Goliath normally gives David a kicking

The game at Starks Park yesterday between lowly Stranraer and Heart of Midlothian was a no win scenario for Hearts in the best sense of the tradition. Hearts however managed to come out of it unscathed and i guess if you look at the result, comfortable.
It was a game in which Hearts could only lose, i mean credibility, hope, faith, revival, the game of course, team spirit, calmed waters etc etc etc. So to come back to Edinburgh with a 4 - 0 win was as good as we could have hoped for.

The Scottish Cup has never really held the same 3rd round giant killing romance of our southern junior version. The annual trotting out of remember Hereford Utd and the never to be forgotten last minute 30 yard mud slinging hoof to humble Newcastle in 19-canteen.
In Scotland acts of giant killing are not seen as romantic, we view those events more as a national disgrace - how Inverness Caledonian Thistle could have the bare faced ignorance to win a cup game against the mighty Glasgow Celtic and in Glasgow no less. This was viewed more as Celtic's disgrace than Caley's triumph. Mind you that game did result in the greatest football headline in the history of headlines -
SuperCaleyGoBallisticCelticAreAtroscious
A similar event many moons before where Rangers beat Rangers, that's Berwick beat Glasgow is also remembered as one of the lowest points in the history of that particular institution. Maybe in Berwick it is remembered as their greatest moment but there are only about 5 of them.
Even the current Glasgow Rangers don't look like they will challenge that particular disgrace, mind you that's mostly because they won't be playing any lower division opponents for the rest of the season - Rangers having now gone out of both domestic cup competitions.

I watched the Tamworth FC versus Norwich City game on the box yesterday lunchtime, hoping to grab a piece of that fabled romance. An extra sprinkling of desire on my part given the nickname of Tamworth - The Lambs, why should that matter?
It was not to be however after an decent start where if they had scored it may all have been different for The Lambs, Norwich sporting an ever ageing Dion Dublin, muscled into a 2 - 0 half time lead. A quick 3rd after the break and Tamworth were a beaten and broken team. The game ended at 4 - 1 to Norwich, so at least Tamworth got a consolation goal. Unfortunately for Stranraer they could not quite manage that.

I am again frustrated at the press continuing to bleat on about the ever changing Hearts team being an indication of some underlying cancer within the football club. If ever there was a game where wholesale changes were the order of the day it was this one. In fact if anything i was surprised that the team was so full of first team regulars if there can be such a thing in a Hearts line up. With so many players getting a game for Hearts this season when one goes out and another comes your standard Hearts supporter is no longer batting an eyelid. Looking back now at those dark days of the autumn it was never really the continual changes that was the problem for us it was more playing players out of position and just not playing the best players we had.
The perfect example of that being playing Zaliukas in midfield instead of Brellier, which now that we all know Zaliukas to be a decent centre back seems criminally insane to most with half a brain. With so many first team regulars in the team to face Stanraer we can only conclude that Hearts are serious about retaining The Scottish Cup and what can i say other than fantastic another storming cup run would be wonderful for us all.

The difference between the two teams was the simplest to quantify, superior quality in front of goal. Hearts did not really get out of 2nd gear and Stranraer had a chance or two to get into the game but Hearts took the chances that came their way and never really looked in any danger of flirting with the banana skin. A Velicka hatrick was under played by the striker when in the after match interview he mentioned that he once scored 7 in a league game for Kaunas. I would like Andrius to relax and remember that number and for the Scottish players at Hearts to explain to him that the combination of 7 goals in one game and Hibs has a certain romance to it.
Immortality.
Roman Bednar came on for Pospisil to to pick up the third goal in the four, which Ivanauskas is reported to be the happiest about. Ivanauskas is clearly a fan of Bednar and given he has signed a 5 year contract looks to be more of a fixture than most at Tynecastle, we should all be happy to see him progress. Not so sure though, injury prone or whatever as Bednar comes back to full fitness and back into the team he really needs to step it up a level this time round.
Hearts have both halves of the gruesome twosome in the next few weeks so the opportunities are there for the taking.