A measure of our civility

Seems like ages, it has been ages since i have been able to write a match report that wasn't filled, consumed by a pantomime of events off the pitch, and some pretty shocking football on the pitch.
It is with great pleasure that i can firmly say, todays match report will be full of all that is good in the world of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. As such i will not comment upon that other momentous event of Saturday 9th December 2006 - the 'amicable' parting of the ways between our club captain Stephen Pressley and Hearts.

A few weeks back i mentioned a bloke in the work and his formula for predicting scorelines, well it is now 2 - 1 to 'the gut feel' against the 'method'. I predicted a 3 - 1 victory for Hearts yesterday whilst his formula had a depressing 1 - 1 draw as the most likely outcome. All i could put my finger by way of rationale for my prediction was - 'i just think the time is right for Hearts to start to turn things around' it's not often that i am wrong but i was right again.
I was 100% certain that Hearts would get the victory needed to kickstart the season, the signs have been there for the last few games, more and more we have looked to be hobbled by a constricting lack of confidence rather than any serious lack of ability. So for me someone was going to get it and Motherwell were as good as anyone to take the beating.

With Pressley out it would have been prudent i thought to keep Robbie Nielson in the team but no Ivanauskas moved Barasa back to right back slot, alongside Tall, Zaliukas and Fyassas.
Neil McCann was also back in on the left wing, Hartley suspended so the rest of the midfield was made up of Brellier, Aguair and Miko ( noticed during the game a difinite effort by the Hearts support to encourage Miko rather than berate him ). Up front Jankauskas and Velicka.

Hearts started the game well, playing the game well on both flanks, Fyassas/McCann in particular seemed to be working well together and Jankauskas looked hungry and capable up front, leading the line well and able to hold the ball up to bring the rest of the team into the game. Nothing brilliant but Hearts were well in control and looking strong and confident.
A fine inside ball by McCann put the overlapping Fyassas clean through on goal, he struck low and true and in off the far post.

Fyssas scores his first goal for Hearts is this a turning point for Hearts season?

This is brilliant it takes me back to the halcion days of last season, there was a time when the sum of our worries was - 'that Takis Fyssas, he is so desperate to score for Hearts i wonder when his goal will come' . At the end of last season i voted Fyssas as my favourite player of the year, see BRING IT ON I for one am absolutely delighted for him. On top of that he looked much more like his old self again, looking fit and reading the game well and linking up with midfield, by later in the game he was having a ball..
Hearts were in complete control and looking like number two was on it's way, Motherwell struggling to get out of their own half and you could have sworn it was a year ago. So here is where reality strikes to stop us from getting carried away - our perpetually manipulated back 4 is a bit ropey folks! As soon as the two Motherwell forwards started their run through the middle to beat the offside trap and the ball was played out wide, my heart was in my throat and the goal looked innevitable and so it was, the ball squared the Hearts defence posted missing and Gordon no chance as the ball was clipped into the net on his left, Gordon got a hand to it but not enough to keep it out.
I am not sure who was to blame for that goal, i just thought it was far too easy a goal to lose, Craig Gordon however knew exactly who to blame, directing his disgust at Zaliukas.
So this is where we are in our recuperation, it is still very early days, that goal served to knock the stuffing right out of Hearts for the rest of the half. In that remainder before the break the football was again pretty dire, Motherwell were not bringing much to the party but Hearts looked familiar in their mallaise, their inability to connect with each other.

Half Time
HMFC 1 - Motherwell 1


At the half time i pondered over the atmosphere in the ground, there had been a some chanting in support of Pressley but i think we had more or less accepted the innevitable and just wanted the team to succeed, not exactly bouyant but at least behind the team, all of them.
One guy a few seats behind me decided he would launch a vicious attack on the opposition strikeforce. To the tune, that back in the day when football was much more of a uncivilised adventure, you would hear such gems as - 'your going home in a f***ing ambulance', this guy coined the classic 'ginger hair is unnacceptable'. Which ofcourse it is, but did serve to remind me how much the game has civilised itself over the last 20 years - unless i guess you are a ginger!

Somebody, lets hope it was Valdas Ivanauskas had a word with the team at half time, Hearts were back to the way they started the game, again looking confident and hungry. That said games turn on a split second, a mistake a knife edge. Hearts had a free kick on the left about 40 yards out, a decent opportunity to send in a dengerous cross. Bruno Aguiar sent the ball raking into the box with venom, it struck a Motherwell defenders head, left the goalie no chance and nesteled into the top corner. Given the frailties of Hearts defence and our fragile confidence it is easy to see how if that had not gone in the game could have petered out to another depressing scoreline for Hearts. It did go in though and the important thing Hearts made the most out of it!
The next 15 minutes saw Hearts play Motherwell right out of the game with another two goals. The first came from a precise ball clipped through the centre right into that space behind the defence and in front of the keeper. Velicka running onto it. The race was on, the keeper tearing out, the rest of the defence trailing, Velicka got there first. He had a choice to go round the keeper or take the sometimes more risky route of clipping the lob over him. He went for the lob which he executed perfectly ( makes me think that a couple of weeks ago it would have gone over ). The response from the crowd was tumultuous, the first time in a couple of months that a Hearts support has witnessed a goal that they knew was the winner!
Hearts were now in full flow, Aguair running the show in midfield and both flanks working pretty well Fyassas and McCann were really enjoying themselves down the left, Miko and Barassa were a bit more industrial on the right but the balls were coming into the box just the same.
A free kick about 30 yards out slightly to the left of goal, i sit in the perfect position to high above the goals and could see that the wall was not positioned as well as it could have been, the obvious shot being to curl the ball round the left of the wall and into the bottom corner. That is exactly what Aguair did, splendid goal indeed. The keeper scrambled across but just couldn't make it.
McCann missed a sitter as the keeper saved from a point blank header it fell to McCann just 6 yards out, he skewed it wide and over, pity it would have capped a pretty good comeback game at Tynecastle for him. Miko also had a decent chance to make it 5 but it was one of those where he had too much time and ended up caught in two minds, made it easy for the keeper.

So that was it a great result for Hearts in the end and the kind of game where good runs can be started, we certainly need it.

HMFC 4 - Motherwell 1

HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS