If we get to the end of this season without shooting ourselves in the foot again it will be because we have run out of bullets.
Suicidal team choice the chosen method this time, none of the volcanic manager sacking or anything so extreme - just mental team selection.
The Romanov's, that was the name of the old Russian royal family, maybe thats where this madness comes from, maybe it is some deep seated superiority complex steeped in arrogance - might be. Actually i don't really believe the Romanov's pick the team conspiracy theories that much apart from the Andy Wester situation, looks like he is out in the cold never to return and we have seen the last of him in a Hearts strip - bit of a travesty. I can understand Lee Wallace at left back. For all that we love Fyassas and his magicness he just doesn't have the legs to face Sproule, so without Goncalves, it was not a bad shout to have Wallace in there. But! Can't understand why Fyassas was not on the bench. More tho with Pressley injured the only half way sensible thing to do with the back four was to make it as settled as possible which must have meant bringing Webster back in instead of Ibrahim Tall at least then 2 of the four would have been the tried and tested combination that has been so miserly all season.
No argument with Skacel on the bench, he is still not performing, top scorer he may still be but he has been off the boil for ages. The press are trying their damnest to make him seem like a prema-donna, stir up trouble where there really is none, anything to make Tynecastle look like a circus ( like we need help with that ). I saw it in his performance last week, low on confidence, trying too hard, shooting just off target when he could take another yard and slam it home, just playing the wrong ball at the wrong time. He could still shine again and make a big difference this season but it is in the balance really and there is no way we should rely on him.
No idea about Jankauskas being dropped, he is one of the Romanov boys, his ommission may well be down to the rotation theory.
I guess the other big one for the conspiracy theorists is Brellier out Aguair in, Brellier has been brilliant all year but it is well known that Romanov doesn't rate him at all. If that were all there was and Romanov was picking the team then why was Brellier on the bench at all? Jankauskas and Webster were in the stand after all. It's a tough call actually because Aguair is pretty good, works well in there with Hartley. Think i would like to see Brellier back for the Celtic game tho - just a bit more metal.
The upshot of all this was - i was totally confused by the team selection for the game on Saturday and i can only think of one thing - of the games left it was viewed by the people that pick the team, that the game at Easter Road was going to be the easy one, so we could rest some and continue to alienate others - If that is the case then these guys have learned nothing about Scottish football. Do you think if we had scraped through the semi 2 - 1 the selection would have been different? Christ this game was huge and Hibs were never going to do us any favours and we went into it looking like a bunch of amateurs.
The game aside there were many points to note, reprise of the now classic 'OH THE HIBEES ARE GAY', also turned to the tune of Born to Run. This was high quality entertainment with the Hibees joining in with specific references to Paul Hartleys love of Judy Garland movies. Try as they might tho they will just have to accept that we got there first and they will have to conceed that ofcourse they are all GAY. At the end of the game with the Hibees obviously delighted with things the DJ at Easter Road played Electric Six - Gay Bar. Got to hand it to them thats a pretty damn good response. All in all this banter when compared to the vitriol that would have been swaging back and forth at the old firm game the next day, is in a different league entirely. I can see EUFA clamping down on all this homophobia tho, we will probably be docked 10 points from next season and made to set a section in the Roseburn Stand with pink seats.
So to the football.
Hearts were just bloody awful in the first 30 minutes, just plain rank. For all it seemed like Hibs were much much better they still didn't produce much, the goal aside. The new offside rules just seem to be causing more confusion and controversy every week. Simplest way to look at this one is if it had been last year it would have been offside - this year you could debate it for hours and still have no idea - the areas have just been greyed to the point where all the grey bits have met in the middle and it is just one huge grey bit.
I have no idea if he was offside or not, anyroads that wee shite Riordan scored ( hopefully for the last time against Hearts ).
As the half wore on Hearts gradually started to shift through a couple of gears but really we were rank in the extreme. A hopeful ball for Bednar to run onto tho caused more confusion in the Hibs defence than it should have as Bednar bore down alongside two Hibs defenders and the Hibs keeper. The ball broke Hibs way and they allowed it to go back to the keeper who immediately transported himself back to Hampden and gifted another goal to Hearts - oh for gods sake.
Half Time 1 - 1
The second half was better from Hearts, obviously bouyed by the mentalist Hibs keeper and the fact that we were miraculously in the game.
Hibs seemed to drop into themselves and lost what they had in midfield. So Hearts looked the better team in the grand tradition of 'a game of two halfs' - so it was with deep irony that in the end Hibs stole this one with a breakaway goal against the run of play.
Skacel had been brought on for Chesnauskis, weirdly since he had been doing much better than Mikoliunas ( who was also looking a bit likely to lose the plot ), no real effect tho. Hibs however brought on, top of the ned tree - Scott Brown and the new Morrocan striker whose debut was the semi final. Bezoulan or something like that, it was his loss of possession in midfield that allowed the breakaway for Hearts first goal in the semi and the whole party thing to kick off. They did make a difference and Bezoulan got his revenge, he enjoyed it so much he ran the length of the park to celebrate in front of the Hearts crowd - booked obviously. Later monkey faced Mowbray claimed that it might have been a cultural thing a French thing? Good grief.
Full Time Hibs 2 - Hearts 1
So the 5 point lead was there for the taking by Rangers, a chance to reduce to 2 and put 2nd place into their own hands. They couldn't take it tho they played out a dour 0 - 0 at Celtic park. So we shot ourselves in the foot again and have played our very last get out of jail free card - but i am pretty up beat about things. 2nd place is still in our own hands and i think that this game was our screw up for the last few games of the season.
Predicting 2 victories at Tynecastle, Celtic then Aberdeen for Hearts to remain 4 points ahead when we go to Ibrox at the end of the season. Celtic are showing signs of already being on the beach and Aberdeen's season could be all but over too when they come a week on wednesday and everyone will be playing for cup final places, and i promise i will keep taking the tablets.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Good game, Good game
Awright, bit under the weather so i will keep this one short.
There is no logic whatsoever that anyone can apply to the split, but this year in any case it is pretty bloody exciting.
The only team with nothing to play for are Celtic and thats because they had the league sewn up before it even happened.
Hearts on the other hand have loads to play for and each game is as big as the last.
It all boils down to, can we finish ahead of Rangers and take second place and the shot at playing in next seasons champions league.
Coming into the split Hearts are 3 points clear with a huge goal difference also, so effectively a 4 point advantage with 5 games to play.
Sounds great and it is great but two things spring to mind -
This time last year Rangers were 5 points behind Celtic with 4 games to go and still managed to sneak the title
We play them at Ibrox on the last game of the season
All sounds pretty damned exciting really and is making for a cracking end to the season with even when it is all over the cup final awaits.
So to the first of the 5 remaining games, Kilmarnock at Tynecastle.
Got to say i enjoyed this game as much as any all season i think. It wasn't the biggest or the best football or the most exciting or any of that stuff really but it was enthralling stuff.
I have a lot of time for kilmarnock, they have punched above their weight this year, Jim Jefferies has been touted for manager of the year for what he has managed to do there with the limited and diminishing resources at his disposal.
Hearts started well looking as fluent as we had the week before which was a big surprise since there were quite a few changes in the line-up. It is now accepted that since Rix has gone Hearts have now moved into a rotation system, where just about every position is up for grabs, for a few weeks anyway. It has a long way to run but for now it seems to be working.
A good few chances came to Hearts in the first half but seemed to tail off as the half wore on and it definitely fell into the category of "It is just not happening out there". Most notable a 25 yard strike by Skacel that went just wide and high, if anything on this performance the lay off Skacel has had has left him a bit down on confidence, he seemed try to hard and snatch at every shot - oh for a goal for Skacel oh for a goal fo Skacel against the Hibees on Saturday at Easter Road, could be the difference between his season petering out or storming to a glorious finish. Notable also was a run down the left and cut back to Jankauskis, his shot was saved but it came out to Bednar, he had an open goal but his effort went over.
Half time came at 0-0 over at Ibrox where Rangers were playing Aberdeen it was also 0-0, nail biting stuff.
The second half continued as the first with the chances for Hearts fewer and fewer, Killie were gaining in confidence and causing problems themselves.
It was always going to be a free kick, 25 yards out on the left side of the box, just perfect, curled into the top corner, keeper no chance. Just brilliant, Paul Hartley once again magic!
Cesnauskis came on for Miko who was pretty innefectual really and pretty much changed the game, his runs were straight at the Killie defence exactly what we were needing - one such run, with a nutmeg in the middle crossed to the back post, saved by the keeper came out to Berra who headed in Hearts 2 Killie 0 game over.
Meanwhile Rangers lost a lead to draw 1 - 1 with Aberdeen so Hearts are now 5 points clear, effectively 6 with the goal difference and 4 games to go. I guess you could say that Hearts can only blow it now but i have a feeling it will still go to the last game at Ibrox. Still i have no fear of going there at all, needing a draw or a win we could do it. Alot depends on this weekends games
Saturday Hibs v Hearts
Sunday Celtic v Rangers
There is no logic whatsoever that anyone can apply to the split, but this year in any case it is pretty bloody exciting.
The only team with nothing to play for are Celtic and thats because they had the league sewn up before it even happened.
Hearts on the other hand have loads to play for and each game is as big as the last.
It all boils down to, can we finish ahead of Rangers and take second place and the shot at playing in next seasons champions league.
Coming into the split Hearts are 3 points clear with a huge goal difference also, so effectively a 4 point advantage with 5 games to play.
Sounds great and it is great but two things spring to mind -
This time last year Rangers were 5 points behind Celtic with 4 games to go and still managed to sneak the title
We play them at Ibrox on the last game of the season
All sounds pretty damned exciting really and is making for a cracking end to the season with even when it is all over the cup final awaits.
So to the first of the 5 remaining games, Kilmarnock at Tynecastle.
Got to say i enjoyed this game as much as any all season i think. It wasn't the biggest or the best football or the most exciting or any of that stuff really but it was enthralling stuff.
I have a lot of time for kilmarnock, they have punched above their weight this year, Jim Jefferies has been touted for manager of the year for what he has managed to do there with the limited and diminishing resources at his disposal.
Hearts started well looking as fluent as we had the week before which was a big surprise since there were quite a few changes in the line-up. It is now accepted that since Rix has gone Hearts have now moved into a rotation system, where just about every position is up for grabs, for a few weeks anyway. It has a long way to run but for now it seems to be working.
A good few chances came to Hearts in the first half but seemed to tail off as the half wore on and it definitely fell into the category of "It is just not happening out there". Most notable a 25 yard strike by Skacel that went just wide and high, if anything on this performance the lay off Skacel has had has left him a bit down on confidence, he seemed try to hard and snatch at every shot - oh for a goal for Skacel oh for a goal fo Skacel against the Hibees on Saturday at Easter Road, could be the difference between his season petering out or storming to a glorious finish. Notable also was a run down the left and cut back to Jankauskis, his shot was saved but it came out to Bednar, he had an open goal but his effort went over.
Half time came at 0-0 over at Ibrox where Rangers were playing Aberdeen it was also 0-0, nail biting stuff.
The second half continued as the first with the chances for Hearts fewer and fewer, Killie were gaining in confidence and causing problems themselves.
It was always going to be a free kick, 25 yards out on the left side of the box, just perfect, curled into the top corner, keeper no chance. Just brilliant, Paul Hartley once again magic!
Cesnauskis came on for Miko who was pretty innefectual really and pretty much changed the game, his runs were straight at the Killie defence exactly what we were needing - one such run, with a nutmeg in the middle crossed to the back post, saved by the keeper came out to Berra who headed in Hearts 2 Killie 0 game over.
Meanwhile Rangers lost a lead to draw 1 - 1 with Aberdeen so Hearts are now 5 points clear, effectively 6 with the goal difference and 4 games to go. I guess you could say that Hearts can only blow it now but i have a feeling it will still go to the last game at Ibrox. Still i have no fear of going there at all, needing a draw or a win we could do it. Alot depends on this weekends games
Saturday Hibs v Hearts
Sunday Celtic v Rangers
Monday, April 10, 2006
What's going on here then
Ok, i have a question, it will take a while to formulate this question so read on.
Two games to cover since the fantastic demolition of Hibs, last Sunday. The cup final is tucked away in the back pocket so we can concentrate on the 2nd place and the shot at the champions league.
Whilst Hearts were having so much fun against the pathetic green fae Leith Rangers went up to Tannadice and won 4 - 1 to bring them to within three points of Hearts.
This meant that the game a Celtic Park last wednesday was double edged -
With a win Celtic would win the league on the earliest date in the history of the SPL. With the start we made and all the fuss that was made how could we have let this happen? - thats not my question but it is a bloody good one.
Rangers are now just 3 points behind us, we have a game in hand ofcourse but that game in hand is this one - away to Celtic who are just about to win the title.
I mentioned to a bloke in the work when asked what i thought about the game - i said, well i think there is a fair chance that Hearts could take something from the game but also i had a feeling that if Celtic got their noses in front - with the league in their grasp and Hearts may suffer a bit from Sundays exploits that - maybe Celtic could cut loose a bit and rack up a good few goals. Where the hell did that come from, i am ashamed of myself - the only time Hearts have been beaten by more than one goal this season was that aberration down at Easter Road in the wake of the Burley disaster, so why on earth should i think we would capitulate under Celtic - shocking.
Hearts were without Pressley who suffered a case of concussion during the semi final, and also Goncalves who suffered a mild case of de-capitation in the same game. Presley was missed immediately as zurawski knocked down for Hartson to strike a hopeful volley from 25 yards - Gordon was well out of possition but i think the miss of Pressley for the knock down was more telling. From that point the game changed - now answer me this, 17 points ahead at home to your closest challengers with a win needed for the title - would you go for it, would you put in a performance and give your faithfull fans a good reason to celebrate. Or would you turn in one of your most dour and dismal performances of the season. I thought Celtic were awful, two banks of four perpetually in their own half, they gave Hearts all the territory and all the possession and fought in their own third only. Mind you i think Hearts could still be there and not have equalised but that is not my point, aren't you supposed to entertain someone some of the time.
Hearts had the ball in the back of the net but Webster was offside.
Another Celtic supporter in the work tried to excuse the performance by bringing up last years final day disaster where they threw the league away with minutes to go - doesn't cut it for me, they were crap.
I thought, christ anyone can defend like that, we play Dunfermline at Tyney on Saturday and they could come and play exactly like Celtic - I really have no idea what i am on about do i.
Hearts seemed to command and control the game throughout this one, without really threatening too much they looked really pretty good.
Dunfermline turned up and the first thing of note was the reprise of 'Oh the Hibees are Ga..ay' oh how predictable, small minded and childish the Hearts support are, brilliant ain't it. The second thing of note was the first half, i haven't seen us play this well since either the start of the season or well for bloody years - it is true Dunfermline were awful but the fluidity and the movement of the Hearts team all over the park was fantastic i mean we were bloody brilliant. No Rudi Skacel, he has been on the wain for ages now and it is right he needs time off. No Webster either tho and that is not so understandable, mind you finding a place in your team for Goncalves is definitely a good thing. I think it was the midfield where it was really cooking tho Miko, Chesney, Hartley and Bruno Aguar were awsome really. Miko and Chesney would swap wings every couple of minutes leaving the Dunfermline defence chasing shadows ( actually they just sort of stood around looking dizzy ) - i guess there were a couple of times we were off balance when Fyassas would look up the left channel expecting to see Skacel but no one was there, but that is a very small gripe. I guess you could say that the goals we scored in the first half did not live up to the play we produced but thats just another small gripe. The goals were just too easy........
A long throw in from the right by Neilson, was met unchallenged on the half by Pospisil ( in for the injured Jankauskas ) and he slotted it home 1 - 0. Dunfermlines only tactic was damage limitation and at that they were rubbish.
A cross in from the right by Neilson was met unchallenged by Bednar who looped a header over the keeper, it took an age to come down but finally dropped in at the back post 2 - 0.
A short corner was cut back to Miko who slipped to the side 12 yards out and slotted the ball home 3 - 0
It was half an hour gone and the game was well and truly over and just far too easy.
The second half was a bit more of a snore really we were still in complete control and completely comfortable but had lost a bit of a cutting edge, it was more like a training session really - Fyassas had the ball on the right close to the touchline and the byline with two Dunfermline players covering - i swear he had half an hour to consider his options before he clipped the ball round the back of his right leg with his left to outfox the two of them - Fyassas is no spring chicken but he looked like he had to wind up his ankles before he could go for the ball he had knocked towards the box, he got there tho but his low cross was cut out. The rest of the Hearts front line ran up to him with high fives and congratulations - like i say, this was an exhibition match.
On came the two most expensive recruits in January - Makela for Pospisil and Beslija for Miko, still can't work out what Beslija is going to do for his 850,000 but Makela slotted away the corner very well for his goal, 4 - 0
Beslija seemed to offload the ball back the way every time he got it, maybe he needs to build a bit of confidence but on the whole it is good to see some of these guys settling down and getting fit and getting a game and making it better. I am beginning to get to the question i have.
Now i said earlier that Celtic were tripe and anyone even Dunfermline could defend like that, patently they couldn't so maybe Celtic's tripeness was down to Hearts just plain not allowing them to play. What if the last few months have been a self imposed mallaise that has fooled us all into believing that we really weren't that good. We would never play like this under Rix, it is like the shackles have been taken off and we can play football again. The only thing that carried Rix at all was the general decent quality of the players. All far too late now, but what if Rix had never happened? There are piles of other factors ofcourse but the last three games have seemed so much more like the start of the season, i have to wonder, what the hell did we do to ourselves?
Bednar wrapped it up for me in an interview in the Scotland on Sunday - "The last three games have been like the first 5 of the season" note, not the first 8 the first 5 and he is right we definitely dipped after those first fantastic games. Thats probably a lot of questions, too many.
It does fill me with hope for the run in, it goes
Hearts v Killie
Hibs v Hearts
Hearts v Celtic
Hearts v Aberdeen
Rangers v Hearts
So we go to Ibrox on the last game of the season and any slip between now and then could mean that 2nd place is up for grabs, even if it does, i would have no fear going to Ibrox if we play like we have over the past few games.
Two games to cover since the fantastic demolition of Hibs, last Sunday. The cup final is tucked away in the back pocket so we can concentrate on the 2nd place and the shot at the champions league.
Whilst Hearts were having so much fun against the pathetic green fae Leith Rangers went up to Tannadice and won 4 - 1 to bring them to within three points of Hearts.
This meant that the game a Celtic Park last wednesday was double edged -
With a win Celtic would win the league on the earliest date in the history of the SPL. With the start we made and all the fuss that was made how could we have let this happen? - thats not my question but it is a bloody good one.
Rangers are now just 3 points behind us, we have a game in hand ofcourse but that game in hand is this one - away to Celtic who are just about to win the title.
I mentioned to a bloke in the work when asked what i thought about the game - i said, well i think there is a fair chance that Hearts could take something from the game but also i had a feeling that if Celtic got their noses in front - with the league in their grasp and Hearts may suffer a bit from Sundays exploits that - maybe Celtic could cut loose a bit and rack up a good few goals. Where the hell did that come from, i am ashamed of myself - the only time Hearts have been beaten by more than one goal this season was that aberration down at Easter Road in the wake of the Burley disaster, so why on earth should i think we would capitulate under Celtic - shocking.
Hearts were without Pressley who suffered a case of concussion during the semi final, and also Goncalves who suffered a mild case of de-capitation in the same game. Presley was missed immediately as zurawski knocked down for Hartson to strike a hopeful volley from 25 yards - Gordon was well out of possition but i think the miss of Pressley for the knock down was more telling. From that point the game changed - now answer me this, 17 points ahead at home to your closest challengers with a win needed for the title - would you go for it, would you put in a performance and give your faithfull fans a good reason to celebrate. Or would you turn in one of your most dour and dismal performances of the season. I thought Celtic were awful, two banks of four perpetually in their own half, they gave Hearts all the territory and all the possession and fought in their own third only. Mind you i think Hearts could still be there and not have equalised but that is not my point, aren't you supposed to entertain someone some of the time.
Hearts had the ball in the back of the net but Webster was offside.
Another Celtic supporter in the work tried to excuse the performance by bringing up last years final day disaster where they threw the league away with minutes to go - doesn't cut it for me, they were crap.
I thought, christ anyone can defend like that, we play Dunfermline at Tyney on Saturday and they could come and play exactly like Celtic - I really have no idea what i am on about do i.
Hearts seemed to command and control the game throughout this one, without really threatening too much they looked really pretty good.
Dunfermline turned up and the first thing of note was the reprise of 'Oh the Hibees are Ga..ay' oh how predictable, small minded and childish the Hearts support are, brilliant ain't it. The second thing of note was the first half, i haven't seen us play this well since either the start of the season or well for bloody years - it is true Dunfermline were awful but the fluidity and the movement of the Hearts team all over the park was fantastic i mean we were bloody brilliant. No Rudi Skacel, he has been on the wain for ages now and it is right he needs time off. No Webster either tho and that is not so understandable, mind you finding a place in your team for Goncalves is definitely a good thing. I think it was the midfield where it was really cooking tho Miko, Chesney, Hartley and Bruno Aguar were awsome really. Miko and Chesney would swap wings every couple of minutes leaving the Dunfermline defence chasing shadows ( actually they just sort of stood around looking dizzy ) - i guess there were a couple of times we were off balance when Fyassas would look up the left channel expecting to see Skacel but no one was there, but that is a very small gripe. I guess you could say that the goals we scored in the first half did not live up to the play we produced but thats just another small gripe. The goals were just too easy........
A long throw in from the right by Neilson, was met unchallenged on the half by Pospisil ( in for the injured Jankauskas ) and he slotted it home 1 - 0. Dunfermlines only tactic was damage limitation and at that they were rubbish.
A cross in from the right by Neilson was met unchallenged by Bednar who looped a header over the keeper, it took an age to come down but finally dropped in at the back post 2 - 0.
A short corner was cut back to Miko who slipped to the side 12 yards out and slotted the ball home 3 - 0
It was half an hour gone and the game was well and truly over and just far too easy.
The second half was a bit more of a snore really we were still in complete control and completely comfortable but had lost a bit of a cutting edge, it was more like a training session really - Fyassas had the ball on the right close to the touchline and the byline with two Dunfermline players covering - i swear he had half an hour to consider his options before he clipped the ball round the back of his right leg with his left to outfox the two of them - Fyassas is no spring chicken but he looked like he had to wind up his ankles before he could go for the ball he had knocked towards the box, he got there tho but his low cross was cut out. The rest of the Hearts front line ran up to him with high fives and congratulations - like i say, this was an exhibition match.
On came the two most expensive recruits in January - Makela for Pospisil and Beslija for Miko, still can't work out what Beslija is going to do for his 850,000 but Makela slotted away the corner very well for his goal, 4 - 0
Beslija seemed to offload the ball back the way every time he got it, maybe he needs to build a bit of confidence but on the whole it is good to see some of these guys settling down and getting fit and getting a game and making it better. I am beginning to get to the question i have.
Now i said earlier that Celtic were tripe and anyone even Dunfermline could defend like that, patently they couldn't so maybe Celtic's tripeness was down to Hearts just plain not allowing them to play. What if the last few months have been a self imposed mallaise that has fooled us all into believing that we really weren't that good. We would never play like this under Rix, it is like the shackles have been taken off and we can play football again. The only thing that carried Rix at all was the general decent quality of the players. All far too late now, but what if Rix had never happened? There are piles of other factors ofcourse but the last three games have seemed so much more like the start of the season, i have to wonder, what the hell did we do to ourselves?
Bednar wrapped it up for me in an interview in the Scotland on Sunday - "The last three games have been like the first 5 of the season" note, not the first 8 the first 5 and he is right we definitely dipped after those first fantastic games. Thats probably a lot of questions, too many.
It does fill me with hope for the run in, it goes
Hearts v Killie
Hibs v Hearts
Hearts v Celtic
Hearts v Aberdeen
Rangers v Hearts
So we go to Ibrox on the last game of the season and any slip between now and then could mean that 2nd place is up for grabs, even if it does, i would have no fear going to Ibrox if we play like we have over the past few games.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Tell All The Hibs You Know
It's 105 in a Row !!
Christ what a day! i am still buzzing, that was fantastic. From start to finish that was brilliant.
Really really could not have hoped or dreamed of a better semi-final against Hibs than the one we got.
It all started so quietly as well. Like i said in the last entry, after the dream i had my guts were upside down and i didn't feel any better as we turned up on Wheatfield to get on bus 20 at 8:30am on Sunday morning. Got to say that is a bloody ridiculous time to be heading to a football match but there you go.
Traffic was quiet and we found ourselves outside the west stand at Hampden at 10, with a good 2 hours to go before kick off and nought to do, it was cold as well. Immediately tho you could feel that this was a good day, there were already thousands of Hearts fans around and we were in good voice and good mood and already ready to party.
Christ what a day! i am still buzzing, that was fantastic. From start to finish that was brilliant.
Really really could not have hoped or dreamed of a better semi-final against Hibs than the one we got.
It all started so quietly as well. Like i said in the last entry, after the dream i had my guts were upside down and i didn't feel any better as we turned up on Wheatfield to get on bus 20 at 8:30am on Sunday morning. Got to say that is a bloody ridiculous time to be heading to a football match but there you go.
Traffic was quiet and we found ourselves outside the west stand at Hampden at 10, with a good 2 hours to go before kick off and nought to do, it was cold as well. Immediately tho you could feel that this was a good day, there were already thousands of Hearts fans around and we were in good voice and good mood and already ready to party.
Got into the ground with an hour to go and got a bovril and sat down in our seats and started to wait, amazing how quickly that hour went, the Hearts end was already pretty full and the singing started soon enough. The excitement and the noise was rising by the minute as this long awaited game drew closer. The Hibs crowd low and a bit sad as it was, was trying also to drum up some enthusiasm for the game, to overcome the trepidation they must have felt. Then the genius moment that started the whole snowball that ultimately rolled over Hibs, a moment of pure comic genius. The DJ at Hampden or whatever you call the guy that decides what noise to blast out of the speakers, chose to put on The White Stripes - 7 Nation Army and the bass riff........... The Hearts support immediately jumped on it and blasted "All The Hibees are Ga..ay, All The Hibees are Ga..ay" and on and on continued this for a good ten minutes after the song finished, by this time all 22,000 of us blasting this ditty eastward across the stadium. I think you will agree that this is about as petty and childish as you can get - fantastic. I swear the Hearts support had beaten the muppets 4 - 0 before a ball was kicked, with no answer they shut right up and kept shut right up for the rest of the day.
The game kicked off and Hearts were immediately on the attack down the left with a good ball to Skacel who turned well to lose his marker and hit the by line. The trademark low cross in from the left nearly paid off in the first minute. After that tho the game went scrappy and if anything Hibs were getting the better of things. They managed a couple of opening 20 yards out and had a couple of pops, i mentioned to Claire tho that it would take something special to beat Craig Gordon from there, we looked at each other and nodded like we knew what the hell we were talking about. I was nervous.
There were quite a few niggly fouls creeping into the game and most seemed to be going against Hearts and i was getting more nervous. I had concluded that the longer the game went without Hearts scoring the more chance Hibs would have, given Hearts now regular self destruction in the latter part of matches. Hibs managed once in the first half to get behind the Hearts defence, on the right and cut back for Sproule. Maybe things could have been different on Sunday and maybe this was the moment when fate played it's card. He really should have buried it but he weakly passed the ball into Gordon's arms - within a couple of minutes Hearts were 1 up and about to cut loose. Hibs had to bring in a new striker a young Moroccan bloke who's name is irrelevant, he seemed a bit overwhelmed tho as he lost possession and then had to foul Goncalves on the edge of the box. The resultant free kick was Beckham-esc and very well saved by the Hibs keeper. We should have known then that Hartley was in the mood.
The Moroccan striker again lost possession, this time in midfield and Hearts had a break, Hartley passed out to Jankauskis on the left, who made the yards into the box and passed back in for the trademark low cross from the left for Hartley to clip the ball into the far corner of the net. Hearts 1 Hibs already beat. The rest of the half continued scrappy at best and ended with Pressley taking a head knock at the end of the 45.
Half time was more of the same from the Hearts crowd with many questions being asked of the Hibs support's gardening orientation. Clearly delighted with the world at the moment i was still unconvinced and still very nervous.
Pressley did not come out for the second half, don't think i was too worried tho because Goncalves really looks the part and on came Fyassas to take up his usual left back berth as Goncalves moved inside with Webster. The second half was different from the first from the off as Hearts had moved up a gear, Hibs were looking tired by the 50th minute and were giving away free kicks around the box. Hartley had another effort again Bekham-esc, a slight deflection and another good save. A few moments later another free kick, this time a bit tighter angle on the left. Looked more like the kind you would cross to the back post as was understood by Hibs only putting one in the wall and the keeper moving to the centre of his goal. Hartley clipped the ball over the one man wall and into the goal at the near post, keeper flailing. Signal the collapse, well nearly, 2 - 0 up and ten minutes later i was worried. A clash between Goncalves and Craig Gordon leftn Goncalves knocked out and looking in a really bad way. Gordon got booked for time wasting when he was obviously trying to attract attention for Goncalves crumpled in a heap on the by line, ridiculous! Fyassas now had to move into the middle and Skacel moved to left back ( this is also what happened when Fyassas got sent off against Celtic in the new year game ) like i said i was worried. Hibs however couldn't really hurt us and even with Hearts weakened defence really didn't know how to break Hearts down. Sproule's lack of any real quality in the end boiled over in his frustration as he stamped on Mikoliunass's back after a touchline tussle. Miko made the most of it for sure but a red card was the only option. A few minutes later a speculative ball forward was chased down by Jankauskis ( Hibs defender gave up because he thought his keeper was getting it ) keeper made an arse of it and Jankauskis nipped the ball away from him. He seemed to take an age, he turned like an aircraft carrier with a spare weekend to maneuvre, but he got his body round the ball and stroked it into the net and the party started.
Hearts 3 Hibs 0 and already half way back along the M8
Nearing the end now and the party is in full swing and i am for the first time in the day no longer nervous or worried, instead i am jumping up and down and asking the few remaining Hibees about their sexual orientation. Another speculative ball over a collapsed Hibs defence allows Pospicil in, he has his shirt pulled and is brought down ( this was outside the box but was definitely a red card). Hibs down to 9 men and Hearts 3 up with a penalty and a few minutes to go and i am thinking... it just doesn't get any better than this, whatever this season has brought, the highs and the lows, it just can't get better than this. Hartley sinks the penalty and again for the second time this season against Hibs.......... Four nil we only won four nil.
Hit this link for a sample of the party, donated by a bloke in the work. He made a late decision to pretend to have a back injury so he could go to the game instead of play his hockey 1/4 final. He made the right decision, his team done a Hibee and got horsed 7 - 1
http://www.blakdreem.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/nananana.3gp
Saturday, April 01, 2006
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Ok lots to get through today.
The lack of match reports over the past few weeks has been down in part to some technical difficulties with my PC ( now sorted ). I must concede tho that the lack of match reports over the past few weeks has in part also been down to a depressing lack of any desire to write anything about Hearts. Right now I am pumped to the eye sockets with it all - Hibs tomorrow in the Semi-Final of the Scottish cup, so any recap of the last few weeks of madness and mayhem at Tynecastle will be flavoured by that fact. I will try to maintain some semblance of balance?
The technical difficulties, if you are in the least interested - this may come in useful. I tried to set up a VPN link from my machine in the house to my company network using their VPN software. This didn't work and only served to screw the network settings on my machine. At one point I managed to get the machine into a 2 minute reboot cycle. I just managed to get logged in and start the uninstaller for the VPN software before the machine rebooted itself. I think tho that maybe the uninstall wasn't the cleanest and it left my machines settings mixed up. Try as I might I couldn't get a newtork connection. Lots of messing around but to no avail. I was just about to use the sledge hammer approach and use the recovery disk I got with the PC taking it back to the state it was in when it left the shop, when I discovered something - XP has a thing called 'system restore' you can access it from Accessories -> system tools -> system restore. This looks like an incremental back up of your registry and other geeky bits n bobs. Anyroads I just took the machine back to the state it was in before the VPN software was installed and hey presto, the internet is back. This all took about 2 weeks of farting about tho so no match reports during that time, I will try to re-cap now.
There have been three games a manager and a DOF since the last report -
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0 Hearts 0
An absolute dog of a game this one, winters last stand up in the bitter north, it was a howling gale and next to no football was getting played. The draw meant that Hearts dropped to 15 points behind Celtic and even the most mentalist of Jambo dreamers gave up any hope of catching Celtic this season. It's pretty obvious really but each of these away draws have been an individual nail in the coffin of our challenge, far too many of them for a team chasing a european place never mind a league title. I listened to this game on the radio - it really was depressing stuff maybe Hearts done some decent work in the first half but in the second we were non existant and were lucky to come away with anything at all. The fact that we did I guess is testament to our determination to cling to whatever we do have. There was a fair amount of punditry on Hearts side after this one tho, ICT are no pushovers for sure and it really was a howling gale so no football was possible but I just can't get past the fact that if it had been Celtic and probably lately Rangers up there in the same conditions they would somehow have conspired to squeeze all three points out of the fixture - who knows. ICT last week however went to Easter Road and gubbed them 2 - 0, excellent!
Hearts 1 Rangers 1
Loads of pressure on both clubs on the run up to this game, a real six pointer. Rangers come in to the game 6 points behind Hearts and knew that if they managed a win and reduced the defecit to 3 then the pressure would really be on the Jambo's and I think they would really smell blood and would ultimately reign us in during the split. Hearts on the other hand knew that if they could win they would almost certainly kill off the late Rangers challenge for 2nd place and more importantly a shot at the Champions League next year.
So I guess it was fated to be a draw.
Packed and noisy Tynecastle as you would expect for what at the time was the biggest game of the season for certainly Hearts.
Ferocious start by both teams going either way, it was obvious from the off that at least Rangers came to Tynecastle as a football team unlike the abberration that turned up the last time. It was 100 hundred miles an hour and hard to tell who if anyone was going to make an impression on the game. Out of nothing tho Cesnauskis, wide on the right about level with the half way line, done some excellent work to first bring the ball under control then to flip over the heads of two Rangers players to create the space for himself to scamper down the wing. A quick low cross and Jankauskis was there at the front post to hammer home 1 - 0 to the good guys. The rest of the first half was much the same although I can't really remember Gordon having much to do at all it was nonetheless nip and tuck. Skacel had a great effort svaed by the Rangers keeper - I think if that one had gone in it would have been much better for Hearts and Rudi Skacel. The once hailed hero of the Tynecastle revolution Rudi Skacel is looking decidedly below par these days and the still prolific "were not worthy" actions from the crowd look less deserved with every week. He has also been coming in for heavy criticism for diving, feigning injury blah blah. Some of that is deserved. Rudi tho he just needs a goal or two and he would be right back up there - oh for a Skacel hat-trick tomorrow in the Semi Final.
The second half was a bit more one sided in favour of Rangers and Hearts now well known lack of ability to play for 90 minutes was there for all to see. Rangers scored a very similar goal to the Hearts one the ony difference being the cross found it's way to the back post before being hammered home.
Given the predicament of both clubs and what I have seen of Hearts frailties in the latter part of games that they haven't killed off, I think Rangers were guilty of not going for the win, they could have taken it I think if they had thrown a bit of caution to the wind and went for the throat. Hopefully that lack of endeavour will allow Hearts to remain in 2nd at the end of the season.
Rangers did however have one chance to steal it with about 15 minutes left. A cross into the Hearts box was poorly cleared and it fell to Buffel ( I think ) he hemmered a shot towards the right roof of Gordon's net. Craig Gordon ( Scotland, Scotland's number 1 ) pulled off save of the season to keep it out.
Gordon just re-signed for Hearts this week, he is the one guy tho that I think we should just not stand in his way, he is destined for bigger and better things and could in the years to come amount to the best Scottish keeper, ever really.
Graham Rix and Jim Duffy
The only thing I can say about this is Vlad's timing stinks.
Surely to maximise the damage done he should have waited until the morning of the semi final to sack his management team for the 2nd time this season. Thought maybe he could have asked Rix to get some mints from the garage in Harthill on the way to the semi and then drove the team bus away whilst he was in there, Graham would have got the message.
I was never in favour of Rix in the first place, I did however warm to him for a few weeks during the winter but in the end he was on a hiding to nothing really. I don't think he will have any regrets at all, he gave it a shot in very difficult circumstances, he did come up a bit short tho.
What annoyed me most was Rix's acceptance of mediocrity, he seemed to take an away draw at Fir Park as OK because the team played alright and Motherwell at home are no mugs and well almost any reason he could think off to make things seem OK. It's not OK and I don't care about giving other teams respect I just want us to beat them.
Official reasons given for his dismissal -
Too many draws, yes exactly far too many draws
Some of the signings in January were not of Hearts standing, for this I can only think of Lee Johnson and that bloke Hackett, since the rest of the signings were Vlad's. I have to say bringing people up from the lower reaches of English football was allways going to be a gamble. Never seen Hackett, Lee johnson looked like a half decent squad player a bit small and light maybe but he could kick a ball. Christ knows what those two must think of things now - I guess they will be heading back down south again in a few weeks anyroads.
Duffy had to go ofcourse, he was part of the Rix team, as I said before he is just a failed Scottish manager so what the hell we were doing trying to present him as some kind director of football, I will never know.
Once again the big names from european football are being bandied about for the Hearts job, good grief. I have a couple of weeks holiday coming up, do you think if I put in my application I can be manager for a bit.
So caretaker manager is Ivanauskis, he is the guy who managed Kaunas to a title a couple of years ago and Vlad sacked him a few games into the next season ( because a one too many draws ) mmmmmm. At the moment I don't think it matters a damn who runs the team or picks the players or whatever, we will limp to the end of the season now and take whatever we can muster for ourselves.
Falkirk 1 Hearts 2
Nasty nasty game, this is the one where Rudi got all his bad press for diving etc.
Most pundits thought the truama of the sacking mid week would knock the good ship Jambo ofcourse enough for Falkirk to de-rail them.
Naw we fought for all three points and deserved it in the end. The run in to the end of the season will be hard going for Hearts - we need to go away to Celtic, Rangers and Hibs, so we will need every one of these ugly wins we can get. Not sure what the Rangers run in is yet.
Rangers play Dundee Utd at Tannadice in the afternoon after the Hearts-Hibs semi-final, so they have a choice to bring it back to just 3 points behind us, we will have a game in hand but that game is at Parkhead when Celtic can win the league if they get all 3 points.
Hibs v Hearts Scottish cup Semi-Final
Really, really wanted a Hearts v Hibs final but it was not to be. Make no mistake tho and no disrespect to Gretna ( who beat Dundee 3 - 0 earlier today ) this is the final.
I had been weirdly comfortable all week, perfectly relaxed about this game, for a number of reasons I just couldn't see where the goals would come from for Hibs, so I felt totally confident in a glorious Hearts victory in what could prove to be the biggest Edinburgh derby in decades.
Until !!
I woke up at 4am on Thursday morning in a cold sweat, I had just witnessed in my dream the odd goal in 5 being slotted into the Hearts net with 2 minutes to go. I can still see the goal now, it's horrible.
Ofcourse this is nonsense, just a dream blah blah.
Don't care !
The effect this has had on me is to turn my guts upside down and inside out - I am a nervous wreck. At the time of writing this there are 17hours and 15 minutes to kick off - I will have to drink a lot to settle down tonight.
Managed to get 5 tickets so it will be a bit of a family day out to Hampden tomorrow on the bus from Tynecastle.
HOOOOO ON THE JAMBO's
The lack of match reports over the past few weeks has been down in part to some technical difficulties with my PC ( now sorted ). I must concede tho that the lack of match reports over the past few weeks has in part also been down to a depressing lack of any desire to write anything about Hearts. Right now I am pumped to the eye sockets with it all - Hibs tomorrow in the Semi-Final of the Scottish cup, so any recap of the last few weeks of madness and mayhem at Tynecastle will be flavoured by that fact. I will try to maintain some semblance of balance?
The technical difficulties, if you are in the least interested - this may come in useful. I tried to set up a VPN link from my machine in the house to my company network using their VPN software. This didn't work and only served to screw the network settings on my machine. At one point I managed to get the machine into a 2 minute reboot cycle. I just managed to get logged in and start the uninstaller for the VPN software before the machine rebooted itself. I think tho that maybe the uninstall wasn't the cleanest and it left my machines settings mixed up. Try as I might I couldn't get a newtork connection. Lots of messing around but to no avail. I was just about to use the sledge hammer approach and use the recovery disk I got with the PC taking it back to the state it was in when it left the shop, when I discovered something - XP has a thing called 'system restore' you can access it from Accessories -> system tools -> system restore. This looks like an incremental back up of your registry and other geeky bits n bobs. Anyroads I just took the machine back to the state it was in before the VPN software was installed and hey presto, the internet is back. This all took about 2 weeks of farting about tho so no match reports during that time, I will try to re-cap now.
There have been three games a manager and a DOF since the last report -
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0 Hearts 0
An absolute dog of a game this one, winters last stand up in the bitter north, it was a howling gale and next to no football was getting played. The draw meant that Hearts dropped to 15 points behind Celtic and even the most mentalist of Jambo dreamers gave up any hope of catching Celtic this season. It's pretty obvious really but each of these away draws have been an individual nail in the coffin of our challenge, far too many of them for a team chasing a european place never mind a league title. I listened to this game on the radio - it really was depressing stuff maybe Hearts done some decent work in the first half but in the second we were non existant and were lucky to come away with anything at all. The fact that we did I guess is testament to our determination to cling to whatever we do have. There was a fair amount of punditry on Hearts side after this one tho, ICT are no pushovers for sure and it really was a howling gale so no football was possible but I just can't get past the fact that if it had been Celtic and probably lately Rangers up there in the same conditions they would somehow have conspired to squeeze all three points out of the fixture - who knows. ICT last week however went to Easter Road and gubbed them 2 - 0, excellent!
Hearts 1 Rangers 1
Loads of pressure on both clubs on the run up to this game, a real six pointer. Rangers come in to the game 6 points behind Hearts and knew that if they managed a win and reduced the defecit to 3 then the pressure would really be on the Jambo's and I think they would really smell blood and would ultimately reign us in during the split. Hearts on the other hand knew that if they could win they would almost certainly kill off the late Rangers challenge for 2nd place and more importantly a shot at the Champions League next year.
So I guess it was fated to be a draw.
Packed and noisy Tynecastle as you would expect for what at the time was the biggest game of the season for certainly Hearts.
Ferocious start by both teams going either way, it was obvious from the off that at least Rangers came to Tynecastle as a football team unlike the abberration that turned up the last time. It was 100 hundred miles an hour and hard to tell who if anyone was going to make an impression on the game. Out of nothing tho Cesnauskis, wide on the right about level with the half way line, done some excellent work to first bring the ball under control then to flip over the heads of two Rangers players to create the space for himself to scamper down the wing. A quick low cross and Jankauskis was there at the front post to hammer home 1 - 0 to the good guys. The rest of the first half was much the same although I can't really remember Gordon having much to do at all it was nonetheless nip and tuck. Skacel had a great effort svaed by the Rangers keeper - I think if that one had gone in it would have been much better for Hearts and Rudi Skacel. The once hailed hero of the Tynecastle revolution Rudi Skacel is looking decidedly below par these days and the still prolific "were not worthy" actions from the crowd look less deserved with every week. He has also been coming in for heavy criticism for diving, feigning injury blah blah. Some of that is deserved. Rudi tho he just needs a goal or two and he would be right back up there - oh for a Skacel hat-trick tomorrow in the Semi Final.
The second half was a bit more one sided in favour of Rangers and Hearts now well known lack of ability to play for 90 minutes was there for all to see. Rangers scored a very similar goal to the Hearts one the ony difference being the cross found it's way to the back post before being hammered home.
Given the predicament of both clubs and what I have seen of Hearts frailties in the latter part of games that they haven't killed off, I think Rangers were guilty of not going for the win, they could have taken it I think if they had thrown a bit of caution to the wind and went for the throat. Hopefully that lack of endeavour will allow Hearts to remain in 2nd at the end of the season.
Rangers did however have one chance to steal it with about 15 minutes left. A cross into the Hearts box was poorly cleared and it fell to Buffel ( I think ) he hemmered a shot towards the right roof of Gordon's net. Craig Gordon ( Scotland, Scotland's number 1 ) pulled off save of the season to keep it out.
Gordon just re-signed for Hearts this week, he is the one guy tho that I think we should just not stand in his way, he is destined for bigger and better things and could in the years to come amount to the best Scottish keeper, ever really.
Graham Rix and Jim Duffy
The only thing I can say about this is Vlad's timing stinks.
Surely to maximise the damage done he should have waited until the morning of the semi final to sack his management team for the 2nd time this season. Thought maybe he could have asked Rix to get some mints from the garage in Harthill on the way to the semi and then drove the team bus away whilst he was in there, Graham would have got the message.
I was never in favour of Rix in the first place, I did however warm to him for a few weeks during the winter but in the end he was on a hiding to nothing really. I don't think he will have any regrets at all, he gave it a shot in very difficult circumstances, he did come up a bit short tho.
What annoyed me most was Rix's acceptance of mediocrity, he seemed to take an away draw at Fir Park as OK because the team played alright and Motherwell at home are no mugs and well almost any reason he could think off to make things seem OK. It's not OK and I don't care about giving other teams respect I just want us to beat them.
Official reasons given for his dismissal -
Too many draws, yes exactly far too many draws
Some of the signings in January were not of Hearts standing, for this I can only think of Lee Johnson and that bloke Hackett, since the rest of the signings were Vlad's. I have to say bringing people up from the lower reaches of English football was allways going to be a gamble. Never seen Hackett, Lee johnson looked like a half decent squad player a bit small and light maybe but he could kick a ball. Christ knows what those two must think of things now - I guess they will be heading back down south again in a few weeks anyroads.
Duffy had to go ofcourse, he was part of the Rix team, as I said before he is just a failed Scottish manager so what the hell we were doing trying to present him as some kind director of football, I will never know.
Once again the big names from european football are being bandied about for the Hearts job, good grief. I have a couple of weeks holiday coming up, do you think if I put in my application I can be manager for a bit.
So caretaker manager is Ivanauskis, he is the guy who managed Kaunas to a title a couple of years ago and Vlad sacked him a few games into the next season ( because a one too many draws ) mmmmmm. At the moment I don't think it matters a damn who runs the team or picks the players or whatever, we will limp to the end of the season now and take whatever we can muster for ourselves.
Falkirk 1 Hearts 2
Nasty nasty game, this is the one where Rudi got all his bad press for diving etc.
Most pundits thought the truama of the sacking mid week would knock the good ship Jambo ofcourse enough for Falkirk to de-rail them.
Naw we fought for all three points and deserved it in the end. The run in to the end of the season will be hard going for Hearts - we need to go away to Celtic, Rangers and Hibs, so we will need every one of these ugly wins we can get. Not sure what the Rangers run in is yet.
Rangers play Dundee Utd at Tannadice in the afternoon after the Hearts-Hibs semi-final, so they have a choice to bring it back to just 3 points behind us, we will have a game in hand but that game is at Parkhead when Celtic can win the league if they get all 3 points.
Hibs v Hearts Scottish cup Semi-Final
Really, really wanted a Hearts v Hibs final but it was not to be. Make no mistake tho and no disrespect to Gretna ( who beat Dundee 3 - 0 earlier today ) this is the final.
I had been weirdly comfortable all week, perfectly relaxed about this game, for a number of reasons I just couldn't see where the goals would come from for Hibs, so I felt totally confident in a glorious Hearts victory in what could prove to be the biggest Edinburgh derby in decades.
Until !!
I woke up at 4am on Thursday morning in a cold sweat, I had just witnessed in my dream the odd goal in 5 being slotted into the Hearts net with 2 minutes to go. I can still see the goal now, it's horrible.
Ofcourse this is nonsense, just a dream blah blah.
Don't care !
The effect this has had on me is to turn my guts upside down and inside out - I am a nervous wreck. At the time of writing this there are 17hours and 15 minutes to kick off - I will have to drink a lot to settle down tonight.
Managed to get 5 tickets so it will be a bit of a family day out to Hampden tomorrow on the bus from Tynecastle.
HOOOOO ON THE JAMBO's
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