The Mantis

At least it's not a wee team like Alloa where we can't cope with being favourites.

Can't see me travelling up for that one in midweek though. I must admit I'm a wee bit tempted to watch Hibs/Gretna.

I know what C100 means though. Against St Mirren Caff could defend but we didn't really need that for the first hour as St Mirren were pretty gash. We needed him to get forward or at least play a forward pass. St Mirren pressed and Caff just kept lumping these diagonal balls from his own half. Rossco would have asked them a lot more questions.

I'm just getting frustrated remembering that game, if we played at all we would have gubbed them. When Dargo scored the first it should have ended 3-0.

Hartley papers over the cracks

Hearts 4 / Inverness 1

Alan Campbell at Tynecastle

WHATEVER Hearts pay Paul Hartley it’s not enough. The Scotland midfielder continued his recovery from injury by cementing the cracks in a patched-together Tynecastle side who, despite his massive contribution, did not deserve this flattering scoreline.

Hearts got away with it yesterday against an Inverness side who, on many occasions, just failed to find the final touch in front of goal and also encountered Craig Gordon at his solid, dependable best. Six Hearts players made their competitive Tynecastle debuts yesterday, but if the selectors believe they can get away with such wholesale changes on a regular basis they’re kidding themselves.

Two late goals gave the scoreline a gloss which looked impossible when Caley had the home side pinned back for long spells of the second half. Still, the three points and similar boost to the goal difference were gratefully accepted by manager Valdas Ivanauskas as his side went second behind Celtic.

With Robbie Neilson suspended and his deputy Ibrahim Tall injured – how that statement sums up Hearts’ season so far – the Tynecastle club were forced to bring in Tiago Costa at right back. If that was enforced, few were prepared for the other widespread changes in the home side.

Takis Fyssas, who has made an unconvincing start to the season, was replaced on the other flank by Lee Wallace, while inside the young left back was Greek defender Christos Karipidis. He replaced Christophe Berra, who wasn’t even on the bench, leaving captain Steven Pressley as the only established member of the back four in the line-up.

In midfield, recent Lithuanian signing Marius Zaliukas was introduced in place of Julien Brellier, sent off against AEK Athens in midweek but eligible for domestic football. He wasn’t on the bench but Bruno Aguiar, who didn’t play in midweek, was.

Completing the all-change Hearts side were strikers Jamie Mole and the Chilean Mauricio Pinilla. In all, five of the starters were making their debuts at Tynecastle, while Costa and Zaliukas were playing their first games for the club at any venue.

Later, Ivanauskas, while pleased with the result, refused to say if Brellier, Berra or any other player for that matter, had been injured or rested. His refusal to reply, even when pressed, will fuel speculation that the French midfielder was dropped.

Inverness fielded their usual, settled side, and it was hardly surprising that their play was often more cohesive and joined-up than the home side’s. But on a day when all the breaks went Hearts’ way, Christie’s side got no reward.

An early indicator of how the Gods were smiling on the home team came in the seventh minute when a harmless-looking free-kick taken well inside his own half by Gordon was allowed to bounce in the Inverness box and nearly caught out Mark Brown, who had to desperately tip the ball over the bar.

While little else looked promising for Hearts, who were lucky to escape when a Dennis Wyness shot went just wide, the most pleasing aspect for the home supporters was the bright play of Pinilla and Mole, his young striking partner. The latter had run himself into the ground in Athens but showed no sign of tiredness, while the Chilean internationalist, who has failed to settle in Europe, looked like he could be a very dangerous addition to the side once he is match fit.

That this pair started the match while Calum Elliot had been released on loan to Motherwell is just one of many mysteries swirling around Tynecastle, but both will now provide genuine competition to the first choice pairing of Edgaras Jankauskas and Roman Bednar. By the end of the first half both had scored, the first going to Pinilla in controversial circumstances.

Neil McCann appeared to have passed the ball back to Gordon, and when the goalkeeper picked it up Caley howled for a free-kick. Instead, referee Steve Conroy waved play on and Zaliukas, whose general performance did not inspire confidence, fed McCann. The winger, who has been under pressure from the Hearts supporters, swung over a cross which Pinilla, to the delight of the same legions, side-footed into the net.

Inverness manager Charlie Christie, who said he was told by the fourth official that McCann’s pass-back had been intended for full back Wallace and not Gordon, was furious. “If that was at the other end, then 99 times out of 100 it would have been given as a pass-back to the keeper,” he said.

“It was a lame excuse to say it was a pass to the full back – maybe it’s the Tynecastle crowd.”

When Caley equalised, it was no more than they deserved. Gordon had already had to prove his worth by saving from a Graham Bayne header and a Barry Wilson 30-yard shot when the latter, having switched out to the left, crossed to the former and he took advantage of poor marking to make it 1-1.

Throughout all this, Hartley, with his chest jutting out, had been holding things together for Hearts and three minutes from the interval a trademark free-kick from the right of the box found the head of Mole, who put his side back ahead.

The lead often looked fragile in the second half as Caley pushed forward for their second equaliser of the day.

They deserved it, and should have got it when Wilson missed a sitter, but were made to pay heavily when substitutes Andrew Driver – the sixth player of the afternoon to make his Tynecastle competitive debut – and Aguiar gave the scoreline a scarcely believable look.

27 August 2006

Aye, paint half of it white to keep that cnut happy  :015:

I said on another thread that we need Russeldinho in the team. Despite not being a fans favourite he holds it all together and his workrate is phenomenal. Credit to CC for trying the two wee guys and playing a bit more football though, I thought it was a mistake against the tic but yesterday it just might have paid off.

The point was made that 4-1 is still a gubbing (and I'll have to take a lot of stick at work this week). I would say if the defence is going to lose 4 goals, we may as well do it in one game  :017:

But I've seen games at Clyde, Morton, Livi, Airdrie etc which really were gubbings. People booed the team off or left early.

But remember we lost 3-1 at Dens in Jan 2005 soon after Brew was appointed. Anybody who was there will know these things happen. We had about 22 shots that day to Dundee's 7 or 8 and their keeper was MoM. We went on to a long undefeated away run after that until the next season.

I don't think we're the worst side in the league and we've had some hard fixtures to start. I still think the St Mirren game was a fluke and I hope the players will restore their pride down at their place in November. I was never sure about top 6 though, the squad is bigger than last year but no better in quality. The players have overachieved for 2 years if you ask me, but in some ways it's better to have 11 Scots/heelanders on a modest wage, playing for the jersey, than a year watching the likes of Scacel, Juanjo, Xausa, Fernandez etc.

Sounds like your fault then  :015: :015: :015:

Ian's book is only 2 years old- it was written to celebrate 10 years of the club and coincided with us reaching the SPL. I can't remember a black player ever turning out for us, never mind a big, bearded, afro-ed one. We tend to do small, pasty and ginger as a rule  :015: :015: :015: :015:

Feck me, it's Father Jack. It doesn't take a genius to read the posts above and see the implication that the defence (including Rossco) was gash. If you think anybody's picking Ross as MOM a word of advice, don't take up mind reading as a career.  Hasteens gave it away a lot too. Can't complain too much about Granty and Dodsy. The defence had an off day, so what, normally we can rely on them. We were still in the game with 11 mins left.

Nobody goes to Tynecastle and wins 11 corners, against a team with their resources, without offering something. Compared to what I've seen this season (just St Mirren & Celtic games) that was a big improvement.

BTW Rory tries, but if you say it's ability you want, don't look there for it. And he let himself down by flashing the vickies at the Wheatfield Stand.

Just back home and feckin starving so:

4-1 flatters the jambos. If we play like that every week no problem. The first goal was a good finish by the heidband after McCann's fine cross. The other 3 were sloppy defending. Should have gone in at 1-1 but somebody left the mole unmarked at the back post. Big Ross made a howler of a mistake for 3-1 and the 4th on 90 mins looked a blunder too. Great game actually but we have to get some points against the diddy teams, especially the Pars. St Mirren was a far worse result than this.

As for Lizzie I think her proper title is Queen Elizabeth 1st of Scots and 2nd of England

I've seen no evidence of that at all. A quick trawl of the internet confirms that she's known as Elizabeth II almost everywhere.

Anyway, it didn't stop them putting "ER II' on postboxes and naming ships after her though did it? They've only backtracked in recent years because people got up their noses, or blew up pillar boxes.

Next campaign: get the BBC to stop referring to 'The North' and 'The Northeast' when they mean 'the bit slightly past the middle' and 'the bit about halfway up the east coast'.

Tesco are a shower of b@stards  :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

Feck me, bring back relejags  :sleep01: :sleep01: :sleep01: :sleep01: :sleep01:

Well I suppose somebody has to point out that there was no 'Britain' in 1553 so the year WE had 3 monarchs is 1936. Just like there is no Elizabeth II.

An Alloa team with 10 men being held to 2-1 by Ross Gypo is the shock of the round for me.

Surely not even Feyenoord FC would relish being drawn away at The Recs.

Ah yes and you lot, the fakes, decided to copy us months after we did to use this software for your website.  :014:

(And it' still not as good as TJE.com, think on. :016:)

What a witty fecker yon dutch bloke is.

Feckin knew it- 1-1.

I hear ICT are strolling about..... should go for the jugular before HT.

I remember them, Nairn County right? Is that them that went out of the CIS to a load of part timers with 10 men from a lower division?  :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

I thought it was IHE

I liked Strachan's idea of kicking the ball in their own net.

Still as long as we've got Granty to do it for them- they didn't half shut the phuq up when that one went in the pokey  :015: :015: :015: :015:

You have to admire Charlie for trying to play a bit more football by combining the two midgets in midfield, but most weeks you need Russeldinho in there somewhere I'm afraid, doing all the grafting.

We did well last season by playing to our strengths. Maybe we can play the silky stuff against the bottom 6 teams but against the twins of evil and probably the Hibs and JTs we need to graft.

Just back to the stattothon for a sec- it was definitely the arabs in 87 Sandy, I was working beside one at the time.

The media made them favourites and of course he was suicidal when the inevitable happened and 'hun features' Ian Ferguson scored the winner.

That was my first look at Santa today. I see we've got our very own Laura doing Ballistics adverts  :015:

You forgot St Midden in 87...

I thought it was one of those cups that county could enter.

I think ICT's basic last season was in the region of £650 p/w but there was talk of the players getting a pay hike this season as a reward for last year. What about Utd?