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Sunday, August 19, 2007
Thats All folks
Thats all from me folks!
No more of this blog nonsense from me.
I will finish on the only high note i can think of -
Driver's goal it was a good one eh.
HOOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Monday, August 13, 2007
Bum Bump ..... Bum Bump
Like most Jambos, i spent the week cussin an a hollerin, gnashin my teeth and wailin - barking at the moon mostly. A very disappointing performance against the skinny green on Monday night at home, has meant the season started with our Hearts missing a beat. If you had read some of the Sunday articles though, in the Daily Rangers for instance - you could be forgiven for believing that Hearts season was already terminal. Andy Walker just loves his wee dig at us, the tart.
Although i was all bitter and twisted about the whole debacle of last Monday night, as you may have picked up from the last ramshackle effort ( honestly i could hardly string two coherent thoughts together ) if you read it, I still new the season was virginal and the team was still to start.
So by the end of the week i was up again, dying for the Aberdeen game to come round.
Craig Gordon - The only downside to this that i can see is that he has not immediately got his move to one of the big 4 in the Premiership. For all his talent, he is playing for Sunderland, there is the distinct possibility that he could find himself in a real battle to beat the drop, worse find himself relegated into the championship and swallowed up in the huge machine that is English football. This could cost him his rightful place at the top of the game. On the other hand he could prove to be worth 15 points to them which may be just enough, after a storming season to take them into Europe and maybe a great run in the FA Cup. Lets hope so.
From my perspective, Hearts ( Vlad ) has done exactly the right thing. This is a stonking amount of money for him. Selling earlier and we would have got less, later and clubs would have started to look at the length of his contract remaining and begun to calculate based on that. This was exactly the right time to sell for all parties concerned.
No matter what any of the anti Vlad brigade ( Jambo or otherwise ) can say, there is absolutely no way we would have commanded anything like that kind of money for CG if it were not for Vlad's financial clout. He would most probably have been a Celtic player for the last 3 years, and we would have spent the £450,000 we got for him on servicing an unmanageable debt.
I hope he goes on to have the career we all think he is capable of and i hope as he suggested, he comes back and plays for us again -
Although i was all bitter and twisted about the whole debacle of last Monday night, as you may have picked up from the last ramshackle effort ( honestly i could hardly string two coherent thoughts together ) if you read it, I still new the season was virginal and the team was still to start.
So by the end of the week i was up again, dying for the Aberdeen game to come round.
Craig Gordon - The only downside to this that i can see is that he has not immediately got his move to one of the big 4 in the Premiership. For all his talent, he is playing for Sunderland, there is the distinct possibility that he could find himself in a real battle to beat the drop, worse find himself relegated into the championship and swallowed up in the huge machine that is English football. This could cost him his rightful place at the top of the game. On the other hand he could prove to be worth 15 points to them which may be just enough, after a storming season to take them into Europe and maybe a great run in the FA Cup. Lets hope so.
From my perspective, Hearts ( Vlad ) has done exactly the right thing. This is a stonking amount of money for him. Selling earlier and we would have got less, later and clubs would have started to look at the length of his contract remaining and begun to calculate based on that. This was exactly the right time to sell for all parties concerned.
No matter what any of the anti Vlad brigade ( Jambo or otherwise ) can say, there is absolutely no way we would have commanded anything like that kind of money for CG if it were not for Vlad's financial clout. He would most probably have been a Celtic player for the last 3 years, and we would have spent the £450,000 we got for him on servicing an unmanageable debt.
I hope he goes on to have the career we all think he is capable of and i hope as he suggested, he comes back and plays for us again -
- When he is 38 and in the twilight of his phenomenal career, full of misty eyed nostalgia for his beloved Hearts he must finish his playing career in the beautiful maroon and white.
or
- When Hearts are the most successful team in Scotland and he sees us as his best chance at winning a European trophy, we can buy him back for £20M which will be small potatoes for us.
whichever comes first.
Bum Bump? is that the sound of me landing back on Terra Firma?
Rant time - here goes
I can't remember which paper or writer, don't care!
The write up went something like -
John Collin's is brilliant because the minute it was clear that Whittaker was off he immediately pulled him from pre-season and prepared for life without him. Vlad on the other hand is a madman because he continued to play Craig Gordon throughout pre-season which is clearly stupid for a player you are intending to sell. Is it? Now what if, the reason CG was played was because Vlad was putting up the appearance that he was quite happy for him to stay with the club ( i am no hurry mate ), this being part of Vlad's bargaining position. Eminently sensible as far as i can see. The sale of both players was a coup for both of the Edinburgh clubs, why find a reason to knock one and hurrah the other. The only addition i will add is i don't think JC would have had much to do with the sale of Whittaker, and he seems the petulant sort to me so his dropping the player could be as much to do with that attitude as any shrewd tactical nous. My point is ... Media - shut up with the blindly pointless anti Hearts bollocks, there are plenty of occasions when Vlad puts us in a position of naked ridicule, so just stick to that instead of making it up when it doesn't exist.
So with The Riccarton Arms binned for the clearly unforgivable favouring the Blue nose v Chelsea nonsense over the Hearts v Barcelona game, i was struggling for a venue to watch the Aberdeen v Hearts match this weekend. I had heard that you can buy Setanta on a month by month basis from Sky these days so i phoned up the VirginMedia people and asked if i can do the same. I kind of can by simply cancelling the subscription at any time. So Setanta is the answer to the crap pub scenario.
Feet up, beer in hand and Heart on sleeve, I nervously settle down (if you can do such a thing) to watch the match. Surprise! but Hearts start the match looking confident and assured, passing is crisp and neat. Ball retention is therefore high and we look easily the better team. This can only be down to the fact that we are playing midfielders in midfield - 'i mean who'd ah thunk it'
Palazuelo and Eggert Jonsson in central midfield alongside Michael Stuart made a huge difference to the balance of the team. We were however still lacking fairly dismally in the last third of the field. Still we were well in control when Eggert made his mistake, a young lad and hopefully he will learn from it but he really should have just melted it out the park when he had the opportunity. The winger stole the ball from Eggert instead and cut back for Nicholson to dispatch the goal and the second time of asking.
Aberdeen 1
Hearts 0
Unsurprisingly this time. Hearts all but collapsed into their Monday night malaise after the shock of the goal against the run of play. Aberdeen took pretty much complete control of the game and my gills were becoming greener as each minute of the first half passed. The mental scar open again and weeping deep burgundy red.
We won this fixture last year, 3 - 1 i recall, Panilla scored a peach of a goal, but before we took the lead Aberdeen played us off the park, they oozed style and class for pretty much all of the first half in that game until we got them in a strangle hold. In this encounter however for all Hearts punch drunk performance after the loss of the opener, Aberdeen did not have the same quality at their disposal. It is early days in the season for them too i guess. With not much happening outside a constricted central third of the park and half time fast approaching, the single moment of clear quality arose to settle the match. A scramble for the ball on the edge of the box, it fell to Iveskivicius, a neat ball played into the path of Michael Stuart who clipped a great ball over the keeper and into the back of the net. Craig Gordon would have saved it mind you ! ( free now from reality we can loft him as high as we care to dream onto the highest pedestal )
Half Time
Aberdeen 1
Hearts 1
Bolstered by the equaliser at exactly the right time, Hearts went on to take control of the second half. Ksanavicius came on for Driver who had not done too much in the first half. It may be that Ksanavicius may take Drivers place in the team, he looks decent enough out there, provided a bit more penetration down the left flank.
Miko came on for Iveskivicius. This is easily the best way to play Miko, he seems to come on the park carrying much more urgency when brought on from the bench. He was even seen producing a couple of early crosses into the box!
Eggert Jonsson recovered well from his early mistake to put in an assured shift alongside Palazuelo who worked hard enough i guess but the jury is still out on him. He overcooked a couple of diagonal balls designed to drop in just behind the full backs - devastating if they come off, maybe he just needs to find his range.
The game never really looked like finding a winner and a draw was certainly the correct result, a tad more quality needed from both teams i think but neither should be too disappointed.
For Hearts we have a chance to build a bit of confidence and pick up 3 points next week against Gretna ( they threw away a 2 goal lead against Hibs - good grief ).
For Aberdeen, i couldn't give a proverbial mate.
HOOOOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The Twilight Zone
This is a story, a very ordinary story of ordinary folks with ordinary lives.
An ordinary tale in an ordinary and ordered world, a world with rules.
The world i speak of is our world, here, the one we call Earth, a world which rotates on it's axis and in turns revolves around our sun. Creating for us the seasons and the passing of our annual cycle - this is the one constant phenomenon which allows us to comprehend and organise our existence within the confines of the passing of time.
We are ordinary folks whose lives are ordered based on that passage of time, be it controlling our waking ours or our working week, a time of rest. It may be the passing of the months and the seasons of the year - we naturally rely on that passage of time to understand our place in here and the now.
But what if that passage of time were to somehow stop! Or to rearrange itself! such that our understanding of the here and the now were to disintegrate - our ordered world would surely collapse into chaos.
This is the story of just such an eventuality, in
The Twilight Zone
Time ( supposition ) - 19:45 Monday 6th August
Place - Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh, Scotland
It may have been the start of season 2007 - 2008 but for all the world that game had the unmistakable stench of last season!
What has happened to all that time, all the things that i was sure would happen during the close season - the arrival of managers and coaches and quality midfielders who would enhance the team and turn it into something worth giving a toss about. Nothing that's what it's as if time has just bypassed the last 3 months.
Do you think maybe that my natural Jambo state is stuck firmly in the twilight zone? The aftermath of Monday night is simply a brief moment of clarity - a view of reality through the square window!
Of course i was excited about the start of the season, full of all the emotions you would expect -
apprehension and fear and desire and all the rest. But most of all, far and away the greatest, i was full of hope for the upcoming battles and sorties. The one great constant for all supporters when they line up for the season to be.
No blog entry for the Barcelona game as, curiously you may think, i chose not to go. I don't do friendlies they are invariably garbage. All teams need them it is true i just don't need to watch them. I did however shuffle up to the Riccarton Arms to watch it on the telly. Got in, bought a pint then realised they were showing the Rangers - Chelsea game. Absolutely f'n can't believe that and the pub is well and truly dumped. I watched 15 minutes of the game between what could quite easily be the two most disliked teams in the UK. Rangers could not get out of their own half so i was amazed when i found out they won 2 - 0. Stormed out of the pub in disgust and home to listen to the Hearts - Barcelona game on the radio. It was predictably garbage. Nuff said.
Before the game began i entered once again The Twilight Zone. Bear with me.
One of the main purposes of pre match warm up is, this is my opinion you understand and i have never played football to any level worth talking about, the main purpose is for the players to loosen up their muscles and relax there bodies and most importantly to allow the players to collect themselves, to focus on the game ahead. To coin an Americanism, to "get in the zone" ( not the twilight one ). This is a very personal thing with each player dealing with his own Psyche in his own personal way.
So for anyone who witnessed this i was initially amazed, a state which quickly froze into abject fear.
The Hearts warm up consisted of some trainer guy standing 20 yards in from the Roseburn stand touchline with a whistle in his mouth. He would peep his whistle once every second or so at which time a pile of the massive Hearts squad would sprint from the touchline towards him.
I mean for all the saints what the hell is going on at Riccarton if they think this is the way to approach a pre-match warm up. This is football not "running around on grass really fast"
Here is the unshakable vision that has been thrust into my head -
Unfortunately the best i can say about the performance was, we done a lot of running around on grass, sometimes quite fast.
Lets face it Hibs caught us cold, their first scamper down the left and Neilson didn't get to there to block the cross, Karipidis made a poor attempt at clearing from the front post, so the striker was in to nod home. If Karipidis had got to it the most likely outcome was an own goal in any case.
Hearts did have a game plan, just the one mind you.
The game plan was :-
Lets beat their obviously calamitous goalkeeper by lobbing him straight from the kick - off. He will of course drop the ball - His confidence shattered we will go on to score a bucket of goals and his Hibs career would effectively be over ( at least against Hearts that is ). Unfortunately Makalamby calmly watched the ball drop a couple of feet behind the bar, and continued to calmly stroll through the rest of the match - he must be wondering what all the fuss was about.
He looks a decent enough keeper but it is hard to tell when he was under minus 274 degrees worth of pressure.
The game plan shot Hearts stumbled through the rest of the game with a complete dearth of tactics or semblance of a strategy. I spent most of the first half ( a half that Hearts pretty much owned ) thinking to myself - Hibs are crap, they are rubbish we should be annihilating this garbage. But of course we were completely bloody useless.
In truth Hibs looked solid enough at the back but i think on this showing the have a big hole to fill. They seemed to flirt a bit with the idea that quick movement and passing is a good thing but without the real passion for it or the drive to make it really count.
At least Hibs at some idea where the other members of their team were, as with huge swathes of last season Hearts players look perpetually confused and rushed and well petrified whenever they have the ball. I despair, do we do any football during training? Do we just run our players into the ground, or onto the physios table more like.
Hearts played Ibrahim Tall in midfield, this has never worked for us before, the only possible explanation for it this time round is that Stuttgart are supposedly looking at him for £500,000 and Vlad wants him playing. No idea why Palazuelos was not playing, seemed so completely obvious.
As for Benuisis up front, watching a player simply die out there is never pleasant but it was Hibs for christ sake, the first game of the season and against Hibs. We needed with a capital N to win that game, we needed to do whatever it took, like hook him after 15 minutes when it was obvious he had no chance. We needed to do it and we did nothing.
Ksanavisius looked an ok player, out of position but might be worth a shot.
Michael Stewart ran about like a man possessed in the middle, with the same attitude and LarryK in there too, with some decent out's up front we might be able to start to cook but for sure it seems a million miles away right now.
Robbie Nielson was lucky to stay on the park for some mentalist tackling.
Miko has come in for his sizable share of abuse from Jambos over the past couple of years, some of it justified but for sure not all of it. With the Tynecastle faithful desperate for "Benny from crossroads" to be hooked on the hour mark, the sight of makela warming up gave us all a little hope. Makela was brought on for Miko though and shoved out on the wing with Benny left to humiliate himself in the centre. The round of boos was extreme and i hope Miko realised it was not aimed at him. An ok game by his standards but still lacks the final ball far too often.
As the game wore on, Hibs became more and more confident in the fact that we were useless and i am sure have seldom enjoyed an easier last 20 minutes at Tynecastle.
I have been quite scathing here, i am sure you will agree. In truth, i was in the pub before the game and mentioned - anyone who can predict or read anything into the first game of the season is a fool, it is always a lottery!
So you can discount every word i have written here, your time reading this was in all likelihood spent drifting through the dimensions in
The Twilight Zone.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Seasons End
Apocalypse Now was on the telly the other night and as i settle down to write this final entry, a summation of season 2006/2007, the opening title music and scenes fill my head. "This is the end ......" and tropical forests are napalmed into oblivion - for a season that lacked almost everything a melodramatic image to conclude it all.
If i could have i would have napalmed that season
Guess i could just stop now, that about sums the whole thing up ...
Not quite!
Given that the Romanov era is still with us at Tynecastle and last season ( i need to stop thinking of it now as last season - season before last ) was such a powerful and intoxiting brew, it is impossible in my eyes to sum up 06/07 without comparison to 05/06. That i think is part of the problem i have with this newly concluded campaign.
If 05/06 was played out in glorious technicolor, a tragi-drama of epic proportions, sumptous cinematography and a cast of thousands. Then 06/07 flickered by in cracked and ancient sepia a pale ghost of it's predecessor, 90% of which deserved to be left on the cutting room floor.
We had our dramas this year ofcourse, there is no mistaking that but for the most part they were more like watching a disturbed adolescent self harm, than they were like witnessing the crash, bang, wallop of our rampage through the fun fair of the previous year.
It just wasn't fun this year and that is the most damning statement i can make about the whole sorry show.
There is a thought though, could this year have been the Vlad era's troubled adolescence? Are we set to bloom into a fully fledged mature and powerful buck ready to take on the old guard next year?
I will follow last years example and stick to some ordered categories so that this entry doesn't spiral up my trouser leg in a fit of superlatives -
Best goal
This is really tough because goals themselves have been at a premium never mind good ones.
I really like Driver's free kick against Celtic to make it 2 - 0 to the good guys.
Any goal we scored which came as a result of a goal keeping error which pretty much means all goals we scored against Hibs.
Putting my sensible head on though the best goal was Panilla's in the first game at Pittordrie, great team work, fast paced and accurate passing, completed by intelligent and clinical finishing.
Worst Goal
Tough one this for exactly the opposite reason to the first category, i have witnessed too many goals for the opposition this year. I can't really remember any that were as you might say - a thing of beauty. So i will go for the goals that bothered me most.
Aberdeens equaliser a few weeks back at Tynecastle was very painful but not as painful as the Hibs goal in the diddy cup.
Best Game
Not the best game we played but the most exciting and therfeore enjoyable has to the boxing day game against Hibs.
Worst game
Without a shadow of a doubt, even although we took 4 - 0 drubbing from Dundee Utd at Tynecastle later in the season, the worst game Hearts played this season was the 1 - 0 defeat to Hibs at easter Road. Actually i am not even sure if we could count that as a game from Hearts, i left that ground feeling ill. A million miles past frustrating, just awful.
Best Player
There is absolutely no mistaking that Craig Gordon is in a different league entirely to the rest of the Hearts team, but for me he has not had the best of seasons. So i will leave him out because it should have been a no brainer for him to take this accolade, i have to give it to Christophe Berra who has been there 100% through the thickest of the fog this year and never wavered once.
Worst Player
Oh my god where to begin, it would be unfair to point the finger at one of the newer candidates but Philibaitus takes the biscuit, could have gone to baressa i think but it has been so long since he played i have forgotten the horror.
Comedy Moment
It has got to be the post derby day sit in at Easter Road to spoil the party parade. Absolute unfettered genius.
High Point
Through all the troubles of this year we have actually faired better against Hibs than we did last year taking 10 points out of 12 in the league, obviously the 3 wins were fairly high up there, but...
Unfortunately the high point of the season was the 30s before kick-off in the Athens game at Murrayfield.
Low Point
I am tempted to say the following 90 minutes, but no quite.
I have to refer back to the league cup defeat to Hibs, but there have been so many that really hurt that it is hard to single one out. Wait it is not a game, the lowest point was Malofeev / Riabovas handover that never happened - we were in danger of imploding right then.
Best Performance
My brain has stopped working, i can't think of a single game that was any more than OK.
Hero
Don't do hero worship this year
Manager of the year
Once again we have far too many to choose from, i am of the opinion that we have improved since moving to the pairing of Korobochka and Frail that is not to say that we are any good just better than we were.
Vlad's best decision
I could say that Vlad's best decision has been to keep a low profile over the past few months but i guess it has to go to getting rid of Malofeev. When you consider that it was Romanov who appointed Malofeev in the first place then does it count as a good decision when you get shot of him. I don't care, just so long as he doesn't come back.
Vlad's worst decision
Not really a single decision here, his handling of the Riccarton 3 was typical of Vlad at his most intransigent and unreasonable, but that pales into insignificance when you weigh that against 2 of the 3 now playing for Celtic and for next to nothing. Just makes you want to weep.
Best Save
Craig Gordon made a couple of saves against Sparta Prague, just before they scored there were truly breathtaking, each one should have added a 6 figure sum to his value.
Best Team
OK here goes ( i will only use players who were at the club for the 2nd half of the season as i do not hold Hartley or Pressley 100% innocent in their own departures ). This is nigh on impossible, this team does not reflect performances this season, it is just the best i think we could turn out right now.
Worst Team
Most annoying team by a mile were St Mirren, Dunfermline have got to be in the running for getting relegated the numpties but for me the worst team were Motherwell, just plain gash.
So there you go that about sums it all up from me, i notice from writing this that my attention has focussed this year more on Hibs than it did last year. That i think is a mark of the change between o5/06 and 06/07 where in the former season our ambitions were loftier than simply being better than our neighbours.
So i hope that next season Hearts will spend once again less time considering how we are fairing compared to our friends in the East
So in readiness for that time
If i could have i would have napalmed that season
Guess i could just stop now, that about sums the whole thing up ...
Not quite!
Given that the Romanov era is still with us at Tynecastle and last season ( i need to stop thinking of it now as last season - season before last ) was such a powerful and intoxiting brew, it is impossible in my eyes to sum up 06/07 without comparison to 05/06. That i think is part of the problem i have with this newly concluded campaign.
If 05/06 was played out in glorious technicolor, a tragi-drama of epic proportions, sumptous cinematography and a cast of thousands. Then 06/07 flickered by in cracked and ancient sepia a pale ghost of it's predecessor, 90% of which deserved to be left on the cutting room floor.
We had our dramas this year ofcourse, there is no mistaking that but for the most part they were more like watching a disturbed adolescent self harm, than they were like witnessing the crash, bang, wallop of our rampage through the fun fair of the previous year.
It just wasn't fun this year and that is the most damning statement i can make about the whole sorry show.
There is a thought though, could this year have been the Vlad era's troubled adolescence? Are we set to bloom into a fully fledged mature and powerful buck ready to take on the old guard next year?
I will follow last years example and stick to some ordered categories so that this entry doesn't spiral up my trouser leg in a fit of superlatives -
Best goal
This is really tough because goals themselves have been at a premium never mind good ones.
I really like Driver's free kick against Celtic to make it 2 - 0 to the good guys.
Any goal we scored which came as a result of a goal keeping error which pretty much means all goals we scored against Hibs.
Putting my sensible head on though the best goal was Panilla's in the first game at Pittordrie, great team work, fast paced and accurate passing, completed by intelligent and clinical finishing.
Worst Goal
Tough one this for exactly the opposite reason to the first category, i have witnessed too many goals for the opposition this year. I can't really remember any that were as you might say - a thing of beauty. So i will go for the goals that bothered me most.
Aberdeens equaliser a few weeks back at Tynecastle was very painful but not as painful as the Hibs goal in the diddy cup.
Best Game
Not the best game we played but the most exciting and therfeore enjoyable has to the boxing day game against Hibs.
Worst game
Without a shadow of a doubt, even although we took 4 - 0 drubbing from Dundee Utd at Tynecastle later in the season, the worst game Hearts played this season was the 1 - 0 defeat to Hibs at easter Road. Actually i am not even sure if we could count that as a game from Hearts, i left that ground feeling ill. A million miles past frustrating, just awful.
Best Player
There is absolutely no mistaking that Craig Gordon is in a different league entirely to the rest of the Hearts team, but for me he has not had the best of seasons. So i will leave him out because it should have been a no brainer for him to take this accolade, i have to give it to Christophe Berra who has been there 100% through the thickest of the fog this year and never wavered once.
Worst Player
Oh my god where to begin, it would be unfair to point the finger at one of the newer candidates but Philibaitus takes the biscuit, could have gone to baressa i think but it has been so long since he played i have forgotten the horror.
Comedy Moment
It has got to be the post derby day sit in at Easter Road to spoil the party parade. Absolute unfettered genius.
High Point
Through all the troubles of this year we have actually faired better against Hibs than we did last year taking 10 points out of 12 in the league, obviously the 3 wins were fairly high up there, but...
Unfortunately the high point of the season was the 30s before kick-off in the Athens game at Murrayfield.
Low Point
I am tempted to say the following 90 minutes, but no quite.
I have to refer back to the league cup defeat to Hibs, but there have been so many that really hurt that it is hard to single one out. Wait it is not a game, the lowest point was Malofeev / Riabovas handover that never happened - we were in danger of imploding right then.
Best Performance
My brain has stopped working, i can't think of a single game that was any more than OK.
Hero
Don't do hero worship this year
Manager of the year
Once again we have far too many to choose from, i am of the opinion that we have improved since moving to the pairing of Korobochka and Frail that is not to say that we are any good just better than we were.
Vlad's best decision
I could say that Vlad's best decision has been to keep a low profile over the past few months but i guess it has to go to getting rid of Malofeev. When you consider that it was Romanov who appointed Malofeev in the first place then does it count as a good decision when you get shot of him. I don't care, just so long as he doesn't come back.
Vlad's worst decision
Not really a single decision here, his handling of the Riccarton 3 was typical of Vlad at his most intransigent and unreasonable, but that pales into insignificance when you weigh that against 2 of the 3 now playing for Celtic and for next to nothing. Just makes you want to weep.
Best Save
Craig Gordon made a couple of saves against Sparta Prague, just before they scored there were truly breathtaking, each one should have added a 6 figure sum to his value.
Best Team
OK here goes ( i will only use players who were at the club for the 2nd half of the season as i do not hold Hartley or Pressley 100% innocent in their own departures ). This is nigh on impossible, this team does not reflect performances this season, it is just the best i think we could turn out right now.
Gordon
Tall Zaliukas Berra Goncalves
Miko Kingston Aguar Driver
Velicka Bednar
Worst Team
Most annoying team by a mile were St Mirren, Dunfermline have got to be in the running for getting relegated the numpties but for me the worst team were Motherwell, just plain gash.
So there you go that about sums it all up from me, i notice from writing this that my attention has focussed this year more on Hibs than it did last year. That i think is a mark of the change between o5/06 and 06/07 where in the former season our ambitions were loftier than simply being better than our neighbours.
So i hope that next season Hearts will spend once again less time considering how we are fairing compared to our friends in the East
So in readiness for that time
HOOOOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Roman candles that fizzle out
Depression is not the reason why i have taken so long to write this blog entry - too late now by far so this one is just for completion really.
I refer to the game at Kilmarnock, the last game of the season and Hearts last chance saloon for a eufa cup place. It failed and it failed in a depressing fashion, but again depression is not the reason why i have taken so long to write this entry.
There was a time a couple of weeks back before the end of the season, when there was still a possibility that Hearts could pull the rabbit out of the hat - it went something like .. we win against Kilmarnock and Aberdeen fail to beat Rangers in their very own final day drama.
The venue for me was the previously infallable Riccarton Arms, now demoted to the level of all other normal venues, no longer holding some magical power over games watched there. Now that the shine has gone the pub looks shoddy and downbeaten as it always did before.
A glorious sunny day to end the season on a high if Hearts managed to pull it off but from our perspective it went off like damp roman candle. Hearts started brightly enough with some strong runs into the Killie box by Driver and Bednar, coming close but no cigar. Fairly soon into the game though news came through from Pittordrie that Aberdeen had taken the lead - a cracking strike from ex jambo Scott Severin. From that point on the dampness seeped deep into the gunpowder and the candle merely cast a maroon cloud of smog with no brilliant phosphorous centre to delight our afternoon.
I guess the thought crossed my mind that perhaps we were trying too hard, couldn't relax under the pressure and a goal for us would make all the difference, perhaps it would have but i am not so sure. In anycase Aberdeen scored a second and it was obvious that the Hearts players were well aware of this as they played out the game without the cavalry charge or the explosion of brilliance that would have given us the victory - our challenge just fizzled out in the sunshine as the glory went to the Dons.
Good luck to them really, i am certain they deserve their 3rd place. The only thing i would say is, and this is just what a lot of blue noses threw in out direction last year - Just as we pipped Rangers last year, Aberdeen pipped us for 3rd spot and we have been a disaster area all season, they will not have the same luxury next year.
To kill the day completely Kilmatrnock converted a late penalty to send home beaten and demoralised - a sad end to a sad season.
I refer to the game at Kilmarnock, the last game of the season and Hearts last chance saloon for a eufa cup place. It failed and it failed in a depressing fashion, but again depression is not the reason why i have taken so long to write this entry.
There was a time a couple of weeks back before the end of the season, when there was still a possibility that Hearts could pull the rabbit out of the hat - it went something like .. we win against Kilmarnock and Aberdeen fail to beat Rangers in their very own final day drama.
The venue for me was the previously infallable Riccarton Arms, now demoted to the level of all other normal venues, no longer holding some magical power over games watched there. Now that the shine has gone the pub looks shoddy and downbeaten as it always did before.
A glorious sunny day to end the season on a high if Hearts managed to pull it off but from our perspective it went off like damp roman candle. Hearts started brightly enough with some strong runs into the Killie box by Driver and Bednar, coming close but no cigar. Fairly soon into the game though news came through from Pittordrie that Aberdeen had taken the lead - a cracking strike from ex jambo Scott Severin. From that point on the dampness seeped deep into the gunpowder and the candle merely cast a maroon cloud of smog with no brilliant phosphorous centre to delight our afternoon.
I guess the thought crossed my mind that perhaps we were trying too hard, couldn't relax under the pressure and a goal for us would make all the difference, perhaps it would have but i am not so sure. In anycase Aberdeen scored a second and it was obvious that the Hearts players were well aware of this as they played out the game without the cavalry charge or the explosion of brilliance that would have given us the victory - our challenge just fizzled out in the sunshine as the glory went to the Dons.
Good luck to them really, i am certain they deserve their 3rd place. The only thing i would say is, and this is just what a lot of blue noses threw in out direction last year - Just as we pipped Rangers last year, Aberdeen pipped us for 3rd spot and we have been a disaster area all season, they will not have the same luxury next year.
To kill the day completely Kilmatrnock converted a late penalty to send home beaten and demoralised - a sad end to a sad season.
Monday, May 14, 2007
11th commandment
Nothing happens at Hearts anymore, i can hardly think of anything to write about. There are just no disasters anymore, natural, supernatural or otherwise, externally motivated or self inflicted. Just nothing but the regular football stuff - players getting injured or coming back or getting suspended or appealing so they can play in important games before the seasons climax.
We really need the end of the season so that Vlad can regroup and start another assault, another madcap rampage through Scottish football culture.
Vlad just bought a building in Edinburgh, the old Royal Bank headquarters i believe, £20M so the papers claim - Jesus he's mental isn't he.
If it had not been for the surprise chance of a shot at 3rd place by squeezing past Aberdeen, this season would have silently slipped under the stone it has been hiding behind since the very start.
As the week progressed i became more and more confident that Aberdeen would get a win in one of their remaining games so all i was really looking far in the derby game against Hibs was a good performance and a stonking great horseing for the skinny green.
I can think of no better way to wrap up the season than with your last home game being against Hibs. A few beers in the Caley Sample Rooms before the game just a livener for many more beers afterwards. In there with one of my kids and a Hibs supporter over in the enlightened half of the city for a change - he is generally quite disgruntled with the state of play at Easter Road but pretty much understands the constraints that bind the team. That's it for me that just sums the whole thing up! I asked him if he would swap the the circumstances of both teams, if he would take for Hibs the knife edged danger of having a madman in charge, a throw of the dice. For Hearts would he offer up the stable fiscal policies of a miserly wage cap for the long term stability and imposed mediocrity of the club.
I know which one i favour!
After some debate and an admission on my part that no one in Scotland could take on the gruesome twosome without accepting an unnatural state in order to do so ( neither of those two could take on europe without doing the same, Rangers have tried it and it looks like it is costing them a decade of humble pie ). I still don't think i got a straight answer - but i will answer for him -
"too bloody right i would take the throw of that dice"
It became clear that Scott Brown was not in the Hibs squad, i was ofcourse pleased by this but thinking back now that will be the last time we see him in a derby match which is a bit of a shame really - it would have been good to see him match up against LarryK, if only just the once.
Oh how Hibs missed Scott Brown!
We pontificated over the likelyhood of some bust up with John Collins and Brown resulting in his expulsion from the squad and last game for Hibs already played. As it turned out though Scott Brown had a family loss and was unable to play. Just shows you though there is more potential for intrigue and sabotage at Easter Road than there is at Tynecastle - i am missing it.
Oh how Hibs missed Scott Brown!
And some! that is probably the most inept display by a Hibs team at Tynecastle that i have seen for ages. I seem to remember the 4 - 1 game at Tynecastle last year was a pretty dire display by them, but really on Saturday in that first half they were awful.
As an aside, here's a thought, even after all the depression of this season we have taken more points from Hibs this year 10 out of 12 than we did last year 6 out of 12.
I had just sat down and sadly had missed the Cheers theme over the sound system, when the game kicked of. Amazingly we scored after 30s and it was our 2nd attack! One long ball had gone through to Andy McNeill, the second punted to the left of the box, Pospisil muscled his way between the two stumbling centre halfs more in hope than expectation. His reward was for the ball to drop over his shoulder and down to his feet - hey you make your own luck in this game. Pospisil still had a lot to do but he managed to get a foot round the ball to direct it across the keeper and into the net.
The crowd could hardly believe it, but we enjoyed it just the same.
With Hibs relying far too much on Louis Stevenson - he looks like a good player but it was completely unfair to expect him to carry the whole of the midfield fight to Hearts. Some of Hearts play was almost reminiscent of last years pedigree as we swept forward at every opportunity and attacked from all areas. Fyssas was playing his last game for Hearts and he was really enjoying his run out up the left with Driver ahead of him. Andy McNeill in goal for Hibs made a couple of decent saves then one really good clearance from a Bednar header that looked a goal all the way. Pospisil had another effort well saved and Berra had a good header turned onto the bar, it could have been six by half time.
On the other hand Hibs had a couple of breakaway chances where they really should have scored, most notably a break after a corner to Hearts found the Hibs front two bearing down on - good grief there is only Fyssas at the back! Passes between each other being over hit and delaying just that split second too long found Karipidis screaming in from nowhere to make the challenge and stop the shot an excellent piece of defending but really they should have buried that.
So it is carved in stoney grey granite, the 11th commandment. Which roughly translated from the ancient Hebrew dictates ...
"And the lord spoke, so it shall be unto all the Hibs goalie's and for all eternity, that they shall make an erse of a simple catch when playing against the good guys"
The ball was clipped forward and as Andy Driver chased on as he should, and the Hibs defender did likewise, the the ball was McNeills all the way. He ran out to collect on 16 yards. pious chap that he is the 11th commandment was met as he took his eye off the ball at exactly the moment he should have concentrated hardest. The ball evaded him somehow and allowed Driver to steal in behind, under pressure he did well to take on his right thigh and finish with his left on the half volley.
The crowd could hardly believe it but we loved it just the same.
Half Time
HMFC 2
Old testament zealots 0
Now i was not happy with Hearts 2nd half display, really i thought we just couldn't be arsed. There was an opportunity i thought to really tear that team to shreds, they were 1 or perhaps 2 goals away from a complete collapse. Hearts just didn't pursue and we let go of the tigers tail ( Ok it wasn't a tiger it was a hamster ).
From a Hibs perspective it was a much better second half, where they had a lot more of the ball and put some pressure on Hearts defence. They never managed any real penetration however as Hearts midfield adopted a deeper position and a safety first attitude.
Fyssas left the field after an hour or so and shook every Hearts players hand on the way off. It probably is time for him to go but i for one am sad to see him go. For me last season he more than anyone else signified the step up in stature and quality we were attempting to achieve.
Tall came on for injured Larry Kingston who had had a straightforward decent game. Tall in midfield is just plain crazy but it hardly mattered we just gave Hibs the ball for 2/3 rds of the pitch and then put up the shutters for the remaining 1/3rd - just too easy really.
There had been many renditions of - "your gettin beat by a pub team, beat by a pub team" all of which was just reward for John Collins who had been in a bad mood since the off. He will learn from that i guess and pay other teams a bit more respect in future. Or maybe he won't learn from any of his mistakes, maybe he will just run out of time and get punted by Hibs before October is out, i would not be surprised in the slightest.
Full time
HMFC 2
Hibs 0
So we have one game to go, away to Kilmarnock, pretty simple really. We need to beat kilmarnock which is a racing certainty. Aberdeen play Rangers at Pittordrie, whilst it is true that there is no love lost between that pair, i think Aberdeen's greater need might just carry them over the line, blooody hope not.
So for one last time this season
We really need the end of the season so that Vlad can regroup and start another assault, another madcap rampage through Scottish football culture.
Vlad just bought a building in Edinburgh, the old Royal Bank headquarters i believe, £20M so the papers claim - Jesus he's mental isn't he.
If it had not been for the surprise chance of a shot at 3rd place by squeezing past Aberdeen, this season would have silently slipped under the stone it has been hiding behind since the very start.
As the week progressed i became more and more confident that Aberdeen would get a win in one of their remaining games so all i was really looking far in the derby game against Hibs was a good performance and a stonking great horseing for the skinny green.
I can think of no better way to wrap up the season than with your last home game being against Hibs. A few beers in the Caley Sample Rooms before the game just a livener for many more beers afterwards. In there with one of my kids and a Hibs supporter over in the enlightened half of the city for a change - he is generally quite disgruntled with the state of play at Easter Road but pretty much understands the constraints that bind the team. That's it for me that just sums the whole thing up! I asked him if he would swap the the circumstances of both teams, if he would take for Hibs the knife edged danger of having a madman in charge, a throw of the dice. For Hearts would he offer up the stable fiscal policies of a miserly wage cap for the long term stability and imposed mediocrity of the club.
I know which one i favour!
After some debate and an admission on my part that no one in Scotland could take on the gruesome twosome without accepting an unnatural state in order to do so ( neither of those two could take on europe without doing the same, Rangers have tried it and it looks like it is costing them a decade of humble pie ). I still don't think i got a straight answer - but i will answer for him -
"too bloody right i would take the throw of that dice"
It became clear that Scott Brown was not in the Hibs squad, i was ofcourse pleased by this but thinking back now that will be the last time we see him in a derby match which is a bit of a shame really - it would have been good to see him match up against LarryK, if only just the once.
Oh how Hibs missed Scott Brown!
We pontificated over the likelyhood of some bust up with John Collins and Brown resulting in his expulsion from the squad and last game for Hibs already played. As it turned out though Scott Brown had a family loss and was unable to play. Just shows you though there is more potential for intrigue and sabotage at Easter Road than there is at Tynecastle - i am missing it.
Oh how Hibs missed Scott Brown!
And some! that is probably the most inept display by a Hibs team at Tynecastle that i have seen for ages. I seem to remember the 4 - 1 game at Tynecastle last year was a pretty dire display by them, but really on Saturday in that first half they were awful.
As an aside, here's a thought, even after all the depression of this season we have taken more points from Hibs this year 10 out of 12 than we did last year 6 out of 12.
I had just sat down and sadly had missed the Cheers theme over the sound system, when the game kicked of. Amazingly we scored after 30s and it was our 2nd attack! One long ball had gone through to Andy McNeill, the second punted to the left of the box, Pospisil muscled his way between the two stumbling centre halfs more in hope than expectation. His reward was for the ball to drop over his shoulder and down to his feet - hey you make your own luck in this game. Pospisil still had a lot to do but he managed to get a foot round the ball to direct it across the keeper and into the net.
The crowd could hardly believe it, but we enjoyed it just the same.
With Hibs relying far too much on Louis Stevenson - he looks like a good player but it was completely unfair to expect him to carry the whole of the midfield fight to Hearts. Some of Hearts play was almost reminiscent of last years pedigree as we swept forward at every opportunity and attacked from all areas. Fyssas was playing his last game for Hearts and he was really enjoying his run out up the left with Driver ahead of him. Andy McNeill in goal for Hibs made a couple of decent saves then one really good clearance from a Bednar header that looked a goal all the way. Pospisil had another effort well saved and Berra had a good header turned onto the bar, it could have been six by half time.
On the other hand Hibs had a couple of breakaway chances where they really should have scored, most notably a break after a corner to Hearts found the Hibs front two bearing down on - good grief there is only Fyssas at the back! Passes between each other being over hit and delaying just that split second too long found Karipidis screaming in from nowhere to make the challenge and stop the shot an excellent piece of defending but really they should have buried that.
So it is carved in stoney grey granite, the 11th commandment. Which roughly translated from the ancient Hebrew dictates ...
"And the lord spoke, so it shall be unto all the Hibs goalie's and for all eternity, that they shall make an erse of a simple catch when playing against the good guys"
The ball was clipped forward and as Andy Driver chased on as he should, and the Hibs defender did likewise, the the ball was McNeills all the way. He ran out to collect on 16 yards. pious chap that he is the 11th commandment was met as he took his eye off the ball at exactly the moment he should have concentrated hardest. The ball evaded him somehow and allowed Driver to steal in behind, under pressure he did well to take on his right thigh and finish with his left on the half volley.
The crowd could hardly believe it but we loved it just the same.
Half Time
HMFC 2
Old testament zealots 0
Now i was not happy with Hearts 2nd half display, really i thought we just couldn't be arsed. There was an opportunity i thought to really tear that team to shreds, they were 1 or perhaps 2 goals away from a complete collapse. Hearts just didn't pursue and we let go of the tigers tail ( Ok it wasn't a tiger it was a hamster ).
From a Hibs perspective it was a much better second half, where they had a lot more of the ball and put some pressure on Hearts defence. They never managed any real penetration however as Hearts midfield adopted a deeper position and a safety first attitude.
Fyssas left the field after an hour or so and shook every Hearts players hand on the way off. It probably is time for him to go but i for one am sad to see him go. For me last season he more than anyone else signified the step up in stature and quality we were attempting to achieve.
Tall came on for injured Larry Kingston who had had a straightforward decent game. Tall in midfield is just plain crazy but it hardly mattered we just gave Hibs the ball for 2/3 rds of the pitch and then put up the shutters for the remaining 1/3rd - just too easy really.
There had been many renditions of - "your gettin beat by a pub team, beat by a pub team" all of which was just reward for John Collins who had been in a bad mood since the off. He will learn from that i guess and pay other teams a bit more respect in future. Or maybe he won't learn from any of his mistakes, maybe he will just run out of time and get punted by Hibs before October is out, i would not be surprised in the slightest.
Full time
HMFC 2
Hibs 0
So we have one game to go, away to Kilmarnock, pretty simple really. We need to beat kilmarnock which is a racing certainty. Aberdeen play Rangers at Pittordrie, whilst it is true that there is no love lost between that pair, i think Aberdeen's greater need might just carry them over the line, blooody hope not.
So for one last time this season
HOOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Edge
It is like a little haven of greenery in the middle of Carricknowe, i had no idea it existed but if you can navigate your way to the Primary school deep in the centre of the estate you will come across an opening of playing fields surrounded by a border of mature trees.
Very pleasant surroundings for Sunday mornings encounter between Currie Star and Carricknowe.
Currie have been progressing well of late so the lads and the travelling band of die-hard support were justifiably confident on arrival.
With the game just minutes old and Currie 1 - 0 up confidence was ever higher. The game took a turn, it took a few turns actually and one of them was dark and brooding. Innevitable really, we are talking about boys here ( mostly anyroads ), sooner or later adrenalin pumps to the fore and games can take on an edgy quality, this game became very edgy indeed.
All relative i guess, up until now i can't recall a single incident in any previous game that had even the slightest malice. This one though had and edge.
This is Scotland and we love that sort of thing but i think i could be doing with seeing the lads turn into teenagers before they turn on each other!
I will not point any fingers, whoever started it got as much back as they dished out so all's fair in war and fitba.
All in all it was a fairly evenly matched game with both teams nip and tuck and defences struggling to cope with the end to end barrages, the score quickly raced to something like 4 - 3 to Carricknowe. Currie were perhaps guilty of some defensive lapses that seemed to have been sorted out in previous weeks, this though was countered with an enthusiasm to attack at any opportunity.
Unfortunately for Currie during that middle period Caricknowe managed to get 3 without reply and from then on Currie struggled to keep a hold of the game. A final score of 8 - 5 to Carricknowe just about deserved. The most memorable aspect of this one however will be that unmistakeable acid aroma of the edge.
Very pleasant surroundings for Sunday mornings encounter between Currie Star and Carricknowe.
Currie have been progressing well of late so the lads and the travelling band of die-hard support were justifiably confident on arrival.
With the game just minutes old and Currie 1 - 0 up confidence was ever higher. The game took a turn, it took a few turns actually and one of them was dark and brooding. Innevitable really, we are talking about boys here ( mostly anyroads ), sooner or later adrenalin pumps to the fore and games can take on an edgy quality, this game became very edgy indeed.
All relative i guess, up until now i can't recall a single incident in any previous game that had even the slightest malice. This one though had and edge.
This is Scotland and we love that sort of thing but i think i could be doing with seeing the lads turn into teenagers before they turn on each other!
I will not point any fingers, whoever started it got as much back as they dished out so all's fair in war and fitba.
All in all it was a fairly evenly matched game with both teams nip and tuck and defences struggling to cope with the end to end barrages, the score quickly raced to something like 4 - 3 to Carricknowe. Currie were perhaps guilty of some defensive lapses that seemed to have been sorted out in previous weeks, this though was countered with an enthusiasm to attack at any opportunity.
Unfortunately for Currie during that middle period Caricknowe managed to get 3 without reply and from then on Currie struggled to keep a hold of the game. A final score of 8 - 5 to Carricknowe just about deserved. The most memorable aspect of this one however will be that unmistakeable acid aroma of the edge.
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