Bum Bump ..... Bum Bump

Like most Jambos, i spent the week cussin an a hollerin, gnashin my teeth and wailin - barking at the moon mostly. A very disappointing performance against the skinny green on Monday night at home, has meant the season started with our Hearts missing a beat. If you had read some of the Sunday articles though, in the Daily Rangers for instance - you could be forgiven for believing that Hearts season was already terminal. Andy Walker just loves his wee dig at us, the tart.

Although i was all bitter and twisted about the whole debacle of last Monday night, as you may have picked up from the last ramshackle effort ( honestly i could hardly string two coherent thoughts together ) if you read it, I still new the season was virginal and the team was still to start.

So by the end of the week i was up again, dying for the Aberdeen game to come round.



Craig Gordon - The only downside to this that i can see is that he has not immediately got his move to one of the big 4 in the Premiership. For all his talent, he is playing for Sunderland, there is the distinct possibility that he could find himself in a real battle to beat the drop, worse find himself relegated into the championship and swallowed up in the huge machine that is English football. This could cost him his rightful place at the top of the game. On the other hand he could prove to be worth 15 points to them which may be just enough, after a storming season to take them into Europe and maybe a great run in the FA Cup. Lets hope so.

From my perspective, Hearts ( Vlad ) has done exactly the right thing. This is a stonking amount of money for him. Selling earlier and we would have got less, later and clubs would have started to look at the length of his contract remaining and begun to calculate based on that. This was exactly the right time to sell for all parties concerned.

No matter what any of the anti Vlad brigade ( Jambo or otherwise ) can say, there is absolutely no way we would have commanded anything like that kind of money for CG if it were not for Vlad's financial clout. He would most probably have been a Celtic player for the last 3 years, and we would have spent the £450,000 we got for him on servicing an unmanageable debt.

I hope he goes on to have the career we all think he is capable of and i hope as he suggested, he comes back and plays for us again -

• When he is 38 and in the twilight of his phenomenal career, full of misty eyed nostalgia for his beloved Hearts he must finish his playing career in the beautiful maroon and white.

or

• When Hearts are the most successful team in Scotland and he sees us as his best chance at winning a European trophy, we can buy him back for £20M which will be small potatoes for us.

whichever comes first.

Bum Bump? is that the sound of me landing back on Terra Firma?

Rant time - here goes

I can't remember which paper or writer, don't care!

The write up went something like -

John Collin's is brilliant because the minute it was clear that Whittaker was off he immediately pulled him from pre-season and prepared for life without him. Vlad on the other hand is a madman because he continued to play Craig Gordon throughout pre-season which is clearly stupid for a player you are intending to sell. Is it? Now what if, the reason CG was played was because Vlad was putting up the appearance that he was quite happy for him to stay with the club ( i am no hurry mate ), this being part of Vlad's bargaining position. Eminently sensible as far as i can see. The sale of both players was a coup for both of the Edinburgh clubs, why find a reason to knock one and hurrah the other. The only addition i will add is i don't think JC would have had much to do with the sale of Whittaker, and he seems the petulant sort to me so his dropping the player could be as much to do with that attitude as any shrewd tactical nous. My point is ... Media - shut up with the blindly pointless anti Hearts bollocks, there are plenty of occasions when Vlad puts us in a position of naked ridicule, so just stick to that instead of making it up when it doesn't exist.

So with The Riccarton Arms binned for the clearly unforgivable favouring the Blue nose v Chelsea nonsense over the Hearts v Barcelona game, i was struggling for a venue to watch the Aberdeen v Hearts match this weekend. I had heard that you can buy Setanta on a month by month basis from Sky these days so i phoned up the VirginMedia people and asked if i can do the same. I kind of can by simply cancelling the subscription at any time. So Setanta is the answer to the crap pub scenario.

Feet up, beer in hand and Heart on sleeve, I nervously settle down (if you can do such a thing) to watch the match. Surprise! but Hearts start the match looking confident and assured, passing is crisp and neat. Ball retention is therefore high and we look easily the better team. This can only be down to the fact that we are playing midfielders in midfield - 'i mean who'd ah thunk it'

Palazuelo and Eggert Jonsson in central midfield alongside Michael Stuart made a huge difference to the balance of the team. We were however still lacking fairly dismally in the last third of the field. Still we were well in control when Eggert made his mistake, a young lad and hopefully he will learn from it but he really should have just melted it out the park when he had the opportunity. The winger stole the ball from Eggert instead and cut back for Nicholson to dispatch the goal and the second time of asking.

Aberdeen 1

Hearts 0

Unsurprisingly this time. Hearts all but collapsed into their Monday night malaise after the shock of the goal against the run of play. Aberdeen took pretty much complete control of the game and my gills were becoming greener as each minute of the first half passed. The mental scar open again and weeping deep burgundy red.

We won this fixture last year, 3 - 1 i recall, Panilla scored a peach of a goal, but before we took the lead Aberdeen played us off the park, they oozed style and class for pretty much all of the first half in that game until we got them in a strangle hold. In this encounter however for all Hearts punch drunk performance after the loss of the opener, Aberdeen did not have the same quality at their disposal. It is early days in the season for them too i guess. With not much happening outside a constricted central third of the park and half time fast approaching, the single moment of clear quality arose to settle the match. A scramble for the ball on the edge of the box, it fell to Iveskivicius, a neat ball played into the path of Michael Stuart who clipped a great ball over the keeper and into the back of the net. Craig Gordon would have saved it mind you ! ( free now from reality we can loft him as high as we care to dream onto the highest pedestal )

Half Time

Aberdeen 1

Hearts 1

Bolstered by the equaliser at exactly the right time, Hearts went on to take control of the second half. Ksanavicius came on for Driver who had not done too much in the first half. It may be that Ksanavicius may take Drivers place in the team, he looks decent enough out there, provided a bit more penetration down the left flank.

Miko came on for Iveskivicius. This is easily the best way to play Miko, he seems to come on the park carrying much more urgency when brought on from the bench. He was even seen producing a couple of early crosses into the box!

Eggert Jonsson recovered well from his early mistake to put in an assured shift alongside Palazuelo who worked hard enough i guess but the jury is still out on him. He overcooked a couple of diagonal balls designed to drop in just behind the full backs - devastating if they come off, maybe he just needs to find his range.

The game never really looked like finding a winner and a draw was certainly the correct result, a tad more quality needed from both teams i think but neither should be too disappointed.

For Hearts we have a chance to build a bit of confidence and pick up 3 points next week against Gretna ( they threw away a 2 goal lead against Hibs - good grief ).

For Aberdeen, i couldn't give a proverbial mate.

HOOOOOOO ON THE JAMBOS

No Overtaking

Absolutely convinced i was, that all would be OK, that Hearts would win the game this week against Aberdeen and put 1 point between us and real pressure on them. I was really looking forward to the game, full of anticipation without the sickening nervousness to get in the way of the run up.
Larry Kingston, as expected picked up a ban for his racist slur against the referee the last time these two teams met - a 3 game ban sounded like poetic justice given that there were exactly 3 games left of the season and may well have wrapped up Larry's career in a Hearts shirt and packed him up and off to somewhere else - The SFA are a shower of barstewards.
Who knows i sincerely hope that Larry sticks around to see out next season at least, without UEFA football for Hearts we may not be his choice however. As for the ban it was of course immediately appealed .. rant time

A good few dour Aberdonians picked up the blower to various football phone in's to bemoan that the phone in host will have had his tea then! and also that Hearts had no right to appeal the ban on Larry, Hearts should just take their medicine and get on with it. One caller even had the bare faced North Eastern doom-mongery to ask if this was Hearts reaching a new low!?
Well to these punters i state ....

This was as i am sure we will all agree, a tactical appeal to allow Larry to play in as many of these important last few games as possible, with the full understanding that it may result in a harsher sentence being bestowed ( that is the risk taken ). Furthermore every manager of any club would have done exactly the same thing and if not, as a supporter of the club who didn't appeal under those same circumstances i would definitely have asked questions.
My point is not that the appeal is morally just. My point is that this is not something intrinsic or peculiar to Heart of Midlothian Football Club that only we would lower ourselves to make such an appeal, i mean, get real!

Tynecastle was as expected full to capacity and the crowd were expectant of a real battle and willing to play their part in the fight for 3rd spot. Convinced and still am that a win for Hearts would have put too much pressure on Aberdeen, they would crack before the end to allow Hearts to nip in and steal the UEFA cup place. So this was do or die for us, time to put up or shut up. A draw would be a lot more use to Aberdeen than it would be to us so i had prepared myself for a hard slog trying to break down a well organised and hungry Aberdeen side intent on taking their 4 point advantage over us into the last two games. I suppose given those last two games for Aberdeen are against the ugly sisters i can see now why the play for a draw and hope for a win tactic was not their favoured option.

I was entertained by the banner over in the Aberdeen end which had the logo ...

along with the respective points totals and current league positions, well once i had worked it out any roads. For a while i pondered - christ have Aberdeen finished 3rd 61 times and Hearts 4th 57 times no way! and even if they had what anal mentalist would have had the compulsive disorder to work it out and paint a banner about it. DOH !

Now that i have taken account of what the Hearts do rather than the bloody huddle we used to do, i am not so sure the huddle is such a bad idea. The players danced around the centre circle in some broken square dance attempting to double handedly high five each and every one of each other. Tell me what is wrong with the good old fashioned - take up your position on the park, shout encouragement at your team mates and scream threatening abuse at the opposition?

After some early pressure from Hearts Aberdeen settled into the game and dominated the midfield for most of the first half, during this time they created a number of decent chances and must have been aggrieved to go in at half time without scoring never mind a goal down!
But that is how it was, Aberdeen had a great cross and header crash off the post, a shot just over and a whole load of other chances that may have come to more than they did. A lot was coming down their left wing where Karipidis was getting skinned every time, he did not look comfortable at all. Kancelkis was inside of him and was enduring his own crisis. A crisis mostly self induced mind you as he set about making an enemy of the ref for not much reason at all. After his booking and post booking talking too from the ref Gordon was desperately signalling to the bench to get him subbed off before he got sent off. This appeal was ignored by the bench until half time when he was replaced by Tall. With Tall inside him Karapidis had a much happier second half. No explanation for that just how i seen it?
You couldn't really say that Hearts goal was against the run of play, it just sort of came out of no where. A plus for us was the return of Bednar up front to accompany Velicka, a minus however was a return to a more arial game with lots of long balls aimed up to the front two. Was this something to do with Bednar up front, i hope not because it is not the best part of his game, not by a long shot. Nevertheless it was one of those arial launches that, not dealt with allowed Velicka to slip through the left channel and in on goal, still with lots to do, under pressure and with the angle tightening he managed to crash the ball under the keeper. Very like the second goal at Easter Road earlier in the season to steal that 2 - 2 draw against Hibs. So similar in fact that a round of "are you Zibby in disguise" belted from the Wheatfield Stand. Much more a round of our euro anthem engulfed Tynecastle, the first time we have heard that one for a good few months now and a sure sign that belief was in the air. We needed another goal in this encounter though and that's where the trouble starts.

Half Time
HMFC 1
Aberdeen 0

Aberdeen must have been pretty gutted at going in a goal down but you wouldn't have known from the second half, it was pretty much role reversal. Hearts the more dominant, with the lions share of possession and chances. A fair shout for a penalty as Driver drove into the box, defender sprawling under his feet he clearly handled the ball as Driver attempted to round him. Referee unimpressed and neither were the Tynecastle faithful. A few more chances, efforts on goal but the clear cut chance just was not coming, a combination of decent defending and the wrong ball at the wrong time meant that as the game wore on it became ever more nervous, that nervousness osmosis like drifted up the stands as the game entered it's final stages.
A break down the right and a cross far to the back post opened out a clear opportunity for Aberdeen, a well struck shot just over the bar - That was their chance i muttered under my breath!
Brewster had come on and as is his want he set about setting about the Hearts defence, with only a couple of minutes left he created the opening - again down the right for another cross to the back post, this time crashed into the top of the net for the all important equaliser. The Red Ultras as they like to call themselves enjoyed that one. I am beginning to fail to remember the last time Aberdeen did not get it right up us in the last few minutes of a game at Tynecastle - oh aye, the same fixture this time last year!

Funny old game but i am not so sure that it really makes that much difference - Aberdeen still need to take 2 points from their two remaining games, assuming Hearts win both ours mind you.
With Celtic horsed by Her Royal Ugliness and a Scottish Cup final coming up surely they will need to start playing football again and i just don't see Rangers doing them any favours. We might yet just sneak it.
Brutally honest here - Aberdeen deserve their UEFA spot it will surely be a steal if we manage to wrestle it from them - get the tights over yer heads and swag bags at the ready.

HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS

Ahh well at least it wasn't raining

The run up to the match against Aberdeen was as usual painful to witness.
This weeks Tynecastle tribulation surrounded member 2 of the Riccarton 3 - Paul Hartley.
For his part in the episode which was ultimately the beginning of the end for Stephen Pressley's time as Hearts captain, talisman and all round superhero - that hijacked press conference.
Paul Hartley had sat alongside and in support of Elvis as he delivered his verdict on the mess inside Heart of Midlothian Football Club. For his part then he was to turn up at a disciplinary hearing on Thursday this week with the now infamous Pedro Lopez - or who now is considered the 'spear with which Vlad does his impaling'.
Information is as yet, and typically, unclear at the moment. It is also unclear as to when information will ever be clear again on this or any other matter inside Tynecastle. Talking to a chap during the week about this he mentioned that, regardless of anything Vlad has done or not done, caused or otherwise, one thing is for sure - He has done a very good job of keeping people quiet after they leave the club. From John Robertson, George Burley and Foulkes and Phil Anderton, Graham Rix, Rudi Skacel. This list is getting to be a long one and all of have left Hearts under a cloud of varying degrees of the 'dark, grey and stormy' variety. None however has really produced much in the way of thunder on or since their departure. It is yet another unanswered question - How has Romanov managed that?
Without the facts we can all just take a flight of fancy and imagine the final meetings between Romanov and the vacating subordinate to be like that scene from Reservior Dogs - 'Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here i am ......'.
The only ex-Vlad employee that i can recall who has really opened up and spilled the beans is Lee Johnson and i guess Vlad just didn't think he was significant enough to merit the imposition of the gagging order.

I fully expected Hartley to receive a severe wrist slap for his 'outrageous' behaviour, perhaps a fine? and for him to immediately follow this up with a transfer request slapped firmly under Vlad's nose. Off in January to whoever would pay any amount of cash for him. That may still come to pass and the transfer request may already be under Vlad's neb.
But you just don't know, when Hartley finally came on after an hour or so yesterday he bust-a-gut and drove the team on and genuinely wanted to be there and to succeed. He single handedly lifted a dour, disappointing game and the team and he managed to wake the Hearts support up as well. No mean feet that since we seemed in a deep slumber, even the perpetual haranging from 'a far too pleased with themselves' Red Ultras failed to goad the Tynecastle faithful into any response other than, a dismal rendition of 'Your no famous anymore'. Got to say though, self satisfied and loud and perpetual they may have been but they lacked a bit in humour. The best they could muster being 'Your going down in a Russian submarine' sung obviously to Yellow Submarine. I guess Aberdeen really is a jocular backwater. Nice to see that they have all come out though and are happy to confess that they are all indeed 'only sheep sh*gging b*st*rds'.

Unlike the week before i had no idea what to expect from Hearts or the game.
I found out that Hartley was on the bench as i was parking the car on the way to the game. This surprised me not a jot and i was not too disappointed either - last week when he was suspended we played Julienne Brellier and Bruno Aguair as the central pairing in the middle of the park, it worked quite well so i could see why we would go that way again. But when i heard that Brellier was injured and Marius Zaliukas was playing in midfield instead of Hartley, my immediate reaction was - 'thats it we are beat'.
It is a shame, for weeks the Hearts support were subjected to Zaliukas in midfield and in equal measure Zaliukas was subjected to the Hearts support lambasting his shortcummings. Once moved into the back 4 however he has shown enough for us to know that he was just being played out of position and he may actually be not so bad after all.
So again we play people out of position rather than play the natural replacement, it just makes us want to scream.
The game started and immediately died on it's feet!
Hearts were guilty of playing the long ball up to Edgaras Jankauskas far too often, even if it was effective which it wasn't, it is dreadful to watch week after week.
The back 4 for Hearts continues to be a source of much frustration, and shredded nerves, Jose Goncalves and Ibrahim Tall in the centre both looked nervous and unsure of what the other was up to, this resulted in a good number of nervous moments and poor clearances - you know what it is like, if you can't clear your lines, you know you are in trouble!
Aberdeen looked quietly confident, playing pretty much within themselves, compact and assured as you would expect from a team who are on a good run, winning their away games with as much regularity as their home games.
That said the chances albeit only a few of them, were equally spread between the two teams.
Hearts had a decent effort from Jankauskas on the right squaring probably too well for Andrius Velicka who just didn't make it. Velicka was involved at the other end where a goal line clearance smashed off his face and onto the bar, leaving him pole-axed and me nerve-wracked.

Half Time
HMFC 0
ABERDEEN 0

Half time brought some solace in the news that Hibs were 2 down to Falkirk, and i thought to myself - 'that was turgid stuff indeed but at least Hibs are getting gubbed and it is not raining' ( for anyone outwith Scotland, it feels like it started raining here about 6 weeks ago and has not stopped since ). Ofcourse round about then it started to chuck it down, that crappy mix just north of rain and south of sleet. Didn't bother the sheep worriers though, they started the second half with a rendition of 'The northern lights of old Aberdeen', like i said they are far too pleased with themselves these days, i shall be glad when that is reversed.

The second half started marginally better for Hearts with a little more composure in possession and a little more flair going forward, a little but not much. Enough though to bring a few chances Hearts way but the game had that 0 - 0 tag written all over it.
Hearts had a free kick about 40 yards out on their left wing, this was in almost the same place where the second goal came from against Motherwell last week, that goal had it's element of good fortune, being an own goal off the head of an unfortunate Motherwell defender. It changed the game last week in Hearts favour. Similar good fortune was absent for this one as a great delivery was not met, just! and the keeper collected well. Good fortune being absent was to become a thought that rested in my head for the rest of the game.
Hearts needed a shot in the arm and it came with a knock to Zaliukas who at best just looks completely anonymous in midfield. He was replaced by Hartley to a standing ovation and much expectation. The team were immediately lifted by this and a period of dominance began for the home team. A few chances the best of which being a Hartley effort low to the keepers right, just wide and i think the keeper had it covered in any case but a decent effort nonetheless and then a ball to the back post that Velicka really should have buried instead of sclaffing wide.
Hartley then had the ball in the back of the net, but was chalked off for offside. Before i realised this fact my expression of delight at the goal was vociferous - i sat back down mumbling 'sh*te, sh*te, sh*te.
Aberdeen were never out of the game and continued to gain corners, but it was against the run of play that they got their winner. A throw in from the left, was played to Severin who was given criminally too much time to walk forward and dispatch a shot low to Gordon's left, he parried but only out to Steve Lovell who finished easily. The defence was nowhere, another shocking goal to lose.
Some fairly dismal attempt to get something out of the game was attempted by Hearts but it was clear nothing would come of it and in the end we have to take the defeat for not taking our chances and again for some dreadful defensive lapses.

Full Time
HMFC 0
ABERDEEN 1