Giruy the spoiler

The days running up to this weekends derby against CIS cup winners Hibs was as depressing a week as i can remember as a Jambo. The dysfunction of our team had been laid bare once again and far too often for most of us. The 4 - 0 rout by a very ordinary Dundee Utd team had struck hard at us all and most had succumbed under the weight of evidence - Hearts are awful and resplendent Hibs were going to give us a tanking. The best we could hope for was a bit of a cup hangover for them meaning we could hang on in there and take a less than humiliating defeat.

Every Jambo i knew except me that is, my water was at it again and i fancied we could take them. If you don't believe me read some of the threads in this brilliant now part of jambosforever forum where i have been banging my gums about a Hearts win earlier on in the week.
What did i base this prediction on, the usual mix of garbled psycho babble and half facts that i manage to glean about how the teams are fairing, that i normally base my water works on. It's a finely honed talent. Mostly though it was based on prayer, prayer to the sporting gods. I tried all of them i am not a man of fidelity when it comes to worship of the sports gods. The one that listened though the wee devil that payed attention to my heartfelt requests - Giruy the spoiler

Definition :-
Giruy the spoiler ( pronounced G-i-roo ) - small impish and mischievous sporting god. This is the little devil who in an instant will haul a high flying team screaming back down to earth, just when they started to think they were better than they actually are - a perfect example might be a team that for some ginormous conceit thinks they are the sole purveyors of the beautiful game in their respective league and to whom defeat of, lets say a pub team is an inevitability. Well Giruy is the god that will sort them right out and show them up as incapable of worrying a 'pub team' and therefore actually a bit gash.

It is about bloody time as well seems to me that the wee bugger Giruy has spent most of this season offloading his menace in a Gorgie direction. Not Sunday though his allegiance is fickle but his timing is splendid.
He turned his gaze eastward and saw a team bloated in their own misplaced pride, no more temptation was needed for his mischief to be spun.
In the final analysis with Hibs on a high, Hearts lowdown and broken, the league cup to be paraded after the Derby encounter and Giruy on the side of the good guys .......

It was a nap really that Hearts would prevail and Hibs be left beaten and sick to their pit.

All hail and worship the one great god

GIRUY

I had intended to go to the game even although both times i had been down to Easter Road this season i had sworn never to go back. Meant to go for beers before and after with a friend ( from the dorkside ( misspelled that there obviously meant to say darkside but i quite like it the way it is! ) ) Couldn't make it though as i was booked out with the Mrs for the night - off to the Playhouse to see Kriss Kristoferson.
Stop!
I know!
Last couple of bands i have been to see are Salsa Celtica and WolfMother so i am not a complete wrinkly old country goon.
Salsa Celtica are the business by the way - if you have not been to see them - go - an incredible musical marriage ( in all that that entails, including the frying pan flinging ) between liquid latin salsa rhythms and raucous ceilidh foot stomping! Great night out!
Actually Kriss wasn't so bad, it was a solo acoustic affair so a bit one dimensional i suppose. The grand old lad stood there the entire night like he had been busking there for decades and the good people of Edinburgh had simply built a theatre up and around him. The genes of every busker that has ever busked spliced into one leathery old cowboy. It was warm and comfortable and it sounded like he was in your livingroom so it was hardly surprising that a few of the older dudes stole 40 winks here and there. There were some real mentalists at the gig mind you i swear there were a couple of cowboy hats with mirrored shades on a-hollerin yee-haw !! as each song was recognised.
( maybe they had been at the game and just kept remembering ....... )

The game
Went back to the now Sporting must - Riccarton Arms to watch the game with my kids. I remembered to not stand under the oak beam of last weeks fame - just as well i did or maybe the pub would be refitting it's ceiling today.

The team selection was OK i guess, sensible in that we played 5 in midfield, we were of course there to stop Hibs first and foremost. I make absolutely no apologies for that, apart from being sound tactical sense, every team that turns up at Easter road ( or Tynecastle for that matter ) first has to stop the opposition playing their own game. It is also proven as the best way to get one over on them - remember how Muhamad Ali used to let Joe Fraser punch himself out to the point where he had no idea what to aim his fists at next or had the energy to deliver - well think about it.
Teams have been doing it to Hearts all season with far too much success for my liking, there have been times this year where it felt more like we were Barry McGuigan than smokin Joe up against the irrepressible Ali.
The team not so great in that we had Pilibaitus and Iveskivicius in the midfield, but we did have Brellier for some much needed mettle and protection for Aguair. Driver the only real threat from the middle and Velicka up front. Can't help thinking Velicka got his place for the 2 goals he got down here the last time in the league. The back

I was pleased, very pleased with the start Hearts made, we were positive in the first ten minutes which culminated in a ball dropping over the top to driver on the left, he struck it well but i guess it was always the keepers ball. That's not what i was so pleased about though, what struck me was Hearts had settled into the game immediately. A sure sign of a team who are focused and clear of their objectives. As the first half wore on though Hibs started to control more and more of the midfield and their passing game started to move through the gears. The period between 20 minutes in and 5 minutes to the end of the first half were seminal in the game really, Hibs looked as if they were about to roll over Hearts, a few well placed passes down channels along with overlapping full backs had Hearts pretty much pinned back and happy just to clear their lines. No capitalisation though, the goal did not come and to be perfectly honest i don't think Craig Gordon was ever really worried in that period, Aguair headed off the line after a corner and a minor penalty box scramble landed at Scott Browns feet, best he could do though was scoop the ball straight at Gordon.
By the time the first half came to a conclusion, i was coming to a conclusion - Hibs really didn't know how to go about their job of dismantling and humiliating this bunch of inferiors.
I afforded a relatively nervous smile at half time.
The first half was also notable for a number of fouls and bookings mostly aimed at Hearts players. Zaliukas in particular came in for a lot of media stick for his penalty box antics with Rob Jones. True he indulged in a load of shirt pulling etc but lets face it if you don't stand up and compete with Rob Jones he will kill you stone dead and it did not seem to be much more than you see week in and out all over the country. He came in for a lot of criticism though ( i will take of my 'the world is against us' tee-shirt now, this blog entry is not the place for any of that shenanigans ).
Zaliukas is probably lucky he stayed on the park and thank Giruy he did!

Half Time

Hearts 0
Hibs a bit frustrated


The second half took on the same hue as the first with Hibs holding most of the possession and territory without making any real inroads into the Hearts third. For our part we had the odd foray up the park with generally not enough support to make it count. The game lumbered ever onwards towards the deeply dissatisfying nil-nil. Most Jambos i think would have taken nil-nil before the game had started, so i guess it was all going to plan. Struck me at the mid point of the second half that there was only one winner though and it wasn't going to be green, it was round 8 and Smokin Joe was sweating heavily in the jungle heat!
Had no idea how it would come for us, would never be open play that's for sure, so it was that a cross to the back post was not dealt with by McNeill, it fell to Zaliukas who took his chance brilliantly -
Zaliukas is a centre half mind, and one who had been under the cosh in this game. He slotted it away very well indeed. So to concentrate on the Hibs goal keepers mistake is a bit of an injustice. Besides i suspect Rob Jones got in McNeills way as he flapped at the ball. No faith in his keeper from the Hibs captain and Centre half, surely a sign of turmoil and deep divisions in the Hibs dressing room - i can read the Evening News article now, not that it would ever be written ofcourse.
A bit of bluster from Hibs but not nearly enough as they just simply ran out of the necessary wit, guile, knowledge or anything else needed to claw their way back into the game.

Comedy moment of the season
At last, i really did think that i would not have an entry in this years season summation for most brilliant comedy moment. The support has come through though - At the end of the game with victory assured a fantastic opportunity to praise to the highest on high the great god GIRUY the many of the Hearts support took it upon themselves to remain in Easter Road for the sole purpose of spoiling their League Cup parade. A full 45 minutes after the end of the game had passed before the last of the merry band were removed from Easter Road. By then the cup celebrations had been rendered at best completely impotent and at worst shown up as pathetic.

Jambos we take our hats off to you and bear our arses to GIRUY.


Next up Kilmarnock at Tynecastle on Saturday

HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS