No game to report on this week, as Hearts were dumped out of the Scottish Cup by Dunfermline a few weeks back.
The only thing to talk about this week then is vlad's continuing rant ravaged war with the Scottish sporting media.
Vlad posted another certifiably insane haver on the Hearts official website on Thursday.
This time round i am actually getting a bit worried for his sanity, i mean really i am.
Here is the transcript from the Hearts website :-
Haver
It is futile to attempt to pick some sense out of this wondrous tirade of complexities, red herrings and trawler following seagulls.
References to Mowgli here, from The Jungle Book?
It is confused ofcourse but is Mowgli the Scottish public who Vlad seems to think are childlike in some way! requiring of some teaching. I think i am a bit insulted by this.
I guess it is common for the clinically bonkers to harbour a superiority complex. Some of this reads as if it were the thoughts of Chairman Moa TseTung, to be gratefully consumed on a daily basis by the mass proletariat at the start of each glorious working day. From the wests perspective it did appear as though the old communist block treated it's people as children to be taught and controlled as such. Is this what he thinks of us lowly punters? Are you insulted by this?
Back to Mowgli, King of the Swingers thats what i read out of this, that song from The Jungle Book, here it is here ...
Mowgli here represents the Scottish football watching public ( children ), and the Orangutang here is the Media or perhaps the Old Firm, confusing and corrupting poor Mowgli in order to acheive some self serving agenda. Obvious flaws in all of this - Orangutangs are apes not monkeys for a kick off but hey in the land of the stark raving space cadets we can let that one slide.
Who then is Vlad, is he Baloo? the noble bear ( obvious Russian connections there ) coming to Mowgli's rescue. Or is he the black panther here, who knows. May be that Baloo is Steven Pressley who in this scene is caste under the spell of the mischevious Ape and his devil music, the Jazz.
My head hurts.
I thought of hunting through You Tube for a clip to represent "the woman who gives herself without love" but hey this is a family blog!
On the upside it looks like Tom Pontin's crusade against the deal which will allow Hearts to purchase the necessary land to build the new stand has failed. Obviously we are all delighted about that. This stupid, pathetic, narrow minded, short sighted little man and his crusade for notoriety should be ignored as soon as possible.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
In the land of the blind, Larry is King
This week served up another predictable tragi-drama from Romanov's big top circus, opera house and pantomime pantaloons.
This week i am sick of it, can't take much more.
Everything about it is just waring me down.
This culminated in my experience at Tynecastle yesterday - this game was the most annoying & frustrating, badly scripted, amateurishly directed and poorly acted dross i have witnessed all season - it probably wasn't but that's how it felt, i was in a stinking mood by the time the game was over.
I spent a load of the game venting vitriol at variety of victims, my language and general demeanor not for me to be proud off. Why do we do it to ourselves!
Breath in ... and rest.
Vladimir Romanov has once again plunged himself and the club into disarray and ignominy with his paranoid ravings, which appear to this time be full on - libellous. Essentially Vlad has stated in an interview to Russian sports magazine Futbal that the old firm are in some way corrupting Scottish Football, players and referees.
Here is a bit of the translated transcript -
Q. When you took over you declared that Hearts would in a few months be mounting a real challenge to Rangers and Celtic and would be battling for the title. Nobody took you seriously then but you soon returned the club to long forgotten heights. What was the secret of your success?
A. Celtic and Rangers? Even Kaunas are a match for them on the pitch. The thing is they've turned football into a type of show business with their underhand games. They buy off players and referees. When it comes to weaker teams then nobody can help but if two opponents are equally matched, then the referees can have a real influence on the outcome.
Seems pretty conclusive to me, if this is a legitimate translation ( Vlad in an official statement on Hearts web site has back tracked from this) Vlad has accused both Rangers and Celtic of 'buying off' referees.
Given what has gone on in Italy at the end of last season, what it has cost some of the clubs over there. This must be dealt with seriously, will it? i don't think so. Half of me wants one or both of the gruesome twosome to take it as far as they can, drive a legal stake into the heart of Vlad and his death grip on our club. The other half is petrified that the 'camel that breaks the straws back' may well be that long drawn out and acrimonious legal battle. Vlad gives up and walks away.
There are some other statements from the interview that do read like an exit strategy is being sought -
Q. Things have got that bad in Britain?
A. That's not the word for it. I went there with the hope that I'd be able to avoid all the dirty stuff that we've all grown used to here. I thought that there everything was clean, ideal, (that I would be dealing) with gentlemen. But it turned out that there everything is even worse.
Q. Worse than here?
A. Yes, by some way.
Q. In what way is that visible?
A. They have a different mentality. A different culture, or to be more precise, lack of culture. What do I mean by that? Here, for example, I can say to German (Tkachenko, the Russian football magnate who runs the agency that represents players such as Laryea Kingston and who was sitting next to him during the interview): 'Why are you trying to deceive me?' (German Tkachenko interjects: 'And I would feel ashamed'.) A And he would feel ashamed. But if I say that to a British person, they give you an innocent look and say, 'Me? Deceive you? I'll see you in court!' That's the difference.What we would call base behaviour is the norm for them. It's normal for them to betray one's own club and conduct talks with another club behind their back or not to give their team everything on the pitch because someone has seduced them by waving the shirt of another club at them.But fans there deserve something much more. They are not like the tiffosi in Italy. British supporters are well-versed, they understand everything, they live for football. But they are being served up a rotten product, even if it is well packaged.
A couple of thoughts here, Vlad has always had it in for untrustworthy agents, a lot of his actions and over-reactions over his time here has i believe been caused by players and agents not playing the game Vlad's way. It is pretty clear that Vlad also feels the same way about players who also do not play the game exactly as he sees it. Any decent is taken as a betrayal, a personal betrayal to be dealt with, with utmost severity.
Pretty clear that it is Vlad's way or it is the highway.
Vlad came here because he wanted an even playing field where everyone adhered to his view of how football business should be conducted. He can't get that in Russia/Lithuania which is why he came here, now he seems convinced that it is worse here?? Where else can he go, how about South America bet it is nice and clean and tidy over there. I am not so sure that this is an indication of the exit strategy being sought. But i do think the exit may seek him out much quicker than he expects. All i will say about Vlad and his apparent madness is that, behind all of this is a long term goal. That goal being to get a foothold over here for his bank UKIO-BANKAS, and to expand that business. This dwarfs any ripple caused by his ownership of this football club. He owns this club in order to grease the wheels toward that goal. Vlad has and is however making so many mistakes that that goal is looking further away by the hour. Right this moment in time how many people do you think would open an account at the George St branch of UKIO-BANKAS A failed bank venture would surely see him go as cold as ice to Hearts, Edinburgh and Scotland. For an awful lot of people that would be good riddance and bugger the consequences.
One of the most disappointing aspects of all of this is the divisions it is building into the Hearts support. The talk shows and web sites are crammed full of anti Vlad versus pro Vlad battles, everyone is entitled to their opinion obviously but lately it reminds me of that scene in 'Life of Brian' where Brian thinks that he and the rest of The Peoples Popular Front of Judia are about to strike a blow against the oppressive Romans only to discover that they are happier to battle it out with their mortal enemy The Judian Popular Peoples Front.
Seems to me that some people spend their entire lives in perpetual disgust at their clubs chairman and board, like it is their job or something. I just can't be arsed with that.
Where do i stand on all of this?
I hate the term 'Romanov apologist', mostly bandied around by the above malcontents.
I do not apologise for Romanov, he has made a hundred thousand mistakes in the last 2 years. He is most probably President of the United Wards of BonkersVille!
But here is what i believe right now, having sumpt up all the lines which are to to be read between, over the piece -
I believe, the new stand and the building of it remains the acid test of his intentions for our club.
I believe, Hearts will be a better team next season than we are this season.
Is anything else required really, think i have nailed my colours to the mast there. I remain a supporter of the Romanov revolution, with all the baggage that entails. However failure of either of those statements for me will be the tipping point from support to rejection.
It all started so well as well. An absolutely beautiful day in Edinburgh for the visit of St Mirren. We are all no doubt aware of the all too obvious effects ( beneficial? ) of global warming. As i sat awaiting the kick off i was struck with the idea that the day felt like April in every way but the aroma of spring bloom. I was a bit surprised that the Hearts support were in much finer fettle than last week, galvanised once again by the knowledge that we are the most hated and ridiculed team in the history of evil and stupid teams. A snappy rendition of The Monkeys self titled anthem set and lightened the scene.
The first seeds of disgruntlement in my gut was as the team was announced, we were playing Neil McCann in the middle with Laryea Kingston. That pairing against St Mirren just wouldn't cut it for me. They are a nasty team who play the game on the edge of a foul, Larry needed more than just Nelly in there with him especially given they would no doubt play 5 across the middle. Why not Brellier in there protecting Larry and the back 4.
Another rant - St Mirren drive me nuts, i hate playing against them, is it just me? They have honed to a fine art the ability to nudge their mark just a tiny bit just a split second before the aerial challenge, just enough to make the edge but not enough for a foul. They are experts at it, all of them, the whole game yesterday. Drove me to distraction.
Another rant - During this game the referee MacDonald seemed to experiment with a new interpretation of the rules. That rule which states that obstruction is a foul unless you are the defender and you are attempting to shepherd the ball over your own byeline. For the whole game he modified this rule so that it became obstruction is a foul unless you are the defender and you are attempting to shepherd the ball over your own bye line OR you are a Hearts player!
Drove me to distraction.
Another rant - If that little bugger McCann fann*es about with the ball again when he is last man 20 yards out with nobody near him other than the opposing forward bearing down on him, i swear i will walk on the park and hoof the ball up field myself. Anyone who was at the game will know what i mean.
Drove me absolutely mental.
Hearts started the game pretty well, the crowd were happy and expecting, Larry played some good passes over the top out to Driver on the left wing, driver making good progress and getting the crosses in. Best effort in the early stages was a 30 yard raking volley hit perfectly by Velicka, the keeper doing really well to tip over.
The StMirren goal then came against the run of play then? For the most part, however a couple of moments before it came a very similar opening appeared for them. Worryingly a clipped ball onto the penalty spot from deep allowed their forward in on goal with not a centre half in sight. I had been growing in my confidence of the Berra/Zaliukas partnership but that was a shocker. He took it really well tho so can't take anything away from him.
That was it, even if we are not the most hated and ridiculed team in the history of evil and stupid teams, we are about the most frail.
Hearts spent the rest of the game chasing their tails with no leadership, or coherence.
Grudging respect to St Mirren i guess, their game plan paid off and they stuck to their task well, competed for everything blah, blah.
It is just as well we have uncovered a potential gem in Larry Kingston ( this goes part of the way to my belief that we will be a better team next season, another couple of players of his ilk and things could start to cook once again ).
Some media pundit mentioned in today's press that whilst Larry had a decent game he was in no way a replacement for Paul Hartley, that pundit has not been to Tynecastle much in the first half of this season! I dare say Hartley will get a new lease of life now that he is at his beloved Celtic.
Hearts goal came from a dubious free kick ( i don't believe the corruption or bias jibe i just think the ref is an idiot ) 20 yards out on the right side of the box. Expertly lofted over the wall and into the far corner. Thank Christ for that.
This week i am sick of it, can't take much more.
Everything about it is just waring me down.
This culminated in my experience at Tynecastle yesterday - this game was the most annoying & frustrating, badly scripted, amateurishly directed and poorly acted dross i have witnessed all season - it probably wasn't but that's how it felt, i was in a stinking mood by the time the game was over.
I spent a load of the game venting vitriol at variety of victims, my language and general demeanor not for me to be proud off. Why do we do it to ourselves!
Breath in ... and rest.
Vladimir Romanov has once again plunged himself and the club into disarray and ignominy with his paranoid ravings, which appear to this time be full on - libellous. Essentially Vlad has stated in an interview to Russian sports magazine Futbal that the old firm are in some way corrupting Scottish Football, players and referees.
Here is a bit of the translated transcript -
Q. When you took over you declared that Hearts would in a few months be mounting a real challenge to Rangers and Celtic and would be battling for the title. Nobody took you seriously then but you soon returned the club to long forgotten heights. What was the secret of your success?
A. Celtic and Rangers? Even Kaunas are a match for them on the pitch. The thing is they've turned football into a type of show business with their underhand games. They buy off players and referees. When it comes to weaker teams then nobody can help but if two opponents are equally matched, then the referees can have a real influence on the outcome.
Seems pretty conclusive to me, if this is a legitimate translation ( Vlad in an official statement on Hearts web site has back tracked from this) Vlad has accused both Rangers and Celtic of 'buying off' referees.
Given what has gone on in Italy at the end of last season, what it has cost some of the clubs over there. This must be dealt with seriously, will it? i don't think so. Half of me wants one or both of the gruesome twosome to take it as far as they can, drive a legal stake into the heart of Vlad and his death grip on our club. The other half is petrified that the 'camel that breaks the straws back' may well be that long drawn out and acrimonious legal battle. Vlad gives up and walks away.
There are some other statements from the interview that do read like an exit strategy is being sought -
Q. Things have got that bad in Britain?
A. That's not the word for it. I went there with the hope that I'd be able to avoid all the dirty stuff that we've all grown used to here. I thought that there everything was clean, ideal, (that I would be dealing) with gentlemen. But it turned out that there everything is even worse.
Q. Worse than here?
A. Yes, by some way.
Q. In what way is that visible?
A. They have a different mentality. A different culture, or to be more precise, lack of culture. What do I mean by that? Here, for example, I can say to German (Tkachenko, the Russian football magnate who runs the agency that represents players such as Laryea Kingston and who was sitting next to him during the interview): 'Why are you trying to deceive me?' (German Tkachenko interjects: 'And I would feel ashamed'.) A And he would feel ashamed. But if I say that to a British person, they give you an innocent look and say, 'Me? Deceive you? I'll see you in court!' That's the difference.What we would call base behaviour is the norm for them. It's normal for them to betray one's own club and conduct talks with another club behind their back or not to give their team everything on the pitch because someone has seduced them by waving the shirt of another club at them.But fans there deserve something much more. They are not like the tiffosi in Italy. British supporters are well-versed, they understand everything, they live for football. But they are being served up a rotten product, even if it is well packaged.
A couple of thoughts here, Vlad has always had it in for untrustworthy agents, a lot of his actions and over-reactions over his time here has i believe been caused by players and agents not playing the game Vlad's way. It is pretty clear that Vlad also feels the same way about players who also do not play the game exactly as he sees it. Any decent is taken as a betrayal, a personal betrayal to be dealt with, with utmost severity.
Pretty clear that it is Vlad's way or it is the highway.
Vlad came here because he wanted an even playing field where everyone adhered to his view of how football business should be conducted. He can't get that in Russia/Lithuania which is why he came here, now he seems convinced that it is worse here?? Where else can he go, how about South America bet it is nice and clean and tidy over there. I am not so sure that this is an indication of the exit strategy being sought. But i do think the exit may seek him out much quicker than he expects. All i will say about Vlad and his apparent madness is that, behind all of this is a long term goal. That goal being to get a foothold over here for his bank UKIO-BANKAS, and to expand that business. This dwarfs any ripple caused by his ownership of this football club. He owns this club in order to grease the wheels toward that goal. Vlad has and is however making so many mistakes that that goal is looking further away by the hour. Right this moment in time how many people do you think would open an account at the George St branch of UKIO-BANKAS A failed bank venture would surely see him go as cold as ice to Hearts, Edinburgh and Scotland. For an awful lot of people that would be good riddance and bugger the consequences.
One of the most disappointing aspects of all of this is the divisions it is building into the Hearts support. The talk shows and web sites are crammed full of anti Vlad versus pro Vlad battles, everyone is entitled to their opinion obviously but lately it reminds me of that scene in 'Life of Brian' where Brian thinks that he and the rest of The Peoples Popular Front of Judia are about to strike a blow against the oppressive Romans only to discover that they are happier to battle it out with their mortal enemy The Judian Popular Peoples Front.
Seems to me that some people spend their entire lives in perpetual disgust at their clubs chairman and board, like it is their job or something. I just can't be arsed with that.
Where do i stand on all of this?
I hate the term 'Romanov apologist', mostly bandied around by the above malcontents.
I do not apologise for Romanov, he has made a hundred thousand mistakes in the last 2 years. He is most probably President of the United Wards of BonkersVille!
But here is what i believe right now, having sumpt up all the lines which are to to be read between, over the piece -
I believe, the new stand and the building of it remains the acid test of his intentions for our club.
I believe, Hearts will be a better team next season than we are this season.
Is anything else required really, think i have nailed my colours to the mast there. I remain a supporter of the Romanov revolution, with all the baggage that entails. However failure of either of those statements for me will be the tipping point from support to rejection.
It all started so well as well. An absolutely beautiful day in Edinburgh for the visit of St Mirren. We are all no doubt aware of the all too obvious effects ( beneficial? ) of global warming. As i sat awaiting the kick off i was struck with the idea that the day felt like April in every way but the aroma of spring bloom. I was a bit surprised that the Hearts support were in much finer fettle than last week, galvanised once again by the knowledge that we are the most hated and ridiculed team in the history of evil and stupid teams. A snappy rendition of The Monkeys self titled anthem set and lightened the scene.
The first seeds of disgruntlement in my gut was as the team was announced, we were playing Neil McCann in the middle with Laryea Kingston. That pairing against St Mirren just wouldn't cut it for me. They are a nasty team who play the game on the edge of a foul, Larry needed more than just Nelly in there with him especially given they would no doubt play 5 across the middle. Why not Brellier in there protecting Larry and the back 4.
Another rant - St Mirren drive me nuts, i hate playing against them, is it just me? They have honed to a fine art the ability to nudge their mark just a tiny bit just a split second before the aerial challenge, just enough to make the edge but not enough for a foul. They are experts at it, all of them, the whole game yesterday. Drove me to distraction.
Another rant - During this game the referee MacDonald seemed to experiment with a new interpretation of the rules. That rule which states that obstruction is a foul unless you are the defender and you are attempting to shepherd the ball over your own byeline. For the whole game he modified this rule so that it became obstruction is a foul unless you are the defender and you are attempting to shepherd the ball over your own bye line OR you are a Hearts player!
Drove me to distraction.
Another rant - If that little bugger McCann fann*es about with the ball again when he is last man 20 yards out with nobody near him other than the opposing forward bearing down on him, i swear i will walk on the park and hoof the ball up field myself. Anyone who was at the game will know what i mean.
Drove me absolutely mental.
Hearts started the game pretty well, the crowd were happy and expecting, Larry played some good passes over the top out to Driver on the left wing, driver making good progress and getting the crosses in. Best effort in the early stages was a 30 yard raking volley hit perfectly by Velicka, the keeper doing really well to tip over.
The StMirren goal then came against the run of play then? For the most part, however a couple of moments before it came a very similar opening appeared for them. Worryingly a clipped ball onto the penalty spot from deep allowed their forward in on goal with not a centre half in sight. I had been growing in my confidence of the Berra/Zaliukas partnership but that was a shocker. He took it really well tho so can't take anything away from him.
That was it, even if we are not the most hated and ridiculed team in the history of evil and stupid teams, we are about the most frail.
Hearts spent the rest of the game chasing their tails with no leadership, or coherence.
Grudging respect to St Mirren i guess, their game plan paid off and they stuck to their task well, competed for everything blah, blah.
It is just as well we have uncovered a potential gem in Larry Kingston ( this goes part of the way to my belief that we will be a better team next season, another couple of players of his ilk and things could start to cook once again ).
Some media pundit mentioned in today's press that whilst Larry had a decent game he was in no way a replacement for Paul Hartley, that pundit has not been to Tynecastle much in the first half of this season! I dare say Hartley will get a new lease of life now that he is at his beloved Celtic.
Hearts goal came from a dubious free kick ( i don't believe the corruption or bias jibe i just think the ref is an idiot ) 20 yards out on the right side of the box. Expertly lofted over the wall and into the far corner. Thank Christ for that.
Vlad responded to the trouble he had gotten himself in, by releasing a statement on the club website. In the statement he stated that 'thank God he had not come across any conspiracies' in this country - an open reversal of his reported statements to the Russian mag.
Just couldn't help himself though, if there is one thing Vlad hates more than dodgy agents and mutinous players it is the media. Here is how Vlad visualises the Scottish media..
Rip Ding WOOOO
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Breaking all the rules
It was a troubled week for Hearts on the run up to the game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. This was mostly down to the statement regarding the debt that the club now finds itself in - a monstrous figure of £28.4M huge scary number i am sure you will agree.
The general feeling of depression was not helped by the dismal exit from the Scottish Cup to Dunfermline last weekend.
I am no financial guru and that's a fact, all i can see at the moment is that the people who own the club are the people who are paying the interest on the debt to the people who own the club - so right now Vladimir Romanov is taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other and in doing so some numbers are moved around on various company accounts - HMFC & UKIO Bankas
The only beneficiaries would seem to be the players in our vastly over inflated first team squad, who are picking up their weekly thousands whilst getting no where near the first team. Surely Hearts will have a drastic cull at the end of this season?
That is at present to the detriment of HMFC a detriment that will have a cataclysmic effect when and only when
The general feeling of depression was not helped by the dismal exit from the Scottish Cup to Dunfermline last weekend.
I am no financial guru and that's a fact, all i can see at the moment is that the people who own the club are the people who are paying the interest on the debt to the people who own the club - so right now Vladimir Romanov is taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other and in doing so some numbers are moved around on various company accounts - HMFC & UKIO Bankas
The only beneficiaries would seem to be the players in our vastly over inflated first team squad, who are picking up their weekly thousands whilst getting no where near the first team. Surely Hearts will have a drastic cull at the end of this season?
That is at present to the detriment of HMFC a detriment that will have a cataclysmic effect when and only when
- Romanov ceases to be Sugar Daddy (gets bored or decides he can't do it with provincial Hearts and moves for a bigger club at which point Hearts become Kaunas #2 ) or
- HMFC finances become so outrageous that it puts UKIO Bankas in danger and Vlad gets toppled from his position there, or
- Romanov empire collapses due to any myriad of financial dodgy dealings ( stress here that none are known this is pure speculation ) Romanov is jailed.
- Some bigger bank simply buys UKIO Bankas, the tap is switched off and the debt called in.
At this moment as has been at all moments in the last couple of years the outcome for HMFC is as clear as tar. Most likely for me is number 4 here, given that big banks buy small banks all the time. We all know that the Romanov era will end at some point, sooner or later. The evidence ( announced debt ) and media comment from this week all indicate, suggest and warn that the Romanov era will end at best with HMFC in a worse position than when he took over and at worst mortally wounded.
The only comment i have on that is - Heart of Midlothian Football Club were mortally wounded when he ( Romanov ) took the reigns it would be almost impossible for him to leave us in a worse state. Going bankrupt £20M in debt is as far as i can see is no different from going bankrupt £100M in debt. Like i say i am no financial mind so comments on that statement are more than welcome. All would be lost under either scenario.
Where would we be right now if he had not taken over, most likely scenario is ...
In administration, playing St Johnstone at Murrayfield in front of 4,000 die hard supporters.
Regardless of how crazy he is he is still very much our saviour, even if in 5 years the scenario above is exactly where we are.
The continuing Craig Gordon saga has also served to depress the Tynecastle faithful, our greatest on field asset and in many ways only remaining favourite son appears now to be banished from the team for good. He will be sold in the summer and if we see him in a Hearts jersey before then we will be surprised. It is just as well that Stevie Banks is a decent keeper or the depression would be bubbling in to the manic for a lot of us Jambos. Stevie Banks is a decent keeper, better than decent in fact and i have no concerns about him taking up the mantle as 1st choice #1 what bothers me is the waste of Craig Gordon for all concerned.
Hopefully the game at Tynecastle yesterday was the conclusion to our depression and not some marker on a continuing decent into the abyss. For many reasons it was certainly a marker, all Jambos online were were sent e-mails from the club informing them that there were tickets left ( so hurry up and pick them up ) for the game. This is the first time the club has had to do this since the start of the 2005 - 06 season and indeed the game was the first non home gate sell out since then. A clear indication of the faithfuls disgruntlement. The atmosphere was subdued and tetchy, not helped by the 300 or so ICT fans who themselves seemed bored and depressed. Their favourite jibe was the obvious twisting of the Hibs favourite .. "Vladimir Romanov, he s**ks Paul Hartley off" into "Vladimir Romanov, he f**ked Paul Hartley off".
The atmosphere on the run up to the kick off was further dishevelled ( correct me if i am wrong because i was not in a good position to be certain ) by the unveiling of the huge Hearts jersey that had previously been unfurled down the height of the Wheatfield Stand, this time directly over my head down the centre of the Gorgie Stand. We all became aware that the bloody thing was upside down!
To keep with the upside down theme then i will summarise the game before i get into the nitty gritty. So if you are already bored with this blog entry you can just read the next paragraph and be done with it -
My parting comment as we split to take our seats in the stand before kick off was "We better put in a performance or it is going to feel cold out there today" by the end of the game i was bloody freezing!
Banks was called into action early in the game, the first ICT attack in fact, a throw in from the right was flicked on and landed for Graham Bayne to knock goal ward, a little awkward to take and the effort was a tad weak but a good save from Banks nonetheless. Once again for all of Hearts mighty big squad, a couple of injuries and we struggled badly for cover - no Bruno Aguair or Salius Mikoliunas and Hearts had to re-invent Callum Elliot as a right midfielder and play with Julien Brellier and Laryea Kingston in the centre. Looked to me as though Kingston and Brellier are too similar and a combination of Kingston or Brellier with Aguair may be a better blend. Not too surprising then that the team had a makeshift feel to it however we seemed to play the ball on the deck more than we have done of late, not that that would be too difficult. Driver playing left midfield had the beating of the ICT defence every time until they realised the threat and started to double up on him. This is a good sign but one which we need to recognise and use to our advantage. If they need to double up on the flanks we should be able to move the ball around with a bit more freedom deeper infield looking for that telling pass, a bit of patience maybe required. Lets face it though Hearts are quite far away from a patient, probing outfit with excellent ball retention capabilities.
Arkadiusz Klimek started the game quite well, with a 25 yard shot always rising but a decent effort nonetheless and a neat back heel to put Jankauskas through on goal. As the game progressed however a decent start turned into a dismal conclusion. The Hearts support had decided fairly quickly that anything less than brilliant by any of the new players was to be vilified immediately. A bit unfair i thought bu Klimek did not help himself really, a good move playing him through from midfield early in the second half wasted by him with a ludicrous scoop to the back post when a cut back to Kingston screaming towards the penalty spot was a much better option. Lack of fitness may have crept in but from that point on Klimek struggled with the basics required to make any impact on the game.
Edgaras Jankauskas on the other hand started the game badly and just got worse, he seemed to be penalised every time the ball went near him, can't all have been victimisation. The neat back heel from Klimek was wasted by Jankauskas as he tried to fend of the defender ( fouling him in the process ) rather than just having a shot at goal. Jankauskas is looking more like a waste of space every time he trots on to the park and at a time when our finances are under a great deal of scrutiny he can be seen as nothing more than an unnecessary drain on the club.
Focus on Laryea ( Larry ) Kingston.
Bonkers hair cut.
On the whole i was pretty encouraged by his performance. He played some really good balls through to the front players both on the ground and over the top. He played the ball into the box early when he got the opportunity, this is something we have missed badly and something Miko should take note of. Larry looked as though he wanted a split second longer on the ball than he was being allowed, caught in possession a couple of times and forced into a pass he didn't want to do a couple of others. Just seemed like the fabled pace of the British game and something i am sure he will adapt to. Most telling really that when Larry got moved out to the right of midfield when Elliot ( out of position and having a 2nd half shocker ) was replaced by Eggert Johanson, the midfield lost a lot and crosses started coming in from the right. On the whole a good home debut. About the only thing i can see that can go wrong with Larry's Tynecastle career would be if our rotation policy just p*sses him off and he switches off.
ICT had forced a good few corners and they always looked quite dangerous although that seemed to be more down to our back four than their attack. No idea how Hearts have managed so many clean sheets of late but if it keeps up it is a statistic that will soon start to count big time. Banks also came to our rescue a couple of times especially in the fist half, this concluded in turning a ball round the post that deceptively swirled towards the bottom right corner.
Hearts were frustrated that they just couldn't get a stranglehold on the game and it seemed all to easy for ICT to break things up in midfield. Hearts then had to settle with playing well in elusive flashes throughout the first half and most of the second. However those flashes were pretty good when they came mostly coming from Driver and or Kingston or when Fyassas ventured forward. Our biggest problem was a completely ineffectual front two, this has been a problem all season and if you think about it last season as well ( remember the vast majority of Hearts goals came from midfield last year, that well has run dry ). For all our multitude of strikers we look toothless up there. Bednar came on for Jankauskas and looked a bit livelier, Kingston put him through but he just couldn't get enough behind it to beat the keeper. He then succeedded in twisting himself in knots on the left wing before dropping out of the game for good.
Michael Pospisil then came on for the by then dejected looking Klimek and with his first touch of the ball settled our nerves and the game. Driver on the left once again covered by 2 or 3 ICT players could not make for the byline so he cut inside and knocked a back post cross in with his right. Pospisil rose at the back post to head the ball back across the keeper and into the net for a text book finish. So that is how easy it is. A fairly grudging roar of relief from the crowd was as good as the goal received. The Hearts support remain unconvinced and nervous by the goings on of the last few weeks.
Another home game next week, another win and an improved performance, as spring is looms around the corner, is a must if HMFC and their supporters are to get the spring back in their step.
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Monday, February 05, 2007
Obesity
This is going to be a struggle isn't it.
Here goes.
I did not catch much of the game at Dunfermline on Saturday. This was largely down to this weekend being one of those big 6 nations days where my interest and loyalties are always stretched and divided.
It was a bad weekend for sport all round then, this is how it panned out.
I did make some effort to catch the cup game against Dunfermline on the radio, but i could only get coverage online and i had stuff i had to be doing so i had to keep moving around and couldn't keep track on the proceedings - either that or the game in the first half was so diabolical that my brain rejected the coverage.
At 4 the rugby started and my attention was diverted to the TV. After an initial pounding by England which we seemed to have weathered without losing too much, Scotland took the lead. Short lived, very short lived and for the rest of the first half Scotland hung on valiantly.
Every now and then during this first half i would be checking the score in the Hearts game, a not totally unsurprising 0 - 0 each time i checked.
Pretty soon into the second half it became blatantly obvious that Scotland were going to get beat in this game, so my interest switched to the Hearts result, back to the radio to pick the bones out of the the nil - nil. Within seconds of switching on the radio it is clear that nil - nil was not the result and Hearts had taken a sore 1 - 0 defeat, a goal 4 minutes into injury time.
Disgusted i switched the radio off and back to the TV.
Within a couple of minutes it was clear that Scotland were on for a bit of a tanking from Jonny boy Wilkinson and the rest of the auld enemy. Disgusted i switched the telly off and turned back to the radio.
By now i am pretty disconsolate, the sporting weekend is shot.
The radio is turned back on just in time for me to hear Valdas Ivanauskas's post match interview on Radio Scotland.
Incredulous as well as totally disgusted the radio was switched off for good.
If you did not hear the interview it was awful a disgrace to our club really.
There is no excuse, no cultural or language barrier can excuse Valdas's complete lack of acceptance of any blame ( him, his tactics or the players ) for the fact that we had just been dumped out of the cup.
All he could come up with when pressed for 'Valdas what went wrong?'
was
'some pe er peepl they think arts is a a dive arts is a diving club, is not goot for arts, er Roman'
For the above nonsense read - Hearts are again victimised by everyone on the planet it is really not our fault, toys oot the pram.
I did not listen to the whole of the interview i was so totally p'd off by his attitude that i walked away in ...... you guest it in disgust!
I am floundering whilst i write this, i can't get the words out to express just how f**k*ng angry that b*ll*cks made me.
That quite simply is just not good enough, Valdas needs to be in a position where you can explain what went wrong and what went right, with some semblance of logic and dignity, respect and decorum.
Feels to me like the season is toast and in a way i am glad all this sh*te has been exhausting. Of course it is not, there are still games against Hibs and the rest of them to be negotiated and i guess there is a European place to be fought for - Celtic beat Hibs in the Scottish Cup Final to free up a UEFA cup spot for Hearts to take, that's about as good as it feels we can expect right now.
Right now it feels like we need to skulk into a corner and lick our wounds and to build some kind of team spirit out of the broken wheel we currently have. I would be happy just to see some evidence of that before the season ends.
The worst thing is it all seems so self inflicted, the latest episodes of Vlad's strategic and tactical self harming has sent many Hearts supporters over the edge ( again ). I am teetering i have to say.
Hartley sold to Celtic feels like Vlad is certifiable in his megalomania - It is as if he would rather see Hearts burst and finished as a football team than have us reach any level of success if means a decision of his is not followed to the letter.
So the Riccarton 3 go! Gordon currently ostracised and will go in the summer, would have went in January if anyone was really interested. That's fair enough if there is descent, no player is bigger than the club blah blah but Vlad's handling of the situation probably couldn't have been worse - i would not be surprised if Vlad ends up making an arse of things with Gordon such that we get next to b*gger all for him and his career is set back years. All this so Vlad can impose his obese ego on any deviation from the party line. Where is Vlad's mum, if she is still with us we should call her - maybe she can give him a clip round the ear, strap him back in his pram.
Talk today of takeover bids £45M from an Icelandic billionaire in consortium with some others, Scottish and middle eastern. £45m is pretty much the value of the land plus taking on the debt, does that mean it is a good deal?
Any roads apologies for this rubbish post but it is the best i can do under these adverse circumstances.
Come on now folks
HOOOO On The Jambos
Here goes.
I did not catch much of the game at Dunfermline on Saturday. This was largely down to this weekend being one of those big 6 nations days where my interest and loyalties are always stretched and divided.
It was a bad weekend for sport all round then, this is how it panned out.
I did make some effort to catch the cup game against Dunfermline on the radio, but i could only get coverage online and i had stuff i had to be doing so i had to keep moving around and couldn't keep track on the proceedings - either that or the game in the first half was so diabolical that my brain rejected the coverage.
At 4 the rugby started and my attention was diverted to the TV. After an initial pounding by England which we seemed to have weathered without losing too much, Scotland took the lead. Short lived, very short lived and for the rest of the first half Scotland hung on valiantly.
Every now and then during this first half i would be checking the score in the Hearts game, a not totally unsurprising 0 - 0 each time i checked.
Pretty soon into the second half it became blatantly obvious that Scotland were going to get beat in this game, so my interest switched to the Hearts result, back to the radio to pick the bones out of the the nil - nil. Within seconds of switching on the radio it is clear that nil - nil was not the result and Hearts had taken a sore 1 - 0 defeat, a goal 4 minutes into injury time.
Disgusted i switched the radio off and back to the TV.
Within a couple of minutes it was clear that Scotland were on for a bit of a tanking from Jonny boy Wilkinson and the rest of the auld enemy. Disgusted i switched the telly off and turned back to the radio.
By now i am pretty disconsolate, the sporting weekend is shot.
The radio is turned back on just in time for me to hear Valdas Ivanauskas's post match interview on Radio Scotland.
Incredulous as well as totally disgusted the radio was switched off for good.
If you did not hear the interview it was awful a disgrace to our club really.
There is no excuse, no cultural or language barrier can excuse Valdas's complete lack of acceptance of any blame ( him, his tactics or the players ) for the fact that we had just been dumped out of the cup.
All he could come up with when pressed for 'Valdas what went wrong?'
was
'some pe er peepl they think arts is a a dive arts is a diving club, is not goot for arts, er Roman'
For the above nonsense read - Hearts are again victimised by everyone on the planet it is really not our fault, toys oot the pram.
I did not listen to the whole of the interview i was so totally p'd off by his attitude that i walked away in ...... you guest it in disgust!
I am floundering whilst i write this, i can't get the words out to express just how f**k*ng angry that b*ll*cks made me.
That quite simply is just not good enough, Valdas needs to be in a position where you can explain what went wrong and what went right, with some semblance of logic and dignity, respect and decorum.
Feels to me like the season is toast and in a way i am glad all this sh*te has been exhausting. Of course it is not, there are still games against Hibs and the rest of them to be negotiated and i guess there is a European place to be fought for - Celtic beat Hibs in the Scottish Cup Final to free up a UEFA cup spot for Hearts to take, that's about as good as it feels we can expect right now.
Right now it feels like we need to skulk into a corner and lick our wounds and to build some kind of team spirit out of the broken wheel we currently have. I would be happy just to see some evidence of that before the season ends.
The worst thing is it all seems so self inflicted, the latest episodes of Vlad's strategic and tactical self harming has sent many Hearts supporters over the edge ( again ). I am teetering i have to say.
Hartley sold to Celtic feels like Vlad is certifiable in his megalomania - It is as if he would rather see Hearts burst and finished as a football team than have us reach any level of success if means a decision of his is not followed to the letter.
So the Riccarton 3 go! Gordon currently ostracised and will go in the summer, would have went in January if anyone was really interested. That's fair enough if there is descent, no player is bigger than the club blah blah but Vlad's handling of the situation probably couldn't have been worse - i would not be surprised if Vlad ends up making an arse of things with Gordon such that we get next to b*gger all for him and his career is set back years. All this so Vlad can impose his obese ego on any deviation from the party line. Where is Vlad's mum, if she is still with us we should call her - maybe she can give him a clip round the ear, strap him back in his pram.
Talk today of takeover bids £45M from an Icelandic billionaire in consortium with some others, Scottish and middle eastern. £45m is pretty much the value of the land plus taking on the debt, does that mean it is a good deal?
Any roads apologies for this rubbish post but it is the best i can do under these adverse circumstances.
Come on now folks
HOOOO On The Jambos
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The Vlad giveth and the Vlad taketh away
The last few weeks have been nothing but positivity and stability, all relative of course but none the less, positive and stable. Since the home defeat to Celtic, Hearts have been turning in fairly solid, completely uninspiring mind you but solid performances.
Clean sheets all the way! I for one will never argue with that, get your defence sorted out and solid and mean and the midfield/attack will feed from that - confidence in a solid defensive setup will lead to fluency and expression in midfield and the strikers will start banging them in. Well if you have got the players who can of course, the jury is out.
When i was a kid, Liverpool were my English team, no doubt seduced by the outrageous success, never going to get that from Hearts! Some time in the late eighties however i got bored with their machine like prowess and switched my allegiance to Arsenal. "1 nil to the Arsenal" suits me just fine when the need arises. I would be happy enough with 1 nil victories for Hearts between now and the end of the season, who of us would not?
The transfer window until very recently has been quietly positive, a couple of what look like decent signings coming in on the - now familiar 6 month loan first refusal on a longer contract if it works out. I wonder how many other teams adopt a similar signing policy, it is certainly not common in Scotland or as far as i can see the rest of the UK. From the word go, before the start of 2005 - 2006 season i saw this as a sensible even wily and astute policy. It strikes me that it is an almost zero risk means of bringing a number of new players into an inevitably volatile environment, selecting those who make it and dismissing those that don't with no real repercussions. This has worked for Hearts, with a good few players who have moved from the loan to the contract ( and those contracts tend to be long ) best example would be Roman Bednar. I would imagine Zaliukas, possibly Velicka will also move onto the longer term deal. Others who haven't made it are moved on, Tiago Costa etc.
Then came the long awaited and fantastic news that planning permission for the new 12,000 seater main stand has moved onto the next stage, with Hearts given permission to buy the required land to go ahead with the development.
We have waited a while now, this really has been the acid tests of Vlad's sincerity, his goals and ultimate plans and ambitions for our team. Back at the start of the season when things were once again going from frying pan to roundabout, Hearts made an official statement that plans for the new stand would be in by February. For me at least i have been accepting almost anything that has gone on at Tynecastle so long as that statement became reality. Close to the wire but this week saw us draw ever closer to the goal of a revamped Tynecastle park a home for our team for another 100 hundred years - i can't think of anything more important for the team.
One of the pics i have seen of what we may be looking forward to in a few years -
I don't hold with the argument that there is no point having a stadium if the team is crap, we will always be able to build a decent team and i am absolutely certain that we will have a better chance of realising our ambitions when we are playing in a stadium that lives up to those ambitions. This pic looks like the 30,000 seater stadium with the new stand and the corners filled in either side of the Roseburn stand. With a realistic head on that is where i would pitch my ambitions, 40,000 just seems too much of a leap to me - ask me again in 5 years.
In any case we should hopefully have heard the last of "flats flats glorious flats" for a while.
Things have been going in the right direction for so long now that the word "Believe" has once again entered the Jambo vocabulary. Long being the Hearts long ofcourse, which is nothing like anyone elses long and is a bit more like "a tiny wee short time".
So this week has been stable and positive on the run up to the seminal game at Ibrox on Saturday. It was with no surprise then that we shot ourselves in the both feet on Friday.
Valdas Ivanauskas admits that there are a number of Hearts players who have been attracting interest from others and that Hearts are in negotiations with those parties. Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon were then dropped for the game at Ibrox - with reports of football politics or football business as the reason, standard garbled English from Hearts.
It is not clear why Gordon was dropped, he has made it quite clear that he would be happy to stay at Tynecastle for now at least, so if Hearts are looking to cash in on his value it should not have affected his ability to play for the team. Hartley is a different story in that he may himself be Ibrox bound, so his not playing at Ibrox is no surprise. Selling Hartley to either of the gruesome twosome will upset and disturb many Hearts supporters. We have all believed that one of the major plus points of having Vlad around is his dislike for the Old Firm, their duopoly! Hence he gives the impression at least that he would not wish to do business with them. Selling one of our best players then to Rangers will signal a reversal of this stance and serve to reduce our belief in his oft stated lofty ambitions. If the deal goes through with Rangers, Hearts will have offloaded two of the Riccarton 3, one each to the ugly sisters. Regardless of anything else this can only be seen as battles lost by Vlad and Hearts in their war against the dominance of the Old Firm. More, from an objective viewpoint it can be seen as not much other than strategic errors on the part of General Romanov.
That said, Hearts have had the best years of Paul Hartley and i am not against selling him if the money is right, would much rather it was to an English outfit however. We shall see.
So with the media frenzy aiming it's sights firmly in the direction of the Tynecastle circus, hearts turned up at Ibrox for a game which would go a very long way to deciding the rest of the season for Hearts at least. A win for Rangers would provide them 8 points of clear water over Hearts in the race for 2nd place and the Champions League spot. A win for hearts reducing that to 2 points and game on.
It is a completely different Rangers team ofcourse, however it is perhaps telling that they now have instilled in their ranks two of the stalwarts of their nine-in-a-row years. Walter Smith back at the helm and Ally McMoist as his 2nd in command. During those years, Rangers regularly killed off Celtics challenges by drawing with them when Celtic really needed the win.
For Rangers then 5 points ahead of Hearts, a draw is much more useful than it is to Hearts. That said after a fairly dominant 2nd half by the home team Hearts were definitely the happier to leave Ibrox with the point gained and no ground lost, to Rangers at least. Both Hibs and Aberdeen winning has brought the 4 tighter than they have been for a good few weeks now.
The game itself is not worth dwelling on, a fairly even first half where quality was low and efforts relatively few and far between was replaced by a 2nd half of dominance by Rangers and rearguard action supplemented by hit on the break tactics by Hearts.
Rangers had the ball in the back of the net but Barry Ferguson's effort was chalked off for offside.
A couple of other efforts by Rangers came close but really i prefer to see this one as further evidence of Hearts meanness in defence than anything else.
Scottish cup next week, away to Dunfermline - i have a funny feeling!
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Clean sheets all the way! I for one will never argue with that, get your defence sorted out and solid and mean and the midfield/attack will feed from that - confidence in a solid defensive setup will lead to fluency and expression in midfield and the strikers will start banging them in. Well if you have got the players who can of course, the jury is out.
When i was a kid, Liverpool were my English team, no doubt seduced by the outrageous success, never going to get that from Hearts! Some time in the late eighties however i got bored with their machine like prowess and switched my allegiance to Arsenal. "1 nil to the Arsenal" suits me just fine when the need arises. I would be happy enough with 1 nil victories for Hearts between now and the end of the season, who of us would not?
The transfer window until very recently has been quietly positive, a couple of what look like decent signings coming in on the - now familiar 6 month loan first refusal on a longer contract if it works out. I wonder how many other teams adopt a similar signing policy, it is certainly not common in Scotland or as far as i can see the rest of the UK. From the word go, before the start of 2005 - 2006 season i saw this as a sensible even wily and astute policy. It strikes me that it is an almost zero risk means of bringing a number of new players into an inevitably volatile environment, selecting those who make it and dismissing those that don't with no real repercussions. This has worked for Hearts, with a good few players who have moved from the loan to the contract ( and those contracts tend to be long ) best example would be Roman Bednar. I would imagine Zaliukas, possibly Velicka will also move onto the longer term deal. Others who haven't made it are moved on, Tiago Costa etc.
Then came the long awaited and fantastic news that planning permission for the new 12,000 seater main stand has moved onto the next stage, with Hearts given permission to buy the required land to go ahead with the development.
We have waited a while now, this really has been the acid tests of Vlad's sincerity, his goals and ultimate plans and ambitions for our team. Back at the start of the season when things were once again going from frying pan to roundabout, Hearts made an official statement that plans for the new stand would be in by February. For me at least i have been accepting almost anything that has gone on at Tynecastle so long as that statement became reality. Close to the wire but this week saw us draw ever closer to the goal of a revamped Tynecastle park a home for our team for another 100 hundred years - i can't think of anything more important for the team.
One of the pics i have seen of what we may be looking forward to in a few years -
I don't hold with the argument that there is no point having a stadium if the team is crap, we will always be able to build a decent team and i am absolutely certain that we will have a better chance of realising our ambitions when we are playing in a stadium that lives up to those ambitions. This pic looks like the 30,000 seater stadium with the new stand and the corners filled in either side of the Roseburn stand. With a realistic head on that is where i would pitch my ambitions, 40,000 just seems too much of a leap to me - ask me again in 5 years.
In any case we should hopefully have heard the last of "flats flats glorious flats" for a while.
Things have been going in the right direction for so long now that the word "Believe" has once again entered the Jambo vocabulary. Long being the Hearts long ofcourse, which is nothing like anyone elses long and is a bit more like "a tiny wee short time".
So this week has been stable and positive on the run up to the seminal game at Ibrox on Saturday. It was with no surprise then that we shot ourselves in the both feet on Friday.
Valdas Ivanauskas admits that there are a number of Hearts players who have been attracting interest from others and that Hearts are in negotiations with those parties. Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon were then dropped for the game at Ibrox - with reports of football politics or football business as the reason, standard garbled English from Hearts.
It is not clear why Gordon was dropped, he has made it quite clear that he would be happy to stay at Tynecastle for now at least, so if Hearts are looking to cash in on his value it should not have affected his ability to play for the team. Hartley is a different story in that he may himself be Ibrox bound, so his not playing at Ibrox is no surprise. Selling Hartley to either of the gruesome twosome will upset and disturb many Hearts supporters. We have all believed that one of the major plus points of having Vlad around is his dislike for the Old Firm, their duopoly! Hence he gives the impression at least that he would not wish to do business with them. Selling one of our best players then to Rangers will signal a reversal of this stance and serve to reduce our belief in his oft stated lofty ambitions. If the deal goes through with Rangers, Hearts will have offloaded two of the Riccarton 3, one each to the ugly sisters. Regardless of anything else this can only be seen as battles lost by Vlad and Hearts in their war against the dominance of the Old Firm. More, from an objective viewpoint it can be seen as not much other than strategic errors on the part of General Romanov.
That said, Hearts have had the best years of Paul Hartley and i am not against selling him if the money is right, would much rather it was to an English outfit however. We shall see.
So with the media frenzy aiming it's sights firmly in the direction of the Tynecastle circus, hearts turned up at Ibrox for a game which would go a very long way to deciding the rest of the season for Hearts at least. A win for Rangers would provide them 8 points of clear water over Hearts in the race for 2nd place and the Champions League spot. A win for hearts reducing that to 2 points and game on.
It is a completely different Rangers team ofcourse, however it is perhaps telling that they now have instilled in their ranks two of the stalwarts of their nine-in-a-row years. Walter Smith back at the helm and Ally McMoist as his 2nd in command. During those years, Rangers regularly killed off Celtics challenges by drawing with them when Celtic really needed the win.
For Rangers then 5 points ahead of Hearts, a draw is much more useful than it is to Hearts. That said after a fairly dominant 2nd half by the home team Hearts were definitely the happier to leave Ibrox with the point gained and no ground lost, to Rangers at least. Both Hibs and Aberdeen winning has brought the 4 tighter than they have been for a good few weeks now.
The game itself is not worth dwelling on, a fairly even first half where quality was low and efforts relatively few and far between was replaced by a 2nd half of dominance by Rangers and rearguard action supplemented by hit on the break tactics by Hearts.
Rangers had the ball in the back of the net but Barry Ferguson's effort was chalked off for offside.
A couple of other efforts by Rangers came close but really i prefer to see this one as further evidence of Hearts meanness in defence than anything else.
Scottish cup next week, away to Dunfermline - i have a funny feeling!
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Tougher than watching Hearts
There are times when i watch Currie Star under tens when i get really worked up and frustrated - illogically affected by the events on the park. Today was one of those days, i swear there are times when it is worse than watching Hearts.
I can see this as pathologically insane given that my youngest is never up nor down with whatever result they get - he even appreciates the humour in taking a good tanking.
Obviously a far more balanced and emotionally mature individual than his auld man!
Don't get me wrong i am not one of those, parents who are so partisan that they can't see past there own kid and their kids team. I can appreciate the opposition, i can even applaud their play when i think it merits praise. Neither am i one of those infurating eejits who can only bark criticism at their poor offspring, like it is some kind of vindication that they once were pretty good at the game themselves and now can't understand how any child of theirs could be so terrible.
Currie Star played Beechwood today, but save for ten minutes or so either side of the half they were never really in the game. Beechwood moved into a 3 - 0 lead too easily within 20 minutes of the start. Currie Star just didn't seem to be concentrating.
Thankfully they switched on for a bit before the half time whistle and pulled a goal back, a fine run down the right and the ball squared into the centre for a classic strikers goal. For a while at least the lads looked as though they could get back into the game. Another lapse in concentration however allowed Beechwood in again and the game was pretty much lost from then on.
Star managed to get 3 goals to their credit but lost a further 3 to go down 7 - 3 in the end.
A tough defeat to take today, 7 - 3 did not flatter Beechwood but really 3 or 4 of their goals should never have happened.
Keep the heads up lads, training should start again soon so you should be able to get back to winning ways in a few weeks.
I can see this as pathologically insane given that my youngest is never up nor down with whatever result they get - he even appreciates the humour in taking a good tanking.
Obviously a far more balanced and emotionally mature individual than his auld man!
Don't get me wrong i am not one of those, parents who are so partisan that they can't see past there own kid and their kids team. I can appreciate the opposition, i can even applaud their play when i think it merits praise. Neither am i one of those infurating eejits who can only bark criticism at their poor offspring, like it is some kind of vindication that they once were pretty good at the game themselves and now can't understand how any child of theirs could be so terrible.
Currie Star played Beechwood today, but save for ten minutes or so either side of the half they were never really in the game. Beechwood moved into a 3 - 0 lead too easily within 20 minutes of the start. Currie Star just didn't seem to be concentrating.
Thankfully they switched on for a bit before the half time whistle and pulled a goal back, a fine run down the right and the ball squared into the centre for a classic strikers goal. For a while at least the lads looked as though they could get back into the game. Another lapse in concentration however allowed Beechwood in again and the game was pretty much lost from then on.
Star managed to get 3 goals to their credit but lost a further 3 to go down 7 - 3 in the end.
A tough defeat to take today, 7 - 3 did not flatter Beechwood but really 3 or 4 of their goals should never have happened.
Keep the heads up lads, training should start again soon so you should be able to get back to winning ways in a few weeks.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Laryea Kingston
Will he sign for Hearts, is he any good.
Not sure about either after watching this .....
Not sure about either after watching this .....
Sunday, January 21, 2007
100mpg
As ever, i was looking forward to the Falkirk game. Like when we play Kilmarnock my opinion is firmly in the - this should be a good game, corner. This is good because it has nothing to do with ancient rivalries - the Hibs, the Celtic or the Ra-angers, or more modern equivalences Aberdeen or as the world used to be Dundee Utd. I have enjoyed playing Falkirk over the past few seasons because - they play decent football at you and the have a fairly healthy disrespect for all comers.
So i was looking forward to a good game, had predicted an optimistic 3 - 1 to the good guys.
For the vast majority of the game however you could have gotten the full 100 miles to the gallon, given the woefully low octane content. The opposite of what i wanted or expected.
After this one i am left with the understanding that Hearts are a bit of a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle - we can't seem to get all parts of the team playing well at the same time or if we can, only for short tantalising periods in the game, before it all degenerates to a box full of mixed up bits that don't fit together.
There was an offer during the week of 2.5 million for Craig Gordon, i have not been his biggest fan of late but i think we should expect to command a fair whack more than that for him. Were Fulham just chancing there arm? see if we are in a more precarious financial position than outwardly apparent, ready to jump at the first 7 figure offer. The offer was firmly rejected by HMFC with the retort - you better be ready to part with £10M. So by the laws of the barter that means we will sell for £6M or there abouts - i believe we will sell for less than that however.
Interested to see that on MOTD on Saturday morning, celebrating the anniversary of some mental French plan to have a combined Franco - UK national team, back in the fifties or something like that. Maybe some post war act of fraternity, who knows surely not some plan to improve the French team. Any roads the only Scot that made it near the team was none other than our very own Craig soon to be gazillionaire Gordon. Fantastic! but i suppose they had to have 1 Scot and who else could it possibly have been!
Craig hurt his groin early in the week so was left out for Steve Banks, absolutely no conjecture by the media whatsoever that this had anything to do with transfer speculation or club/player turmoil so i guess there were no rumours/speculation to that effect. Has the media finally started to bore itself with the Tynecastle circus?
Transfer dealings at the moment seem more down to earth, sensible and realistic, i would go as far as to say relaxed if you get my drift. The players being mentioned, appear in any case to be, an enhancement rather than simply an augmentation to the squad. Still plenty of time for the mad final day flurry though.
Gogita Gogua and Laryea Kingston being the two most likely enhancements both of which would bring something to the team. Both do seem to have a bit of a history of combustion though but both also seem to be hand picked for their ability to handle the rigours of a frenetic SPL.
Looks to most of us supporters that we also really need a striker who is consistently going to put the ball in the proverbial onion bag, not much sign as yet in this transfer window. With Panilla and Makela both leaving our extended options are not looking too good in that department.
Hearts started the game in fairly good fettle with most if not all pieces of the jigsaw in place at the same time, it did not last long however as Hearts lapsed back to a long ball game which looked to me to be designed to reserve energy. Maybe i am reading between the lines here, last week against Celtic, Hearts were found out to have a serious problem pacing themselves through the game, looking almost out on their feet by half time. Don't the best teams play in phases of containment and punishment, conscious decisions to move through the gears as they navigate their way to victory. If only i could view a Hearts game like that!
I don't watch Falkirk that often of course so i don't really know but it seemed to me that their problem was where they were playing Russel Latapy, too far forward. He seems to do his best work these days in a deep midfield role where he can dictate the pace and flow of the game from the generals position up on the hill. He still seemed to have that magical ability to find the only pocket of space on the park at any one time though, the rest of his team always knew exactly where he was as well. To Falkirk's detriment he was closed down just that wee bit too quickly to be used to maximum effect.
Falkirk had the first decent chance a cross from the right headed goal ward and very well saved by Banks, palmed out to Falkirk front man only to be headed narrowly wide. This was countered quickly by some great work by Paul Hartley to move towards the box taking three defenders with him, he squared to Salius Mikoliunas who lashed a shot which crashed off the bar.
This brought a disappointing half to a close.
HMFC 0
Farlirk 0
Wish i could say that the second half was better but it wasn't, the only solace being that Ivanauskas's substitutions worked! Andrew Driver was brought on for Mikoliunas. Miko had had a decent enough game and i hope that his many detractors are keeping themselves very quiet at the moment, but he should take a look at the run Driver made for the goal. If Miko can add that kind of run to his game Miko and it will transform him as a player. Roman Bednar came on for the ineffectual Jamie Mole, i spent the next 15 minutes lambasting him for his complete lack of ability to get a head to a ball. Really though this is Ivanauskas's fault, this is not Bednar's game so why do we persevere with it when he is on the park. He was far more comfortable and effective with balls knocked down the channel than a Gary Owen coming down on him from the heaven's. He was also much more effective for the goal.
Driver collected the ball on the right just at the edge of the box, he put his head down, knocked the ball past the defender and made for the bye line where he knocked a low ball to the near post and towards where Bednar and two Falkirk defenders were thundering. It just doesn't get simpler, a bit of pace on the wing, a decent predatory striker and you get a very good return for that move. Hearts scored about 40% of their goals from that last season with low balls knocked in from the byline, that is only about the third we have scored in that fashion this year.
The game appeared to be concluding in a hard fought and just about deserved 1 - 0 win when it exploded in a melee and sending off for Falkirk's Darren Barr for his reaction to Andrius velicka's foul. There have been many recriminations and brandings of cheat for Velicka's part, so much so that i am doubting what i saw. Firstly the tackle by Velicka was a disgrace, it was more just a petulant lash out than any attempt to tackle, pretty close to a straight red itself. My immediate reaction to the response by Barr was - "Send that eejit off", seemed to me that there was contact, arms were raised and Velicka fell to the floor. Nobody else in the world though seems to think that there was any contact at all. Apart from, the ref and my 14 year old who both seem to agree that a head butt was the reason for dismissal?
Don't know, pretty sure Velicka has a lot to answer for. Now there was a lot of teeth gnashing, comments of racism against Hearts Lithuanian players aimed at the media, who all have gone down the no contact, Velicka's a cheat route.
I will not defend Velicka.
Tell you what though, this has gone on for as long as i can remember, it has nothing to do with Lithuanians per say could be any nationality outside of dear old blitey. The British punditry have a pathological inability to see UK born players as anything other than fundamentally fair minded and honest gentlemen, the opposite being true of all non UK players, each of whom will whenever is necessary adopt any and all underhanded and unsporting tactics available. Only Johnny foreigner could do such a thing!
So i was looking forward to a good game, had predicted an optimistic 3 - 1 to the good guys.
For the vast majority of the game however you could have gotten the full 100 miles to the gallon, given the woefully low octane content. The opposite of what i wanted or expected.
After this one i am left with the understanding that Hearts are a bit of a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle - we can't seem to get all parts of the team playing well at the same time or if we can, only for short tantalising periods in the game, before it all degenerates to a box full of mixed up bits that don't fit together.
There was an offer during the week of 2.5 million for Craig Gordon, i have not been his biggest fan of late but i think we should expect to command a fair whack more than that for him. Were Fulham just chancing there arm? see if we are in a more precarious financial position than outwardly apparent, ready to jump at the first 7 figure offer. The offer was firmly rejected by HMFC with the retort - you better be ready to part with £10M. So by the laws of the barter that means we will sell for £6M or there abouts - i believe we will sell for less than that however.
Interested to see that on MOTD on Saturday morning, celebrating the anniversary of some mental French plan to have a combined Franco - UK national team, back in the fifties or something like that. Maybe some post war act of fraternity, who knows surely not some plan to improve the French team. Any roads the only Scot that made it near the team was none other than our very own Craig soon to be gazillionaire Gordon. Fantastic! but i suppose they had to have 1 Scot and who else could it possibly have been!
Craig hurt his groin early in the week so was left out for Steve Banks, absolutely no conjecture by the media whatsoever that this had anything to do with transfer speculation or club/player turmoil so i guess there were no rumours/speculation to that effect. Has the media finally started to bore itself with the Tynecastle circus?
Transfer dealings at the moment seem more down to earth, sensible and realistic, i would go as far as to say relaxed if you get my drift. The players being mentioned, appear in any case to be, an enhancement rather than simply an augmentation to the squad. Still plenty of time for the mad final day flurry though.
Gogita Gogua and Laryea Kingston being the two most likely enhancements both of which would bring something to the team. Both do seem to have a bit of a history of combustion though but both also seem to be hand picked for their ability to handle the rigours of a frenetic SPL.
Looks to most of us supporters that we also really need a striker who is consistently going to put the ball in the proverbial onion bag, not much sign as yet in this transfer window. With Panilla and Makela both leaving our extended options are not looking too good in that department.
Hearts started the game in fairly good fettle with most if not all pieces of the jigsaw in place at the same time, it did not last long however as Hearts lapsed back to a long ball game which looked to me to be designed to reserve energy. Maybe i am reading between the lines here, last week against Celtic, Hearts were found out to have a serious problem pacing themselves through the game, looking almost out on their feet by half time. Don't the best teams play in phases of containment and punishment, conscious decisions to move through the gears as they navigate their way to victory. If only i could view a Hearts game like that!
I don't watch Falkirk that often of course so i don't really know but it seemed to me that their problem was where they were playing Russel Latapy, too far forward. He seems to do his best work these days in a deep midfield role where he can dictate the pace and flow of the game from the generals position up on the hill. He still seemed to have that magical ability to find the only pocket of space on the park at any one time though, the rest of his team always knew exactly where he was as well. To Falkirk's detriment he was closed down just that wee bit too quickly to be used to maximum effect.
Falkirk had the first decent chance a cross from the right headed goal ward and very well saved by Banks, palmed out to Falkirk front man only to be headed narrowly wide. This was countered quickly by some great work by Paul Hartley to move towards the box taking three defenders with him, he squared to Salius Mikoliunas who lashed a shot which crashed off the bar.
This brought a disappointing half to a close.
HMFC 0
Farlirk 0
Wish i could say that the second half was better but it wasn't, the only solace being that Ivanauskas's substitutions worked! Andrew Driver was brought on for Mikoliunas. Miko had had a decent enough game and i hope that his many detractors are keeping themselves very quiet at the moment, but he should take a look at the run Driver made for the goal. If Miko can add that kind of run to his game Miko and it will transform him as a player. Roman Bednar came on for the ineffectual Jamie Mole, i spent the next 15 minutes lambasting him for his complete lack of ability to get a head to a ball. Really though this is Ivanauskas's fault, this is not Bednar's game so why do we persevere with it when he is on the park. He was far more comfortable and effective with balls knocked down the channel than a Gary Owen coming down on him from the heaven's. He was also much more effective for the goal.
Driver collected the ball on the right just at the edge of the box, he put his head down, knocked the ball past the defender and made for the bye line where he knocked a low ball to the near post and towards where Bednar and two Falkirk defenders were thundering. It just doesn't get simpler, a bit of pace on the wing, a decent predatory striker and you get a very good return for that move. Hearts scored about 40% of their goals from that last season with low balls knocked in from the byline, that is only about the third we have scored in that fashion this year.
The game appeared to be concluding in a hard fought and just about deserved 1 - 0 win when it exploded in a melee and sending off for Falkirk's Darren Barr for his reaction to Andrius velicka's foul. There have been many recriminations and brandings of cheat for Velicka's part, so much so that i am doubting what i saw. Firstly the tackle by Velicka was a disgrace, it was more just a petulant lash out than any attempt to tackle, pretty close to a straight red itself. My immediate reaction to the response by Barr was - "Send that eejit off", seemed to me that there was contact, arms were raised and Velicka fell to the floor. Nobody else in the world though seems to think that there was any contact at all. Apart from, the ref and my 14 year old who both seem to agree that a head butt was the reason for dismissal?
Don't know, pretty sure Velicka has a lot to answer for. Now there was a lot of teeth gnashing, comments of racism against Hearts Lithuanian players aimed at the media, who all have gone down the no contact, Velicka's a cheat route.
I will not defend Velicka.
Tell you what though, this has gone on for as long as i can remember, it has nothing to do with Lithuanians per say could be any nationality outside of dear old blitey. The British punditry have a pathological inability to see UK born players as anything other than fundamentally fair minded and honest gentlemen, the opposite being true of all non UK players, each of whom will whenever is necessary adopt any and all underhanded and unsporting tactics available. Only Johnny foreigner could do such a thing!
I have played like that for years
This morning, early this cold damp morning at an almost waterlogged Kingsknowe the featured event was the return of under tens football for Currie Star.
First drama cascaded off the pitch as my boy, resplendent in his brand new Toto 90's had moments earlier scrambled out the car and run the 200 yards to the pitch. We sat in the car eeking out the last of the warmth for a while and watched guiltily as other mummys and dummys helped to put up the goals. Within a couple of moments he was back at the car, as he opened the door, he exclaimed "They have given me two left feet !?!"
If i had time to think about it i would have retorted "i have played with two left feet my whole life, ching ching!"
Sure enough two left footed Toto 90's and i recall the purchase the day before, we arrived at JJB Sports, Hermiston gate at 5:58 - 2 minutes before it shut, earliest i could get there after the Falkirk game. One pair of size 4, shiny silver and maroon Toto 90's in the sale 1 tenner. Jobs a good un!
We raced back to the house and for once in a month of Sundays, his brothers old boots size 41/2 were right at the front of the black hole of Calcutta - i mean the shoe cupboard. Got back up to Kingsknowe just as the game was kicking off, no subs so straight into the action.
First game since early December so it was understandable that things were a bit rusty and they were for the first 5 minutes or so. The game was against the old enemy and frequent adversaries Currie Boys ( and girls in this case ). Both sides took time to settle into a game but it was Currie Star who eventually settled first and imposed themselves on the game, resulting in the first goal, a fine strike from 15 yards out.
From that point on though it was a struggle for Currie Star, many references to too many christmas pies and too many left feet out there. Currie Boys equalised just before the half time and took a 2 - 1 lead shortly after half time. They kept that lead to the end. Currie Star were never out of it but equally Currie boys had chances to extend their lead.
Looked like the boys are needing to get back onto the training ground to bring back the improvements that were made before the break and i am sure they will.
Went back to JJB sports earlier this afternoon and those f***ers refused to give me a refund on the boots. Because they have been worn apparently, aye for all of two minutes!
Got to say i lost the plot a bit in there, apparently the young assistant manager was shaking with fear according to my daughter. My reaction to their refusal to refund was immediate, started as "Don't be bloody ridiculous you sold me two left feet!!" and just kind of degenerated from there.
The manager of the shop, who was not on duty ofcourse is due to call me tomorrow to sort it out.. i await her call.
First drama cascaded off the pitch as my boy, resplendent in his brand new Toto 90's had moments earlier scrambled out the car and run the 200 yards to the pitch. We sat in the car eeking out the last of the warmth for a while and watched guiltily as other mummys and dummys helped to put up the goals. Within a couple of moments he was back at the car, as he opened the door, he exclaimed "They have given me two left feet !?!"
If i had time to think about it i would have retorted "i have played with two left feet my whole life, ching ching!"
Sure enough two left footed Toto 90's and i recall the purchase the day before, we arrived at JJB Sports, Hermiston gate at 5:58 - 2 minutes before it shut, earliest i could get there after the Falkirk game. One pair of size 4, shiny silver and maroon Toto 90's in the sale 1 tenner. Jobs a good un!
We raced back to the house and for once in a month of Sundays, his brothers old boots size 41/2 were right at the front of the black hole of Calcutta - i mean the shoe cupboard. Got back up to Kingsknowe just as the game was kicking off, no subs so straight into the action.
First game since early December so it was understandable that things were a bit rusty and they were for the first 5 minutes or so. The game was against the old enemy and frequent adversaries Currie Boys ( and girls in this case ). Both sides took time to settle into a game but it was Currie Star who eventually settled first and imposed themselves on the game, resulting in the first goal, a fine strike from 15 yards out.
From that point on though it was a struggle for Currie Star, many references to too many christmas pies and too many left feet out there. Currie Boys equalised just before the half time and took a 2 - 1 lead shortly after half time. They kept that lead to the end. Currie Star were never out of it but equally Currie boys had chances to extend their lead.
Looked like the boys are needing to get back onto the training ground to bring back the improvements that were made before the break and i am sure they will.
Went back to JJB sports earlier this afternoon and those f***ers refused to give me a refund on the boots. Because they have been worn apparently, aye for all of two minutes!
Got to say i lost the plot a bit in there, apparently the young assistant manager was shaking with fear according to my daughter. My reaction to their refusal to refund was immediate, started as "Don't be bloody ridiculous you sold me two left feet!!" and just kind of degenerated from there.
The manager of the shop, who was not on duty ofcourse is due to call me tomorrow to sort it out.. i await her call.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Monday, January 15, 2007
Kick it Out
I would like to dedicate this blog entry to 
www.kickitout.org just because i feel like it, any kind of ism really it's about time it just all disappeared never to rear it's ugliness again.
Maybe as a Jambo with Celtic coming to town you take a bit more notice of the goings on in the crowd, i did, i took notice.
Make no mistake i am not about to pontificate that the Hearts support is - to a man angelic and devoid of ism's, i am not!
Neither will i see the opposition's antics through a fetid rage red mist, i will try not to.
But as a mark of the passing times i will state here for the record what i saw and heard at Tynecastle yesterday, in the shape of bigotry and racism as it descended from the stands.
I saw exactly one Union Jack in the Hearts support, it fluttered about aimlessly in the Roseburn Stand. You can argue that the display of the Union Jack is not in itself an act of bigotry. It's not! But it has more of an affiliation to that bigotry laden ideology, we all know and hate than it does to Heart of Midlothian Football Club.
There were exactly zero renditions of any billy boy, anti catholic songs that i heard from the Hearts support. There were at least three renditions of that number where the Celtic support give it - "mumble mumble ( do they even know the words until they get to ) SOLDIERS ARE WE mumble mumble" I don't even know if that song has been classified as racist or bigoted by UEFA or whoever but for the same reason as the Union Jack it has got to go. Each rendition had an uptake rate of exactly 100% of the Celtic support. Each time the effort was drowned out by a cacophony of boos from the Hearts quarters.
For the last ten minutes of the game the same 100% of celtic support belted out "Oh the wee Huns are Shi-ite" the Hearts support by then did not have the energy to respond.
There were a few TriColours but not many.
Behind me i kept hearing this bloke shout "f'n Chink" everytime Nakamura done anything remotely interesting with the ball ( not very often ). The saddest thing about that is, for the first half dozen times he said it, i heard 'Tink' not 'Chink' - see how far those dark decades of the seventies, eighties and nineties thrust the stereotypes into my Psyche. My kids will not suffer the same level of indoctrination but the above litany of useless crap is too much still -
It is time to stop!
None of the above bothered me in the slightest, apart from the "wee huns are shi-ite" but that had nothing to do with being deeply offended by an attack on hunness and everything to do with the fact that we had once again threw away a lead against Celtic and they were far far far too happy with themselves. My conscience is truly blunted to expressions of bigotry but just because i don't recoil in horror in the face of such horror does not mean i don't recognise it as horrible.
It is time to stop!
Rant over.
So the game had a big billing - it was the return of Steven Pressley to Tynecastle after the acrimonious divorce of captain from club late last year. Ever the optimist there was another agenda in my mind. For me the game was the leagues last chance saloon :-
If Hearts could get a result against the run away champions
and
after the other ugly sister won 5 - 0 against Dundee Utd having clutched at their straw and brought back Scotland manager and 9 in a row hero Walter Smith, Rangers go on a bit of a run.
Maybe the league was not all over.
The longest of long shots i know and even for me this was the very last chance for a wobble to be introduced that might just turn into a tailspin.
Sounds crazy but if you saw the final of the darts championship that went on yesterday in some working mans club in deepest darkest England, you'll know that it is never over till it's over.
The favourite goes 6 sets to 0 up in a first to 7 set final against the 150 - 1 outsider, who then claws his way back to 6 sets each and had the favourite f'n and blindin at himself. The favourite cruelly dispatched the final set 3 - 0. But there you go never over til the fat man flings the arrows.
The Steven Pressley show?
I mentioned in an earlier blog that i would be happy for Pressley to be applauded onto the park on his return to Tynecastle then to receive the same pelters as all the rest of the enemy from that point on. Have to say though that the minute i saw him emerge from the tunnel in the black and green of Celtic's away strip i saw no connection to me. I just saw a member of the opposition, the bad guys, someone who was to be castigated and vilified for the next 90 minutes or so. So did the rest of the Hearts support - so if you have read that he was applauded onto the pitch by the Hearts support that is a myth.
How did he play, he played pretty well within himself for the most part, after all he is a centre half not exactly the most expressive of positions. He commited the same niggly fouls he used to do for us, he organised and motivated the back 4 pretty well, he made a couple of well timed and important challenges and he got found out for pace and mobility a couple of times. All in all i think he just played a mature professional game and was not affected either way by the circumstances. A couple of points, having won the toss he made Heart shoot to the Gorgie end first ( always annoys us when it happens ), he looked livelier than usual when he came up for corners.
To sum it up, it is obvious that if there were any lingering emotions he hid them well and just got on with it, and that just makes perfect sense. Any one who has ever played any team sport knows it takes only seconds to develop an affiliation to your team exactly as long as it takes to pull on the team colours. It is to my deep regret that the only two Sunday league teams i have played for played in Green, White & Gold and Red, White & Blue - once the strip was on though i was one of them 100%.
A little aside - the Green, White & Gold was a team called Albion Park, i was 21 and they were coached by Mickey Weir and his brother. That wee sh*te was truly full of himself! I may never have been anywhere near his level of football but when you are fit and twenty one and a Hearts supporter you take great pleasure in catching a wee Hibee sh*t like him, crunching the tackles in. The beautiful game indeed.
So Pressley took great pleasure in the victory it was obvious and why shouldn't he, from our perspective we seem better of now that he is gone, we seem more settled and focused. So everyones a winner. I hope though that that is it now, no more lingering threads connecting him to us - no longer wish to read about Pressley the ex Hearts talisman forced to quit and join etc etc etc.
Hearts started the game in fiery spirit, and set about their task of outgunning Celtic all over the park in good fashion. For such a massive squad the line up looked somewhat makeshift - Brellier injured and Aguair suspended, we had to make do with Driver on the left and Neil McCann inside in central midfield. McCann much vilified, actually had a decent first half, putting himself about in midfield ( struck me that he was putting tackles in because he didn't have the time to think about it and ... bottle it like normal ). Barasa was performing his usual thuggery in the right back berth but managed to nobble himself somehow and had to go off to be replaced by Tall around 20 minutes, Tall doesn't seem to be cutting it for me and maybe their second goal would have been stopped if Barasa/Neilson had been there. Much gusto by Hearts had Celtic on the rack without really looking like they would buckle, we seemed to be short on ideas for the final ball. When Bednar played it square to Miko 30 yards out with the full compliment of Celtics defence stationed between him and goal then, we remained seated wondering what final ball failure he was about to conjure. I love it when a plan comes together, Miko has been very good at lulling the opposition into a false sense of security, no one in the Celtic defense thought for a second that they were in any danger of a venomous netbound shot from the wee Lithuanian. One step in with the left and he unleashed an unstoppable left foot pearler into the net with Boruc stranded and helpless.
A screamer!
Hearts had a chance to make it two close to half time with a neat ball through to Driver who took the defense for pace and sent a decent effort well saved by Boruc but only as far as Velicka to head back in a a goal mouth scramble which left us all confused and breathless. When i saw the pictures later on the TV it was never over the line but a good goal mouth clearance from Telfer.
Maybe if that had gone in things would have been different. Not convinced Celtic had featured in the Hearts box at this time, but a great effort low to Gordons left was saved perfectly - Half time.
Hearts 1
Celtic 0
My half time comment other than waxing lyrical over Miko's strike was to say "we have put an awful lot into the game i worry about the last twenty minutes.
In real terms it was the last 45 that i had to be worried about. The proverbial game of two halves!
Shortly after the interval Driver was taken off to be replaced by Elliot, playing out of position in midfield, and McCann moved out to his normal berth where Driver had been. Heard later that Driver was ill and probably should not have played at all, ill or otherwise had lost a degree of drive when he left the park.
The ball was out! a clear foot over the line on the half just below the Wheatfield Stand, the linesman ignored and Celtic retained possession, which they kept for another 10 or 15 seconds as they navigated their way into the Hearts box and set a drive towards Gordon. It was a hard shot but Gordon spilled - is it my imagination or is there a conspiracy of silence when Gordon makes a mistake, not just amongst Hearts supporters but all in Scottish football. He seems to be being treated like porcelain. Mind you if his infallible reputation keeps his price maximised then how can i argue with that!
Yan Venegoor of Castlemilk netted the rebound.
I was gutted, the ball was out man, frustrated!
Hearts forced a number of corners in the second half but frustratingly the quality of ball in was just not good enough always too long, too high and too predictable, so we never came close. I would like to see the stats on Hearts goals from corners this year, i bet it is very low.
The killer came from Jarosik, he collected the ball on the left and seemed to take Tall with him inside with out the challenge going in, he hit an effort which i thought was Gordon's all the way until it went in, i guess it bobbled over his hands, bouncing just in front of him.
Que the Celtic support and a rendition of "Thats why were champions" to the tune that we used to sing "Vladimir Romanov" to - like i said they were far too happy with themselves.
Hearts probably deserved a draw out of the game but from the point we went behind we never really looked like we believed we could get things back even. Celtic on the other hand always looked like they believed they could take the game and i guess that indeed is "why they are champions"
www.kickitout.org just because i feel like it, any kind of ism really it's about time it just all disappeared never to rear it's ugliness again.Maybe as a Jambo with Celtic coming to town you take a bit more notice of the goings on in the crowd, i did, i took notice.
Make no mistake i am not about to pontificate that the Hearts support is - to a man angelic and devoid of ism's, i am not!
Neither will i see the opposition's antics through a fetid rage red mist, i will try not to.
But as a mark of the passing times i will state here for the record what i saw and heard at Tynecastle yesterday, in the shape of bigotry and racism as it descended from the stands.
I saw exactly one Union Jack in the Hearts support, it fluttered about aimlessly in the Roseburn Stand. You can argue that the display of the Union Jack is not in itself an act of bigotry. It's not! But it has more of an affiliation to that bigotry laden ideology, we all know and hate than it does to Heart of Midlothian Football Club.
There were exactly zero renditions of any billy boy, anti catholic songs that i heard from the Hearts support. There were at least three renditions of that number where the Celtic support give it - "mumble mumble ( do they even know the words until they get to ) SOLDIERS ARE WE mumble mumble" I don't even know if that song has been classified as racist or bigoted by UEFA or whoever but for the same reason as the Union Jack it has got to go. Each rendition had an uptake rate of exactly 100% of the Celtic support. Each time the effort was drowned out by a cacophony of boos from the Hearts quarters.
For the last ten minutes of the game the same 100% of celtic support belted out "Oh the wee Huns are Shi-ite" the Hearts support by then did not have the energy to respond.
There were a few TriColours but not many.
Behind me i kept hearing this bloke shout "f'n Chink" everytime Nakamura done anything remotely interesting with the ball ( not very often ). The saddest thing about that is, for the first half dozen times he said it, i heard 'Tink' not 'Chink' - see how far those dark decades of the seventies, eighties and nineties thrust the stereotypes into my Psyche. My kids will not suffer the same level of indoctrination but the above litany of useless crap is too much still -
It is time to stop!
None of the above bothered me in the slightest, apart from the "wee huns are shi-ite" but that had nothing to do with being deeply offended by an attack on hunness and everything to do with the fact that we had once again threw away a lead against Celtic and they were far far far too happy with themselves. My conscience is truly blunted to expressions of bigotry but just because i don't recoil in horror in the face of such horror does not mean i don't recognise it as horrible.
It is time to stop!
Rant over.
So the game had a big billing - it was the return of Steven Pressley to Tynecastle after the acrimonious divorce of captain from club late last year. Ever the optimist there was another agenda in my mind. For me the game was the leagues last chance saloon :-
If Hearts could get a result against the run away champions
and
after the other ugly sister won 5 - 0 against Dundee Utd having clutched at their straw and brought back Scotland manager and 9 in a row hero Walter Smith, Rangers go on a bit of a run.
Maybe the league was not all over.
The longest of long shots i know and even for me this was the very last chance for a wobble to be introduced that might just turn into a tailspin.
Sounds crazy but if you saw the final of the darts championship that went on yesterday in some working mans club in deepest darkest England, you'll know that it is never over till it's over.
The favourite goes 6 sets to 0 up in a first to 7 set final against the 150 - 1 outsider, who then claws his way back to 6 sets each and had the favourite f'n and blindin at himself. The favourite cruelly dispatched the final set 3 - 0. But there you go never over til the fat man flings the arrows.
The Steven Pressley show?
I mentioned in an earlier blog that i would be happy for Pressley to be applauded onto the park on his return to Tynecastle then to receive the same pelters as all the rest of the enemy from that point on. Have to say though that the minute i saw him emerge from the tunnel in the black and green of Celtic's away strip i saw no connection to me. I just saw a member of the opposition, the bad guys, someone who was to be castigated and vilified for the next 90 minutes or so. So did the rest of the Hearts support - so if you have read that he was applauded onto the pitch by the Hearts support that is a myth.
How did he play, he played pretty well within himself for the most part, after all he is a centre half not exactly the most expressive of positions. He commited the same niggly fouls he used to do for us, he organised and motivated the back 4 pretty well, he made a couple of well timed and important challenges and he got found out for pace and mobility a couple of times. All in all i think he just played a mature professional game and was not affected either way by the circumstances. A couple of points, having won the toss he made Heart shoot to the Gorgie end first ( always annoys us when it happens ), he looked livelier than usual when he came up for corners.
To sum it up, it is obvious that if there were any lingering emotions he hid them well and just got on with it, and that just makes perfect sense. Any one who has ever played any team sport knows it takes only seconds to develop an affiliation to your team exactly as long as it takes to pull on the team colours. It is to my deep regret that the only two Sunday league teams i have played for played in Green, White & Gold and Red, White & Blue - once the strip was on though i was one of them 100%.
A little aside - the Green, White & Gold was a team called Albion Park, i was 21 and they were coached by Mickey Weir and his brother. That wee sh*te was truly full of himself! I may never have been anywhere near his level of football but when you are fit and twenty one and a Hearts supporter you take great pleasure in catching a wee Hibee sh*t like him, crunching the tackles in. The beautiful game indeed.
So Pressley took great pleasure in the victory it was obvious and why shouldn't he, from our perspective we seem better of now that he is gone, we seem more settled and focused. So everyones a winner. I hope though that that is it now, no more lingering threads connecting him to us - no longer wish to read about Pressley the ex Hearts talisman forced to quit and join etc etc etc.
Hearts started the game in fiery spirit, and set about their task of outgunning Celtic all over the park in good fashion. For such a massive squad the line up looked somewhat makeshift - Brellier injured and Aguair suspended, we had to make do with Driver on the left and Neil McCann inside in central midfield. McCann much vilified, actually had a decent first half, putting himself about in midfield ( struck me that he was putting tackles in because he didn't have the time to think about it and ... bottle it like normal ). Barasa was performing his usual thuggery in the right back berth but managed to nobble himself somehow and had to go off to be replaced by Tall around 20 minutes, Tall doesn't seem to be cutting it for me and maybe their second goal would have been stopped if Barasa/Neilson had been there. Much gusto by Hearts had Celtic on the rack without really looking like they would buckle, we seemed to be short on ideas for the final ball. When Bednar played it square to Miko 30 yards out with the full compliment of Celtics defence stationed between him and goal then, we remained seated wondering what final ball failure he was about to conjure. I love it when a plan comes together, Miko has been very good at lulling the opposition into a false sense of security, no one in the Celtic defense thought for a second that they were in any danger of a venomous netbound shot from the wee Lithuanian. One step in with the left and he unleashed an unstoppable left foot pearler into the net with Boruc stranded and helpless.
A screamer!
Hearts had a chance to make it two close to half time with a neat ball through to Driver who took the defense for pace and sent a decent effort well saved by Boruc but only as far as Velicka to head back in a a goal mouth scramble which left us all confused and breathless. When i saw the pictures later on the TV it was never over the line but a good goal mouth clearance from Telfer.
Maybe if that had gone in things would have been different. Not convinced Celtic had featured in the Hearts box at this time, but a great effort low to Gordons left was saved perfectly - Half time.
Hearts 1
Celtic 0
My half time comment other than waxing lyrical over Miko's strike was to say "we have put an awful lot into the game i worry about the last twenty minutes.
In real terms it was the last 45 that i had to be worried about. The proverbial game of two halves!
Shortly after the interval Driver was taken off to be replaced by Elliot, playing out of position in midfield, and McCann moved out to his normal berth where Driver had been. Heard later that Driver was ill and probably should not have played at all, ill or otherwise had lost a degree of drive when he left the park.
The ball was out! a clear foot over the line on the half just below the Wheatfield Stand, the linesman ignored and Celtic retained possession, which they kept for another 10 or 15 seconds as they navigated their way into the Hearts box and set a drive towards Gordon. It was a hard shot but Gordon spilled - is it my imagination or is there a conspiracy of silence when Gordon makes a mistake, not just amongst Hearts supporters but all in Scottish football. He seems to be being treated like porcelain. Mind you if his infallible reputation keeps his price maximised then how can i argue with that!
Yan Venegoor of Castlemilk netted the rebound.
I was gutted, the ball was out man, frustrated!
Hearts forced a number of corners in the second half but frustratingly the quality of ball in was just not good enough always too long, too high and too predictable, so we never came close. I would like to see the stats on Hearts goals from corners this year, i bet it is very low.
The killer came from Jarosik, he collected the ball on the left and seemed to take Tall with him inside with out the challenge going in, he hit an effort which i thought was Gordon's all the way until it went in, i guess it bobbled over his hands, bouncing just in front of him.
Que the Celtic support and a rendition of "Thats why were champions" to the tune that we used to sing "Vladimir Romanov" to - like i said they were far too happy with themselves.
Hearts probably deserved a draw out of the game but from the point we went behind we never really looked like we believed we could get things back even. Celtic on the other hand always looked like they believed they could take the game and i guess that indeed is "why they are champions"
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