Punch drunk

Sometimes, watching Hearts this year has felt like watching the referee count out some punch drunk hasbeen, who should have jacked it in years before.

Yesterdays game against Kilmarnock was one of those days.
I was really looking forward to the game, i have enjoyed games against Kilmarnock recently, because generally they come to Tynecastle and play football, and generally we win.

A bad, bad day for Hearts tho.
Things are going pretty seriously pear shaped just now, the crowd at Tynecastle are definitely losing their patience and i can see things getting pretty nasty if we don't improve. The biggest problem for the support is thay they are pretty much to a man clear in the ideas that -

1. The rotation system is not working - the constant tinkering with the team is having a detrimental effect.
2. Valdas is not picking the best team. Is Valdas picking the team at all, no idea? Whatever, the best 11 is not walking onto the park at 3pm on a Saturday.
3. Valdas's substitutions are bizarre at times and have a low success rate.

Yesterday showed me once again tho that there is a deeper problem than those. Hearts are just pretty pish and thats the truth of it. There is some stat i heard earlier this year that goes something like -

The team in Scotland outwith the gruesome twosome that has some measure of success ( like a cup win or finish high up the league ) in one season, generally has a shocker the next. Flirts with relegation even. The 98 - 99 season if i remember rightly was a bit of a shocker. It is as if the emotional energy required/expended on the exploits of the season before need to be paid back in the next. It is only the old firm that are big enough and ugly enough to sustain the constant drive to perpetual challenge on all fronts. There may be some truth in that. In any case Hearts don't look like they have the Heart for it just now.

I was pretty disparaging of Hibs inability to hold onto a 2 goal lead last week, but i am even more certain of that after Kilmarnock's stroll through the last hour of the game yesterday. The catalyst for both goals was a slip by some Hearts player. Pressley hitting the turf to allow the space to open up for Naysmith to run into and create the chance for the first. Beslija slipping just as he tried to play the ball out of defence which allowed the Kilmarnock attack to pounce. In both cases tho there was still work to do and the first at least was a cracking finish. The second was deflected to beat Gordon. If anything Hearts were marginally the better team when the goals came, which added to the feeling of - a left to the ribs followed by a right upper cut straight on the chin. Hearts deserved nothing out of the game from that point on, there was only one winner.

Worryingly it feels like any team could do this to Hearts at the moment. We had a stroll against Dundee Utd a couple of weeks back but if they had gone into an early lead ( and they could have ) i am not sure if we could have pulled it back. If we get in front we can beat anyone in this league, but that is no certainty and it is only when we are in front that we seem to find ourselves and start to play like a team. I said plenty of times last year that if hearts are not 2 up by half time then i am worried. Now i am confident enough when the first goes in - it just isn't happening often enough.

Dissection :

Tactically, we play the long ball to the front two far far too often, and in that front two yesterday we had Jankauskas back from an 8 week injury and Bednar who forgive me but just hasn't got it when he is expected to deal with a high ball knocked 40 yards and a big centre half up his ass. I don't think he won a single ball in the air all day ( he has never been any good at that ) Hearts however continued to pump long balls at him all day - i just despair. We were pretty much forced into that situation given that the management seem incapable of playing two midfielders in the centre of midfield, leaving Hartley. Paul Hartley is forced into turning in some superhuman performance every week jsut to keep the midfield from capitulating completely. This weeks nonsense was Tall in with Hartley, Tall our right back or perhaps centre back. Look Valdas - Tall does not have the mobility of a midfielder, he struggles with the football too when in there. We do have the midfielders, so why on earth Aguair was not on the park from the beginning is beyond credibility. The crowd knew this and expressed their vitriol by calling for Brellier, and sure he would have done the trick in there too but i fear he is a lost cause now and it was Aguair who was on the bench.

Aguair did come on, too late ofcourse ( another of Valdas's well documented failures and general frustrations ). It was a bad day for Hearts, no one was playing well, we were struggling just to knock the ball forward with any degree of accuracy, far too many efforts were skewed, technically poor. Aguair however was again spraying balls 40 yards straight onto the feet of our wingers, he can do this with his eyes shut and no one else at Tynecastle can so why?

Dunfermline at Tynecastle next week and we have again layered loads of pressure onto ourselves - i do not expect a pretty start to the game and it could be tense throughout. I speak for the whole of the Hearts support tho when i say that we all need to see some logic applied to the team selection. We need some consistency and we need a bloody midfield!

Honours Even ?

The last time i went to Easter Road, Hearts won 4 - 1 and it was 1993 or something like that.
Yesterday Hearts were never going to win 4 - 1 and i may never go back down to that god foresaken place again.

It was good fun, dumping the kids for once and heading off for a few beers before the game.
School boy error notwithstanding - does this mean that

A) I have no life, i am a sad individual who hasn't had a life for so long that my only saviour is a crashing mid life crisis ( christ hurry up ).
B) As the years have passed i have, grown into a responsible adult who has developed some means of looking after himself, avoiding over indulgence along the way.
C) I am not an alcoholic.

Did you know - In Edinburgh on a Sunday morning it is impossible to get a pub to sell you alcohol until 12:30.

Arranging to meet for a few pre match beers then at 11:30 was not the best idea i had ever had.
Searched the length of Rose St to no avail but ended up thankfully in Hudsons ( a hotel so apparently gets to sell beer before 12:30 ) £6.20 for two cooking lagers mind you so we paid for the pleasure.

I had no fears about this game whatsoever
Hibs had been playing rubbish
The last time Hearts played we were looking pretty good
I had put on my maroon coloured specs days before and ignored any rational thought

I fully expected Hearts to cream Hibs and to walk out of Easter Road with Hibernian Football Club contemplating their future - Were they really cut out for football? and maybe they should consider some other more appropriate sport ( make it up for yourself here ) ?

Hibs tore into the game and tore into Hearts and pretty much tore us apart in the opening 20 minutes.
Low cross from the right had the Hearts back 4 looking unusually panicked. I think it fell to Zamama ( who had an annoyingly good game ) he had a couple of good touches ( should not even had had one ) and slotted the ball low into the far corner. It has been a long time since i have sat in the minority watching the majority celebrate - i don't like it!
The socond was a corner or free kick on the left, looked like a near post knock back for the finish but i read that it went straight in?
And that was us 2 - 0 nil down, looking shellshocked.

Immediately the analysis of the now expected, stupid team selection started.
Miko, why the hell do we play this character?
Zaliukas, we now know why he aims to be invisible in each game he plays - if he ever got involved he would get found out immediately.
Brellier or Aguar how come something so obvious can be so missed by the selection committee.
Valicka & Mole why this partnesrhip, you could pick any 2 from 6 so why this pairing it just doesn't look that dangerous.
It is now pretty clear that ( at least for some of the games a season ) the Hearts team selection is built to satisfy a Lithuanian watching public. The games being streamed back to the motherland to be watched by how many punters?

Right maroon specs firmly on here goes -
For all that glorious Hibee football, playing the beautiful game and playing it at pace - both their goals stemmed from mistakes by Hearts, right!
Sure Hibs were dominant, they almost reminded me of Hearts in the early part of last season. They simply rolled over us, we couldn't play and they hammered their point home.
The difference, the difference is .....
If Hearts had gone into a 2 goal lead after 20 minutes we would have won the game 4 or 5 nil.
Hibs they just don't got it man, they are a team hobbled by the belief in their own myth. They have a few players who can play. A midfield which looks great to watch at times. As much as i canny be daein with that Scott Brown character i think every team should have one.
But really thats it - listen up and listen good. A decent midfield does not = a good team. There is just plain more to it than that.

The minute Hearts scored i was convinced once again that Hibs would not sustain themselves and we would win the game, somehow. The goal came out of nowhere.
Dreadful goal keeping error allowed Valicka to get his head onto a speculative chip forward. It was either the keepers ball or he should have remained on his line - he did neither and the ball looped into the net over the keeper and the rest of the Hibs defence.

The rest of the half was pretty even, Hibs owned the middle third but just didn't do enough with it. You could argue the formation
3-5-2
versus
4-4-2
Gave Hibs the advantage in midfield but i prefer to believe that 3 out of the Hearts 4 were not up to the job, we needed Beslija and Brellier/Aguar in there to even up the score Miko, Zaliukas and Chesnauskis? Obvious we would struggle - to me anyroads.

Half Time

Hibernian 2
The Good Guys 1

Tall was playing right back in for Robbie, Zammama tormented him all day. I am never one to be the purest so the question is - would Robbie have kicked zammama in the first 10 minutes taken the booking and slowed him down a bit?
The second half started pretty evenly for me, hard to tell really as bucket loads of vitriol tends to cloud your judgement a bit.
I was getting really annoyed with Ivanauskas not changing things so i was pleased to see Beslija warming up. Miko will get hooked for him i thought, just as well because he has been murder. Suddenly there is a break on for Hearts and Miko is free screaming down the right wing. The rest of the team are up with the script as 3 are piling into the box ready for the cross and the equaliser. Absolutely inexplicably Miko cuts back and tries to beat the man rather than just play the cross. The defender wins the ball and Miko clips him in frustration. Second yellow so he walks and Beslija puts his jersey back on. Me and the rest of the South stand are furious - the absolute fanny.
2 - 1 down and now down to ten men we are obviously in trouble.
Another long ball knocked over the innefectual midfield looked hopeful and the defence's all the way, so how Valucka managed to get his shot in and more managed to get in round the near side of the keeper is beyond me - no it's not. Hibs are basically a bit crap, their keeper is shocking and their defence put under any real pressure are pretty much useless. So the goal was straight forward endeavour against bad football players. At the time tho i couldn't quite believe it.

Beslija came on but did not make an impression, Aquar however did, even down to ten men we competed much much better with him on the park.

Craig Gordon pulled off his customary stunning save in tha last few minutes to deny Hibs their victory. Great save but he is just a completely different class.

That was it 2 - 2, felt like a victory at the time but after a few more beers i was left with the nagging doubt that if we had played out best 11 the game would have been totally different.

Never in a month of Sundays

Or is that once in a blue moon.
Some guy told me once what a blue moon was, i don't know if this is true or not but here is his definition of the mythical blue moon of "Once in a Blue moon" coinage.

The blue moon is the second full moon in one calendar month. So 13 full moons per year and 12 calendar months = at least one blue moon per year.

It is less often than that, much more infrequent than that when Scotland or Currie Star for that matter, can sustain a possitive aspect for more than a game or two on the trot.

And so it was, after the fantastic exploits of last weekend, this week has brought both Scotland and Currie star crashing back down to earth.

Scotland take a painful 2 - 0 defeat away to Ukraine on Wednesday night and Currie Star take another horrific spanking 10 - 3 this time.
As usual for the lads it was the second half where it all went wrong, i had to leave at half time with the scoreline at 3 - 2, to make my way down to Leith for the derby match ( via the pub for an hour or so ) so i missed the worst of it.

Keep the head up lads it will come together soon.

My Blue Heaven - Vol 2

Well .... oh my god
That must make us world champions or somethin, just like when we tanked The Auld Enemy in 1967 ( the year after something happened can't quite remember now what it was ).

Scotland beat France 1 - 0 at Hampden Park on Saturday to go 9 from 9 in the chase for a european championships place in 2008. France the undoubted best team in the world at the moment ( well not any more ). France who beat ( annihilated ) the world cup winners Italy a couple of weeks ago.

Fantastic, you know what, we jump for joy and can't believe ourselves, but there is a little bit of every Scotsman who in their quitest moment will sit back, slippers on and cigar in hand and rest on the fact that .. this is how it is supposed to be. We invented the game, we took it to the world, we are and have always been the best footballing nation on the planet. What happened on Saturday was just, well normal. Par.

France started the game looking ominous, they looked to a man a head taller than each of us - i commented "You look at the French team and they are all North Africans, Algerian and Nigerian etc just think how good those teams would be / will be when they have the infrastructure that France has got - it is truly frightening"
Henry had a free kick 25 yards out, he took a step and half and stroked the ball at blistering pace onto the far post, it came off and hit Gordon on the head and thankfully slipped wide. If that had gone in, France may have run away with a 5 goal drubbing of Scotland and this entry would be very different. Not to be tho.
2 goals disallowed for offside, and we started to think things may be a bit strange today.
Was this not France's day?
Scotland held out til half time then in the second half done a number on France.
We out thought the French, we allowed them lots of the ball but abjectly refused to allow them to do anything with it. I wouldn't say they got frustrated more a bit perplexed by the scurrying Scottish midfield and defence. We got a chance and we took the chance with a well struck Cauldwell effort from a Hartley outswiging corner. There was only one place the ball could go and Cauldwell found it - so great goal.
France still could not better the Scottish defensive set up and as the game progressed Scotland were the more likely scorers - Hartley, Teale and OConnor all having efforts.
Henry had one chance to level the game but his header was weak and easy for Gordon to collect.

That was it

Scotland 1 France 0

Scotland now travel to Ukraine for the next qualifier on Wednesday. It is way too early yet again ( how many times do i say that ) but if we do beat them ( what am i drivelling about ) and then take points of Italy in our next game against them - both will struggle to catch Scotland.
It is easy because we are the greatest footballing nation in history, we just need to write that history.

My Blue Heaven - Vol 1

No defeat for the mighty Currie Star this Sunday, and yes they did play.
Not sure who the lads played against this week but they ripped into a 2 - 0 lead in the first half.
Could have and maybe should have been a couple more, but...
Lost their way a bit in the second half and the plucky visitors pulled it back and 2 - 2 was a deserved draw in the end.
Lots better than the previous defeats tho and the team are definitely heading in the right direction.

Hoo on the Star

Time to hand over the cash Vlad

Promising signs indeed, big time!

After our exit from what can only be described as a shambolic euro campaign, we could all have been forgiven for expecting a downtrodden Hearts performance yesteday. We have however a gargantuan squad of players and maybe they are not all world class but most are capable of doing a shift in the SPL. So there really is no excuse for a tepid performance when the team can basically be re-invented from a Thursday to a Sunday.
There have been stats like 49 changes in 8 weeks and 19 games on the bounce without the same team. This pales into insignificance when you compare it against benitez at Liverpool who have now gone 94 games on the trot with a different team - mind you they did get gubbed 2 - 0 at the weekend.

Dundee Utd got only one slice of the Roseburn stand so we could maximise the home support and i must say i am loving that, the more the merrier and the DUtd bit was full too. I had no misconceptions about this game, hard midweek soul crushing euro disaster or not, we were going to win this game and we were going to win it well.
Some of the stuff we played against Aberdeen and our general demeanour in domestic games since the scraped win against Motherwell let me to be full of confidence that we would despatch Dundee Utd. Not to mention my deep disregard for them as competition, with all the lack of respect i can muster they ( Dundee Utd ) have been murder for ages now.
In the first 20 minutes that was by far and away the best Dundee Utd i have seen at Tynecastle for ages, no idea about the Craig Brewster thing really but if their play in that 20 minutes was down to him, they should hang back and give him a chance.
Most of the reports have said that Hearts were sluggish and found it hard to get started in the game, maybe so but not fully, Dundee Utd started well and took the game to us. They played with pace and width and we were definitely troubled. A debatable offside goal, the woodwork and couple of standard Gordon saves, keeping the game scoreless.

As is the way of the world, whereas last year we started like a tornado and had most games at Tyney wrapped up in the first half hour, so this year Hearts take half an hour to remember we have a game to play. As time tick't closer to that point tho Hearts gradually began to impose themselves, that said the goal when it came, came out of nowhere. A lot of midfield to-ing and fro-ing and endeavour was sliced through by one intelligent pass from Miko straight through the left channel to the onrushing Velicka. He smashed the ball goalwards - a touch fortunate took a deflection but in it went.
From that point there was only one winner in this game.
The next 15 minutes saw some of the best football i have seen hearts play in ages.
Beslija could do nothing wrong, he was even screaming down the wing and hitting the byline like a proper winger. He was receiveng 40 yard pin point passes from Aguair and everything was coming off. This could just be the catalyst he needs, that and a decent run in the team and maybe Vlad will be forced to conceed that he did actually buy a player after all and finally do the homourable thing and pay for him. beslija's fine performance culminated in a raking cross from deep on the right across the six yard line to the on rushing Hearts attack, Velicka missed it but Makela was there - fantastic goal. Can't remember being so delighted in just the shear joy of a great goal in ages. It really is about enjoyment, sometimes.
Felt like the game was over and i think Hearts dropped a gear from that moment, still played some decent football but the momentum wasn't there anymore. Best of all was a midfield general display from Aguair, who was strolling through the game spraying passes all over the park.
Tall was on for Neilson, i believe it is very much horses for courses these days and maybe tougher opposition would have had Neilson on the park, as it may have had wallace instead of Fyassas but Hearts just look better to me when Tall is at right back, we play with more options and are less predictable coming forward. Wish Robbie could improve his distribution because when it comes to the defensive side to that position he is as good as anyone in Scotland.

I don't know who was to blame but someone one was, someone tossed a coin and it landed on it's edge or something. Something happened anyroads because the game kicked off with Hearts facing the home support in the first half. Just not cricket.

The second half, was played out with Dundee Utd playing some decent football but just not enough of a threat to trouble what seemed a very comfortable back 4. Miko had had one of his games, he had played really well, run himself into the ground really and left for Chesnauskis after the hour. This meant that Beslija was going to get his full game, this is good we really should give him a decent crack at the whip, seems to me that the quality into the box is better when it is coming off his foot. Bednar came on for Makela and Mole came on for Velicka - OK now i am thinking do we have an embarrassment of riches here? For this game we do.
Chesnauskis hit the bar and Beslija was played in to play for the penalty and get it, despatched by Hartley for 3 - 0, now from the kick off Utd played the ball back to their own 18 yard box, they played it back like a beaten team, Bednar stole in squared well to Mole who duly finished for 4 - 0.

So i have been reading a few of the comments on the Scotsman online articles with some Hibees getting involved - i think to myself have they nothing better to do than read and comment on Hearts articles, don't they get enough written about their own mob. Thats not my point. My point is next league game is against them down at Easter Road, and the excitement is groing. About time as well it seems like ages since we got to play them.
They haven't had the best of the past couple of games since they took out the big bad blue but i don't think that will mean much, they will be right up for it and confident they can do a number on us.
My prediction for the first derby game of the season..........................




Pain
Pain
and
humiliation
and
more pain
for the green ranks

Hearts will soak up an initial onslaught in the first 15 then strike with a clinical double to send Hibs into a tailspin. Desperate to recover they will lose at least another 2.

Promising signs

Promising signs for Currie Star on Sunday morning.
An unseasonally warm Sunday morning had us travelling to the pitches behind Woodburn school in Dalkeith to see the Currie Star lads take on Dalkeith Miners.
Currie Star keeper could not make it for one reason or another and it was down to my lad to volounteer to put on the #1 shirt.
So i stood behind the goals to make some attempt at couching him through the trauma -
Remember that scene in Gregory's Girl

Shite Gregory that was lacross - ohh
Gregory, Gregory concentrate, now Gregory go to the ball, the ball accchh!!

Stopped short at diving for the ball behind the goals but not by much.

A tight game to begin with, it was clear that the Dalkeith boys were a more clued up outfit and it wasn't too long before they took the lead. It was beginning to go pear shaped for the Currie Star as half time approached with the score 3 - 0 and i felt the heavy defeats of the last few weeks repeating themselves.
Credit to the coach and to the boys tho, they regrouped and dug in and drew the second half 1 - 1.

Keep that spirit up lads and the results will follow.

Amnesia

No chance of this Hearts team remembering Locomotiv Leipzig.
Think that game was the first european game i went to.
Two nil down from the first leg away in Locomotiv ( some wee village in Austria ). At Tynecastle they scored in the first couple of minutes so we were 3 - 0 nil down on aggregate and facing the abyss. That Hearts team, although it did not have anything like the number of international caps this one does, did have have barrowloads of spirit. This was the vintage of Donald Ford and Drew Busby, Kenny Aird, Bobby Prentice and Jim Cruickshank, Jim Jeffries too. They turned that game on it's head and racked up 5 goals to win the game 5 - 1 and the tie 5 - 3 and sent Hearts on to play Hamburg, where we ofcourse got beat ( i never said they were world beaters ).
Was it 2 - 2 at Tynecastle and 2 - 0 to them in Hamburg?

After the Athens debacle i had promised myself not to expect too much, this was europe after all. If anything can be said about Hearts and this european campaign it is that we were niave. The final analysis is that we were summarily dismantled by two mediocre continental teams.
So i had not worked myself up too much for this game.
The coverage from the BBC started about 30s into the game. The game started early but it is weird that the coverage from the BBC for UEFA cup games does not include any build up at all.
Prague were playing in maroon and one of their players is the spitting image of Paul Hartley, long hair ond dodgy beard et al. This resulted in my complete disorientation for the first minute or two until i got to grips with things and realised we were in white. The Hearts team suffered the same disorientation at the beginning of the game, but theirs lasted for about 20 minutes.
In that first 20 minutes Prague hit Hearts hard, the game could have been well and truly over. Within 15 minutes, Gordon had made at least 3 goal bound saves, they had hit the bar and Hartley saved off the line. We were in real trouble! It is curious tho that Each of these efforts carried a bit of fortune, all being helped on by deflections and balls bouncing around in the box. The only time they really hasd us undone was a free header at the back post that they really should have scored with, their man heading a foot or so wide.
So we were 2 - 0 down from the first leg, away from home and getting pummeled, at least we can say that we turned things around a bit in this game, can we? We did manage to take some level of control in this game and we didn't lose any goals or players for that matter so i guess thats a bit possitive. I don't really believe this tho, it is pretty clear that Prague's tactics were pretty much -
Lets see if we can start hard and fast and finish this team in the first 20 minutes
If that doesn't work
Lets sit back and play it tight and play out this game
So for me Prague allowed us into this game as much as we muscled our way into it.
There in lies the rub, i can't be too critical of the team ( maybe i can, i might get more critical as this blog goes on ). It has been screamingly evident this year that if Hearts are faced with a good solid well organised compact team, we can't break them down. We are frustratingly inept at breaking that sort of team down.
So Prague try and kill us off, don't quite manage it and then sit back a bit and get solid and organised and compact, because they know that we will really struggle to break through and get the goals we need.
So if we can't break down Falkirk and St Mirren etc then why do we think we will be able to break down the current leaders of the Czech league and a team that has spent most of the last decade playing in the Champions League. Pretty obvious really, ofcourse we couldn't.
A speculative cross field ball from Wallace which had more than a smattering of route one football about it caused a bit of panic in the Prague defence, Mole collected and the keeper lunged at him ( should he have gone down, i think there Jamie Mole in a couple of years will do ), Mole got caught in two minds and the chance was lost. This did have the effect tho of planting the idea into the Hearts team that route one football was an option. For the rest of the half the chances Hearts did get came from that most basic of tactics. The best of these was a looping ball that was not dealt with by the Prague defence, just didn't come down quick enough for Chesnauskis, his volley flying over. Maybe he snatched at it a bit but i thought it was a hard chance to take.
Half time and it is

Prague 0 Hearts 0

Really good work by Panilla to force the Prague centre half into making a mistake, passing the ball into the path of Mole, opened up the second half with the chance of the game, the chance of the tie and the chance of our European campaign. Mole took it and from 18 yards out attempted to stroke the ball round the keeper - the perfect height for the keeper he saved and the chance was gone.
We will never know if things would have been different had that chance gone in so no point speculating. The effect it had on us was to deflate rather than inflate and inspire and there you go - Hearts in a nut shell.

Substitutes

Nielson - Right then i have been banging my gums about this for ages so time for me to shut up. Nielson started this game and is therefore Ivanauskas's first choice right back. I am wrong in my speculation that Nielson will lose his first team place this year. Robbie was replaced by Tall with about 25 minutes to go. Lots of people have been wondering about that one but i thought it was OK, i do think Tall provides a bit more of a threat going forward and with a final push on it was wise to have a fresh pair of legs at the back.

Mole - Bednar came on for Mole in a straight forward swap, so no questions there but not sure if Bednar is cutting it at all these days.

Panilla - Panilla looks the best we have up front at the moment but i think he was probably out on his feet, but bringing on Aguair for him was madness. It was meant to shore up the midfield allowing Chesnauskis and Miko to move up into a front 3. Just plain didn't work, mostly because there were only a few minutes left, absolutely bloody stupid, if this was a plan and it might have been then it should have been implemented with 20 minutes to go at least. Maybe Ivanauskis had in the back of his mind the unsettling effect his double substitution had on the team in the first leg and didn't want to have 2 substitutions so close together.

The worst thing about the whole affair is that the game just peterred out, as the half wore on the chances dried up and in the end we just accepted our fate.
There was no desperation and no passion, no maniacal struggle to remain in the competition even it that led to a defeat. I am not saying the team didn't try they just didn't believe in themselves. We need to get it back, hopefully we will have some small catharsis against Dundee Utd tomorrow, they will come and try to stop us playing but i will stop short at them being organised and compact, so i expect us to win.
We all want and need us to win comfortably and with some style.

So

HOOO On the Jambos

One last thought, given the colour they play in - for the rest of this years UEFA cup

HOO On the Sparta

Remember Locomotiv Liepzig

After last Saturdays ground out victory against Motherwell and then a comfortable CIS cup win at Alloa on Thursday ( completely revamped team as you would expect. Last year we tried this against Livingston and took our first defeat of the season - blemish on the perfect record. This time it worked with a hat trick for the under utilised Makela ). Combined with Aberdeen's good form so far this season. I for one and i am sure most of the Hearts support could be forgiven for having no idea what to expect out of this game.

For me i think i was quietly confident .. without showing too much at all i felt we were through the worst of our dip and was pretty sure that we would fair better against a team who were themselves, confident and possitive and looking for the win, all beit on their patch. An evenly matched game would help Hearts, help them to find themselves and find a win that they could use as a platform to move forward with a renewed look about themselves. It is true that since the Athens game at Murrayfield Hearts have been on the back foot, on the ropes even for a couple of the punches. Looks likely that there maybe another hammer blow on Thursday when/if we fail to score the necessary - at least - 2 without return against Sparta Prague to take it to penalties. I think we are much more mentally prepared for that blow now tho given that we have won the last 3 domestic games and are now installed in 2nd place with points to spare.

It has been a train wreck of a European campaign so far but you just never know. We are in one of those positions where we have nothing to lose now and everyone expects us to bow out and well the most dangerous animal is one who is cornered blah blah blah.

Remember Locomotiv Liepsig

Sorry i am getting carried away with Thursdays blog yet to be written, back to earth.

The team was pretty predictable, changed ofcourse but pretty predictable.
Neilson was replaced by Ibrahim Tall, i will be intrigued as to who starts at the right back berth on Thursday in Prague - i have been pretty much convinced for ages now that Neilson will lose his first team place this season. Thursday will just about nail it for me.
If Robbie starts -> he is Valdas's #1 at right back and Tall was in today to protect him
If Tall starts -> it is the beginning of the end for Robbie as first choice right back
Assuming Tall doesn't get injured between now and then ofcourse, which is about a 70% likelyhood.
Tall had a decent game today, he did dive in a couple of times when he should have stayed on his feet but on the whole he was OK.
Zaliukas and Hartley in midfield with the usual suspects of McCann and Miko on the flanks, an interesting Bednar and Panilla up front.

So to the game, a stinking day in Aberdeen and a dissapointing crowd for what i thought would be a cracking game. Aberdeen could leapfrog Hearts into 2nd place if they won this one so they had loads to play for as well as Hearts.
The game was pretty scrappy as the players tried to get to grips with the conditions, Aberdeen looked like the home team, taking a grip of the midfield, holding territorial advantage and so had the lions share of the opening period. They played some decent stuff in the space in front of hearts 18 yard box, decent stuff just out of range to be truly dangerous. They did have a couple of chances and Gordon was once again called upon to make a few saves, in general tho i did not feel that Hearts were about to collapse under fire. For a period of 10 minutes or so Hearts did wake up in the first half to pose a few problems of their own for the Aberdeen defence.
The Setanta commentary had it all wrong tho, don't know what game they were watching. Aberdeen were not completely dominant in this first half, for sure they had the better of it but dominance is over the mark. Aberdeen did play some good stuff and i was enjoying the game.

Half time thoughts were;
We were struggling.
Bednar and Panilla have no partnership, maybe down to Panilla shooting from 30 yards everytime he gets a sniff.
Zaliukas strikes me as one of those guys that probably works like a trojan and never gets any credit for it.
Hearts do not attack with conviction, when Miko gets the ball wide and plays a ball down to Bednar for instance, last year he would have torn inside expecting the ball back to feet to send him straight through on goal. This year the same pass made to Bednar is met with Miko unsure of what will happen so he does not make the same run and it all just seems to stall before we get to the knife edge. It's confidence!

The second half was a complete change to the first, Hearts came out the better team and continued to enforce their superiority for the whole of the half.
Much as the goal was coming, i guess it had to be a bit ugly to start it all. It was a good ball in by Hartley, a free kick on the left chipped over to the back post where Pressley and Berra were hovering. I think Pressley got the telling touch but it came off Berra's face and into the net.

Aberdeen 0
HMFC 1

Hearts were playing with a swagger and a confidence again, we were only one up against what seemed like a decent Aberdeen side but Hearts played with a confidence that would betray the last 6 weeks or so.
If the first goal that started this win was ugly the second was a supermodel.
I said at half time that Bednar and Panilla don't have a partnership, well this goal was finished by a pairing you would have thought had played together for years.
All close to the right touchline, all one touch between Miko, Hartley and Chesny ( on for McCann ), the ball was swept in low to the front post where Bednar could have gone for goal at the near post, a difficult chance but do-able, instead he flicked the ball onto the penalty spot for the open Panilla who swept the ball into the far corner. A cracking sweeping move that would have graced any game.

Aberdeen 0
HMFC 2

The game still had 20 minutes to go, Aberdeen did not look like a beaten side but they didn't look as tho they could do much about their plight either. They got caught by the classic breakaway goal which Miko finished with unfamiliar ( to him anyraods ) quality.

Aberdeen 0
HMFC 3

Aberdeen scored themselves almost immediately after this with a good rush through the middle. All seemed a bit too little too late even after Panilla was ordered off for his second bookable ( throwing the ball away - good grief )

Aberdeen 1
HMFC 3

That was it a great result to an entertaining and affirming match.
If last weeks grind against Motherwell was an important game for the ongoing recuperation of Hearts then this one was like discovery of a cure ( i hope so anyroads )

So to Thursday in Prague, i have only one thing to say


HOOO On The Jambos

Silver Reds

'Silver Reds' was the name of the team presented to me, turned out to be Salvesan boys club.
Hit Currie Star for 8 without reply at a rain soaked and waterlogged kingsknowe this morning.
The team were doing fine in the first 15 minutes but once the goals started the team lost their confidence and Salvesan walked away with it.
Heads up lads it will get better.

That was the worst

Well i don't see why i should spend any time, trying to cobble together some kind of match report, if the bloody team can't be arsed to even turn up.
I can honestly say that that was the worst, i have been listening to football commentaries on radio Scotland for about as long as i can remember and that was the worst game i have ever had the misfortune to sit through.
It is true that a radio commentary gives a weird skewed view of a game. At times it polarises, makes a relatively possitive passage of play seem like an extract from - Brazil versus Italy in the 1970 world cup final. At other times the game can sound as though it has lost any connection to a football match, more like mud wrestling or federation hoofbaw!
So todays game, Motherwell versus Hearts at Fir Park was the worst, entrenched in the latter. Truly, truly awful stuff. And to make matters worse, the first half commentary from the Hibs versus Rangers game was very much entrenched in the former, with Hibs apparently playing like the samba kings.

So i am not going to bother.

That was until Hearts scored ofcourse !
The second half was marginally better than the first, but it was Motherwell that made it so.
Both teams were under there own personal montain range of pressure on the run up to this game -
Hearts because of their woefull euro perfomances and general rubbish play of late and Vlad's continuing outbursts and not buying quality players like they said they would -
My own personal opinion - Hearts are not an attractive enough option for anyone of any real quality to come to, therefore we failed to deliver any new players in the transfer window. This is the same reason why Valdas is still ( became in the first place ) our manager. No one that we would want to replace him with would come within a mile of the possition. This has to be the boards fault for making the job such an unsavoury and precarious gig.
Motherwell for being bottom of the league and just plain crap.

Hearts made six changes from the Sparta game and once again the back 4 was different from the previous back 4, i wonder if this is the root of our troubles or merely a symptom.
We had
Wallace, Zaliukas, Pressley, Tall
Neilson on the bench


Both teams started the game as if the ball was the preverbial hot potato, Hearts perhaps having the better of the early posession, but really both mobs were awful.
If i heard the statement "oh but now 'Motherwell/Hearts' have lost posession and oh but" once in that first half, i heard it a thousand times.
Motherwell had a player injured in the first few minutes and then Chesnouskis got injured for Hearts and that folks really was the tow first half highlights.
By mid way through the first half, Motherwell, for all their abject crapness this year and obvious lack of confidence, realised that the team they were facing were - toothless and impotent and easily beatable, so in the latter part of the half they came out of their shell a bit and had the better of things.
This continued in the second half with Hearts pushed further back and limited to hitting Well on the break.
It is a funny old game indeed, it is something like 4 years since Hearts have won at Fir Park and many a better Hearts team has gone there and failed to return the points and this nonsense turn up and steal all 3.
Being in control and limiting Hearts to 'on the break attacks' was Motherwell's ultimate undoing as hit them on the break is exactly what we did.
A good break it was, McCann playing a lovely ball into the path of Mole to round the keeper and strike home. Glad for Mole since after a promising start he has seemed well out of his depth in the last few games ( how can he be viewed above Callum Elliott ?? )
A couple of other breaks as Motherwell chased the game could have made the scoreline a travesty but for some poor finishing and dodgy decision making by Miko.
Craig Gordon came to our rescue once again with another stunning save with just a few minutes left.
And that was it a huge relief for the Jambos, and with Hibs beating Rangers at Easter Road, this under performing Hearts team are 2nd in the league 3 points behind the leaders.

In the last few blogs i have given Ivanauskas some stick for dodgy substitutions, so credit where it is due. Mid way through the second half he brought on Robbie Neilson, moved Tall into centre half and Zaliukas into mid field and it seemed to work, certainly for Tall who was immense when in the centre half slot.

Aberdeen away next Sunday, they will fancy their chances, wish i could say we will fair better against a better team in a bigger game.

In wur beds

One of my favourite ditty's from the Hearts support over the last few months, i first heard in Diggers on the night after the cup final - to the tune of 'and now you gonna belive us'
has the wonderfully simplistic lyrics....

The Hearts are having a party,
The Hearts are having a party,
The Hearts are having a pa-arty.....
The ........ Hibs are in their beds

Trouble is, big bad boys keep crashing our party, and they are much bigger and harder than us and they are definitely better at parties than we are. In the end we are just huddled in the corner hoping it will all end soon.

An absolutely stinking night in Edinburgh, the traffic was mental and i was running out of time to park the car and get down to Murrayfield in time for the kick off. I parked further out thinking the usual spot on Hutchison Rd would be full. Within 100 yards i was soaked to the skin ( that made the third time that day, having cycled into work in the downpour and cycled home in it as well ) just as well it wasn't January.
I have had it with all that fireworks nonsense, it only makes sense if you annihilate the opposition, otherwise we just look like we are turning our beautiful game into WWF. This time the fireworks were big and noisy and they left the pitch covered in thick smoke for a good 5 minutes, holding up the kick off in the process.
Pity the cloud didn't stick around for another 90, might have been less painful.

I would be tempted to say we let ourselves down badly, just like i did after the Athen's game at Murrayfield, but that would be a lie.
We were just as impotent against Falkirk and St Mirren as we were against a decent, strong and athletic Sparta side ( note// not a fantastic football side, they were pretty useful tho, i guess they would have given Athens a game ).
So we didn't let ourselves down at all, we played exactly as we normally play - pretty crap.
We want to get over ourselves and get back to what counts, we are not better than most of the rest of the SPL and we certainly are not good enough to compete in Europe, so we need to stop thinking that we are. The supporters stopped believing a while back and it is about time the players done the same, until they do we will continue to flap about in no mans land.

Not sure what to say about the game, Sparta dealt with the early conditions much better than we did - initially the pitch was water logged, the ball kept sticking and players kept falling over. Sparta seemed to anticipate this much better than Hearts did tho.
They scored a good goal mid way through the first half, about as much as they deserved as Hearts struggled to make any inroads into the game.
Besliga was playing and probably was one of our better performers without really putting their defence under pressure.
Hearts looked a bit better in the second half, i thought that the drying out pitch helped us a bit there. Just as we were beginning to impose ourselves on the game ( not really looking dangerous but at least in control ) Ivanauskas makes 2 changes at the same time -
Tall on for Panilla - absolute madness
Chesny on for Besliga - i guess that makes a bit of sense.
But the timing stunk, the fact that it was 2 subs at once completely disrupted the teams shape and coherence and we lost all momentum and control we did have.
Graig Gordon pulled of an absolutely amazing series of three saves in quick succession, he got a 2 minute standing ovation for that - just enough time for him to fail to get down to Sparta's second goal, a low struck 25 yard drive. Gordon's possition suspect? doesn't matter really the saves prior to that were nothing short of miraculous.

We were a beaten team from that point, continued to huff and puff but the game was lost and we knew it.

Two last thoughts ..

It is time to put the test tubes away, turn off the bunsen burner and lock the door to the laboratory - the Murrayfield experiment is over, please - i am absolutely convinced we would have made a better shot at things if we had taken these teams to our home ground. With 20-20 hindsight if playing at Tynecastle would have given us a better shot at actually getting into one of these competitions surely we should go for it. I am not even sure if the maths adds up we seem to have to reduce ticket prices to entice as many punters along to Murrayfield as possible, when every seat in Tynecastle could go for £25/£12 instead of a pile for £12/£6

Finally
I wonder who Vlad will blame now?

ach i just can't be arsed with this weeks blog title

Since StMirren came up to the SPL i thought, hey there's a natty wee title for a blog entry

Paisley Pattern

I thought to myself, that should form a good image in the minds of the reader, to describe a wonderfully fluid and sweeping display by the mighty Jambos as they take on the new boys to the big league.
There were no pretty swirly patterns on view at Tynecastle yesterday though, no intricate and colourful designs on display - certainly not from the maroon contingent anyroads.

I turned up at a now predictably muted Tynecastle ( full but almost silent the complete opposite of this time last year ).
I had not even considered anything other than a comprehensive victory over lesser opposition. So i had not asked myself how i was feeling about the game, i had not asked ..... was i nervous or was i excited or did i have a feeling of impending doom in the pit of my stomach. I had not considered these questions because, lets face it, this game was a no brainer.
From the minute the game kicked off however it was clear that this game was not a no brainer.
The pitch was looking fantastic on this beautiful late summers afternoon, it was very warm so the mass of Hearts tops around the ground made the place a sea of maroon and white with a small but just as vibrant black and white section over in the Roseburn stand. All seemed to suggest that nothing could go wrong to spoil this perfect day.
But it did go wrong.
I caught the highlights of the Everton v Liverpool game on the telly this morning, if anyone saw it i am sure they will agree it was mental. Everton had 4 chances and scored with 3 of them and Liverpool had a barrowload and just couldn't find the net. Everton got gubbed and won 3 - 0.
Well Hearts v StMirren was nothing like that, St Mirren deserved every bit of their 0 - 1 steal from Tynecastle yesterday. They really really annoyed me, i don't like St Mirren! They were a niggly shower of journeymen gits who got right under the skins of the Hearts team. They played the whole game on the edge of a foul, every player on the park just a niggly git.
Worst for me was their centre forward Sutton ( Chris Sutton's wee brother i think, yes that Chris Sutton, well known niggly git and all round not very nice bloke ) .
They did annoy me but i could see that they were well organised and much hungrier than Hearts were. They won all the 50 - 50 s in a 1st half that you just couldn't call. Hearts maybe a had a bit more of the controlled possession but not much. we did bring out a couple of decent saves from the keeper, most notably a header at the back post from a corner and Bednar put Miko straight through on goal just a few yards out. The keeper saved well but Miko should have done better than hitting it straight at him.
There was a tempestuous moment towards the end of the first half, Miko again. He collects the ball on the edge of the box and runs straight across the defence looking for space to have a crack. The tackles fly in from at least 2 defenders and miko seems to be hurdling them until at the last minute he crashes to the deck. Huge cries for a penalty, i turn and say - "I would like to see that one on the telly". It was the opposite end of the ground so it was a penalty all the way from me.

Hearts have built up a reputation for a few unsavoury aspects to the game -
We are allegedly guilty of .....
play acting to get people booked or sent
diving
basic lack of discipline

Some of that is justified and sometimes these things can work against you. According to the press, Hearts had 4 decent shouts for a penalty yesterday and got none of them. The other i thought was a stone wall penalty was a hand ball in the second half. From his possition the ref would not have seen the hand ball but i am sure the linesman should have! But you know some you win and some you lose. I am pretty sure that if the above is true then yesterdays 'mistake' for the Miko penalty will have served to reduce our reputation as a team that is full of players who dive at every opportunity. One in the plus column if you like, and next time, well we might get the penalty, and we might even have taken a dive to get it. As far as i can see the game is full of that stuff and if i am honest, has been full of it for as long as i can remember.

Half time discussions centered around the completely innefectual, Jamie Mole and once again why are we persevering with Neil McCann and also "Fyassas, he is having a bit of a mare is he not". A bit of "I didn't expect anything else from a Gus MacPherson team, he was always a niggly git himself". So you can see, we were not happy.
Still if you were to ask me then how i thought the game would go i would have said "mmm they have worked hard and will probably tire towards the end so i think we should just be able to sneak it. Once we have brought on Panilla for Mole ofcourse cause Mole is doing nothing out there today" Ivanauskis ofcourse waits unti the 65th minute to bring on Panilla for Mole. This is an unwritten rule that i have never got my head round .. why the hell do you give a player who is obviously not cutting it an hour, why don't you just see the blindingly bloody obvious and take him of at half time, bewildered?
As the game wore on and 'wore' is a good word for it, Hearts were gaining more and more of the game and it seemed obvious that St Mirren were happy with the draw. Hearts though just didn't have the spark, guile, quality ball, penetration, poise in front of goal etc etc etc that was needed to break through the defence. One of the other Penalty claims was a straightforward foul on Mole as he touched the ball past the defender about 8 yards out and gets taken right out of the game. I don't think he was going to get to the ball though as it raced over the byline - so no penalty.
Panilla finally came on for Mole and brightened things up a wee bit but i think he was if anything guilty of trying to hard or not making the right decisions or maybe just plain lack of vision. he does seem to have something, he can take the ball down and turn and has a good 5 yard spring to get away from players. he was guilty though of shooting when he should have passed a couple of times.
More annoying on the stupid substitution stakes was bringing Beslija on for Miko far too late in the game, there must have been just 5 minutes left. Now i can see the 5 minutes to go sub has a place, like, you are 1 - 0 up and playing for time or you are 3 - 0 up and want to give the young lad a run out. But when you are chasing the win, what is the point of bringing on a straight replacement with just 5 minutes to go.
This Ivanauskis is a problem you have!

I got a text from my wife as the game was coming to a close and i was just beginning to accept that we were going to have to settle for a draw. The text simply read "Score?" As i considered - should i respond to this just now or wait til the end of the game. Just as i decided to wait until the end and looked up ... a shot is fired low at Gordon who spills it out and into the path of unmarked StMirren forward who stretches a crashes the ball into the roof of the net.

HMFC 0
St Mirren 1

The corner of vibrant Black and White explodes.
The mass of Maroon and White heads for the exits.

Pretty poor all round from Hearts really, only plus was news that Tall and Goncalves have started training again. This is particularly good news given the games that Neilson and Fyassas turned out. Neilson's perennial problem with his distribution was in full bloom yesterday and Fyassas doesn't look anything like the composed quality left back he was last year.

There was a much bigger game on this weekend, a derby infact, the first of this type that i have been to.

Currie Star versus Currie Boys club

Kick off 9:30 this morning, i am dyed in the wool Currie Star fan, due to my youngest playing for them. This was the 9 - 11 yr olds. A lot of feeling around this one. The young lad just started playing for them at the back end of last season and most of his class mates play for the bad guys Currie Boys.
All in all it was a bit of a disaster, with Currie Star losing the plot badly in the second half to finally go down 6 - 1. Still it was a derby and it felt like one and i now have another team to get vitriolic at, excellent.
Currie Boys weren't much better, than the Currie Star lads ( unlike Leith Academy last week who tore the wee lads apart ) . The Star just lost heart and faith in themselves in that second half and so they left the game behind as well and Currie Boys scored 3 goals in the last ten minutes, other than that they were right in it. So, next time lads.

Hoo On the Currie Star

Here we go again

Cracking result for Scotland in Lithuania last night, winning 2 - 1.
It wasn't quite Hearts defence against Hearts attack but there was a fair compliment of Jambos on both sides.
From the second half radio coverage ( which was all i manged) it sounded like Scotland just shaded it and deserved the victory and quite right as well.
It did get very nerve wracking in the last few minutes tho.
But
Radio Scotland punditry? Have we no memory? Don't you think we have been here before? and whatever happened to the old adage that 'history repeats itself'. Look, France will come to Hampden next month and with the best will in the world, Scotland will in all likelyhood chase shadows all night and get beat 2 - 0.
From last nights post match cud chewing on radio Scotland, you could have sworn that we are about to sweep the world cup finalists aside and march on to glorious qualification for the Euro Championships and on to ultimate world domination.

Still Go On the Scotland

World Beaters

Here we go....
Scotland romp 6 past the Faroe isles, there is no stopping us now.
So what that there were more people inside Parkhead than there are inhabitants of the Faroes, and they are not much more than a pub team, you can only beat what is in front of you as they say.
Meanwhile Lithuania get a draw away to Italy ( i would say very impressive but Italy have a habit of starting everything slowly and pick up as they go along ), we play them on Wednesday night.
There may be some kind of record being set here with a number of players on both international sides all playing for the same club side - mighty mighty Jambos ofcourse.
I think it is possible that we could have 6 Jambos on the park at the same time, 3 on each side

Hoo on the Scotland

Accentuate the possitive

For some reason. i thought we were away to Inverness on Saturday, wasn't until 1 ish that afternoon that i was 100% convinced that we were at home.

Anyroads after Wednesday, disastrous or not i was pretty upbeat about the game.
Was it just good to get the Champions League millstone off from around our necks i wonder? We waited so long for our shot and the elastic broke almost immediately, so i can see the team and the support taking a bit of a dip into a depression in a few weeks. The only cure for that will be to beat Sparta Prague and carry on with a good run in the EUFA cup.
I was upbeat because for 1/2 an hour anyroads last Wednesday, we played with spirit and a bit of spark, it just felt like we were in the business of playing football again. Previously against Athens, Falkirk and Rangers we were stunted, a shadow of what we can be. Every team goes through these times, we chose a really bad time to go through it. I thought we are over it after the first half performance in Athens. So i was upbeat, looking forward to it, in the knowledge though that Inverness always give us a good game, it was close in all encounters last year.
I expected, that maybe a player or two might get rested, i did not expect the line up we got -

Out were

Fyassas, rested, probably fair enough, he took a knock on Wednesday. Replaced by Wallace.
Berra, no idea about that one, rotation? Replaced by Kiripidis
Neilson, suspended after the sending off aginst Rangers, replaced by Tiago Costa
Aguair & Brellier, dropped i think, replaced by Zaliukas
Pospisil & or Jankauskas, could be rested or dropped or rotation, replaced by new guy Panilla and Mole kept his place.

So lots of changes in the side left us curious, concerned maybe before the game, but i wasn't unduly worried, more i was happy to see some of the new faces to see what they could do, especially Panilla.
Still had McCann and Mikoliunas on either side of midfield with Hartley and Zaliukas in the middle.
The game started well enough for both teams, open and competative, Hearts were playing pretty good without setting any heather on fire and Inverness were playing their part also getting stuck in and attacking whenever they had the chance to.
Noticed that McCann was playing too far in from the left leaving us limited in width, which held us back a bit, in the first 20 minutes - and it is worth noting what happened the first time he pealed off to the wing!
Hartley is not 100% but even with that it was clear he was on the park, with some great balls knocked down the channels for Miko to run on to and a free kick that came very close.
I was getting worried about the defence though, with Fyassas, Berra and Neilson all out at the same time, we did not have our normal solid shape and i could see Pressley was also nervous about it - keeping a close eye on Kiripidis. Maybe he should have been spending more time looking after Costa in those early exchanges, he did not start very well. I have mentioned a couple of times in earlier entries that i think this season will see Neilson lose his first team place. sad to see i think but it is looking innevitable - Robbie just doesn't have the quality of distribution we will need. Costa is a different proposition entirely, he did not look as fast or as good a tackler as Neilson but he does look as though he has more football in him. When Tall is fit he also looks though Ivanauskas fancies slotting him in their, so things are hotting up for the right back spot.
Kiripidis looked OK but you could not make a call between him and Berra though really.

The first goal came quite unexpectedly really, a neat ball out to McCann far out by the touchline and for once his ball into the box was, quick and not overstruck and well just perfect really, met on the half volley by Panilla who stuck it away in the bottom corner, an excellent finish. That is the first time this season that Hearts have scored from a quick low ball in from the left - we must have scored about 20 like that last year.
Almost immediately Hearts took their foot of the gas a bit which allowed Inverness some decent possession in midfield and they put some pressure on. The defence was not looking too good at this point, Wallace and Kiripidis didn't really know what the other up to and there were times that down our left channel we were a mess. Wallace also has a habit of getting much further up the park, much quicker than Fyassas can and to his credit McCann covered well down that side when it was needed. The frailties told though as Inverness put a couple of neat passes together to get behind us and cross to the back post where the striker was and the defender was not. Costa should have been there and he was nowhere near it.
I just don't think that that was a goal that Hearts would have lost with Berra and Neilson on the park.
This was a fair reflection of the game really - no more Tynecastle juggernaught this season as i am sure you will have worked out by now. Still we had more of the play and more of the quality that the game had to offer.
A free kick for what - i don't know, something with Miko on the right side of the Inverness box. Whipped in to the back post by Hartley for Jamie Mole to slam the header home, another cracking finish. I comment to myself, thats Hearts scored 2 goals and both were by the strikers. This was something rarely seen last season with the top scorers all being midfielders.
The crowd and me were happy with this as half time came along.
Half time and the scores were read out from around the country, the one that mattered

Celtic 0 Hibernian 1

No reaction whatsoever from the faithfull! i was delighted but you just can't can you, a whoop of delight when the smelly Hibees are winning, but the way i see it - anything that takes points of either of the big bad from the wild west is a good thing, doesn't matter who it is. And if things stayed the way they were at that point Hearts would go top on their own.

A word for the new half time competition, it is crap folks! nobody cares! I know that the hit the bar competition last year ended in a bizarre & weird anticlimax. But it had our attention all the way through the season. This new thing is just whack as many balls through a hole in the middle of a big advert for a cab company as you can in minute or two - just rubbish really.

So to the second half and hearts are still marginally the better team but never way ahead and with only the slenderest of leads and a dodgy back 4 i was never happy until the third went in. Before that Panilla crossed to the back post where McCann was about 8 yards out, he belted the volley straight of the bar, a cracking effort. Panilla, looks a bit of a player, he is mobile and energetic and has a good touch and looks as tho he will definitely add to the team, Pospisil's days are numbered i think!
Soon after this McCann was replaced by Andrew Driver. With his first touch he turned and skinned their right back and hit a great cross in, he then continued to skin their right back for the rest of the game, just a level on from what McCann can deliver. Pace and confidence and no shortage of ability. This was hammered home when Drver was faced with an identikit chance to that slammed against the bar by McCann ten minutes earlier. The ball was not cleared well enough and fell to driver who belted the volley high into the net from 6 yards out.
Fantastic.
We are 3 - 1 up and now enjoying ourselves and playing better football, one thing i noticed around this time was just how pleased Wallace was to have Driver in front of him. They look as though they really know how each other plays and could form a really effective partnership down that left flank.
The fourth and final goal was a bit of an odd ball but nonetheless well worth it. Makela had come on for Panilla, he collected the ball on the edge of the box but was surrounded by the Inverness defence, with nothing on at all he managed to scoop the ball over the defence and out to Mole on the far side of the box, Mole headed back into the penalty spot for Aguair to run on to and slot under the keeper.

So 4 - 1, flattered Hearts a bit really but i thought we always had just a wee bit more than Inverness. It was really good to see some of the new guys coming in and doing a job.
Panilla looked good as did Costa once he got over the first half hour. Driver made a huge impact for the time he was on and Mole continued to look hungry and well worth his shot ( what must Callum Elliott be thinking just now, sent off to Motherwell for the rest of the season? ) Kiripidis got pass marks i guess, not sure a Zaliukas on that showing though.

The crowd at Tynecastle remain muted, we are not willing to stick our necks out yet after last years expressions of - belief that we could take the title, we were on top of the world. We are still in our shell a bit just now. I figure tho, if we do have a good run in the EUFA cup and continue to stay in touch at the top, it won't be long until the heat is turned up a notch once again.

Don't worry aboot it !

As wednesday wore on i said it more than once - "two nuthin, don't worry aboot it" in truth sometimes i added an " aye tae them"

Got to say tho i had no idea what to expect, all i knew was :-

We have been playing crap
We let ourselves down the last time
Hartley was back ( if a little early )
We had to play 4-5-1 to have any chance at all

So i was delighted to see the formation line up as a 4-5-1, bemused by Jamie Mole as the 1, but there you go another weirdness in the mad mad world of the Jambo land.
The fact that we had 5 in the middle and the five included Hartley was enough to make me think - "well at least we will compete against this mob"

I have spent a fraction of the last two weeks convincing myself that Athens are no great shakes really ( remember, Falkirk played us off the park as well ) - OK if you really get down to it you could argue a case that they are a league above but -
1 they aren't
2 i couldn't be arsed with that

So i opted for the self delusion that it was all about us and nothing to do with them, like i said we let ourselves down badly. Now that it is over and i have had a chance to sit back and think about it - Over the piece we failed the mental test, the failure on the football field was the consequence.

I sat down in front of the telly just as the teams were coming on to the pitch. My expectation level was about as flat as it gets, it was just like - my duty to watch it happen! but, as ever it was another 90 minutes and another shot at redemption. At this point glory? - that was a tiny flicker on the far horizon.
And the game started a wee bit like it did at Murrayfield a fortnight earlier - Athens are quick and skillfull and they have an idea how to get forward and they now how to find each other, and i think we were in danger of collapsing into the same cocoon we got ourselves into against them the last time. An early goal for Athens would have told greatly, but it didn't come.
Within ten minutes it was clear that Hearts formation and the addition of Brellier at the coal face meant we were a completely different proposition - and were giving as good as we got.
There was a defecnec splitting pass through Hearts back four, from 16 yards the Athens striker could/should have scored, a combination of poor finishing and good possitioning from Gordon made it look like an easy save. At the other end Jamie Mole played a great ball through to the onrushing Miko into the box, from 16 yards out he was foiled by some great defending.
Athens had some stinging shots, just like they did Murrayfield, but minus a deflection and allways just over, Gordon had it all covered. Athens also had a couple of corners that they muscled in on - Pretty sure in the Premier league Hearts defence would have dealt with them.
Then came the chance that may have changed it all - standard stuff for Hearts really but maybe not so familiar for Athens, a long throw from Neilson on the edge of the box, flicked on by Miko and Hartley is unmarked just 8 yards out, his header, strong as it was was too close to the keeper,who parried the ball to safety. hearts had one other chance in that first period of the game - Mole was played through, in on the keeper, he managed to slip the ball under the keeper but it just didn't have the pace to cross the line before the Athens defender got there to clear.
So it was toe to toe really and here is where it starts to hurt, about 5 minutes before the world collapsed, i had gotten over my ridiculous mindset of - not really expecting anything and started shouting at the telly ( a sure sign that i had changed my mind and realised that we could get something out of this game ) i shouted at the ridiculous challenge on Miko, he was elbowed from behind on an aerial challenge, this happens all the time but in this game it was a telling oversight by the referee not to book the Athens defender.
I was really enjoying this game.
Within a couple of minutes Brellier goes up for a challenge and is sandwitched between a couple of Athens players and takes a sore one to what now looked like a bulbous and purple nose.
From the coverage what happened was, Brellier ambled off for what might have been a bit of treatment to his conk but he seemed to come back on with a booking? - presumably
for being " in possession of an offensive nose".
A couple of minutes later the self same Cyrano De Bergerac makes a rash challenge, similar but LESS offensive than the challenge on Miko i mentioned a sentence or two ago, and gets himself a second booking and walks.
I am incredulous at this and texts start flying and the only thing my mind is settled on is "This referee has been bought".
I don't want to bleat, i hate the whole paranoia thing and i can't remember when i have ever really believed that a referee was guilty of corruption, sure i have known that they have made horrendous mistakes, but corruption, no! My immediate reaction to this decision was - "This game has been bought, they have bought this game the b£$"&ards". To complete my bleating that i am not going to do, i have also never heard a Scottish puntid come out with such a clearly stated expression of "this game has been bought" than Pat Nevin came out with on the BBC broadcast at half time. And lets face it folks, Pat Nevin is not, lets say Ian Wright, that is to say he can string a coherent sentence together.

So we are down to ten again but it is more than that, Brellier was the concrete that allowed Hearts to play against this team and without him the game was lost. From this point on we struggled to compete and were limited to the odd break where at best we would be 2 against 3. The chances of turning the tie round under these circumstances was next to nil and thats what happened , nil.
Hearts got beat 5 - 1 on aggregate and Athens never scored a goal against 11 men and i am not sure if they were ever going to score against a full compliment Hearts team, for all their supposed quality advantage and superior class.
Neil McCann, bear with me for a sec. I was quite pleased in a way with his sending off. He has suffered a lot since the start of the season, the crowd are on his back, he is not performing, he is under performing, he is - not the player he used to be. So Neil gets caught in possession maybe 3 or 4 times on Wednesday night - all in our half and all when we are down to ten men and all when he has 3 Athens players around him. Neil, for christ sake, just belt the ball up the park man. He continued however to try to take some pressure off by trying to find a pass that was not just a " belt up the park" - finally he gets caught again and snaps and lunges in both feet from 5 yards out, so a straight red card. But at least it is clear - he cares. Keep caring and all is not lost.
Hartley who had put in some sterling work was tiring also by the time he was subbed around the hour mark.
Hearts buckled in the end under the pressure of 9 against 11 and lost 3 goals and the champions league dream is over until we stake a claim once again on this league.
There is one thing tho that screams out from Wednesday night that was distinctly missing last weekend at Ibrox


Staking a claim on this league, you better believe it !

P = M x V

We have none.

In the real world

P = Momentum
M = Mass
V = Velocity

I suppose in football land the M can stand for movement and it seems to = zero so our momentum is a big fat zero too and thats about it. We don't have much velocity either but thats irrelevant when the movement is zero.

Tiny little entry this week as i was not at the game and didn't even listen to the commentary on the radio. I was, at the time, up the High Street for my annual wander through the festival chaos.
Got roped into a street performers act and held one end of his apparatus as he high wire juggled some knives and a rubber chicken. These guys allways say just as they are about to commence their final biggest/best/most dangerous trick - "This is my only living, this is all i do, i travel the world performing my acts and keeping alive the great tradition of street performing, so please give me some of your money" I wonder, maybe they have a 9 - 5 like the rest of us and just do this during their fortnight off instead of going to the beach in Greece.
Still, pound for pound when there is 5 of you there, a few pounds for a half hour show that can sometimes be entertaining is about as good value as you can get these days. So all power to the street entertainers.

So to Ibrox. This result ( 2 - 0 to the bad guys ) is simply the manifestation of Heart's basic mediocrity right now. I am really pretty frustrated with the whole lot and could crack on for ages about how rigid our 4-4-2 is ( we played 4-3-3 yesterday ? ). I am not going to tho.
Formations are one thing but underneath it all it is about players and we are coming up wanting with the ones that are trapesing out onto the pitch this year. This is the same set of players that stormed and thundered through most of last season so whats the difference, i don't know. I know one thing tho, it would be foolish to think that we are close to last seasons performances and all we need is a player or two back and it will all start to happen again - we are not close, we are miles away. This looks like a typical Hearts season - stumble along maybe into third place if we keep it together long enough but never flirting with a challenge for the title. Take our rightful place well back in third behind the two ugly giants from the wild west.
Rangers have started the season playing some ( new for them for a while ) pretty decent football without capitalising. They do look as tho with a bit of P = M x V behind them, they could rip loose and give some teams a real tanking. I am hoping that that tanking comes first against Celtic in the first old firm game. This for no other reason than i am just totally bored and fed up with Celtic, can't stand Strachan blah blah blah. Normally i don't care who wins that one. We did not take a tanking yesterday but if we don't improve we will take it the next time we travel to Glasgow.
So whats to be done -
We do need to get Hartley back fully fit and Chesnauskis back won't do any harm either but we need more than just those two.
We seem to be persevering with the same first team that are just not cutting it just now and they don't look as tho they have the hunger to change the situation. We seem to be continuing to bring players in and not play them. The standard excuse being "This player is not fully fit for the Scottish game" and then you never hear of him again. Are they just crap? Why bring them here? We need to start giving some of these guys a chance - at the very least it may put a rocket under some of the regulars who are under achieving just now.
You know, there is no point having 60 players in a first team squad if 49 of them aren't any good.
We need to get our desire back and we need to accept again that to win games we need to out think and outplay and outfight the oppossition. By all accounts Jankauskas wasn't interested yesterday - so play Makela or the new guy Mauricio Panilla or whatever his name is.

Still Athens on Wednesday and a real big ask, maybe we had half an eye on that game ( don't believe that really ). This is not impossible and could have a massive impact on our season.
Either way -

Hooooo on the Jambo's

Irn Bru and an AlkaSeltzer please

Hangover cures were posted missing at Tynecastle today, that was the verdict.
Hearts suffered that infamous post champions league hangover at Tynecastle today?

How much of that do i believe, i believe it about 20%.
I left Tynecastle with a feeling today that i have not felt for a good while now and never once during last season - association with mediocrity.
Hearts were myriad things last season but mediocre, never once were we mediocre.

I finally got my season ticket sorted out with my fifth visit to Tynecastle ticket office, i waited 45 minutes in the queue this time on Friday lunchtime. The guy who runs the Hearts shop, i hope they are paying him triple just now because he is doubling as crowd control for all us ? - just how do the board of Heart of Midlothian Football club view us ? If you go by how they treat us, you would not come up with many complimentary tags for us punters
The guy that runs the shop and controls us punters in the queue is walking along the line maybe six of us at a time and he is letting us know that for sure we will definitely get our season ticket book today and categorically "all season ticket books were posted out by close of play last night ( Thursday )" as he is saying this to the crowd there are punters coming out of the ticket office with their season ticket book inside the stamped addressed envelope that was categorically posted by close of play last night. They just plain lied to us, as well as made a complete arse of distributing our tickets on time and caused loads of us to give up our valuable time to spend it standing in lines for hours on end - they just plain lied to us and they continued to lie until we finally all went home. They are a disgrace !!
The final insult on top of the injury was a phone call from the ticket office at Tynecastle to my house on Friday afternoon ( 2 hours after i had picked up the ticket book ) "Your season ticket book is now ready for collection at the ticket office, we are open until 6 this evening"

Rant over !

I was upbeat about the game today, like i said in the last post i thought we had let ourselves down and the gulf was not so big blah blah. I expected us to redeem ourselves with a good solid performance against a typically mid table Scottish Premier League outfit. As it proved today the gulf is not so big - evident in that Falkirk could do to us what Athens done to us a few days earlier. That is to completely overwhelm our midfield for large sections of the game, yes Falkirk too were a man over everytime they got into our third - i still don't know how that works?

Falkirk fans initially took great delight in singing "Champions League, your having a laugh", Hearts support responded with "SPL your having a laugh" this flew back and forward in an otherwise atmosphereless afternoon - but there was an unexpected air about this, it was almost like the Falkirk support ( who started that chant a few months back ) really thought - we told you so six months ago and now they just felt a bit guilty about sticking it to us again in our obvious state of dissappointment after Wednesday.
To our retort there was nothing behind it for a number of reasons - one of them being that - it is a bit rich slagging a team off for not being good enough for this league when they are playing you off the park at the time.
Hearts support were emotionally drained today? I certainly was, i was only prepared for a standard 2 or 3 nil, but i forgot that this is not last season.

The first half was a shocker from a Hearts perspective, the game tho was actually quite good to watch i think if you were a neutral. Mostly this is down an accomplished display by Falkirk summed up by Russell Latapy, my half time question was "how is it that a 75 year old can look like the fittest guy on the park" ok he is 37 or something but come on he plays centre midfield. I am getting my head round things and am starting to see the problems it is just that the answers aren't very good - it is starting to look like the answers are - Paul Hartley and Rudi Skacel, only one is a possible answer and that could be a few weeks yet. So for all the massive squad we have, take a player or two out of it and we slip into abject mediocrity. I guess the other point of note there would be that - for all Hearts claims to some kind of superiority, the only guy on the park today that was in any squad at this summer's world cup was Mr Latapy.
There were chances for both teams in the first half but nothing really stands out for me, Falkirk had a fantastic opportunity with their striker unmarked in the box with the ball at his feet, he snatched at it and Gordon took it easy. There was an incident with one of the Falkirk defenders and Roman Bednar, just off the ball i noticed a bit of a square up, and 2 seconds later a flailing arm and Bednar is on the floor. For all the world with my view that is a sending off. It ended up a booking and loads of Falkirk fans on various phone ins claiming that Bednar set this up in an attempt to get their man sent off. It is never straight forward but i wouldn't put it past Bednar. When Hearts did manage to get forward we just lacked quality, thats the difference, this time last year we were razor sharp with devastating quality in the final ball, that is just not there just now and that has nothing to do with a big game we happened to be part of mid week.
Half time and i was still comfortable, i fully expected the second half to be better from our perspective, i expected my already anticipated substitutes, Jankauskas on for the innefectual Pospisil and this time at least, Beslija on for McCann ( for god sake put this hasbeen out of his/our misery and out to pasture). Cesnauskis is still unwell so Beslija was the obvious choice and i was happy with it thinking why not just get him out there and see what we haven't yet paid for.
Jankauskas came on and i was happy but Beslija came on for Brellier - i just haven't the foggiest idea what that is about. We are already totally overrun in midfield, they are playing 5 against our 4 and we take off the only midfielder we have who can tackle ? Was this some kind of attack minded chase the win attitude ( McCann was moved into the centre ).
Bemused !
As the game wore on it became more evident that Falkirk were delighted with a draw, if they had gone for the win it was there for the taking. Hearts just got desperate and lost any shape we did have going forward, Beslija when he did get the ball failed to take anyone on and always opted for the early cross - lacking confidence i guess but at least his crosses were making it into the box.
The last 10 minutes were pretty frantic with a fair amount of pressure from Hearts it was just never going to be our day tho, summed up by good fighting by Bednar to get to a loose ball on the edge of the box, under pressure and a very difficult chance he managed to get his foot round it to clip the ball over the outrushing keeper only to see it also sail a foot or so over the bar.
In retort to Bednar's play acting attempts to get players sent off, the Falkirk keeper was out of order in many ways in that second half, much time wasting and play acting.

Last thought on this one is, if things don't improve and quickly then Ivanauskas is going to find his coat on a very shoogly peg, you just know it.

Burst

Well I for one had no idea what to expect, just couldn't make a call on how i thought the game would go. Mostly down to the fact that i had not the slightest clue about AEK Athens - i guess they have been round the block a time or two in Europe, certainly more than Hearts over the last decade or so. So i could be forgiven for thinking that Hearts would not be able to live with Athens. Then again aren't we supposed to be a bit more than just Hearts these days, aren't we supposed to be some kind of Uber Hearts, a stronger, faster, classier version of the normal us.
I still have no clue!

So, i knew this was a huge game and i knew i was nervous but i couldn't attach anything to it - i had nothing to worry about, just thought we would get on with it and eventually prevail somehow or other?

Miraculously the tickets for the Athens game arrived on Tuesday ( bought on line on Sunday night), can somebody please tell me why one of my f'n season tickets has not arrived yet. I bought 3 at the same time back at the start of June - received 2 concessions one in my name. This i got sorted out down at the ticket office last Wednesday. I have been down 4 times and still haven't got the other one and it looks like i will be queing again on Friday for a ticket for the Falkirk game on saturday. The point is, there is not another business anywhere that would consider this level of abject crapness to be anything other than totally unacceptable! For crying out loud Hearts get this sorted out, if you cast your mind back - it was exactly the same last year.

So to the game - i had bought the cheapest of the cheap £12 & £6 tickets for the Siroki game and have to say that down on the touchline at the corner flag at Murrayfield is no place to watch a football game. So i forked out for the £25 & £15 tickets this time round so the seats were much better. This gave a perfect view of just how slaughtered we were in the first 10 minutes. This was not looking good - AEK started the game like this :-
They were bigger, stronger, faster, better organised, technically superior, with greater poise and skill and vision than us and better in just about every other aspect of what makes one team better than another. Apart from maybe we were better at spanking the ball up the middle to no effect whatsoever.
My thoughts are that this affected Hearts pretty badly for the rest of the first half. We were terrible with everyone as bad as each other. Fingers could be pointed at Neil McCann and for sure he was bloody awful but i think there should be a collective blame here - we lost belief in ourselves. Just about every midfield pass we attempted for about a 30 minute period in the first half was short by a yard or two and everytime it let Athens in. We were completely overrun in midfield ( Ivanauskas should stand up and take the blame for a mental midfield line up ). My frustration levels were climbing by the minute and took a leap everytime the wee number 99 for Athens got on the ball. The worst thing of all tho was that everytime they were on the attack they had a man over - how the hell does that work. Twice in the first half i caught Berra grabbing Aguair, trying to explain to him just how much trouble he was in with allways having 2 to deal with - it was obvious that Aguair had no idea how to help him out - the best he could do was shrug his shoulders like "Your in trouble, try being in the centre circle"
But
For all that, they never really got behind us, and they never really tried to. Athens seemed content to rap shot after shot at Gordons goal from 25 yards out, weird really for all their superiority.
That superiority was gradually ground down by a by poor but dogged Hearts team. I mentioned in the report on the Siroki game that it was amazing hoe easily Hearts were brought down to their level - i wonder if the Athens punters are saying the same thing about their game against us. I found myself thinking, if only we can hang on til half time without losing a goal.
Half time
Hearts 0 - AEK Athens 0

Second half and Hearts were better in that we somehow seemed able to play the game in the Athens half - not that we were doing much but at least we looked like we could compete. Thought the game was going nowhere when Jankauskas came on. This pleased me, my thinking being that at least when he gets the ball he can generally hold of a challenge or two before collapsing ( the game up to this point was littered by Hearts players receiving the ball then collapsing at the first sniff of a challenge ) Jankauskas was at least better than most in this respect but he was still being muscled of the ball far too easily. Still a few minutes later and he is free on the edge of the box with Bednar inside - a neat square ball and we are in behind them!! Bednar does well, there are two on him he gets his shot that looked a goal all the way until it comes off the post, bounces out to Miko tho who slots home.

Hearts 1 - AEK Athens 0

I can't believe it but we have managed to turn this game around and now we are looking much better and i am thinking, hey get another one and i will start to like this.
Bruno Aguair gets sent of for being a fanny ( kicking the ball away in a hissy fit ) and we are right back in our shell. I guess there had to be changes with the only midfielder we had now sent off and there was a flurry of activity on the bench - so i think we done pretty well not to fall apart right there and then.

The last 15 minutes was the typical down to ten men back to the wall, protect the slender lead kind of thing and we almost made it.
With a couple of minutes to go, they changed things by flinging in a cross from the left which was met unchallenged and a beautiful looping header over Gordon into the back of the net from 12 yards out.

Hearts 1 - AEK Athens 1

We all know what an away goal in europe is worth and i am gutted.

4 minutes of added time is not what i wanted to hear but thats what it was, Athens continued to attack with everything they had and with just a minute or so to go they have an opening 25 yards out and wind up for what must be their 30th shot at goal from distance..........
I think it is written in your contract if you are a Scottish team playing in Europe -
at some point during your european campaign you will suffer a last minute deflected goal that shall kill your dreams
we lived up to our contractual obligations and Berra stuck his foot out to stop the shot, which spun off his foot out of the path of Gordon and into the gaping net
Disaster

If i was to sum this up, we let ourselves down last night. We looked to be outclassed but i don't think the gulf is as much as it looked. We may well go to Athens and play a lot better but the gods will need to be very much on board if we are to turn this one around.