For some reason. i thought we were away to Inverness on Saturday, wasn't until 1 ish that afternoon that i was 100% convinced that we were at home.
Anyroads after Wednesday, disastrous or not i was pretty upbeat about the game.
Was it just good to get the Champions League millstone off from around our necks i wonder? We waited so long for our shot and the elastic broke almost immediately, so i can see the team and the support taking a bit of a dip into a depression in a few weeks. The only cure for that will be to beat Sparta Prague and carry on with a good run in the EUFA cup.
I was upbeat because for 1/2 an hour anyroads last Wednesday, we played with spirit and a bit of spark, it just felt like we were in the business of playing football again. Previously against Athens, Falkirk and Rangers we were stunted, a shadow of what we can be. Every team goes through these times, we chose a really bad time to go through it. I thought we are over it after the first half performance in Athens. So i was upbeat, looking forward to it, in the knowledge though that Inverness always give us a good game, it was close in all encounters last year.
I expected, that maybe a player or two might get rested, i did not expect the line up we got -
Out were
Fyassas, rested, probably fair enough, he took a knock on Wednesday. Replaced by Wallace.
Berra, no idea about that one, rotation? Replaced by Kiripidis
Neilson, suspended after the sending off aginst Rangers, replaced by Tiago Costa
Aguair & Brellier, dropped i think, replaced by Zaliukas
Pospisil & or Jankauskas, could be rested or dropped or rotation, replaced by new guy Panilla and Mole kept his place.
So lots of changes in the side left us curious, concerned maybe before the game, but i wasn't unduly worried, more i was happy to see some of the new faces to see what they could do, especially Panilla.
Still had McCann and Mikoliunas on either side of midfield with Hartley and Zaliukas in the middle.
The game started well enough for both teams, open and competative, Hearts were playing pretty good without setting any heather on fire and Inverness were playing their part also getting stuck in and attacking whenever they had the chance to.
Noticed that McCann was playing too far in from the left leaving us limited in width, which held us back a bit, in the first 20 minutes - and it is worth noting what happened the first time he pealed off to the wing!
Hartley is not 100% but even with that it was clear he was on the park, with some great balls knocked down the channels for Miko to run on to and a free kick that came very close.
I was getting worried about the defence though, with Fyassas, Berra and Neilson all out at the same time, we did not have our normal solid shape and i could see Pressley was also nervous about it - keeping a close eye on Kiripidis. Maybe he should have been spending more time looking after Costa in those early exchanges, he did not start very well. I have mentioned a couple of times in earlier entries that i think this season will see Neilson lose his first team place. sad to see i think but it is looking innevitable - Robbie just doesn't have the quality of distribution we will need. Costa is a different proposition entirely, he did not look as fast or as good a tackler as Neilson but he does look as though he has more football in him. When Tall is fit he also looks though Ivanauskas fancies slotting him in their, so things are hotting up for the right back spot.
Kiripidis looked OK but you could not make a call between him and Berra though really.
The first goal came quite unexpectedly really, a neat ball out to McCann far out by the touchline and for once his ball into the box was, quick and not overstruck and well just perfect really, met on the half volley by Panilla who stuck it away in the bottom corner, an excellent finish. That is the first time this season that Hearts have scored from a quick low ball in from the left - we must have scored about 20 like that last year.
Almost immediately Hearts took their foot of the gas a bit which allowed Inverness some decent possession in midfield and they put some pressure on. The defence was not looking too good at this point, Wallace and Kiripidis didn't really know what the other up to and there were times that down our left channel we were a mess. Wallace also has a habit of getting much further up the park, much quicker than Fyassas can and to his credit McCann covered well down that side when it was needed. The frailties told though as Inverness put a couple of neat passes together to get behind us and cross to the back post where the striker was and the defender was not. Costa should have been there and he was nowhere near it.
I just don't think that that was a goal that Hearts would have lost with Berra and Neilson on the park.
This was a fair reflection of the game really - no more Tynecastle juggernaught this season as i am sure you will have worked out by now. Still we had more of the play and more of the quality that the game had to offer.
A free kick for what - i don't know, something with Miko on the right side of the Inverness box. Whipped in to the back post by Hartley for Jamie Mole to slam the header home, another cracking finish. I comment to myself, thats Hearts scored 2 goals and both were by the strikers. This was something rarely seen last season with the top scorers all being midfielders.
The crowd and me were happy with this as half time came along.
Half time and the scores were read out from around the country, the one that mattered
Celtic 0 Hibernian 1
No reaction whatsoever from the faithfull! i was delighted but you just can't can you, a whoop of delight when the smelly Hibees are winning, but the way i see it - anything that takes points of either of the big bad from the wild west is a good thing, doesn't matter who it is. And if things stayed the way they were at that point Hearts would go top on their own.
A word for the new half time competition, it is crap folks! nobody cares! I know that the hit the bar competition last year ended in a bizarre & weird anticlimax. But it had our attention all the way through the season. This new thing is just whack as many balls through a hole in the middle of a big advert for a cab company as you can in minute or two - just rubbish really.
So to the second half and hearts are still marginally the better team but never way ahead and with only the slenderest of leads and a dodgy back 4 i was never happy until the third went in. Before that Panilla crossed to the back post where McCann was about 8 yards out, he belted the volley straight of the bar, a cracking effort. Panilla, looks a bit of a player, he is mobile and energetic and has a good touch and looks as tho he will definitely add to the team, Pospisil's days are numbered i think!
Soon after this McCann was replaced by Andrew Driver. With his first touch he turned and skinned their right back and hit a great cross in, he then continued to skin their right back for the rest of the game, just a level on from what McCann can deliver. Pace and confidence and no shortage of ability. This was hammered home when Drver was faced with an identikit chance to that slammed against the bar by McCann ten minutes earlier. The ball was not cleared well enough and fell to driver who belted the volley high into the net from 6 yards out.
Fantastic.
We are 3 - 1 up and now enjoying ourselves and playing better football, one thing i noticed around this time was just how pleased Wallace was to have Driver in front of him. They look as though they really know how each other plays and could form a really effective partnership down that left flank.
The fourth and final goal was a bit of an odd ball but nonetheless well worth it. Makela had come on for Panilla, he collected the ball on the edge of the box but was surrounded by the Inverness defence, with nothing on at all he managed to scoop the ball over the defence and out to Mole on the far side of the box, Mole headed back into the penalty spot for Aguair to run on to and slot under the keeper.
So 4 - 1, flattered Hearts a bit really but i thought we always had just a wee bit more than Inverness. It was really good to see some of the new guys coming in and doing a job.
Panilla looked good as did Costa once he got over the first half hour. Driver made a huge impact for the time he was on and Mole continued to look hungry and well worth his shot ( what must Callum Elliott be thinking just now, sent off to Motherwell for the rest of the season? ) Kiripidis got pass marks i guess, not sure a Zaliukas on that showing though.
The crowd at Tynecastle remain muted, we are not willing to stick our necks out yet after last years expressions of - belief that we could take the title, we were on top of the world. We are still in our shell a bit just now. I figure tho, if we do have a good run in the EUFA cup and continue to stay in touch at the top, it won't be long until the heat is turned up a notch once again.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
Don't worry aboot it !
As wednesday wore on i said it more than once - "two nuthin, don't worry aboot it" in truth sometimes i added an " aye tae them"
Got to say tho i had no idea what to expect, all i knew was :-
We have been playing crap
We let ourselves down the last time
Hartley was back ( if a little early )
We had to play 4-5-1 to have any chance at all
So i was delighted to see the formation line up as a 4-5-1, bemused by Jamie Mole as the 1, but there you go another weirdness in the mad mad world of the Jambo land.
The fact that we had 5 in the middle and the five included Hartley was enough to make me think - "well at least we will compete against this mob"
I have spent a fraction of the last two weeks convincing myself that Athens are no great shakes really ( remember, Falkirk played us off the park as well ) - OK if you really get down to it you could argue a case that they are a league above but -
1 they aren't
2 i couldn't be arsed with that
So i opted for the self delusion that it was all about us and nothing to do with them, like i said we let ourselves down badly. Now that it is over and i have had a chance to sit back and think about it - Over the piece we failed the mental test, the failure on the football field was the consequence.
I sat down in front of the telly just as the teams were coming on to the pitch. My expectation level was about as flat as it gets, it was just like - my duty to watch it happen! but, as ever it was another 90 minutes and another shot at redemption. At this point glory? - that was a tiny flicker on the far horizon.
And the game started a wee bit like it did at Murrayfield a fortnight earlier - Athens are quick and skillfull and they have an idea how to get forward and they now how to find each other, and i think we were in danger of collapsing into the same cocoon we got ourselves into against them the last time. An early goal for Athens would have told greatly, but it didn't come.
Within ten minutes it was clear that Hearts formation and the addition of Brellier at the coal face meant we were a completely different proposition - and were giving as good as we got.
There was a defecnec splitting pass through Hearts back four, from 16 yards the Athens striker could/should have scored, a combination of poor finishing and good possitioning from Gordon made it look like an easy save. At the other end Jamie Mole played a great ball through to the onrushing Miko into the box, from 16 yards out he was foiled by some great defending.
Athens had some stinging shots, just like they did Murrayfield, but minus a deflection and allways just over, Gordon had it all covered. Athens also had a couple of corners that they muscled in on - Pretty sure in the Premier league Hearts defence would have dealt with them.
Then came the chance that may have changed it all - standard stuff for Hearts really but maybe not so familiar for Athens, a long throw from Neilson on the edge of the box, flicked on by Miko and Hartley is unmarked just 8 yards out, his header, strong as it was was too close to the keeper,who parried the ball to safety. hearts had one other chance in that first period of the game - Mole was played through, in on the keeper, he managed to slip the ball under the keeper but it just didn't have the pace to cross the line before the Athens defender got there to clear.
So it was toe to toe really and here is where it starts to hurt, about 5 minutes before the world collapsed, i had gotten over my ridiculous mindset of - not really expecting anything and started shouting at the telly ( a sure sign that i had changed my mind and realised that we could get something out of this game ) i shouted at the ridiculous challenge on Miko, he was elbowed from behind on an aerial challenge, this happens all the time but in this game it was a telling oversight by the referee not to book the Athens defender.
I was really enjoying this game.
Within a couple of minutes Brellier goes up for a challenge and is sandwitched between a couple of Athens players and takes a sore one to what now looked like a bulbous and purple nose.
From the coverage what happened was, Brellier ambled off for what might have been a bit of treatment to his conk but he seemed to come back on with a booking? - presumably
for being " in possession of an offensive nose".
A couple of minutes later the self same Cyrano De Bergerac makes a rash challenge, similar but LESS offensive than the challenge on Miko i mentioned a sentence or two ago, and gets himself a second booking and walks.
I am incredulous at this and texts start flying and the only thing my mind is settled on is "This referee has been bought".
I don't want to bleat, i hate the whole paranoia thing and i can't remember when i have ever really believed that a referee was guilty of corruption, sure i have known that they have made horrendous mistakes, but corruption, no! My immediate reaction to this decision was - "This game has been bought, they have bought this game the b£$"&ards". To complete my bleating that i am not going to do, i have also never heard a Scottish puntid come out with such a clearly stated expression of "this game has been bought" than Pat Nevin came out with on the BBC broadcast at half time. And lets face it folks, Pat Nevin is not, lets say Ian Wright, that is to say he can string a coherent sentence together.
So we are down to ten again but it is more than that, Brellier was the concrete that allowed Hearts to play against this team and without him the game was lost. From this point on we struggled to compete and were limited to the odd break where at best we would be 2 against 3. The chances of turning the tie round under these circumstances was next to nil and thats what happened , nil.
Hearts got beat 5 - 1 on aggregate and Athens never scored a goal against 11 men and i am not sure if they were ever going to score against a full compliment Hearts team, for all their supposed quality advantage and superior class.
Neil McCann, bear with me for a sec. I was quite pleased in a way with his sending off. He has suffered a lot since the start of the season, the crowd are on his back, he is not performing, he is under performing, he is - not the player he used to be. So Neil gets caught in possession maybe 3 or 4 times on Wednesday night - all in our half and all when we are down to ten men and all when he has 3 Athens players around him. Neil, for christ sake, just belt the ball up the park man. He continued however to try to take some pressure off by trying to find a pass that was not just a " belt up the park" - finally he gets caught again and snaps and lunges in both feet from 5 yards out, so a straight red card. But at least it is clear - he cares. Keep caring and all is not lost.
Hartley who had put in some sterling work was tiring also by the time he was subbed around the hour mark.
Hearts buckled in the end under the pressure of 9 against 11 and lost 3 goals and the champions league dream is over until we stake a claim once again on this league.
There is one thing tho that screams out from Wednesday night that was distinctly missing last weekend at Ibrox
Staking a claim on this league, you better believe it !
Got to say tho i had no idea what to expect, all i knew was :-
We have been playing crap
We let ourselves down the last time
Hartley was back ( if a little early )
We had to play 4-5-1 to have any chance at all
So i was delighted to see the formation line up as a 4-5-1, bemused by Jamie Mole as the 1, but there you go another weirdness in the mad mad world of the Jambo land.
The fact that we had 5 in the middle and the five included Hartley was enough to make me think - "well at least we will compete against this mob"
I have spent a fraction of the last two weeks convincing myself that Athens are no great shakes really ( remember, Falkirk played us off the park as well ) - OK if you really get down to it you could argue a case that they are a league above but -
1 they aren't
2 i couldn't be arsed with that
So i opted for the self delusion that it was all about us and nothing to do with them, like i said we let ourselves down badly. Now that it is over and i have had a chance to sit back and think about it - Over the piece we failed the mental test, the failure on the football field was the consequence.
I sat down in front of the telly just as the teams were coming on to the pitch. My expectation level was about as flat as it gets, it was just like - my duty to watch it happen! but, as ever it was another 90 minutes and another shot at redemption. At this point glory? - that was a tiny flicker on the far horizon.
And the game started a wee bit like it did at Murrayfield a fortnight earlier - Athens are quick and skillfull and they have an idea how to get forward and they now how to find each other, and i think we were in danger of collapsing into the same cocoon we got ourselves into against them the last time. An early goal for Athens would have told greatly, but it didn't come.
Within ten minutes it was clear that Hearts formation and the addition of Brellier at the coal face meant we were a completely different proposition - and were giving as good as we got.
There was a defecnec splitting pass through Hearts back four, from 16 yards the Athens striker could/should have scored, a combination of poor finishing and good possitioning from Gordon made it look like an easy save. At the other end Jamie Mole played a great ball through to the onrushing Miko into the box, from 16 yards out he was foiled by some great defending.
Athens had some stinging shots, just like they did Murrayfield, but minus a deflection and allways just over, Gordon had it all covered. Athens also had a couple of corners that they muscled in on - Pretty sure in the Premier league Hearts defence would have dealt with them.
Then came the chance that may have changed it all - standard stuff for Hearts really but maybe not so familiar for Athens, a long throw from Neilson on the edge of the box, flicked on by Miko and Hartley is unmarked just 8 yards out, his header, strong as it was was too close to the keeper,who parried the ball to safety. hearts had one other chance in that first period of the game - Mole was played through, in on the keeper, he managed to slip the ball under the keeper but it just didn't have the pace to cross the line before the Athens defender got there to clear.
So it was toe to toe really and here is where it starts to hurt, about 5 minutes before the world collapsed, i had gotten over my ridiculous mindset of - not really expecting anything and started shouting at the telly ( a sure sign that i had changed my mind and realised that we could get something out of this game ) i shouted at the ridiculous challenge on Miko, he was elbowed from behind on an aerial challenge, this happens all the time but in this game it was a telling oversight by the referee not to book the Athens defender.
I was really enjoying this game.
Within a couple of minutes Brellier goes up for a challenge and is sandwitched between a couple of Athens players and takes a sore one to what now looked like a bulbous and purple nose.
From the coverage what happened was, Brellier ambled off for what might have been a bit of treatment to his conk but he seemed to come back on with a booking? - presumably
for being " in possession of an offensive nose".
A couple of minutes later the self same Cyrano De Bergerac makes a rash challenge, similar but LESS offensive than the challenge on Miko i mentioned a sentence or two ago, and gets himself a second booking and walks.
I am incredulous at this and texts start flying and the only thing my mind is settled on is "This referee has been bought".
I don't want to bleat, i hate the whole paranoia thing and i can't remember when i have ever really believed that a referee was guilty of corruption, sure i have known that they have made horrendous mistakes, but corruption, no! My immediate reaction to this decision was - "This game has been bought, they have bought this game the b£$"&ards". To complete my bleating that i am not going to do, i have also never heard a Scottish puntid come out with such a clearly stated expression of "this game has been bought" than Pat Nevin came out with on the BBC broadcast at half time. And lets face it folks, Pat Nevin is not, lets say Ian Wright, that is to say he can string a coherent sentence together.
So we are down to ten again but it is more than that, Brellier was the concrete that allowed Hearts to play against this team and without him the game was lost. From this point on we struggled to compete and were limited to the odd break where at best we would be 2 against 3. The chances of turning the tie round under these circumstances was next to nil and thats what happened , nil.
Hearts got beat 5 - 1 on aggregate and Athens never scored a goal against 11 men and i am not sure if they were ever going to score against a full compliment Hearts team, for all their supposed quality advantage and superior class.
Neil McCann, bear with me for a sec. I was quite pleased in a way with his sending off. He has suffered a lot since the start of the season, the crowd are on his back, he is not performing, he is under performing, he is - not the player he used to be. So Neil gets caught in possession maybe 3 or 4 times on Wednesday night - all in our half and all when we are down to ten men and all when he has 3 Athens players around him. Neil, for christ sake, just belt the ball up the park man. He continued however to try to take some pressure off by trying to find a pass that was not just a " belt up the park" - finally he gets caught again and snaps and lunges in both feet from 5 yards out, so a straight red card. But at least it is clear - he cares. Keep caring and all is not lost.
Hartley who had put in some sterling work was tiring also by the time he was subbed around the hour mark.
Hearts buckled in the end under the pressure of 9 against 11 and lost 3 goals and the champions league dream is over until we stake a claim once again on this league.
There is one thing tho that screams out from Wednesday night that was distinctly missing last weekend at Ibrox
Staking a claim on this league, you better believe it !
Sunday, August 20, 2006
P = M x V
We have none.
In the real world
P = Momentum
M = Mass
V = Velocity
I suppose in football land the M can stand for movement and it seems to = zero so our momentum is a big fat zero too and thats about it. We don't have much velocity either but thats irrelevant when the movement is zero.
Tiny little entry this week as i was not at the game and didn't even listen to the commentary on the radio. I was, at the time, up the High Street for my annual wander through the festival chaos.
Got roped into a street performers act and held one end of his apparatus as he high wire juggled some knives and a rubber chicken. These guys allways say just as they are about to commence their final biggest/best/most dangerous trick - "This is my only living, this is all i do, i travel the world performing my acts and keeping alive the great tradition of street performing, so please give me some of your money" I wonder, maybe they have a 9 - 5 like the rest of us and just do this during their fortnight off instead of going to the beach in Greece.
Still, pound for pound when there is 5 of you there, a few pounds for a half hour show that can sometimes be entertaining is about as good value as you can get these days. So all power to the street entertainers.
So to Ibrox. This result ( 2 - 0 to the bad guys ) is simply the manifestation of Heart's basic mediocrity right now. I am really pretty frustrated with the whole lot and could crack on for ages about how rigid our 4-4-2 is ( we played 4-3-3 yesterday ? ). I am not going to tho.
Formations are one thing but underneath it all it is about players and we are coming up wanting with the ones that are trapesing out onto the pitch this year. This is the same set of players that stormed and thundered through most of last season so whats the difference, i don't know. I know one thing tho, it would be foolish to think that we are close to last seasons performances and all we need is a player or two back and it will all start to happen again - we are not close, we are miles away. This looks like a typical Hearts season - stumble along maybe into third place if we keep it together long enough but never flirting with a challenge for the title. Take our rightful place well back in third behind the two ugly giants from the wild west.
Rangers have started the season playing some ( new for them for a while ) pretty decent football without capitalising. They do look as tho with a bit of P = M x V behind them, they could rip loose and give some teams a real tanking. I am hoping that that tanking comes first against Celtic in the first old firm game. This for no other reason than i am just totally bored and fed up with Celtic, can't stand Strachan blah blah blah. Normally i don't care who wins that one. We did not take a tanking yesterday but if we don't improve we will take it the next time we travel to Glasgow.
So whats to be done -
We do need to get Hartley back fully fit and Chesnauskis back won't do any harm either but we need more than just those two.
We seem to be persevering with the same first team that are just not cutting it just now and they don't look as tho they have the hunger to change the situation. We seem to be continuing to bring players in and not play them. The standard excuse being "This player is not fully fit for the Scottish game" and then you never hear of him again. Are they just crap? Why bring them here? We need to start giving some of these guys a chance - at the very least it may put a rocket under some of the regulars who are under achieving just now.
You know, there is no point having 60 players in a first team squad if 49 of them aren't any good.
We need to get our desire back and we need to accept again that to win games we need to out think and outplay and outfight the oppossition. By all accounts Jankauskas wasn't interested yesterday - so play Makela or the new guy Mauricio Panilla or whatever his name is.
Still Athens on Wednesday and a real big ask, maybe we had half an eye on that game ( don't believe that really ). This is not impossible and could have a massive impact on our season.
Either way -
Hooooo on the Jambo's
In the real world
P = Momentum
M = Mass
V = Velocity
I suppose in football land the M can stand for movement and it seems to = zero so our momentum is a big fat zero too and thats about it. We don't have much velocity either but thats irrelevant when the movement is zero.
Tiny little entry this week as i was not at the game and didn't even listen to the commentary on the radio. I was, at the time, up the High Street for my annual wander through the festival chaos.
Got roped into a street performers act and held one end of his apparatus as he high wire juggled some knives and a rubber chicken. These guys allways say just as they are about to commence their final biggest/best/most dangerous trick - "This is my only living, this is all i do, i travel the world performing my acts and keeping alive the great tradition of street performing, so please give me some of your money" I wonder, maybe they have a 9 - 5 like the rest of us and just do this during their fortnight off instead of going to the beach in Greece.
Still, pound for pound when there is 5 of you there, a few pounds for a half hour show that can sometimes be entertaining is about as good value as you can get these days. So all power to the street entertainers.
So to Ibrox. This result ( 2 - 0 to the bad guys ) is simply the manifestation of Heart's basic mediocrity right now. I am really pretty frustrated with the whole lot and could crack on for ages about how rigid our 4-4-2 is ( we played 4-3-3 yesterday ? ). I am not going to tho.
Formations are one thing but underneath it all it is about players and we are coming up wanting with the ones that are trapesing out onto the pitch this year. This is the same set of players that stormed and thundered through most of last season so whats the difference, i don't know. I know one thing tho, it would be foolish to think that we are close to last seasons performances and all we need is a player or two back and it will all start to happen again - we are not close, we are miles away. This looks like a typical Hearts season - stumble along maybe into third place if we keep it together long enough but never flirting with a challenge for the title. Take our rightful place well back in third behind the two ugly giants from the wild west.
Rangers have started the season playing some ( new for them for a while ) pretty decent football without capitalising. They do look as tho with a bit of P = M x V behind them, they could rip loose and give some teams a real tanking. I am hoping that that tanking comes first against Celtic in the first old firm game. This for no other reason than i am just totally bored and fed up with Celtic, can't stand Strachan blah blah blah. Normally i don't care who wins that one. We did not take a tanking yesterday but if we don't improve we will take it the next time we travel to Glasgow.
So whats to be done -
We do need to get Hartley back fully fit and Chesnauskis back won't do any harm either but we need more than just those two.
We seem to be persevering with the same first team that are just not cutting it just now and they don't look as tho they have the hunger to change the situation. We seem to be continuing to bring players in and not play them. The standard excuse being "This player is not fully fit for the Scottish game" and then you never hear of him again. Are they just crap? Why bring them here? We need to start giving some of these guys a chance - at the very least it may put a rocket under some of the regulars who are under achieving just now.
You know, there is no point having 60 players in a first team squad if 49 of them aren't any good.
We need to get our desire back and we need to accept again that to win games we need to out think and outplay and outfight the oppossition. By all accounts Jankauskas wasn't interested yesterday - so play Makela or the new guy Mauricio Panilla or whatever his name is.
Still Athens on Wednesday and a real big ask, maybe we had half an eye on that game ( don't believe that really ). This is not impossible and could have a massive impact on our season.
Either way -
Hooooo on the Jambo's
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Irn Bru and an AlkaSeltzer please
Hangover cures were posted missing at Tynecastle today, that was the verdict.
Hearts suffered that infamous post champions league hangover at Tynecastle today?
How much of that do i believe, i believe it about 20%.
I left Tynecastle with a feeling today that i have not felt for a good while now and never once during last season - association with mediocrity.
Hearts were myriad things last season but mediocre, never once were we mediocre.
I finally got my season ticket sorted out with my fifth visit to Tynecastle ticket office, i waited 45 minutes in the queue this time on Friday lunchtime. The guy who runs the Hearts shop, i hope they are paying him triple just now because he is doubling as crowd control for all us ? - just how do the board of Heart of Midlothian Football club view us ? If you go by how they treat us, you would not come up with many complimentary tags for us punters
The guy that runs the shop and controls us punters in the queue is walking along the line maybe six of us at a time and he is letting us know that for sure we will definitely get our season ticket book today and categorically "all season ticket books were posted out by close of play last night ( Thursday )" as he is saying this to the crowd there are punters coming out of the ticket office with their season ticket book inside the stamped addressed envelope that was categorically posted by close of play last night. They just plain lied to us, as well as made a complete arse of distributing our tickets on time and caused loads of us to give up our valuable time to spend it standing in lines for hours on end - they just plain lied to us and they continued to lie until we finally all went home. They are a disgrace !!
The final insult on top of the injury was a phone call from the ticket office at Tynecastle to my house on Friday afternoon ( 2 hours after i had picked up the ticket book ) "Your season ticket book is now ready for collection at the ticket office, we are open until 6 this evening"
Rant over !
I was upbeat about the game today, like i said in the last post i thought we had let ourselves down and the gulf was not so big blah blah. I expected us to redeem ourselves with a good solid performance against a typically mid table Scottish Premier League outfit. As it proved today the gulf is not so big - evident in that Falkirk could do to us what Athens done to us a few days earlier. That is to completely overwhelm our midfield for large sections of the game, yes Falkirk too were a man over everytime they got into our third - i still don't know how that works?
Falkirk fans initially took great delight in singing "Champions League, your having a laugh", Hearts support responded with "SPL your having a laugh" this flew back and forward in an otherwise atmosphereless afternoon - but there was an unexpected air about this, it was almost like the Falkirk support ( who started that chant a few months back ) really thought - we told you so six months ago and now they just felt a bit guilty about sticking it to us again in our obvious state of dissappointment after Wednesday.
To our retort there was nothing behind it for a number of reasons - one of them being that - it is a bit rich slagging a team off for not being good enough for this league when they are playing you off the park at the time.
Hearts support were emotionally drained today? I certainly was, i was only prepared for a standard 2 or 3 nil, but i forgot that this is not last season.
The first half was a shocker from a Hearts perspective, the game tho was actually quite good to watch i think if you were a neutral. Mostly this is down an accomplished display by Falkirk summed up by Russell Latapy, my half time question was "how is it that a 75 year old can look like the fittest guy on the park" ok he is 37 or something but come on he plays centre midfield. I am getting my head round things and am starting to see the problems it is just that the answers aren't very good - it is starting to look like the answers are - Paul Hartley and Rudi Skacel, only one is a possible answer and that could be a few weeks yet. So for all the massive squad we have, take a player or two out of it and we slip into abject mediocrity. I guess the other point of note there would be that - for all Hearts claims to some kind of superiority, the only guy on the park today that was in any squad at this summer's world cup was Mr Latapy.
There were chances for both teams in the first half but nothing really stands out for me, Falkirk had a fantastic opportunity with their striker unmarked in the box with the ball at his feet, he snatched at it and Gordon took it easy. There was an incident with one of the Falkirk defenders and Roman Bednar, just off the ball i noticed a bit of a square up, and 2 seconds later a flailing arm and Bednar is on the floor. For all the world with my view that is a sending off. It ended up a booking and loads of Falkirk fans on various phone ins claiming that Bednar set this up in an attempt to get their man sent off. It is never straight forward but i wouldn't put it past Bednar. When Hearts did manage to get forward we just lacked quality, thats the difference, this time last year we were razor sharp with devastating quality in the final ball, that is just not there just now and that has nothing to do with a big game we happened to be part of mid week.
Half time and i was still comfortable, i fully expected the second half to be better from our perspective, i expected my already anticipated substitutes, Jankauskas on for the innefectual Pospisil and this time at least, Beslija on for McCann ( for god sake put this hasbeen out of his/our misery and out to pasture). Cesnauskis is still unwell so Beslija was the obvious choice and i was happy with it thinking why not just get him out there and see what we haven't yet paid for.
Jankauskas came on and i was happy but Beslija came on for Brellier - i just haven't the foggiest idea what that is about. We are already totally overrun in midfield, they are playing 5 against our 4 and we take off the only midfielder we have who can tackle ? Was this some kind of attack minded chase the win attitude ( McCann was moved into the centre ).
Bemused !
As the game wore on it became more evident that Falkirk were delighted with a draw, if they had gone for the win it was there for the taking. Hearts just got desperate and lost any shape we did have going forward, Beslija when he did get the ball failed to take anyone on and always opted for the early cross - lacking confidence i guess but at least his crosses were making it into the box.
The last 10 minutes were pretty frantic with a fair amount of pressure from Hearts it was just never going to be our day tho, summed up by good fighting by Bednar to get to a loose ball on the edge of the box, under pressure and a very difficult chance he managed to get his foot round it to clip the ball over the outrushing keeper only to see it also sail a foot or so over the bar.
In retort to Bednar's play acting attempts to get players sent off, the Falkirk keeper was out of order in many ways in that second half, much time wasting and play acting.
Last thought on this one is, if things don't improve and quickly then Ivanauskas is going to find his coat on a very shoogly peg, you just know it.
Hearts suffered that infamous post champions league hangover at Tynecastle today?
How much of that do i believe, i believe it about 20%.
I left Tynecastle with a feeling today that i have not felt for a good while now and never once during last season - association with mediocrity.
Hearts were myriad things last season but mediocre, never once were we mediocre.
I finally got my season ticket sorted out with my fifth visit to Tynecastle ticket office, i waited 45 minutes in the queue this time on Friday lunchtime. The guy who runs the Hearts shop, i hope they are paying him triple just now because he is doubling as crowd control for all us ? - just how do the board of Heart of Midlothian Football club view us ? If you go by how they treat us, you would not come up with many complimentary tags for us punters
The guy that runs the shop and controls us punters in the queue is walking along the line maybe six of us at a time and he is letting us know that for sure we will definitely get our season ticket book today and categorically "all season ticket books were posted out by close of play last night ( Thursday )" as he is saying this to the crowd there are punters coming out of the ticket office with their season ticket book inside the stamped addressed envelope that was categorically posted by close of play last night. They just plain lied to us, as well as made a complete arse of distributing our tickets on time and caused loads of us to give up our valuable time to spend it standing in lines for hours on end - they just plain lied to us and they continued to lie until we finally all went home. They are a disgrace !!
The final insult on top of the injury was a phone call from the ticket office at Tynecastle to my house on Friday afternoon ( 2 hours after i had picked up the ticket book ) "Your season ticket book is now ready for collection at the ticket office, we are open until 6 this evening"
Rant over !
I was upbeat about the game today, like i said in the last post i thought we had let ourselves down and the gulf was not so big blah blah. I expected us to redeem ourselves with a good solid performance against a typically mid table Scottish Premier League outfit. As it proved today the gulf is not so big - evident in that Falkirk could do to us what Athens done to us a few days earlier. That is to completely overwhelm our midfield for large sections of the game, yes Falkirk too were a man over everytime they got into our third - i still don't know how that works?
Falkirk fans initially took great delight in singing "Champions League, your having a laugh", Hearts support responded with "SPL your having a laugh" this flew back and forward in an otherwise atmosphereless afternoon - but there was an unexpected air about this, it was almost like the Falkirk support ( who started that chant a few months back ) really thought - we told you so six months ago and now they just felt a bit guilty about sticking it to us again in our obvious state of dissappointment after Wednesday.
To our retort there was nothing behind it for a number of reasons - one of them being that - it is a bit rich slagging a team off for not being good enough for this league when they are playing you off the park at the time.
Hearts support were emotionally drained today? I certainly was, i was only prepared for a standard 2 or 3 nil, but i forgot that this is not last season.
The first half was a shocker from a Hearts perspective, the game tho was actually quite good to watch i think if you were a neutral. Mostly this is down an accomplished display by Falkirk summed up by Russell Latapy, my half time question was "how is it that a 75 year old can look like the fittest guy on the park" ok he is 37 or something but come on he plays centre midfield. I am getting my head round things and am starting to see the problems it is just that the answers aren't very good - it is starting to look like the answers are - Paul Hartley and Rudi Skacel, only one is a possible answer and that could be a few weeks yet. So for all the massive squad we have, take a player or two out of it and we slip into abject mediocrity. I guess the other point of note there would be that - for all Hearts claims to some kind of superiority, the only guy on the park today that was in any squad at this summer's world cup was Mr Latapy.
There were chances for both teams in the first half but nothing really stands out for me, Falkirk had a fantastic opportunity with their striker unmarked in the box with the ball at his feet, he snatched at it and Gordon took it easy. There was an incident with one of the Falkirk defenders and Roman Bednar, just off the ball i noticed a bit of a square up, and 2 seconds later a flailing arm and Bednar is on the floor. For all the world with my view that is a sending off. It ended up a booking and loads of Falkirk fans on various phone ins claiming that Bednar set this up in an attempt to get their man sent off. It is never straight forward but i wouldn't put it past Bednar. When Hearts did manage to get forward we just lacked quality, thats the difference, this time last year we were razor sharp with devastating quality in the final ball, that is just not there just now and that has nothing to do with a big game we happened to be part of mid week.
Half time and i was still comfortable, i fully expected the second half to be better from our perspective, i expected my already anticipated substitutes, Jankauskas on for the innefectual Pospisil and this time at least, Beslija on for McCann ( for god sake put this hasbeen out of his/our misery and out to pasture). Cesnauskis is still unwell so Beslija was the obvious choice and i was happy with it thinking why not just get him out there and see what we haven't yet paid for.
Jankauskas came on and i was happy but Beslija came on for Brellier - i just haven't the foggiest idea what that is about. We are already totally overrun in midfield, they are playing 5 against our 4 and we take off the only midfielder we have who can tackle ? Was this some kind of attack minded chase the win attitude ( McCann was moved into the centre ).
Bemused !
As the game wore on it became more evident that Falkirk were delighted with a draw, if they had gone for the win it was there for the taking. Hearts just got desperate and lost any shape we did have going forward, Beslija when he did get the ball failed to take anyone on and always opted for the early cross - lacking confidence i guess but at least his crosses were making it into the box.
The last 10 minutes were pretty frantic with a fair amount of pressure from Hearts it was just never going to be our day tho, summed up by good fighting by Bednar to get to a loose ball on the edge of the box, under pressure and a very difficult chance he managed to get his foot round it to clip the ball over the outrushing keeper only to see it also sail a foot or so over the bar.
In retort to Bednar's play acting attempts to get players sent off, the Falkirk keeper was out of order in many ways in that second half, much time wasting and play acting.
Last thought on this one is, if things don't improve and quickly then Ivanauskas is going to find his coat on a very shoogly peg, you just know it.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Burst
Well I for one had no idea what to expect, just couldn't make a call on how i thought the game would go. Mostly down to the fact that i had not the slightest clue about AEK Athens - i guess they have been round the block a time or two in Europe, certainly more than Hearts over the last decade or so. So i could be forgiven for thinking that Hearts would not be able to live with Athens. Then again aren't we supposed to be a bit more than just Hearts these days, aren't we supposed to be some kind of Uber Hearts, a stronger, faster, classier version of the normal us.
I still have no clue!
So, i knew this was a huge game and i knew i was nervous but i couldn't attach anything to it - i had nothing to worry about, just thought we would get on with it and eventually prevail somehow or other?
Miraculously the tickets for the Athens game arrived on Tuesday ( bought on line on Sunday night), can somebody please tell me why one of my f'n season tickets has not arrived yet. I bought 3 at the same time back at the start of June - received 2 concessions one in my name. This i got sorted out down at the ticket office last Wednesday. I have been down 4 times and still haven't got the other one and it looks like i will be queing again on Friday for a ticket for the Falkirk game on saturday. The point is, there is not another business anywhere that would consider this level of abject crapness to be anything other than totally unacceptable! For crying out loud Hearts get this sorted out, if you cast your mind back - it was exactly the same last year.
So to the game - i had bought the cheapest of the cheap £12 & £6 tickets for the Siroki game and have to say that down on the touchline at the corner flag at Murrayfield is no place to watch a football game. So i forked out for the £25 & £15 tickets this time round so the seats were much better. This gave a perfect view of just how slaughtered we were in the first 10 minutes. This was not looking good - AEK started the game like this :-
They were bigger, stronger, faster, better organised, technically superior, with greater poise and skill and vision than us and better in just about every other aspect of what makes one team better than another. Apart from maybe we were better at spanking the ball up the middle to no effect whatsoever.
My thoughts are that this affected Hearts pretty badly for the rest of the first half. We were terrible with everyone as bad as each other. Fingers could be pointed at Neil McCann and for sure he was bloody awful but i think there should be a collective blame here - we lost belief in ourselves. Just about every midfield pass we attempted for about a 30 minute period in the first half was short by a yard or two and everytime it let Athens in. We were completely overrun in midfield ( Ivanauskas should stand up and take the blame for a mental midfield line up ). My frustration levels were climbing by the minute and took a leap everytime the wee number 99 for Athens got on the ball. The worst thing of all tho was that everytime they were on the attack they had a man over - how the hell does that work. Twice in the first half i caught Berra grabbing Aguair, trying to explain to him just how much trouble he was in with allways having 2 to deal with - it was obvious that Aguair had no idea how to help him out - the best he could do was shrug his shoulders like "Your in trouble, try being in the centre circle"
But
For all that, they never really got behind us, and they never really tried to. Athens seemed content to rap shot after shot at Gordons goal from 25 yards out, weird really for all their superiority.
That superiority was gradually ground down by a by poor but dogged Hearts team. I mentioned in the report on the Siroki game that it was amazing hoe easily Hearts were brought down to their level - i wonder if the Athens punters are saying the same thing about their game against us. I found myself thinking, if only we can hang on til half time without losing a goal.
Half time
Hearts 0 - AEK Athens 0
Second half and Hearts were better in that we somehow seemed able to play the game in the Athens half - not that we were doing much but at least we looked like we could compete. Thought the game was going nowhere when Jankauskas came on. This pleased me, my thinking being that at least when he gets the ball he can generally hold of a challenge or two before collapsing ( the game up to this point was littered by Hearts players receiving the ball then collapsing at the first sniff of a challenge ) Jankauskas was at least better than most in this respect but he was still being muscled of the ball far too easily. Still a few minutes later and he is free on the edge of the box with Bednar inside - a neat square ball and we are in behind them!! Bednar does well, there are two on him he gets his shot that looked a goal all the way until it comes off the post, bounces out to Miko tho who slots home.
Hearts 1 - AEK Athens 0
I can't believe it but we have managed to turn this game around and now we are looking much better and i am thinking, hey get another one and i will start to like this.
Bruno Aguair gets sent of for being a fanny ( kicking the ball away in a hissy fit ) and we are right back in our shell. I guess there had to be changes with the only midfielder we had now sent off and there was a flurry of activity on the bench - so i think we done pretty well not to fall apart right there and then.
The last 15 minutes was the typical down to ten men back to the wall, protect the slender lead kind of thing and we almost made it.
With a couple of minutes to go, they changed things by flinging in a cross from the left which was met unchallenged and a beautiful looping header over Gordon into the back of the net from 12 yards out.
Hearts 1 - AEK Athens 1
We all know what an away goal in europe is worth and i am gutted.
4 minutes of added time is not what i wanted to hear but thats what it was, Athens continued to attack with everything they had and with just a minute or so to go they have an opening 25 yards out and wind up for what must be their 30th shot at goal from distance..........
I think it is written in your contract if you are a Scottish team playing in Europe -
at some point during your european campaign you will suffer a last minute deflected goal that shall kill your dreams
we lived up to our contractual obligations and Berra stuck his foot out to stop the shot, which spun off his foot out of the path of Gordon and into the gaping net
Disaster
If i was to sum this up, we let ourselves down last night. We looked to be outclassed but i don't think the gulf is as much as it looked. We may well go to Athens and play a lot better but the gods will need to be very much on board if we are to turn this one around.
I still have no clue!
So, i knew this was a huge game and i knew i was nervous but i couldn't attach anything to it - i had nothing to worry about, just thought we would get on with it and eventually prevail somehow or other?
Miraculously the tickets for the Athens game arrived on Tuesday ( bought on line on Sunday night), can somebody please tell me why one of my f'n season tickets has not arrived yet. I bought 3 at the same time back at the start of June - received 2 concessions one in my name. This i got sorted out down at the ticket office last Wednesday. I have been down 4 times and still haven't got the other one and it looks like i will be queing again on Friday for a ticket for the Falkirk game on saturday. The point is, there is not another business anywhere that would consider this level of abject crapness to be anything other than totally unacceptable! For crying out loud Hearts get this sorted out, if you cast your mind back - it was exactly the same last year.
So to the game - i had bought the cheapest of the cheap £12 & £6 tickets for the Siroki game and have to say that down on the touchline at the corner flag at Murrayfield is no place to watch a football game. So i forked out for the £25 & £15 tickets this time round so the seats were much better. This gave a perfect view of just how slaughtered we were in the first 10 minutes. This was not looking good - AEK started the game like this :-
They were bigger, stronger, faster, better organised, technically superior, with greater poise and skill and vision than us and better in just about every other aspect of what makes one team better than another. Apart from maybe we were better at spanking the ball up the middle to no effect whatsoever.
My thoughts are that this affected Hearts pretty badly for the rest of the first half. We were terrible with everyone as bad as each other. Fingers could be pointed at Neil McCann and for sure he was bloody awful but i think there should be a collective blame here - we lost belief in ourselves. Just about every midfield pass we attempted for about a 30 minute period in the first half was short by a yard or two and everytime it let Athens in. We were completely overrun in midfield ( Ivanauskas should stand up and take the blame for a mental midfield line up ). My frustration levels were climbing by the minute and took a leap everytime the wee number 99 for Athens got on the ball. The worst thing of all tho was that everytime they were on the attack they had a man over - how the hell does that work. Twice in the first half i caught Berra grabbing Aguair, trying to explain to him just how much trouble he was in with allways having 2 to deal with - it was obvious that Aguair had no idea how to help him out - the best he could do was shrug his shoulders like "Your in trouble, try being in the centre circle"
But
For all that, they never really got behind us, and they never really tried to. Athens seemed content to rap shot after shot at Gordons goal from 25 yards out, weird really for all their superiority.
That superiority was gradually ground down by a by poor but dogged Hearts team. I mentioned in the report on the Siroki game that it was amazing hoe easily Hearts were brought down to their level - i wonder if the Athens punters are saying the same thing about their game against us. I found myself thinking, if only we can hang on til half time without losing a goal.
Half time
Hearts 0 - AEK Athens 0
Second half and Hearts were better in that we somehow seemed able to play the game in the Athens half - not that we were doing much but at least we looked like we could compete. Thought the game was going nowhere when Jankauskas came on. This pleased me, my thinking being that at least when he gets the ball he can generally hold of a challenge or two before collapsing ( the game up to this point was littered by Hearts players receiving the ball then collapsing at the first sniff of a challenge ) Jankauskas was at least better than most in this respect but he was still being muscled of the ball far too easily. Still a few minutes later and he is free on the edge of the box with Bednar inside - a neat square ball and we are in behind them!! Bednar does well, there are two on him he gets his shot that looked a goal all the way until it comes off the post, bounces out to Miko tho who slots home.
Hearts 1 - AEK Athens 0
I can't believe it but we have managed to turn this game around and now we are looking much better and i am thinking, hey get another one and i will start to like this.
Bruno Aguair gets sent of for being a fanny ( kicking the ball away in a hissy fit ) and we are right back in our shell. I guess there had to be changes with the only midfielder we had now sent off and there was a flurry of activity on the bench - so i think we done pretty well not to fall apart right there and then.
The last 15 minutes was the typical down to ten men back to the wall, protect the slender lead kind of thing and we almost made it.
With a couple of minutes to go, they changed things by flinging in a cross from the left which was met unchallenged and a beautiful looping header over Gordon into the back of the net from 12 yards out.
Hearts 1 - AEK Athens 1
We all know what an away goal in europe is worth and i am gutted.
4 minutes of added time is not what i wanted to hear but thats what it was, Athens continued to attack with everything they had and with just a minute or so to go they have an opening 25 yards out and wind up for what must be their 30th shot at goal from distance..........
I think it is written in your contract if you are a Scottish team playing in Europe -
at some point during your european campaign you will suffer a last minute deflected goal that shall kill your dreams
we lived up to our contractual obligations and Berra stuck his foot out to stop the shot, which spun off his foot out of the path of Gordon and into the gaping net
Disaster
If i was to sum this up, we let ourselves down last night. We looked to be outclassed but i don't think the gulf is as much as it looked. We may well go to Athens and play a lot better but the gods will need to be very much on board if we are to turn this one around.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Off on one
Totally off subject but it seems to be the way of things.
I got a shiny new bike today -
It looks just like this
The old one gave up the ghost with a bust bottom bracket and chain this morning.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Awakenings
Oh yes, that was a cracker
Heart of Midlothian 2
Celtic 1
I mentioned in the last entry, by way of an apology for my lack of enthusiasm. I said, just give me a couple of days. Bring on the nasty nasty Celtic, and my appetite will be renewed and that is exactly how it is. This season is awake, it is oot it's kip, brushing it's teeth and skelping back the coffee - i love it.
A shocking game in Bosnia where Hearts prevailed through a 0 - 0 draw, going through to the last qualifying round of Champions league. we did what we had to do i guess and no more but really it was dire dire stuff and i was left feeling very nervous about todays game against last seasons run away champions. I thought, if we could only have kept a hold of the ball for 5 minutes on Wednesday - make me think we knew how to play football in a european context let alone style. But no we were awful and they were worse. We continued to spank the ball down the channels for Bednar or Chessy or Pospisil to run onto, but nobody could be arsed and we just kept giving a crap team the ball, and the kept doing nothing with it. The less said about it the better. Apart from the goal we didn't get - the ball was played into the box from the right, the keeper stepped out a yard to collect, it was his ball all the way, but just at the last minute it swerved slightly toward the goals - reacting to this in the only way he knew how the keeper palmed the ball into his own net from 2 yards out. The ref obviously thinking "bloody hell ! no one in there right mind would do something like that, must have been a foul - No goal"
So to today and Celtic. Everything you would expect from opening drama at Tynecastle against one of the gruesome twosome. Riotous noise and 100 mile an hour with football at a premium.
The first half went by in a whirlwind, it was tight and tense and i was reminded of how much i have grown to despise Celtic over the last few years. Not that i have ever had much time for them but the ONeill era is still pretty much evident in their play - honestly Celtic used to play football you know. Not that Hearts were much better, it was the 40th minute when Craig Gordon made his first save, don't think Boric reached for the ball in the entirety of the first period. Half time came with the only real drama being that wee ugly ginger git being sent off - Thats Strachan not Lennon ( more for Lennon later, he had been dropped from this game but came on to great effect after an hour )
So at half time there was nothing in it with defences well on top.
For Hearts what is obvious is that we don't have the ability right now to do that blitzkreig 3 goals in 10 minutes to sweep a game away from any opposition, thing. We still look solid enough at Tynecastle anyroads but i think we will need to work much harder for our points this year - we will still be needing another goal with 15 minutes left of a game, much more this year than we had last - well thats what it looks like right now.
With Hartley out injured and Skacel gone to Southampton we seemed to lack the vital spark.
I was happy tho, happy that the game had an edge and happy that we were in the hunt at least and happy, just happy that the football was back.
Right then the second half got under way and things were fundemantally different, it is true that Celtic are no great shakes, the best they could do close season was buy the best Hibs had. But there was a change in Hearts, we moved up a gear and went for it with a purpose and drive that Celtic couldn't manage - a few efforts and hearts were getting closer until one nice wee flick through and Bednar beats the offside trap and is straight through - he still had lots to do tho, the angle was tight but he slotted it home under Boric ( think Boric should have done better )
Great finish
HMFC 1 CFC 0
Tynecastle goes nuts, we really do love to beat Celtic.
More pressure and bednar beats the offside trap again strokes the ball home only to be pulled back for offside ( absolutely no way, i was in a terrible position to judge being right behind the goals and no way was he offside ).
More pressure and Hearts have a corner, not dealt with well by the packed celtic defense the ball falls to Pressley on the edge of the box, he is winding up to have a crack when the ball gets nicked away from him - the break is on and about 1/4 of a second later the ball is in the back of the Hearts net. About as good an example of lightning quick breakaway goal as you could wish to see, 3 or 4 passes along the deck finished of by Petrov planting the ball in the roof of the net, got to hand it to them, that was a bloody good goal.
HMFC 1 CFC 1
Hearts lost their way a bit here and let Celtic into things but for me i thought they almost immediately thought about the draw and thought 'yes, a draw will do us today'.
For all that is said about Valdas Ivanauskas, he is not known for pitch side dramatics, well he was doing his nut - i thought he would blow a gasket if he didn't calm down - but Hearts didn't look as tho we knew how to break through and i thought a draw was on the cards too. Just as well then that Lennon had been brought on. If anything epitomises the basic crapness of Celtic it is him, we all love to hate "Lennon, Lennon get tae f&*k" So it is with great pleasure that i can say - It was Lennon's dreadful back pass that let Bednar in to round the keeper bear down on goal and slot the ball home.
HMFC 2 CFC 1
My youngest was there with me today and something happened this day.
He has played football for his primary school team for a year or so now so he is fully aware that football is more important than life, love and well everything really. He has never really got it tho, never really had it in his blood and felt the elation or the despair. He went to the semi final last year but chose not to go to the final ? He is young so you forgive the fact that he gets bored and his mind wanders. Here is what happened today tho. When Hearts scored their first goal, we all went nuts ofcourse, all except our young hero who remained seated and concentrated on his pie, and just kind of looked at me like i was crazy when i tried to pick him up for a triumphant cuddle. Time past and stuff happened and when Hearts scored the winner - he was the first up punching the air screaming his delight and attempting to lift me for a victory cuddle. There was an awakening today, i think he got it. Once you have got it i don't think it goes away.
One last thing Aguair hit the bar again, one day they are going to start going in !!
Heart of Midlothian 2
Celtic 1
I mentioned in the last entry, by way of an apology for my lack of enthusiasm. I said, just give me a couple of days. Bring on the nasty nasty Celtic, and my appetite will be renewed and that is exactly how it is. This season is awake, it is oot it's kip, brushing it's teeth and skelping back the coffee - i love it.
A shocking game in Bosnia where Hearts prevailed through a 0 - 0 draw, going through to the last qualifying round of Champions league. we did what we had to do i guess and no more but really it was dire dire stuff and i was left feeling very nervous about todays game against last seasons run away champions. I thought, if we could only have kept a hold of the ball for 5 minutes on Wednesday - make me think we knew how to play football in a european context let alone style. But no we were awful and they were worse. We continued to spank the ball down the channels for Bednar or Chessy or Pospisil to run onto, but nobody could be arsed and we just kept giving a crap team the ball, and the kept doing nothing with it. The less said about it the better. Apart from the goal we didn't get - the ball was played into the box from the right, the keeper stepped out a yard to collect, it was his ball all the way, but just at the last minute it swerved slightly toward the goals - reacting to this in the only way he knew how the keeper palmed the ball into his own net from 2 yards out. The ref obviously thinking "bloody hell ! no one in there right mind would do something like that, must have been a foul - No goal"
So to today and Celtic. Everything you would expect from opening drama at Tynecastle against one of the gruesome twosome. Riotous noise and 100 mile an hour with football at a premium.
The first half went by in a whirlwind, it was tight and tense and i was reminded of how much i have grown to despise Celtic over the last few years. Not that i have ever had much time for them but the ONeill era is still pretty much evident in their play - honestly Celtic used to play football you know. Not that Hearts were much better, it was the 40th minute when Craig Gordon made his first save, don't think Boric reached for the ball in the entirety of the first period. Half time came with the only real drama being that wee ugly ginger git being sent off - Thats Strachan not Lennon ( more for Lennon later, he had been dropped from this game but came on to great effect after an hour )
So at half time there was nothing in it with defences well on top.
For Hearts what is obvious is that we don't have the ability right now to do that blitzkreig 3 goals in 10 minutes to sweep a game away from any opposition, thing. We still look solid enough at Tynecastle anyroads but i think we will need to work much harder for our points this year - we will still be needing another goal with 15 minutes left of a game, much more this year than we had last - well thats what it looks like right now.
With Hartley out injured and Skacel gone to Southampton we seemed to lack the vital spark.
I was happy tho, happy that the game had an edge and happy that we were in the hunt at least and happy, just happy that the football was back.
Right then the second half got under way and things were fundemantally different, it is true that Celtic are no great shakes, the best they could do close season was buy the best Hibs had. But there was a change in Hearts, we moved up a gear and went for it with a purpose and drive that Celtic couldn't manage - a few efforts and hearts were getting closer until one nice wee flick through and Bednar beats the offside trap and is straight through - he still had lots to do tho, the angle was tight but he slotted it home under Boric ( think Boric should have done better )
Great finish
HMFC 1 CFC 0
Tynecastle goes nuts, we really do love to beat Celtic.
More pressure and bednar beats the offside trap again strokes the ball home only to be pulled back for offside ( absolutely no way, i was in a terrible position to judge being right behind the goals and no way was he offside ).
More pressure and Hearts have a corner, not dealt with well by the packed celtic defense the ball falls to Pressley on the edge of the box, he is winding up to have a crack when the ball gets nicked away from him - the break is on and about 1/4 of a second later the ball is in the back of the Hearts net. About as good an example of lightning quick breakaway goal as you could wish to see, 3 or 4 passes along the deck finished of by Petrov planting the ball in the roof of the net, got to hand it to them, that was a bloody good goal.
HMFC 1 CFC 1
Hearts lost their way a bit here and let Celtic into things but for me i thought they almost immediately thought about the draw and thought 'yes, a draw will do us today'.
For all that is said about Valdas Ivanauskas, he is not known for pitch side dramatics, well he was doing his nut - i thought he would blow a gasket if he didn't calm down - but Hearts didn't look as tho we knew how to break through and i thought a draw was on the cards too. Just as well then that Lennon had been brought on. If anything epitomises the basic crapness of Celtic it is him, we all love to hate "Lennon, Lennon get tae f&*k" So it is with great pleasure that i can say - It was Lennon's dreadful back pass that let Bednar in to round the keeper bear down on goal and slot the ball home.
HMFC 2 CFC 1
My youngest was there with me today and something happened this day.
He has played football for his primary school team for a year or so now so he is fully aware that football is more important than life, love and well everything really. He has never really got it tho, never really had it in his blood and felt the elation or the despair. He went to the semi final last year but chose not to go to the final ? He is young so you forgive the fact that he gets bored and his mind wanders. Here is what happened today tho. When Hearts scored their first goal, we all went nuts ofcourse, all except our young hero who remained seated and concentrated on his pie, and just kind of looked at me like i was crazy when i tried to pick him up for a triumphant cuddle. Time past and stuff happened and when Hearts scored the winner - he was the first up punching the air screaming his delight and attempting to lift me for a victory cuddle. There was an awakening today, i think he got it. Once you have got it i don't think it goes away.
One last thing Aguair hit the bar again, one day they are going to start going in !!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
new born season
I have been mulling over whether to pick this up again and blog this new born season we have, just like i did the last one.
I guess the fact that i am here writing this means that i will blog this new born season we have, just like i did the last one.
I will start tho with a joke
If a midget, psychic escaped from Saughton Prison what would the headline in the Evening News be....................
Actually i am not sure if the bods at the Evening News are on the ball enough to come up with that one.
So we are two competative games in -
HMFC v Siroki Brijeg
Dunfermline v HMFC
and we are two wins in. All would seem well down Gorgie way?
The exitement of this time last year is distinctly lacking tho which is weird since we now have a storming chance of actually making it into the Champions league proper. We take a 3 - 0 lead over to Bosnia for the return leg against Siroki Brijeg and with the best will in the world they were a bit gash really.
Then we face AEK Athens, they are probably favourites to take us but it could definitely have been worse, like Arsenal or AC Milan or a host of other teams that would have done us for sure.
If we get through that we are in the Champions League !
I guess the fact that i am here writing this means that i will blog this new born season we have, just like i did the last one.
I will start tho with a joke
If a midget, psychic escaped from Saughton Prison what would the headline in the Evening News be....................
SMALL MEDIUM at LARGE
Actually i am not sure if the bods at the Evening News are on the ball enough to come up with that one.
So we are two competative games in -
HMFC v Siroki Brijeg
Dunfermline v HMFC
and we are two wins in. All would seem well down Gorgie way?
The exitement of this time last year is distinctly lacking tho which is weird since we now have a storming chance of actually making it into the Champions league proper. We take a 3 - 0 lead over to Bosnia for the return leg against Siroki Brijeg and with the best will in the world they were a bit gash really.
Then we face AEK Athens, they are probably favourites to take us but it could definitely have been worse, like Arsenal or AC Milan or a host of other teams that would have done us for sure.
If we get through that we are in the Champions League !
This time last year we were brimming, we were overflowing with possibilities, what we could do, what we might do and how fantistic it would be if we even flirted with a challenge. It all felt like virgin territory, like a field of snow without a single footprint.
This time round is different, we know our limitations, we know how far we can go and what we can do and we know how great it is going to be to challenge for the league title. We do still have the possibility of some wonderful Champions League nights at Murrayfield and we can all still 'believe' once again in that ( proper grown up football as it was coined by a bloke in the work as we discussed the pro's and cons of a decent run in the EUFA cup against getting horsed in the Champions League ).
I think i needed to see a player or two of quality coming in tho ( and maybe a good few going out as well ) but it has not happened, Vlad seems to have finally calmed down and employed some balance to his wheelings and dealings with our team. Maybe thats no bad thing.
I wanted a midfielder of real quality to play alongside Hartley, they would compliment each other perfectly and turn Hearts into an awesome, driven force that no one in Scotland could live with. I wanted a proper replacement for Andy Webster, it is not Tall and it is not Goncalves ( he has a mean time between injury of about 20 minutes )
Christ, i am depressing am i not, new seasons are supposed to be about optimism and hope and renewed faith. I would stop reading if i were you or you might end up tuning into the rugby league or some other stupid game.
If i am perfectly honest all i need to do is wait for a couple of days, thats all just a day or two and i will be off again, we play Celtic on Sunday at what will be a brimming, pitch perfect, noisy and storming opening game at Tynecastle. They are quite a different proposition this year having transitioned last year from the big bullying team of Martin O'neill era into the small light and fast Strachan clones they are trying to be now. Hearts on the other hand are the same team as last year, without Skacel who left for Southampton at the weekend - the fool. In the end i think Hearts made 1/2 million out of the deal with Skacel so i guess it can go down as 'not a bad piece of business. Maybe we should now pay the money we owe for that imposter Beslija - maybe not, maybe it's his brother thats the football player, who was that bloke - Husref Musemic, still he did score against the Hibees.
We have no Hartley or Jankauskas, so i don't think we will be 100% and we will have just come back from Bosnia ( mind you Celtic are coming back from some friendlies in Japan, the eejits. Did no one tell them that the friendlies end when the nasties begin ).
Not much to talk about with the Dunfermline game, The Siroki Brijeg game was pretty dire, especially in the first half, although we won 3 - 0 and it all seemed like a thoroughly professional euro game. The one thing i have noted from the two games was - Aguair taking the free kicks in and around the box hit the bar twice on the trot, mmmmm has the lad got a bit of a talent here, the free kick against Siroki was a peach with the keeper routed to the spot. Obviously he is only taking them because Hartley is not there but, good to know he can clip a ball over a wall too.
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