100mpg

As ever, i was looking forward to the Falkirk game. Like when we play Kilmarnock my opinion is firmly in the - this should be a good game, corner. This is good because it has nothing to do with ancient rivalries - the Hibs, the Celtic or the Ra-angers, or more modern equivalences Aberdeen or as the world used to be Dundee Utd. I have enjoyed playing Falkirk over the past few seasons because - they play decent football at you and the have a fairly healthy disrespect for all comers.
So i was looking forward to a good game, had predicted an optimistic 3 - 1 to the good guys.

For the vast majority of the game however you could have gotten the full 100 miles to the gallon, given the woefully low octane content. The opposite of what i wanted or expected.

After this one i am left with the understanding that Hearts are a bit of a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle - we can't seem to get all parts of the team playing well at the same time or if we can, only for short tantalising periods in the game, before it all degenerates to a box full of mixed up bits that don't fit together.

There was an offer during the week of 2.5 million for Craig Gordon, i have not been his biggest fan of late but i think we should expect to command a fair whack more than that for him. Were Fulham just chancing there arm? see if we are in a more precarious financial position than outwardly apparent, ready to jump at the first 7 figure offer. The offer was firmly rejected by HMFC with the retort - you better be ready to part with £10M. So by the laws of the barter that means we will sell for £6M or there abouts - i believe we will sell for less than that however.
Interested to see that on MOTD on Saturday morning, celebrating the anniversary of some mental French plan to have a combined Franco - UK national team, back in the fifties or something like that. Maybe some post war act of fraternity, who knows surely not some plan to improve the French team. Any roads the only Scot that made it near the team was none other than our very own Craig soon to be gazillionaire Gordon. Fantastic! but i suppose they had to have 1 Scot and who else could it possibly have been!
Craig hurt his groin early in the week so was left out for Steve Banks, absolutely no conjecture by the media whatsoever that this had anything to do with transfer speculation or club/player turmoil so i guess there were no rumours/speculation to that effect. Has the media finally started to bore itself with the Tynecastle circus?
Transfer dealings at the moment seem more down to earth, sensible and realistic, i would go as far as to say relaxed if you get my drift. The players being mentioned, appear in any case to be, an enhancement rather than simply an augmentation to the squad. Still plenty of time for the mad final day flurry though.
Gogita Gogua and Laryea Kingston being the two most likely enhancements both of which would bring something to the team. Both do seem to have a bit of a history of combustion though but both also seem to be hand picked for their ability to handle the rigours of a frenetic SPL.
Looks to most of us supporters that we also really need a striker who is consistently going to put the ball in the proverbial onion bag, not much sign as yet in this transfer window. With Panilla and Makela both leaving our extended options are not looking too good in that department.

Hearts started the game in fairly good fettle with most if not all pieces of the jigsaw in place at the same time, it did not last long however as Hearts lapsed back to a long ball game which looked to me to be designed to reserve energy. Maybe i am reading between the lines here, last week against Celtic, Hearts were found out to have a serious problem pacing themselves through the game, looking almost out on their feet by half time. Don't the best teams play in phases of containment and punishment, conscious decisions to move through the gears as they navigate their way to victory. If only i could view a Hearts game like that!
I don't watch Falkirk that often of course so i don't really know but it seemed to me that their problem was where they were playing Russel Latapy, too far forward. He seems to do his best work these days in a deep midfield role where he can dictate the pace and flow of the game from the generals position up on the hill. He still seemed to have that magical ability to find the only pocket of space on the park at any one time though, the rest of his team always knew exactly where he was as well. To Falkirk's detriment he was closed down just that wee bit too quickly to be used to maximum effect.
Falkirk had the first decent chance a cross from the right headed goal ward and very well saved by Banks, palmed out to Falkirk front man only to be headed narrowly wide. This was countered quickly by some great work by Paul Hartley to move towards the box taking three defenders with him, he squared to Salius Mikoliunas who lashed a shot which crashed off the bar.
This brought a disappointing half to a close.
HMFC 0
Farlirk 0

Wish i could say that the second half was better but it wasn't, the only solace being that Ivanauskas's substitutions worked! Andrew Driver was brought on for Mikoliunas. Miko had had a decent enough game and i hope that his many detractors are keeping themselves very quiet at the moment, but he should take a look at the run Driver made for the goal. If Miko can add that kind of run to his game Miko and it will transform him as a player. Roman Bednar came on for the ineffectual Jamie Mole, i spent the next 15 minutes lambasting him for his complete lack of ability to get a head to a ball. Really though this is Ivanauskas's fault, this is not Bednar's game so why do we persevere with it when he is on the park. He was far more comfortable and effective with balls knocked down the channel than a Gary Owen coming down on him from the heaven's. He was also much more effective for the goal.
Driver collected the ball on the right just at the edge of the box, he put his head down, knocked the ball past the defender and made for the bye line where he knocked a low ball to the near post and towards where Bednar and two Falkirk defenders were thundering. It just doesn't get simpler, a bit of pace on the wing, a decent predatory striker and you get a very good return for that move. Hearts scored about 40% of their goals from that last season with low balls knocked in from the byline, that is only about the third we have scored in that fashion this year.
The game appeared to be concluding in a hard fought and just about deserved 1 - 0 win when it exploded in a melee and sending off for Falkirk's Darren Barr for his reaction to Andrius velicka's foul. There have been many recriminations and brandings of cheat for Velicka's part, so much so that i am doubting what i saw. Firstly the tackle by Velicka was a disgrace, it was more just a petulant lash out than any attempt to tackle, pretty close to a straight red itself. My immediate reaction to the response by Barr was - "Send that eejit off", seemed to me that there was contact, arms were raised and Velicka fell to the floor. Nobody else in the world though seems to think that there was any contact at all. Apart from, the ref and my 14 year old who both seem to agree that a head butt was the reason for dismissal?
Don't know, pretty sure Velicka has a lot to answer for. Now there was a lot of teeth gnashing, comments of racism against Hearts Lithuanian players aimed at the media, who all have gone down the no contact, Velicka's a cheat route.
I will not defend Velicka.
Tell you what though, this has gone on for as long as i can remember, it has nothing to do with Lithuanians per say could be any nationality outside of dear old blitey. The British punditry have a pathological inability to see UK born players as anything other than fundamentally fair minded and honest gentlemen, the opposite being true of all non UK players, each of whom will whenever is necessary adopt any and all underhanded and unsporting tactics available. Only Johnny foreigner could do such a thing!

Rubberneckin

Today is the day after the latest episode in the continuing unravelling of Heart of Midlothian Football club.
At the end of last season i remember reading a pile of comments on various sites from, mostly jealous Hibee fans, they would say something like - Just wait til next season where it will all unravel and you will be left homeless and devoid of any hope, after that mental Vlad has torn the Hearts out of your team then F&*ked Off, Ha ha ha ha BELIEVE.
Never knew where those eejits were coming from or why other than just the jealousy factor of Hearts doing not bad considering.
Well now i am not so sure, maybe they had a point.

It goes a bit like this, and you understand this is purely my take on the situation from my limited vantage point.
That statement two weeks ago from Pressley, i said at the time - it read like an abdication of his Captaincy. And so it turns out.
Another head coach ( interim ( aren't they all )) is appointed and Pressley blows again, i think he may well have just gone off on one, a step too far ( who could blame him really but the statement he made was the killer for me, his days were always numbered after that ). Apparently the management team at Tynecastle attempted to orchestrate a vote of no confidence in their captain by the players. This sounds all too much like a coup it is like some great communist plot to overthrow the aristocracy. You just couldn't write it.
Elvis gets wind of this and walks stating that he is not mentally able to play tonight.
Hartley was asked to captain the team and when he refused was dropped, then Neilson was asked to captain the team and when he refused he was dropped too. Then Gordon was asked if he would captain the team, when he refused he was dr.. no he wasn't Stevie Banks was injured so we only had 3rd choice keeper so Gordon wasn't dropped.
Finally Berra accepted the captaincy for the night.
It is all just too sad for words really, to watch this great institution parade its dirty washing so puclicly it hurts us deeply. Like an episode of Jerry f'n Springer we look like a bunch of inbreds screaming and bawling like a bunch of uneducated morons.
I fear for Pressley at Hearts, i fear his time may be up but all that really bothers me about that is that his end is not as it should be, he should waltz into retirement or player coaching role after a glorious Hearts career with his head well and truly held high, marked down as one of the truly great captains of this team. No matter how much bloody money or power Romanov thinks he has got he has absolutely no right whatsoever to deny Elvis this privilege. That said the statement made by the big man was just enough rope that he handed straight to himself.

New coach from, you guessed it Kaunas, their season is over, they have another league title and don't need a coach for a couple of months so we get him. Romanov must have worked it out that league titles in Lithuania are not the same thing as league titles in Scotland. No disrespect and come on lets not play down our downtrodden game again, it is a sight more difficult to negotiate a challenge over here than it is over there. This merry-go-round or Lithuanian's is not going to do the job. You could take them all back bar Chesny and Velicka and have almost any bog standard Scottish manager and the team would improve overnight.

After the initial 20 minutes of the Falkirk v Hearts game which i watched in the Railway in Juniper Green, Falkirk started to play footbal around us. The thought crossed my mind that i didn't really expect to see any football from Hearts, instead it was like rubbernecking a crash on the opposite side of the bypass, it all seemed to go in slow motion you knew you shouldn't but you just couldn't help watching with morbid fascination. By this morning i decided that in Hearts we are actually witnessing a gargantuan train wreck, it hasn't even happened yet but the rails are beginning to buckle under our wheels and the carraiges are beginning to rear up in the air.

Said it before but it just makes no sense, If for whatever politics you feel the need to drop 2 of your back 4 then for all footballing gods you must retain the other two. So Tall and Goncalves were nowhere to be seen either, the back 4 then was,
Wallace, Berra, Zaliukas, Karipidis
The midfield without Hartley, had at least a couple of midfielders Brellier and Aguair, Brellier ( never thought he would ever play for Hearts again ) looked pretty much off the pace from start to finish.
Hearts actually started the game OK, if totally disjointed allows that. We had a couple of decent efforts in the first 20 minutes and could easily have been 2 up. Falkirk owned the last half of the first period tho. Did not really do much. That Stokes bloke looked for too much like he was thinking 'I am really only here on loan you know, actually i play for The Arsenal' some decent touches but mostly he just got frustrated and lashed out a bit.
Half time came and it is 0 - 0
Hearts what the hell can you say about us, the one thing we most definitely are not is a football team, just a bunch of players who happen to get paid by the same club. This shows so much in our game. No one knows where anyone else is, or has any idea what is expected of them, we play the game far to far away from each other and no one is making any runs and oh it is just crap.
This disjointed aberration continued in the second half but at least we were fighting, we were winning every 50 50, got to put this down to the much maligned Baresa and Brellier and the back 4 and Miko ( had not a bad game considering ). One split second of space for Aguair to find Velicka, he collected still outside the box and took it early, keeper should have got it but hey, you gotta take that.
From the minute we scored we dropped ten yards and handed the game to Falkirk, aaarrggh
Mole did have a chance as he was clean through just to hit straight at the keeper, pretty shoddy and he should be left out of things for a while. Reminds me of the mental decision to loan out Callum Elliott ???
It was innevitable really that Falkirk would equalise, a well worked carving of the Hearts defence allowed Latapy to stroke the ball low into the corner.

1 - 1 a fair reflection on the proceedings.
Falkirk could have won it right at the death, but fortunately for us we managed to scramble away.

Must take umbridge at the Setanta commentary, it was so clear that Hearts could do no right and Falkirk could do no wrong. There was good and bad on both sides but no real balance there. The best example being a wee knock in the back of Latapy ( a foul for sure ) but the wee man flings himself down for a blatant dive not a word from the commentary. If that had been one of the Lithuanians they would have been all over it as more evidence of the cancer Heart of Midlothian Football Club have allowed into our beautiful game.. give it up for gods sake.
Everyone knows that the media attack a wounded animal like a bunch of hyenas but it really is going too far, it really is not helping the situation.

Lastly, i took note of the body language etc of Hartley / Neilson on the bench, they did not look in the least bit perturbed to me. No idea what to make of that but i expected soor pusses.

Lastly ( again ) Malofeev, attacks the 4th official and gets sent off and apparently takes it out on the changing room furniture - working for Vlad sure is a stressful gig.