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

A measure of our civility

Seems like ages, it has been ages since i have been able to write a match report that wasn't filled, consumed by a pantomime of events off the pitch, and some pretty shocking football on the pitch.
It is with great pleasure that i can firmly say, todays match report will be full of all that is good in the world of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. As such i will not comment upon that other momentous event of Saturday 9th December 2006 - the 'amicable' parting of the ways between our club captain Stephen Pressley and Hearts.

A few weeks back i mentioned a bloke in the work and his formula for predicting scorelines, well it is now 2 - 1 to 'the gut feel' against the 'method'. I predicted a 3 - 1 victory for Hearts yesterday whilst his formula had a depressing 1 - 1 draw as the most likely outcome. All i could put my finger by way of rationale for my prediction was - 'i just think the time is right for Hearts to start to turn things around' it's not often that i am wrong but i was right again.
I was 100% certain that Hearts would get the victory needed to kickstart the season, the signs have been there for the last few games, more and more we have looked to be hobbled by a constricting lack of confidence rather than any serious lack of ability. So for me someone was going to get it and Motherwell were as good as anyone to take the beating.

With Pressley out it would have been prudent i thought to keep Robbie Nielson in the team but no Ivanauskas moved Barasa back to right back slot, alongside Tall, Zaliukas and Fyassas.
Neil McCann was also back in on the left wing, Hartley suspended so the rest of the midfield was made up of Brellier, Aguair and Miko ( noticed during the game a difinite effort by the Hearts support to encourage Miko rather than berate him ). Up front Jankauskas and Velicka.

Hearts started the game well, playing the game well on both flanks, Fyassas/McCann in particular seemed to be working well together and Jankauskas looked hungry and capable up front, leading the line well and able to hold the ball up to bring the rest of the team into the game. Nothing brilliant but Hearts were well in control and looking strong and confident.
A fine inside ball by McCann put the overlapping Fyassas clean through on goal, he struck low and true and in off the far post.

Fyssas scores his first goal for Hearts is this a turning point for Hearts season?

This is brilliant it takes me back to the halcion days of last season, there was a time when the sum of our worries was - 'that Takis Fyssas, he is so desperate to score for Hearts i wonder when his goal will come' . At the end of last season i voted Fyssas as my favourite player of the year, see BRING IT ON I for one am absolutely delighted for him. On top of that he looked much more like his old self again, looking fit and reading the game well and linking up with midfield, by later in the game he was having a ball..
Hearts were in complete control and looking like number two was on it's way, Motherwell struggling to get out of their own half and you could have sworn it was a year ago. So here is where reality strikes to stop us from getting carried away - our perpetually manipulated back 4 is a bit ropey folks! As soon as the two Motherwell forwards started their run through the middle to beat the offside trap and the ball was played out wide, my heart was in my throat and the goal looked innevitable and so it was, the ball squared the Hearts defence posted missing and Gordon no chance as the ball was clipped into the net on his left, Gordon got a hand to it but not enough to keep it out.
I am not sure who was to blame for that goal, i just thought it was far too easy a goal to lose, Craig Gordon however knew exactly who to blame, directing his disgust at Zaliukas.
So this is where we are in our recuperation, it is still very early days, that goal served to knock the stuffing right out of Hearts for the rest of the half. In that remainder before the break the football was again pretty dire, Motherwell were not bringing much to the party but Hearts looked familiar in their mallaise, their inability to connect with each other.

Half Time
HMFC 1 - Motherwell 1


At the half time i pondered over the atmosphere in the ground, there had been a some chanting in support of Pressley but i think we had more or less accepted the innevitable and just wanted the team to succeed, not exactly bouyant but at least behind the team, all of them.
One guy a few seats behind me decided he would launch a vicious attack on the opposition strikeforce. To the tune, that back in the day when football was much more of a uncivilised adventure, you would hear such gems as - 'your going home in a f***ing ambulance', this guy coined the classic 'ginger hair is unnacceptable'. Which ofcourse it is, but did serve to remind me how much the game has civilised itself over the last 20 years - unless i guess you are a ginger!

Somebody, lets hope it was Valdas Ivanauskas had a word with the team at half time, Hearts were back to the way they started the game, again looking confident and hungry. That said games turn on a split second, a mistake a knife edge. Hearts had a free kick on the left about 40 yards out, a decent opportunity to send in a dengerous cross. Bruno Aguiar sent the ball raking into the box with venom, it struck a Motherwell defenders head, left the goalie no chance and nesteled into the top corner. Given the frailties of Hearts defence and our fragile confidence it is easy to see how if that had not gone in the game could have petered out to another depressing scoreline for Hearts. It did go in though and the important thing Hearts made the most out of it!
The next 15 minutes saw Hearts play Motherwell right out of the game with another two goals. The first came from a precise ball clipped through the centre right into that space behind the defence and in front of the keeper. Velicka running onto it. The race was on, the keeper tearing out, the rest of the defence trailing, Velicka got there first. He had a choice to go round the keeper or take the sometimes more risky route of clipping the lob over him. He went for the lob which he executed perfectly ( makes me think that a couple of weeks ago it would have gone over ). The response from the crowd was tumultuous, the first time in a couple of months that a Hearts support has witnessed a goal that they knew was the winner!
Hearts were now in full flow, Aguair running the show in midfield and both flanks working pretty well Fyassas and McCann were really enjoying themselves down the left, Miko and Barassa were a bit more industrial on the right but the balls were coming into the box just the same.
A free kick about 30 yards out slightly to the left of goal, i sit in the perfect position to high above the goals and could see that the wall was not positioned as well as it could have been, the obvious shot being to curl the ball round the left of the wall and into the bottom corner. That is exactly what Aguair did, splendid goal indeed. The keeper scrambled across but just couldn't make it.
McCann missed a sitter as the keeper saved from a point blank header it fell to McCann just 6 yards out, he skewed it wide and over, pity it would have capped a pretty good comeback game at Tynecastle for him. Miko also had a decent chance to make it 5 but it was one of those where he had too much time and ended up caught in two minds, made it easy for the keeper.

So that was it a great result for Hearts in the end and the kind of game where good runs can be started, we certainly need it.

HMFC 4 - Motherwell 1

HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS