Paul Weller

Originally sent on 4th january after that game against Celtic

Once wrote.......

ana kick in the balls, ah say, Thats Entertainment, Thats Entertainme-ent.

It sure was like a huge drop kick in the balls but it certainly wasn't entertaining.

We had a wee bash in our house on hogmanay and i mentioned to one of the guys - Jonny Crisp ( so known for his heroic crisp eating exploits ) he could just as easily be known as Jonny the Tim tho. I said - i can feel it in my blood mate, tomorrow will be the biggest winning margin i have ever witnessed against Celtic. In truth a 2 goal win is the best i have ever seen. A 3 - 1 win just after you left for Canada and also memorable as the day Marie's wee brother broke his ankle celebrating the third goal ( jumping around like an eejit in our spot behind the goal by the shed, the terrace was a precarious place )
By 2:15 on Sunday i thought my dream was manifest reality and at least a 4 goal kicking of the tic was coming, me and Nathan and the rest of 3/4 of Tynecastle were delirious. By 3:47 we were dumbstruck, bewildered, dazed and confused.

I guess you may well have got this game so i won't go through it kick by tackle. A few of the highlights.
I hate that bloody last man, clear cut goal scoring, foul = immediate red card rule. I just can't see how you can rule that a player makes a genuine challenge for the ball, gets it wrong and gets sent off. It is just not right. Anyroads a lot of talk that Bobo Balde carried out an exact replica of the Fyassas sending off challenge in the first half, and so therefore should have also been sent off. It is allways the inconsistencies that annoy us most. Neither should have gone in my book - the fact that Fyassas walked and Balde did not absolutely meant that Celtic took the points and not Hearts.
Hearts lost to two stupid tackles deep in our left back position (Fyassas's side) two free kicks and equally free headers and we were sunk. I am absolutely certain tho that only one or none of those stupid tackles would have gone in if Fyassas had still been on the park. Skacel and Hartley the guilty eejits.
The difference between the Fyassas and Balde incidents was in the drama of the two cases -
Balde :- A neat passing movement on Hearts right just outside the box split the packed Celtic defence and in an instant Cesnauskis was straight through. Balde is a big lumbering oaf and just flew in and took Cesnauskis late. Free kick and a booking. Exactly right in my book. All over in an instant.
Fyassas :- Hearts were pressing and lost possession in midfield, Celtic broke very fast and a great ball was played down their left channel. As a mark of how pressing we had been our central defence was nowhere and Fyassas had to come across from our left back to the opposite side of the box to make the challenge. So the scene is - Celtics shaun malloney and Hearts Takiss Fyassis both make 40 yard dashes for the ball, which is racing towards Hearts 18 yard box. No one else is anywhere near it. It was pure 50 50 stuff and so for me should never be a sending off no matter if Malloney is floored or not. A genuine challenge is a genuine challenge. But the point is it just looked much more spectacular than the Balde incident, and i have to say, the minute the challenge went in i muttered - he's off! It was the opposite end of the ground from me so i did not catch the subtelties but by all accounts it was never going to be a goal scoring opportunity as Malloney knocked the ball too far forward and Fyassas never actually caught him anyway. I guess thats what happens when you slide tackle in from 15 yards out.

With the tempers settling as well as the dust, apparently there were big time battles on McLoed street. This was pretty much a coffin nail of a game, our challenge may never recover from this one, we definitely need Celtic to slip some serious points over the next few weeks and if we don't watch out we will get sucked into a 2nd3rd4th playoff with Rangers and Hibs. But take note of this - there was absolutely nothing between the teams. Hearts were guilty of two things only, we should have scored at least one more in the first half and we really lost the plot after Fyassas left the park. There was a lot of talk of Hearts dropping deeper and deeper in the second half, this is not true, if anything i thought we could have dropped a bit deeper still and contained them, may not even have lost the first goal that way.