tm4tj

Battle of the reds at Tynecastle It's off to the capital this weekend as in the red Hearts take on red card Inverness. Vladimir Romanov has slapped a £50m price tag on the maroons allegedly, and when asked again he retorted "that's five zero"; let's hope that's not the scoreline this Saturday. Inverness were involved in headlines themselves after last weekends game with Celtic when bemused midfielderGreg Tansey was sent packing after challenging for a high ball with Celtic's Greek striker Georgios Samaras. This was the third controversial sending off for the Caley Jags this season, and each one has cost the club dearly in terms of points lost. Greg's alleged crime was for elbowing the Greek, in the opinion of referee Steven O'Reilly, who was the only person in front of a few million watchers who saw the incident that way. It was no more than a careless challenge as Tansey's finger tips caressed the hirsute Samaras' cheek and long flowing locks, ooerr Greg, steady on. Inverness fan Donnie Matheson of D&E Coaches felt so aggrieved by this decision he contacted the club and offered to pay the costs of an appeal to help offset any outlay incurred, a fantastic gesture from this committed fan, even from his sunbed in Lanzarote. The appeal was discussed on Thursday by the beaks at Hampden, and knock me down with a feather, but it was successful as referee O'Reilly agreed with the rest of the world that he had made an error, having seen footage that vindicated Tansey. This means that Greg will be free to play if selected at Tynecastle and he never even received a yellow for the challenge...... nuff said. However, let's just be happy that this dream that Yngwie had never materialised:- zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ The SFA is delighted to confirm that the red card issued to the player will not be overturned, and our only regret is that we can’t somehow pin this one on Ross Tokely. And believe me, we tried. The referee’s match report noted that the Highland thug launched a rapid and unprovoked assault on poor Georgios Samaras comprising an elbow in the face, followed by a double uppercut, a karate kid style crane kick and then to add insult to injury, a humiliating wedgie. Brave Georgios was miraculously able to continue with the game after only a few minutes rolling around clutching his battered face. The speed of the attack on Samaras was too fast to be properly recorded by any recording equipment present at the crappy little ground, but still images captured clearly show Tansey “looking at him in a funny way” followed a few seconds later by the victim having more than one hair out of place. The referee has provided some crayon sketches to fill the gaps, which conclusively prove his version of events. On the plus side, one of our forum users was almost added to the beaks committee.........We also considered an application to join the panel from a Mr DalneighCaley, but internet research revealed his opinions on the incident were far too sympathetic and reasoned to be suitable for us. But we did like his point that Butcher himself used the term “assault” and gave him a much needed green dot. Blimey, that poor fella’s picked up more reds than ICT. (any similarity to persons and events elsewhere are purely coincidental and nobody was injured in the making of this dream).........ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Wake up Yngwie! It's all happening down Tynecastle way just now. Players not being paid on time, hints at a player cull being on the horizon and news that Romanov will sell the club or take on a new investment partner, have unsettled the Hearts fans. All this in the face of a £33m tax bill does not make for encouraging reading for the rest of Scottish Football. When clubs like Hearts are struggling to make ends meet, it's comforting to know that some are willing to live within their means to achieve relative success. Success is what you make of it, expectations are a dangerous thing and failure to meet expectations can ruin a club. Some light relief was unveiled for the 7th of January as Inverness received the Parfect draw in the Scottish Cup 4th round. The only all SPL tie as they were paired with fellow SPL strugglers Dunfermline Athletic. Oh well, at least it is a home tie, but after witnessing the performance against the Pars in the last SPL game in Inverness, not a forgone conclusion that we will overcome them in the Cup. Contrast this with Junior Football side Auchinleck Talbot being Hearts opponents at Tynecastle: Aye, that's the romance of the Scottish Cup. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alternative Maryhill tries his hand at his first Tynecastle preview and has plenty of ammo to whet your appetite..... Heart of Midlothian v Inverness Caledonian Thistle, 26th November 2011 Heart of Midlothian. A name which, when first heard, must be one of the most romantic-sounding anywhere in football. Yet its origins are anything but. The name was first coined ironically to describe Edinburgh’s tolbooth prison, which stood for nearly four centuries beside St Giles’ on the Royal Mile and was notorious as a place of execution and torture, with spikes adorning the outside walls to display the heads and body parts of its most recent victims. In his 1818 state-of-the nation novel The Heart of Midlothian, Sir Walter Scott tried to rehabilitate the name by using it to describe his heroine Jeannie Deans, the humble cow-feeder’s daughter who is supposed to symbolise the innate virtue of the Scottish people, but who is in reality one of the most annoyingly pious characters ever to have made it onto a page. There is no clear consensus over whether the football club of the same name founded in 1874 took its name from the prison or the novel, and Hearts today seem to embody aspects of each: the torture of sitting through 300-odd minutes since the team last scored; the ‘Hearts Legends’ banners of the likes of Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley leering from the floodlight stanchions like disembodied execution victims; and the smug self-regard of (some of) its supporters, who flood onto popular Scottish football websites and spray meaningless gifs all over them. Recently, of course, the name has taken on a whole new set of associations, most of them related in some way to Hearts’ owner, the submarine-piloting, Loch-Ness-swimming, with-the-stars-dancing Vladimir Romanov. Hearts have boasted some interesting characters at boardroom level in the past, notably Wallace Mercer, who madly tried to merge the club with Hibs, and rotund policeman-punching MP George Foulkes, but in his seven years in charge, Romanov has taken ‘interesting’ to a whole new level. Having arrived in Edinburgh claiming that he would make Hearts a team capable for challenging for the SPL title and European trophies, Romanov has worked his way through several hundred Eastern-European loan players and at least nine managers, the most successful of whom was sacked with the club sitting on top of the league and unbeaten after ten games, with rumours flying of Romanov trying to select the team himself; he has accused Hearts players of being targeted by ‘criminals’, ‘maniacs’ and ‘the mafia’, and the SFA and referees of waging a seven-year campaign against Hearts (no-one connected with ICT could ever be so paranoid...); and while taking the club into a debt of £30 million, with an outlay of a quarter of a million per week for wages whose payment is not always certain, he has presided over the winning of one trophy, via a penalty shoot-out against Gretna. Hardly Chelsea. In the past month, Romanov has announced that he wants out of Scottish football and that Hearts are up for sale at the knock-down price of £50 million. Surprisingly, potential buyers have not been knocking down his maroon doors... So, with Hearts’ finances allegedly in disarray and future allegedly in doubt, should Caley Thistle be confident of beating them on Saturday? On the basis of history, probably not. In twenty league games, ICT have won only three times. Two of these were among the most entertaining and dramatic of the fixtures – a 2-1 win in Inverness in September 2007 with Craig Brewster scoring the winner in the final minute to end a season-opening sequence of six straight defeats, and a 3-2 win at Tynecastle three days before Christmas in the same year, when Graeme Bayne scored the winner in injury time after Hearts had equalised with a ninetieth-minute penalty – but the majority of games between the sides have been stupefyingly dull. Six of Hearts’ ten wins have finished 1-0, and there have been three 0-0 draws and four 1-1 draws, including the last three games between the sides. The odds on a fourth successive 1-1 are probably not particularly long. Team News With Thursday’s news that Greg Tansey’s red card against Celtic has been rescinded, Caley Thistle’s squad is probably as strong as it has been all season. Owain Tudur-Jones is still injured, and although Aaron Doran is thought to be back in training, this game will come too soon for him. Although the team created few clear-cut chances against Celtic, they played a lot of good football, and it is likely that Terry Butcher will pick the same team that started against Celtic: Esson in goals, Meekings, Hogg, Tokely and Gillet in defence, Davis and Tansey lying deeper in midfield and Tade at the head of what is approximately an attacking diamond also featuring Hayes, Andrew Shinnie and Foran. The BBC has no up-to-date team news for Hearts, and trying to pick through the acres of gifs and Hibs-Hearts name-calling on P&B has simply become too tedious, so I have no clear idea of what Hearts’ player availability is like for Saturday. What is apparent, however, is that Hearts’ manager Paulo Sergio has aimed for more stability of team selection than Hearts have been known for in recent years. In their last four games, despite the team having lost three and drawn one without scoring a single goal, the team selection has been remarkably consistent: against Kilmarnock and Rangers the teams were identical; against St Mirren Ryan McGowan came in for the injured Danny Grainger and Mehdi Taouil for the suspended Ian Black; and against Dundee United Taouil was replaced by John Sutton. Having seen Sutton, David Templeton and Ryan Stevenson tear Caley Thistle defences apart at different times over the last few years, it seems amazing to me that Hearts have not scored in the league in 376 minutes; if they decide to start finding the net on Saturday, let’s hope that Shinnie, Tade and Hayes are in a Rugby Park kind of mindset... Prediction As always with ICT, who can say? This games pitches the second best defence in the league (Hearts, ten goals conceded) against the second worst (ICT, thirty goals conceded), and the team with the worst goal tally in the league (Hearts, thirteen goals scored) against the team with the sixth best (ICT, nineteen goals scored). Hearts’ form is dreadful, ICT’s is all over the place... I’m taking the easy option: Heart of Midlothian 1, Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1 Latest Team News Inverness will be without the long term casualties for another few weeks, although Owain Tudur-Jones is ahead of schedule and is training lightly. Aaron Doran is also doing fitness training and both could feature early in the new year. Nick Ross and Lee Cox can be added to the squad and it is now down to the managers discretion who to involve and who to leave out. Horses for courses spring to mind. Greg Tansey will be included in the squad after his successful appeal . So, it could be along the same starting line up for Butcher's boys. Hearts manager Paulo Sergio has plenty of issues going on in and around Tynecastle to contend with, including his own 5 match dugout ban which started last week at Tannadice. Nineteen senior players are apparently out of contract this summer and that will make for uncertain times down Gorgie way, but nobody can doubt the talent that the club has on the field of play, with super talented kids like Ryan Stevenson and David Templeton at their disposal. Nemesis, Kevin Kyle is out long term, and Darren Barr, Gary Glen, Suso Santana and Danny Grainger are all sidelined. Former ICT midfielder Ian Black completes the last of his three match suspension today. Other SPL News Dunfermline failed to take advantage of their game in hand at the bottom of the table as they lost 2-1 to Celtic in midweek who have moved to only 7 points behind table toppers Rangers. The Pars stay 1 point ahead of Inverness and Aberdeen at the foot of the league but their goal difference is now 4 worse than Inverness' tally. Hibernian have confirmed that Pat Fenlon will take over the reins from Colin Calderwood and he has signed a two and a half year contract. Forty two year old Fenlon arrives from Irish outfit Bohemians, who only managed fifth last year. Fenlon played all of his senior career in Ireland. Rangers have also confirmed a signing, that of former Aberdeen winger Sone Aluko who has signed on at Ibrox until the end of the season after agreeing compensation with the Dons.

Irish Karaoke Heads North Celtic and their singers will be out in force in Inverness this Saturday, just after noon, for the early kick-off against a rejuvenated Inverness, fresh from their fireworks at Kilmarnock. The Glasgow club have recovered some form after a shaky period which has seen champions Rangers open up a twelve point gap at the top of the table. Europa league victory over Rennes and an SPL win in the crunch game for second place over Motherwell has boosted their confidence, and their fans expectations are recovering somewhat. Neil Lennon, he of the Juanjo incident, is not out of the woods yet and defeat in the Highlands would not best please the Celtic board. Once again the international break disrupted the flow of the SPL games as Scotland went to Cyprus for a break, and won 1-2 with a brilliant finish from Kenny Miller the pick of the goals as the Cypriots rattled the woodwork around McGregor. Celtic's Daniel Majstorovic got himself into the record books in the England v Sweden international match. His header was the 2000th goal scored by England. Congratulations Daniel, it took England 43 years to beat Sweden, you must be so proud. Not to be outdone on the international front, Terry Butcher has become the first Englishman to be inducted into the Scottish Football Museum's Hall of Fame. A great accolade for Singapore born Butcher who has spent something like half of the last twenty-five years plying his trade north of the border. Terry played at Rangers for four and a half seasons and has manager of Motherwell and Scotland assistant manger to add to his CV. But, we are here to look forward to this weekends game, weather permitting, at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, scene of some dramatic encounters between these two sides. Who can forget the second Scottish Cup win for Inverness when a Dennis Wyness goal put Celtic out of the competition, or Michael Fraser's outstanding save as we came from two goals down to win 3-2, with ten men, and of course the game that decided last seasons destination for the SPL trophy as an inspired Inverness took the wind out of Celtic's sails with another sensational 3-2 win. There are however, some games we would rather not be reminded of, such as the cup game in 2007 when after leading the Hoops for 71 minutes, eventually losing 1-2 as Pressley and Miller scored 89th and 90th minute goals to ruin Graeme Bayne's 18th minute strike. Annoyingly, Celtic duplicated the scoreline in 2010 as Ledley scored a brace after Rooney had netted a penalty before half-time. Aye, there has been some wonderful games between these two sides, let's hope it's football that makes the headlines this weekend and not the karaoke, or is it more like the X-Factor. Remember this is a 12:30 kick off for this televised game GingerJaggy is looking ahead to this game and has put together this preview for you.............. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The last international break is over; it is time for the major push before the festive period. Caley Thistle still sit bottom of the table but things are now looking like they are coming together for Terry Butcher's new lads. After the debacle at St Johnstone when it looked like 11 men had been picked up off the street prior to kick-off, Inverness has slowly but surely started to hopefully turn the corner. It has been frustrating so far this season with Caley Thistle not picking up the points that some of their performances have merited. This is reflected by the brilliant performance against Motherwell with no reward, Rugby Park though, we hope, was the day when CaleyThistle made the breakthrough. That 6-3 result has given everyone a huge lift as Celtic lies in wait to become Inverness's next victim, fingers crossed. The history of this fixture will have been regurgitated so many times because of our ability to shock the club from the east end of Glasgow. Everyone will always remember the 8th of February 2000, and Dennis Wyness against Martin O Neil's European finalists. For all of Craig Brewster's failings in his second spell he still gave us one of the best comebacks in our history. Celtic were 2-0 up before the half hour mark and looked like there was very little hope of securing any points. But a John Rankin penalty, a David Proctor header and a neat finish from Don Cowie turned the tie on its head. We even managed to hold on to the lead with 10 men for about 20 minutes. They were three great results and this hoodoo we seem to have over the Parkhead club has continued under Terry Butcher's leadership. Celtic at home in his first match always looked hard but a battling performance meant we came away with a point. That was a taster of things to come with Butcher master minding a 2-0 deficit into a point at Parkhead last season. But this was eclipsed by a performance that can only be described as heroic. The game had no meaning for an Inverness team that were safe from relegation and looking pretty comfortable to finish top of the bottom six. Add in the news that two of the club legends were being released, suddenly Caley did have something to play for; pride to wear the badge. It ended 3-2 but in truth the score line flattered Celtic who could have been on the end of an absolute tanking. This season has seen the teams play only once. That was in Glasgow with the home side ending up 2-0 winners but the result wasn't as comfortable as it suggests as Caley Thistle put in a real good shift and were unlucky not to at least have our name on the score sheet. The form of the Hoops this season should be an encouragement for the homesters. Celtic has conceded a lot more goals than they are used to and have dropped points in unexpected games this season. Hibs and St Johnstone have already been and taken points off them at Parkhead with the latter actually winning the game. They have also been beaten at Hearts and had to come back from 3-0 down at Kilmarnock to rescue a point. Obviously our form hasn't been too consistent so far this season but our home form has been pretty decent. We should have picked up a few more points from some of our home performances this season, but things are hopefully looking up. The 6-3 a couple of weeks ago was just what the doctor ordered and after a slow start it looks like we have got ourselves a gem in attacking midfielder Andrew Shinnie. He has now scored 5 in the league with his last four coming in the last 2 matches. Inverness always gives the Old Firm a tough game in the highlands and I don't see any different here as all the pressure will be on Celtic who vitally need the win to try and reduce Rangers lead down from 12points. The pressure certainly isn't on us, even if we are still languishing at the bottom of the table after this match the gap between us and 4th place is only 7 points. We won't get relegated losing this game and so here is hoping we can excel again and get off the bottom of the table. This game won't be easy; it is one of the Old Firm after all. But what the last game has shown all the supporters is that we are a better side than what the league table currently suggests. We have had some really good performances this season and not reaped the reward that some of them have deserved. Celtic haven't been at their best so far this season and so should give us optimism to write another chapter in this remarkable story of being Celtic's bogey team. Latest Team News Inverness' hall of fame & Doctor of Sport, Terry Butcher, will still be without long term absentees Aaron Doran and Owain Tudur-Jones. Doran has begun some light work, but neither will figure until after the new year. Lee Cox and Nick Ross played in a bounce game against Aberdeen this week and could come into contention, as will Chris Hogg and Thomas Piermayr, both ready after suspension. Forgotten man Billy McKay (who?) did not feature. Butcher's problems are now metamorphing from who to play to who to leave out, but after the scintilating performance at Rugby Park he should be cautious to tinker with the team selection too much. Celtic's under fire manager Neil Lennon has Kris Commons and Gary Hooper itching for a start. One man not on the team sheet will be Mohamed Bangura who may require an operation to repair a knee problem. Ki Sung-Yueng and Cha Du-Ri both hobbled back from international duty and are struggling for this clash. Charlie Mulgrew and Glenn Loovens are still missing, but Joe Ledley returns after a calf injury. On the brighter side, England's landmark 2000th goal scorer Daniel Majstorovic is fresh though, and that should be a bonus for Gregory Tade. Karaoke or X-Factor, let's look forward to an entertaining days sport and the possibility of moving off the foot of the table could be enough for Inverness to remain undefeated on the day, X factor for me. Scoring draw on the coupon. SPL News The SPL will require a new sponsor in 2013 as the Clydesdale Bank will end it's handouts at the end of next season. The bank has been dishing out the money since 2007. Neil Doncaster believes that all the controversy surrounding the game north of the border is positive publicity..........Aye right, does he also believe in Santa? Billy Brown has thrown his name into the mix for the vacancy at Easter Road. He was the current number two to the deposed Colin Calderwood and feels the time is right to step up to the managers position. Brown has served a long apprenticeship following Jim Jeffries around for some 23 years. He will be in charge for this weekend's game against Kilmarnock. Pat Fenlon and Michael O'Neill are thought to be among the top candidates out of ninety plus applicants. Hearts have a novel way of keeping the wage bills down. For the second month running the players have not received their wages on time, allegedly due to the club trying to pay off a £1,000,000 tax bill. On top of this, Paulo Sergio has received a five match ban and even worse, rumours abound that Vladimir Romanov is about to sell Hearts............trouble ahead methinks. Dunfermline are jumping on the cost cutting bandwagon and expect to save £20,000 per season by closing their North Stand. Rangers date with the tax man has been put back to the middle of January as her majesty's revenue and customs man tries to recover a staggering total of £49,000,000. Administration beckons if the Ibrox club lose this one in the courts. Robbie Neilson & Stephen Hughes have joined Dundee United and Motherwell respectively. Both former Hearts players, Neilson has signed on at Tannadice until the end of the season and midfielder Hughes signs on at Motherwell until the new year. Sone Aluko has gone on trial at Ibrox. The former Aberdeen player is without a club at present and is training with Rangers this week. Aluko had scored 13 goals in four seasons at Pittodrie. Minor League news Meanwhile, back in Scotland during the international break, a Grant Munro inspired Ross County continued their march towards the SPL with a fine 3-1 victory over nearest challengers Falkirk, which sees them open up a six point gap at this stage of the season; better get those extra seats installed pronto gudgies. Whatever next.