional footballer, he wrote Scared, almost 900 words detailing a medley of emotions born of the fear of failure in which he talks about being petrified before a game of letting people down and weary of putting on a brave face to mask anxiety and suicidal thoughts. “When you feel that way, physically you feel tired and maybe a yard off it sometimes because you have all these emotions running through your body,” he says now. The piece begins with a dictionary definition of “play” which no longer resonates. “We don’t ‘play’ football,” the striker, who joined hometown club Burton Albion last summer, says now. “There is so much more riding on it, you can’t just go out there and ‘play’. There is a structure to it, there’s a gameplan, you have to do this, you have to run this way and that way, and you can’t just run about like you did with your mates. Having a good game only makes me feel like, ‘I need to do that again next week now’, but when you’re just playing for the fun of it, there are no expectations.” He accepts pressure comes with the territory but it is something he has grappled with since the beginning of his career. Going from Rangers, for whom he made 10 appearances, including in the Champions League at Malmö, to playing part-time for Cowdenbeath, training twice a week and washing his kit after games following his release at 21, was a shock. “It was a kick in the teeth, a kick to the ego. I loved my year at Cowdenbeath … but it’s not Rangers. I had to get rid of my car and I had to move in with a friend because it was the only place I could afford to live. I started a college course in sports coaching and I was going to college more than I was playing football. I held on to that for many years, thinking, ‘I could get this taken away from me at any point’, and that really, really scared me. It still scares me but I’m in a better place to deal with it now.” Five years ago, Hemmings was suffering in silence. He felt alienated living alone in Glasgow and was “drinking a lot during midweek, drinking on a Sunday and I would go out on a Saturday after most games”. At the end of a season in which he scored 26 goals for Dundee, he pulled on to the hard shoulder of the southbound M6 and spent 15 minutes crying, wondering why he was so low. Hemmings alludes to that moment in his writing – “I’ve just had the best season of my life and I hate it?” – but last year, after a “meltdown” at a friend’s partner’s 30th birthday party, came the realisation that he needed professional support. “I had a few drinks and I was just running about telling people I wanted to kill myself. I got took home, passed out, woke up in the morning, got picked up and took to training and I remember I went and sat in the kit women’s room and just broke down to her. She went and got the manager [James McPake] and he was brilliant. He said: ‘Listen, just go home and get your head right.’ That was a Monday and he said to come back in on the Friday … In a way, it was the best thing that happened to me because I got the help I needed.” Hemmings’ partner, Sophie, reached out to Mark Fleming at Positive Mental Health Scotland and he had a dozen sessions with Fleming’s wife, Aileen. The biggest takeaway, Hemmings says, was recognising the value of being open and expressing emotions. Scared was published anonymously in Mark Fleming’s book, Confessions of a Football Chaplain. “I would never have had these conversations two or three years ago. Never. I didn’t understand why I felt like I did so if I couldn’t figure it out, what was I meant to say to someone? Now I’m happy to talk to anyone about it. People are going to have bad days and bad weeks but it shouldn’t fester for years and years to the point where you’re saying the stuff I was saying.” If you speak to someone to get help, I can’t tell you how good it feels after He talks candidly about the impact of online abuse. “How’s it right that people can just go on to social media and say what they want?” Hemmings asks. “What are people getting from racially abusing someone? Or from abusing someone after a game? When I was at Barnsley, I didn’t play particularly great. I used to open up my phone on a Saturday evening and I didn’t know how to deal with these people telling me I’m terrible.” He turned to writing while at Notts County, during a season that culminated in the club dropping out of the Football League for the first time. “There’s people’s jobs at stake, money on the line, people’s careers … you have to be mentally strong to be able to deal with all that. Having to be like that all the time … it can take its toll. I get scared before every game. I’m not embarrassed saying that. I’ve tried to flip it on its head and turn it into a positive. ‘All right, I’m up for it,’ and embrace it. I feel I’m much more ready to deal with that pressure now.” Hemmings prepares a free lunch in the kitchen at the Burton’s Pirelli Stadium. Photograph: Matt West/Rex/Shutterstock Burton are bottom of League One but have won three of their past four matches under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and could move out of the relegation zone if they beat Sunderland on Saturday. Hemmings has scored eight goals in his past 13 league games but, away from matchday, he has prepared meals at a local food bank and attended vaccination rollouts at Burton’s Pirelli Stadium. The club have made Hemmings aware of the support available to him from the club and the wider community should he feel he needs it. The club and the Burton Albion Community Trust are signed up to the mental health wellbeing charter. As a kid, Hemmings went to the half-term camps laid on by the Trust he has since helped at as a player. “If I left the club, I’d like people to think I was out in the community and tried to make some sort of difference. One thing that became evident when I spoke to Aileen was that I feel like I need community around me. Moving home to Burton has been a massive weight off my shoulders. I moved away from home when I was 16 to go to Rangers so I was not at home for the first 10 years of my career.” Billy Kee, Marvin Sordell and Kevin Ellison have spoken powerfully on depression and Hemmings knows his story will resonate with many. “If you speak to someone to get help … I can’t tell you how good it feels after,” he says. “It makes you feel unbelievable, once you delve into how you feel and openly speak to someone without feeling judgment. You walk out feeling like a totally different person. It feels like you are floating.” Book extract: Scared, by Kane Hemmings I LOVE “playing” football. Football is all I know and all I’ve ever really been “good” at. But the problem is I don’t “play” football, I’m in the industry that is football. Where is the enjoyment in sitting in the changing room before a game petrified as to what could happen in the next few hours? I don’t want to let myself down, my teammates, my family or friends that have come to watch all expecting me to do well. But I can't turn round to a teammate and say “I’m scared about going out here”. No, I sit there and do what everyone knows I’m good at, PRETENDING I'M NOT ARSED. And I almost convince myself I’m not. When I’m having a bad game people will say you just didn’t look interested. But deep down it's killing me inside, and I look like I’m not trying but I’m trying even harder. I feel physically embarrassed, because I know I’m better than most players at this level but for some reason I can't bring myself to be better than them, and its all in my own head because I know I’m petrified to let anyone down. I scored 26 goals in a season for Dundee and emotionally that was the worst season I had. I hated it. At the end of that season I broke down crying on the side of the M6 on my way home ... I was thinking 'wtf is wrong with me. I’ve just had the best season of my life and I hate it?' The problem for me is that with all the highs comes a horrible feeling of anxiety. I'm anxious of people’s expectations and then them I put on myself. People say when you score it gives you confidence and I understand what they’re saying, but the overwhelming emotion for me is anxiety. I just feel its even more pressure and I just don’t like it really but that’s just the territory I’m in I guess ... I think the biggest reason I get so scared at times is because football is all I’ve known for so long. I’ve seen so many people better than me fall away and not be able to play any more. It scares me to think everything that comes with “playing” football can be taken away from you at any time and that I could be left with nothing, especially now I have a son to take care of in the world as well. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

Morelos was brilliant tonight. Should have scored in first half but attitude throughout was excellent and, like you say, the guy remains an integral part of the way we (want to) play. That's why everyone else hates him.

I think that this is a game that can be enjoyed with less tension than league matches. I know that I won't be as nervous as on the last couple of Sundays or the coming one. What I really want is to win the league asap and anything else is a bonus, so I view tonight as an opportunity to get in some good practise against better than usual opposition with hopefully a win at the end of it.

Derek Rae is an excellent commentator, one of the best, if not the best, out there right now.

Worth noting that Morelos, after missing an early great chance, had a hand in all 4 goals. It is no coincidence that after 3 games of only scoring once he comes back into the team and we get 4 against a good opponent. Hope he can add goals too as we will be depending on him to score now that Roofe is out for another 6 weeks or so. So many talking points in this one, not going to be getting much sleep tonight!

He is saying nothing now. Carrying the Scottish standard in Europe, continually improving the Scottish coefficient single handedly, going ten games undefeated in Euro competition, ........ etc; forget it because as of 22.20hrs, BBC Radio Scotland's finished. Still, quite typically, Richard Gordon's closing line was, "that was Rangers thirteenth penalty of the season".

I don't know what to say I love this team they just seem to have the bollocks to keep it together and fight back yaaaaaaaaasssssss fuckin beauty.... I'm off for a beer and a lie down

Wow, what a ridiculous game of football and we deserved to win.

This team has desire, superb result onwards and upwards

What a team.

Don't talk to me about Scottish refs. - that's the most biased refereeing I've seen in a long time.

Surprised at Kent not being there and Arfield coming in (considering he's not played much football).

I've had a look. As things stand, to have any chance of being seeded in next season's UCL playoff we either need 3-4 upsets in Q3 (which won't happen) or we need 3 more wins in this season's competition and Red star to lose both their games to AC Milan and Young Boys to lose both their games to Leverkusen. If that happens we still won't be on course to be seeded, but we would only be relying on one upset in the previous round. In summary, we won't be seeded in next season's playoff

15 points auld yin....you no had yer weetabix this morning? ?

Loved listening to David Francey commentate, he always seemed to add that bit of drama.

Dunno why they didn`t include the handball the ref missed early doors, within the first 10 mins I think. Maybe we`ll go "3"-4-3 similar to Antwerp for the weeks ahead, with Balogun - Goldson - Helander, while Barisic drops into the 4-3-3 when we lose the ball. I doubt that Balogun will be as attack-minded as Tav, even though he ventured forward quite a bit against a good team. Speaking of which, how good was it to see us and the opposition play a "good game of football". Not that week-in-week-out attempt of breaking a 10-man defence.

That Antwerp team are far better on the attack than defending , we were miles better than them . But for a very lenient ref and some dodgy VAR decisions we would have won that out of sight . hope Tav is ok , we need to take time and get to the bottom oh Roofes calf issues for next season . lastly , don’t you just love the Rangers .

A quite incredible game of football that had absolutely everything. Delighted to win as we were by far the better team. Thought Goldson was fantastic, Morelos did brilliantly (but should have scored in first half) and Kent showed his class in the second half. Big worry now over Tav but I am very much enjoying Michael Stewart tying himself into knots explaining why the Antwerp penalty was correct but the Rangers pens were not.

What the Fck? Neighbour came to the door at 1-0 to tell me something about the bins and I return and we're down 2-1. That was like watching us 2 years ago. Thought we amazing in parts but so naive in others. Would have kept Kamara on and taken Aribo off personally. We saw the best and worst of Kent. And what about the big man at RB storming the full length of the pitch? Literally shit myself when Aribo fluffed the backpass!!

Wow what a relief. Huge result, great position to progress. 2 big coefficient points in the bag too.

what a game what a result

Another let off

It was tongue in cheek mate - unbelievable that we are losing lol Big chance for Hagi

Too much space though, where’s the midfield?

Comfortable enough for 40 mins then ref decides to take over, coupled with us totally switching off and defending like the bheasts. Roofe = Tierney, chocolate muscles. Another month out for him no doubt. Tav’s injury is hugely worrying, that might be his season over. I know the forward dives but wtf is Davis doing sticking his foot in there, really unlike him. We’ve got it all to do in the second half to keep our unbeaten run going and give us a decent result to bring home for next week.

Those var decisions were made far too quickly, almost seemed pre meditated to me. This ref has got an angenda.

That was 4 mins, plus 30 secs max for the Roofe - Kent change. The penalty was given in the 7th minute, and the Bulgarian wasted no time to point at the spot.

Hope the referee didn't run into Gerrard in the tunnel. Actually I hope he did, a change of referee is what this game needs. Important we don't lose composure now, this is a 2 leg tie and we're still in the driving seat.

Not 6mins worth though, nowhere near it. Their keeper was even wasting time at a goal kick in the final minute.

In terms of our performance, we've been the better team, if rather wasteful in possession and in the final third. Roofe didn't look fit to begin with and has done his calf again so unlikely we'll see him again this season. Kent may actually be a better option as there is a lot of space in behind he could take advantage of. Someone needs to give Barisic a cold shower but puzzled why he's marking the tallest player in their team at a set piece.

What happened to var?

These decisions are ruining football. Handed a goal for absolutely nothing. Cheat.

Absolutely throwing himself to the ground for the tiniest touch. Disgraceful.

Kamara did such a good fake there that he even sold Roofe.

Morelos needs to score there, straight at the goalie

Fuming about Patterson right now.

He’s really risking things by trying to persevere

Midfield makes sense, Jack is unlucky but SG may well want to be able to bring on a strong sub in that area if/when needed (no Zungu). Kent absence makes me wonder if 4-4-2 is an option.

Probably has more to do with the BBC being incompetent tossers, I'd imagine. Mon The Rangers! ??

I hope you are getting a cut from these sales Frankie as it is costing me a fortune !

I know what you’re saying, but for the club there is probably more riding on this fixture than it seems there is. Progression in the EL this season could make the difference in being seeded in the UCL playoff next season. I think it unlikely but I’m sure there was a possibility that it could come down to whether we can get some more points on the board this season. Being seeded would up our chances of group stage qualification massively.

David Frenzy we called him

Then you saw the match on the telly and were disappointed.

Back in the sixties after one game at Parkhead Thompson was leaving when Stein pulled him into a wee quiet room and gave him an almighty dressing down his next commentary it was all buzz bomb to jinky to wispy Stein put the fear of God up him

Looking forward to this tonight. Id take a 1-1 to get an away goal but think we can win there. Starting line up will be interesting if SG keeps Hagi in the side or brings Roofe in - or even both. But being a European game away from home I think it will be a strong 3 man midfield and only one from Hagi and Roofe will start. Interestingly the bookies have us odds on at 17/20. Id probably start this: McGregor Tavernier Goldson Helander Barisic Davis Jack Kamara Hagi Kent Morelos

I think demands that any players breaching Covid restrictions are sacked are just daft. It sets a dangerous precedent (imagine if next time it was Kent, Morelos, Hagi and Barisic - would we want them all sacked?). It's economically silly (players are financial assets). The restrictions seem to have been made up on the spot by people playing a guessing game. They're young men, probably missing a bit of female attention - giving them a warning should be sufficient.