Calm waters

Happy New Year Folks

How happy is it from a Jambo perspective, it is pretty happy i guess.
We dispensed with Hibs on boxing day hey hey, right!
John Collins is reported to have 'allegedly' called Hearts a 'pub team', upset at the goings on during the derby defeat maybe, and he is young and new to the game etc so can be forgiven for a lack of diplomacy under pressure? He has however come out of the whole thing looking less than when he went in. You could not say that the honeymoon period is over for JC but he is for sure tarnished - like the top of the Usher Hall, no longer shiny bright copper, now looking dulled and the green is of the primordial soup slimy variety. The shine on the theatre didn't last long either.

When Hibs equalised at Tynecastle on boxing day, i had my head in my hands firm in my conviction that we were in the process of blowing the game in the most embarrassing of ways, so i did not see the Dean Shiels incident. Just the aftermath melee.
I did watch the incident a couple of times on the TV later. Got to say i have a bit of sympathy for him. It was always going to be a red card, it is always a red card. To attempt to have the card rescinded is not just churlish but insulting to just about every other red card that has ever been dished. You just don't get to raise your arms and clatter into an opposing player without getting sent off. But. There is only one explanation for Shiels actions - he was attempting to get the ball as quickly as possible in that traditionally tactic of attempting to keep the game going and so keep momentum with Hibs who were in the ascendancy. Regardless of whether that tactic would have actually worked or not, given that the ball now belonged to Hearts who could slow the game down as much as the ref would allow them ( should they have wanted to of course, not sure if they would have ). That is what Shiels was attempting to do. So he ran straight for the goal flush with the adrenalin injection of having just scored the equaliser. Gordon is a big bloke, not just in height but he is also about 8ft between shoulder blades. Add that to the fact that he did not stumble to his feet, he rose up from the ground like a colossus immediately in front of Shiels. Looked to me like it was the classic flight or fight instinct that flew through Dean Shiels mind in the available nano seconds, just enough time for him to raise his arms to protect himself from the imminent collision with something much bigger than him that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Controversial coming from a Jambo i guess but there you go that's how i saw it.

Hearts then managed a draw away to Killie, tricky in any ones book - but recapping the game in my head and i visualise Hearts were unfortunate not to capitalise or is that guilty of not converting a good few chances to win the game. Still for me to sit here right now and bemoan the fact that we have too many away draws is to venture back to the halcyon days of last years league campaign. Mind you by exactly this time last year Hearts had lost 3 - 2 to Celtic after being 2 up at Tynecastle -
Hearts threw out the league with the bath water on that day. Was that the catalyst for the turmoil that has afflicted the club over the past 3 or 4 months - NO don't think so.

Yesterday Hearts managed a 1 - 0 away win against Dunfermline. In a game where we should have been 3 or 4 up by half time but in the end had to hold out to retain the precious lead.
Callum Elliot returned after his time on loan to Motherwell, this was good to see but the question remains, why did we ever send him over there in the first place. I guess the power(s) that be at Tynecastle must have thought we had a glut of striking prowess and therefore his time would be better spent gaining first team football somewhere else. Seemed crazy then and seems even more so now.
Striking prowess remains the most obvious problem for Hearts at the moment with no one managing to string together a run of games which include goals. Can't help thinking that it is still the perennial quality of ball into the box, that is the real problem.

For all that, and after all the madness and disruption at Heart of Midlothian Football Club since the start of this season for a time during the match yesterday, if results had remained as they were Hearts would have finished the day in 2nd place. Bizarre and a giant up ye to all those who serve to promote the problems we have as if that was a useful thing to do.
Yesterday Steven Pressley played his first game for Celtic after leaving Hearts, we would all have liked to have wished Elvis the very best for the future but playing for the one team that everyone must beat leaves us in a difficult position.
Celtic come to Tynecastle in a couple of weeks, it would be good if the Hearts support were to give him a good welcome maybe even one last rendition of 'theres only one Steven Pressley' then from the minute his first challenge goes in against us we immediately and berate him just like the rest of the bad guys.
In any case i sense a bit of closure over the whole affair and for that Hearts are in a healthier position than we have been since, the start of the season.
Rangers on the other hand are looking in disarray after the removal of the captaincy from Barry Ferguson, dropped too there are many reports that he has played his last game for Rangers. There are a lot of similarities here between the Pressley and Ferguson situation. The new regimes clearing out the old order so they can move forward in creating the new power base.
So for Hearts we the keel has steadied and the waters ahead look calm, for now at least the storm clouds have cleared. That storm started from the minute we kicked of against Athens in that hopeful summer evening at Murrayfield, Vlad has been in a tailspin from the minute his fantasies of Champions League football unravelled before his eyes. Has he now recovered, enough to re-evaluate his expectations and start to work towards them? Perhaps? This is January though and the transfer window is open and almost anything can happen so hold on to your hats another tornado could be forming just below the waves.