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

11th commandment

Nothing happens at Hearts anymore, i can hardly think of anything to write about. There are just no disasters anymore, natural, supernatural or otherwise, externally motivated or self inflicted. Just nothing but the regular football stuff - players getting injured or coming back or getting suspended or appealing so they can play in important games before the seasons climax.
We really need the end of the season so that Vlad can regroup and start another assault, another madcap rampage through Scottish football culture.
Vlad just bought a building in Edinburgh, the old Royal Bank headquarters i believe, £20M so the papers claim - Jesus he's mental isn't he.
If it had not been for the surprise chance of a shot at 3rd place by squeezing past Aberdeen, this season would have silently slipped under the stone it has been hiding behind since the very start.

As the week progressed i became more and more confident that Aberdeen would get a win in one of their remaining games so all i was really looking far in the derby game against Hibs was a good performance and a stonking great horseing for the skinny green.
I can think of no better way to wrap up the season than with your last home game being against Hibs. A few beers in the Caley Sample Rooms before the game just a livener for many more beers afterwards. In there with one of my kids and a Hibs supporter over in the enlightened half of the city for a change - he is generally quite disgruntled with the state of play at Easter Road but pretty much understands the constraints that bind the team. That's it for me that just sums the whole thing up! I asked him if he would swap the the circumstances of both teams, if he would take for Hibs the knife edged danger of having a madman in charge, a throw of the dice. For Hearts would he offer up the stable fiscal policies of a miserly wage cap for the long term stability and imposed mediocrity of the club.
I know which one i favour!
After some debate and an admission on my part that no one in Scotland could take on the gruesome twosome without accepting an unnatural state in order to do so ( neither of those two could take on europe without doing the same, Rangers have tried it and it looks like it is costing them a decade of humble pie ). I still don't think i got a straight answer - but i will answer for him -
"too bloody right i would take the throw of that dice"

It became clear that Scott Brown was not in the Hibs squad, i was ofcourse pleased by this but thinking back now that will be the last time we see him in a derby match which is a bit of a shame really - it would have been good to see him match up against LarryK, if only just the once.
Oh how Hibs missed Scott Brown!
We pontificated over the likelyhood of some bust up with John Collins and Brown resulting in his expulsion from the squad and last game for Hibs already played. As it turned out though Scott Brown had a family loss and was unable to play. Just shows you though there is more potential for intrigue and sabotage at Easter Road than there is at Tynecastle - i am missing it.
Oh how Hibs missed Scott Brown!

And some! that is probably the most inept display by a Hibs team at Tynecastle that i have seen for ages. I seem to remember the 4 - 1 game at Tynecastle last year was a pretty dire display by them, but really on Saturday in that first half they were awful.
As an aside, here's a thought, even after all the depression of this season we have taken more points from Hibs this year 10 out of 12 than we did last year 6 out of 12.
I had just sat down and sadly had missed the Cheers theme over the sound system, when the game kicked of. Amazingly we scored after 30s and it was our 2nd attack! One long ball had gone through to Andy McNeill, the second punted to the left of the box, Pospisil muscled his way between the two stumbling centre halfs more in hope than expectation. His reward was for the ball to drop over his shoulder and down to his feet - hey you make your own luck in this game. Pospisil still had a lot to do but he managed to get a foot round the ball to direct it across the keeper and into the net.
The crowd could hardly believe it, but we enjoyed it just the same.
With Hibs relying far too much on Louis Stevenson - he looks like a good player but it was completely unfair to expect him to carry the whole of the midfield fight to Hearts. Some of Hearts play was almost reminiscent of last years pedigree as we swept forward at every opportunity and attacked from all areas. Fyssas was playing his last game for Hearts and he was really enjoying his run out up the left with Driver ahead of him. Andy McNeill in goal for Hibs made a couple of decent saves then one really good clearance from a Bednar header that looked a goal all the way. Pospisil had another effort well saved and Berra had a good header turned onto the bar, it could have been six by half time.
On the other hand Hibs had a couple of breakaway chances where they really should have scored, most notably a break after a corner to Hearts found the Hibs front two bearing down on - good grief there is only Fyssas at the back! Passes between each other being over hit and delaying just that split second too long found Karipidis screaming in from nowhere to make the challenge and stop the shot an excellent piece of defending but really they should have buried that.
So it is carved in stoney grey granite, the 11th commandment. Which roughly translated from the ancient Hebrew dictates ...

"And the lord spoke, so it shall be unto all the Hibs goalie's and for all eternity, that they shall make an erse of a simple catch when playing against the good guys"

The ball was clipped forward and as Andy Driver chased on as he should, and the Hibs defender did likewise, the the ball was McNeills all the way. He ran out to collect on 16 yards. pious chap that he is the 11th commandment was met as he took his eye off the ball at exactly the moment he should have concentrated hardest. The ball evaded him somehow and allowed Driver to steal in behind, under pressure he did well to take on his right thigh and finish with his left on the half volley.
The crowd could hardly believe it but we loved it just the same.

Half Time

HMFC 2
Old testament zealots 0


Now i was not happy with Hearts 2nd half display, really i thought we just couldn't be arsed. There was an opportunity i thought to really tear that team to shreds, they were 1 or perhaps 2 goals away from a complete collapse. Hearts just didn't pursue and we let go of the tigers tail ( Ok it wasn't a tiger it was a hamster ).
From a Hibs perspective it was a much better second half, where they had a lot more of the ball and put some pressure on Hearts defence. They never managed any real penetration however as Hearts midfield adopted a deeper position and a safety first attitude.

Fyssas left the field after an hour or so and shook every Hearts players hand on the way off. It probably is time for him to go but i for one am sad to see him go. For me last season he more than anyone else signified the step up in stature and quality we were attempting to achieve.

Tall came on for injured Larry Kingston who had had a straightforward decent game. Tall in midfield is just plain crazy but it hardly mattered we just gave Hibs the ball for 2/3 rds of the pitch and then put up the shutters for the remaining 1/3rd - just too easy really.

There had been many renditions of - "your gettin beat by a pub team, beat by a pub team" all of which was just reward for John Collins who had been in a bad mood since the off. He will learn from that i guess and pay other teams a bit more respect in future. Or maybe he won't learn from any of his mistakes, maybe he will just run out of time and get punted by Hibs before October is out, i would not be surprised in the slightest.

Full time

HMFC 2
Hibs 0


So we have one game to go, away to Kilmarnock, pretty simple really. We need to beat kilmarnock which is a racing certainty. Aberdeen play Rangers at Pittordrie, whilst it is true that there is no love lost between that pair, i think Aberdeen's greater need might just carry them over the line, blooody hope not.

So for one last time this season

HOOOOO 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

Winning ugly ?

The debate has trundled on over the past weeks, the relative merits of winning ugly -
Edinburghs two teams provide the polar opposites or so it would seem - Hearts are ugly and Hibs are .. well whats the opposite of ugly - i guess it is pretty, yes Hibs are .. pretty.

If you listen to John Collins in pre or post match interviews for his team he will often come out with phrases like 'doing the right thing' and 'playing the right way'. This is interpreted by most as playing the ball on the deck in an open and expansive style, brimming with pace and vision and not lacking in technique or quality. But does it mean squat when all it gets you is defeat. Listening to Gordon Smith in place of James Trainor yesterday evening brought a number of disgruntled Hibees onto the blower to complain that 'JC needs to learn how to win ugly, cos good football doesn't always cut it'. Is this some heresy from disillussioned Hibee or is there an uprising of pragmatism down Easter Road way? Is it just me or is Gordon Smith covering for James Trainor like watching an episode of The Office - if i could squint my ears whilst i listen i would. Gordon is one of the better pundits on Radio Scotland but sounds as though he would rather be anywhere else than covering for Mr Trainor.

The good , the bad and the ugly - this season Hearts have been all 3 and many times over!
For me though how can yesterdays game at Tynecastle be described as "Hearts winning ugly", since to be ugly you first need to have some discernible features, some identifiable characteristics and for those facets to be in some way unpleasant or obnoxious. But yesterdays match had absolutely no features whatsoever! It was completely devoid of character, visually unpleasant or otherwise. That was "Hearts winning with mousy brown hair, freckles and a twin set n pearls"

Things were a bit different this week, i managed to wangle a trip to the pub before the game, it was like a throw back to some earlier existence, before children! when i could think of no better way to approach a game than to protect myself from the probable horror ahead with a veil of alcohol to drape over my maroon specs. A couple of hours in the Caley Sample Rooms then was the perfect set-me-up for yesterdays game, i didn't know it at the time but i do now.

I normally take notice of the build up to the game but to be honest i can't remember how things were, the ground was full - hows that! I have heard that we have decided to cease with our huddle - did not notice if we huddled or not - but i hope we didn't and i hope we are now rid of it it - it harks back to Pressley and Hartley and a different team no longer relevant.
I normally take notice of the line-ups as they are announced but i missed this one, i was therefore surprised when i couldn't find Zaliukas on the pitch, seemed that Kancelkis had taken his place. Turned out that Zaliukas hurt himself during the warm up to the game.
Shock horror Hearts make only one other change to the team which started against Hibs last week - i would like to know why this is not news, i would like to know when the media are going to start treating this as news! For just about every game this season Hearts have been lambasted, ridiculed, laughed at even, by all comers for our seemingly pathological need to mess with the team so why is it not commented upon when we don't. Larry Kingston came in for Philibaitus, just plain exactly the right thing to do in antibody's book. Karipidis remained at right back ( he had a decent game, probably the best game he has had for Hearts in the strange faceless kind of way that characterised the game he seemed to stroll through the proceedings ) .

At Easter Road last week Hearts turned up with 5 in midfield and no one could argue with it, we will no doubt turn up with the same at Ibrox in a fortnight and no one will argue with that. But to turn up 4 - 5 - 1 at home against Kilmarnock when the only course of action is to turn the heat up and pile as much pressure on Aberdeen as we can, had plenty arguing in my head! There was stranger to come later though.

Both teams matched up and quickly cancelled each other out, there is the school of thought that in our goldfish bowl we know each other too well which leads too often to sterile encounters where the difference between the teams is negligible. I don't really hold to much truck with that but Christ this game was an advert for that theory. I think you could forgive Kilmarnock for entering into the end of season spirit early since they really do now have nothing at all to play for, their cup adventure coming crashing in around their ears a couple of weeks ago against the pretty ones
But Hearts we surely had loads to play for, free from the disaster of finishing below Hibs we could now centre our sights on a clearly standard Aberdeen team who were clearly gaining points at a rate which would render them 3rd if they carried on as they had been going - Have they been winning ugly i wonder? does anyone care? least of all in the Granite City.

Hearts had 3 corners on the bounce midway through the first half which had the feel of a goal about them but it was not to be. Larry Kingston , who is the only football player we have at the moment had a crack at goal but it was never going in and that was about it in the first 45.

I had hoped for more in the second half and i guess it was marginally better but really where was the drive, the enthusiasm for the fight - even the desperation. For all the world it struck me that Hearts played this game like they expected the winning goal was inevitable, which it patently was not. There are those amongst the Hearts support who have developed at best a distrust of our Lithuanian contingent and at worst a racist view that Lithuanians are in themselves substandard and have no place in our team or our country. I believe this is a reaction to the transgressions of our wayward owner. In the Gorgie Stand in that second half Iveskivicious came in for a fair pounding whenever he made a mistake! He did hit the line once though and put over the only ball of quality all afternoon, Velicka's diving header went a couple of feet wide, shame it would have been a good goal.

After an hour or so Hearts made what may well be one of the most perplexing substitutions i have ever witnessed, if i had not been so dazed and confused ( one of those was caused by the alcohol but i am not sure which one ) i may well have just gone home then - Velicka our only striker was taken off for McCann ( a midfielder ) for us to go, wait for it ... 4 - 6 - 0.
We didn't really the much maligned Iveskivicious moved to centre forward, but i mean come on for crying out loud!
In reality it made next to no difference to us, as one striker was just as impotent as the other.
Hearts had managed to moved a bit closer to second gear and were perhaps looking the more likely when Pospisil came on for the dazed and confused ( wonder if he had gone to the Sample Rooms too ) Iveskivicious. A free kick in an awkward position, too central and too deep to really be considered a danger was whipped in to the penalty spot and with the Kilmarnock defence inexplicably posted, well, somewhere else Pospisil was yards unmarked and sent the header goalward, the Killie keeper got a hand to it but not enough and in it went. I half expected the ref to call it back because the Kilmarnock defence were not ready.

Unbelievable.

Kilmarnock upped their gears a little and forced a corner or two, a goal moth scramble was knocked clear as the game drew to a close, not quite over though. A bad foul on the Hearts left touchline brought Goncalves screaming across and steaming in, no real contact i don't think but it did seem to spark the melee that ensued. Goncalves ordered off, don't think he can really have any complaints, maybe if he had waded in from ten yards away he might have got away with it.

Cup next weekend so no Hearts game to think about, just

HOOOO ON THE PARS

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

All we need is strobe lighting

Seemed like ages since Hearts last played, the interim period being littered as usual with more of the same disruption. Valdas has again departed, for? how long this time? who knows.
Initial speculation for his replacement came in the form of some complete nobody called Letiso? Have to say that petrified me. I have been working on this theory for a good few weeks now, that Hearts will be a better team team next year than we are this year.

"Whit!" is the response i have been getting from the non Jambo punters at work, to this unfounded proclamation "Where the hell do you get that from?". In truth my theory is quite flimsy, based almost completely on two ideas -

1. This season has been pretty dire really so can't get much worse.
2. The turmoil at least in part has been connected with now departed / departing old guard. So regardless of on the park merits of any of these guys the fact that they are no longer here means there can be no more disruption between them and the Vlad. In short those that are left are Vlads boys, if not they are gone.

This guy though, can't even remember if that is his name, seemed so bad, so lacking in any kind of pedigree that i was convinced he would be a disaster to eclipse Malofeev. Coaching league teams in the Faroes for gods sake, get beat 15 - 0, 2 months in charge of Lithuania, it all sounded like Staneyburn Juniors to me and my theory was shot.

So although we are still in disarray, having one of our backroom guys instead seems much the lesser of two evils, Korabochka gets the job for a few weeks, until - he makes an arse of it a Valdas comes back in for the rest of the season.

Another rant :-

I have had it reading the comments section on the Scotsman online, have you ever tried it? There is a core of about 20 individuals who regular as the day is long comment on the articles presented by the paper. Its mental, i am mental for reading them but to be honest they are much more informative and entertaining than the articles themselves. Anyroads there are a bunch of Hibees who are so bereft of anything to read associated with their own team that they feel compelled to read articles about Hearts and then comment about it, obviously in the negative. This rant is dedicated to those sad little individuals.

Right now and for the record i am going to dispel the myth, all the speculation that has surrounded the club shall be laid to rest. All the lies, half truths and exaggerations i am going to cast in stony grey granite fact. The most outrageous of outlandish claims to emanate from the Scottish sporting media concerning the team it's past, present and future merits, i will bring back to earth. I will staple them to the deck with a huge great restraining bolt to keep them down here so we can all see the reality of the situation safe from floating around in a fantastic, nightmarish dream. The spectrum of opinion shall be aggregated and integrated so that we can know the truth because that's what counts and here it is -

Hibs are NOT the flair team!

They just aren't and they are not the custodians of the beautiful game in Scotland, neither are they particularly young or particularly Scottish. Right now they are a bit crap actually, about the only thing they have a flair for is playing crap keepers.

Rant over.

Those of you who have read much of this blog will know that my relationship with Hibs is maybe not the norm for a Jambo, normally i prefer to see them win against the gruesome twosome for instance and i genuinely support them on the odd occasion when they play in Europe. By way of confession then i have to say i wanted Rangers to win against Hibs at the weekend, right now i wish i had had the confidence to think they other way round. Basically i feared Hibs catching Hearts more than i felt confident that Hearts could catch Rangers and steal 2nd place.

You are right i should be flogged for that treason.

The game

Away to Motherwell, last time Hearts were there we were at a low ebb and really really needed the confidence of a win, we managed it and it helped us to stumble along for another few weeks. We needed the same again, this time though to keep the pressure on Aberdeen and a distant Rangers and to put distance between ourselves and the above not so wondrous green Brazil.

There are times when you watch football that all you see is activity in front of you, no focus or direction or even apparent aim, just activity lots of it. To be honest most of the pointless activity was coming from Motherwell. But then just every now and then something clicks, a fleeting touch of quality, the opportunity arises and is dispatched. Exhilarating for a split second and then we are back in our seats and back to the whirling jig.

It's like this movie here, taken at Chambers St museum at the weekend, you have no idea what this is, it is all just whirling activity until all of a sudden the strobe light is switched on and it all makes sense, for a bit.

The person with his finger on the strobe switch was once again Larry Kingston, fast becoming the main man for the Jambos.
His near post corner midway through the first half was met by Tall for the opening goal. This was eclipsed by his effort in the second half to finish the game. Somehow he found himself on the right wing, scampered down to the byeline and crossed a peach to the front post where Elliott was screaming in. The header came from the defender but such was the cross and the pressure from Elliott the ball crashed into the net.
Could have been very different, earlier in the first half, Motherwell could have taken the lead when their striker was straight through on goal, he chose (wrongly) to try to round Gordon but under pressure overran the byeline.
Other than that this game was completely forgettable. To sum it up Hearts did to Motherwell what others have been doing to Hearts all season at Tynecastle, mugged!

Much more interesting is where this leaves things.
8 points ahead of Hibs, open water really.
Level on points with Aberdeen who we play at Pittodrie at the weekend
Rangers away to Celtic the same weekend

With maximum points from a Hearts perspective and spring in the air the chase for 2nd place could be well and truly on by Sunday afternoon.

HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS

The Vlad giveth and the Vlad taketh away

The last few weeks have been nothing but positivity and stability, all relative of course but none the less, positive and stable. Since the home defeat to Celtic, Hearts have been turning in fairly solid, completely uninspiring mind you but solid performances.


Clean sheets all the way! I for one will never argue with that, get your defence sorted out and solid and mean and the midfield/attack will feed from that - confidence in a solid defensive setup will lead to fluency and expression in midfield and the strikers will start banging them in. Well if you have got the players who can of course, the jury is out.


When i was a kid, Liverpool were my English team, no doubt seduced by the outrageous success, never going to get that from Hearts! Some time in the late eighties however i got bored with their machine like prowess and switched my allegiance to Arsenal. "1 nil to the Arsenal" suits me just fine when the need arises. I would be happy enough with 1 nil victories for Hearts between now and the end of the season, who of us would not?





The transfer window until very recently has been quietly positive, a couple of what look like decent signings coming in on the - now familiar 6 month loan first refusal on a longer contract if it works out. I wonder how many other teams adopt a similar signing policy, it is certainly not common in Scotland or as far as i can see the rest of the UK. From the word go, before the start of 2005 - 2006 season i saw this as a sensible even wily and astute policy. It strikes me that it is an almost zero risk means of bringing a number of new players into an inevitably volatile environment, selecting those who make it and dismissing those that don't with no real repercussions. This has worked for Hearts, with a good few players who have moved from the loan to the contract ( and those contracts tend to be long ) best example would be Roman Bednar. I would imagine Zaliukas, possibly Velicka will also move onto the longer term deal. Others who haven't made it are moved on, Tiago Costa etc.





Then came the long awaited and fantastic news that planning permission for the new 12,000 seater main stand has moved onto the next stage, with Hearts given permission to buy the required land to go ahead with the development.


We have waited a while now, this really has been the acid tests of Vlad's sincerity, his goals and ultimate plans and ambitions for our team. Back at the start of the season when things were once again going from frying pan to roundabout, Hearts made an official statement that plans for the new stand would be in by February. For me at least i have been accepting almost anything that has gone on at Tynecastle so long as that statement became reality. Close to the wire but this week saw us draw ever closer to the goal of a revamped Tynecastle park a home for our team for another 100 hundred years - i can't think of anything more important for the team.


One of the pics i have seen of what we may be looking forward to in a few years -

I don't hold with the argument that there is no point having a stadium if the team is crap, we will always be able to build a decent team and i am absolutely certain that we will have a better chance of realising our ambitions when we are playing in a stadium that lives up to those ambitions. This pic looks like the 30,000 seater stadium with the new stand and the corners filled in either side of the Roseburn stand. With a realistic head on that is where i would pitch my ambitions, 40,000 just seems too much of a leap to me - ask me again in 5 years.
In any case we should hopefully have heard the last of "flats flats glorious flats" for a while.

Things have been going in the right direction for so long now that the word "Believe" has once again entered the Jambo vocabulary. Long being the Hearts long ofcourse, which is nothing like anyone elses long and is a bit more like "a tiny wee short time".

So this week has been stable and positive on the run up to the seminal game at Ibrox on Saturday. It was with no surprise then that we shot ourselves in the both feet on Friday.
Valdas Ivanauskas admits that there are a number of Hearts players who have been attracting interest from others and that Hearts are in negotiations with those parties. Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon were then dropped for the game at Ibrox - with reports of football politics or football business as the reason, standard garbled English from Hearts.
It is not clear why Gordon was dropped, he has made it quite clear that he would be happy to stay at Tynecastle for now at least, so if Hearts are looking to cash in on his value it should not have affected his ability to play for the team. Hartley is a different story in that he may himself be Ibrox bound, so his not playing at Ibrox is no surprise. Selling Hartley to either of the gruesome twosome will upset and disturb many Hearts supporters. We have all believed that one of the major plus points of having Vlad around is his dislike for the Old Firm, their duopoly! Hence he gives the impression at least that he would not wish to do business with them. Selling one of our best players then to Rangers will signal a reversal of this stance and serve to reduce our belief in his oft stated lofty ambitions. If the deal goes through with Rangers, Hearts will have offloaded two of the Riccarton 3, one each to the ugly sisters. Regardless of anything else this can only be seen as battles lost by Vlad and Hearts in their war against the dominance of the Old Firm. More, from an objective viewpoint it can be seen as not much other than strategic errors on the part of General Romanov.
That said, Hearts have had the best years of Paul Hartley and i am not against selling him if the money is right, would much rather it was to an English outfit however. We shall see.

So with the media frenzy aiming it's sights firmly in the direction of the Tynecastle circus, hearts turned up at Ibrox for a game which would go a very long way to deciding the rest of the season for Hearts at least. A win for Rangers would provide them 8 points of clear water over Hearts in the race for 2nd place and the Champions League spot. A win for hearts reducing that to 2 points and game on.
It is a completely different Rangers team ofcourse, however it is perhaps telling that they now have instilled in their ranks two of the stalwarts of their nine-in-a-row years. Walter Smith back at the helm and Ally McMoist as his 2nd in command. During those years, Rangers regularly killed off Celtics challenges by drawing with them when Celtic really needed the win.
For Rangers then 5 points ahead of Hearts, a draw is much more useful than it is to Hearts. That said after a fairly dominant 2nd half by the home team Hearts were definitely the happier to leave Ibrox with the point gained and no ground lost, to Rangers at least. Both Hibs and Aberdeen winning has brought the 4 tighter than they have been for a good few weeks now.

The game itself is not worth dwelling on, a fairly even first half where quality was low and efforts relatively few and far between was replaced by a 2nd half of dominance by Rangers and rearguard action supplemented by hit on the break tactics by Hearts.
Rangers had the ball in the back of the net but Barry Ferguson's effort was chalked off for offside.
A couple of other efforts by Rangers came close but really i prefer to see this one as further evidence of Hearts meanness in defence than anything else.

Scottish cup next week, away to Dunfermline - i have a funny feeling!

HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS

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!