ALSY

This is an excellent summary. I thought Tade had a great game playing wide left though - I'd keep him there with Mackay through the middle for the foreseeable. Not sure about Sutherland - he's yet to convince me. Butcher has a couple of selection dilemmas for next week now. Graeme Shinnie was superb and surely has to keep the left back role, but do we start with Gillet on the right again? if Davis comes back in, who should he replace? And given the impact Andrew Shinnie had, he should surely start, but who does he replace?

And now we will be missing Davis, and probably Hogg, at Ibrox. What was that you were saying about me being 'optimistic', Johndo? Feck that...

I'm guessing that TB will cite the injury to Hogg as at least partly to blame this time. Sounds a bit more as if, when United starting throwing all they had at us, we simply couldn't cope.

FFS. Golabart og. As Irvine says, could easily see us losing this now. Sounds like we've barely had a kick since we scored the second.

@rse! WHY can't we keep a clean sheet?

Houston, we have a striker! Mackay, 2-0!

Agree with that, and it sounds like we have had plenty of chances and just haven't taken them. Was surprised to hear Brian Irvine say that United would be entitled to feel a little aggrieved - the commentary made it sound to me as if we were streets ahead. It was interesting, though, to hear Irvine say he'd been disappointed with Foran this season, and with the quality of his final ball in particular - it has often been poor when I've seen him recently.

6/6 for your command of adjectives, Johndo. I'm a bit worried that you keep asking me to feck you though - still a little turned on by the jumper I was wearing in the Diggers, perhaps?

Radio commentary was a bit unclear, but it sounded like Mackay-Steven was breaking away, Hogg was chasing back and tried to put in a challenge, Davis came in at the same time and Hogg ended up getting the worst of it. Davis has gone to right back - bit of a loss from midfield after the fine game he had last week. Team still seems to be playing good football though.

Sounds bad. Lee Cox coming on - wonder if he'll go straight to RB? Think he's played there before.

Davis-Hayes combination makes it 1-0. The team should go for the kill. United looked toothless against Celtic last week, so another couple could see us home.

No change from last week. Happy with that.

Sent you a pm you on Wednesday, GJ - don't know if you got it. Stick 'Alamo, Paisley' into Google maps.

I'm in, although I could see myself missing the breakfast of champions again and turning up late to the Alamo - got a mate's leaving do on Friday, and these things are apt to cause hangovers.

I was actually quite impressed with Hayes yesterday. It did look like he thought the Hearts left back had the measure of him and didn't take him on directly that often, but I thought he adapted his game well to counteract that, moving inside and looking for little passes and lay-offs. In the past, for all his ability, he could be frustrating by hogging the ball a bit too much, but I think he has matured and added more to his game. Agree about Meekings - he was excellent. I think it was him who made an absolutely tremendous block on Skacel about halfway through the second half to prevent him from getting through on goal - I wondered if that was where he got his dead leg. Don't think Davis was too bad despite a couple of misplaced passes, but Foran really looked off the pace - I'm not sure who in the current squad would replace him but in the long term Butcher surely has to start thinking about this, unless it's just that he's not fully fit at the moment. Now have to try to assemble a match report out of my very hazy memories - not helped by the fact that the first ten minutes were spent queueing outside the ground... Decent away support though - just wish there had been more to cheer about.

I think this has been a pretty restrained and balanced discussion. No-one's having a meltdown or calling for the manager's head. I am asking myself the same question as the OP actually - will we manage to put a few results together this season? You're absolutely correct, of course, to say that there is never any disgrace in losing by one goal at Tynecastle, but the concern is that no matter who our opponents are (apart from Kilmarnock!) our weaknesses seem to be the same - not enough clear cut chances created or taken, despite decent possession, and too many soft goals conceded. The BBC stats from yesterday sum it up - 48% possession but only two shots on target to Hearts' twelve, and Yngwie is correct when he says that conceding an average of two goals per game is, by any measure of the last dozen years, relegation form. On the other hand, this defence, which finally seems to be Butcher's preferred line-up, is still only a few games in and might well continue to settle and improve, there seems to be no problme with the team's work rate or motivation,and through sheer tencacity Tade will get himself a few more goals over the season, so we might be OK. We've got to accept, though, that at the moment we look as likely to go down as anyone.

Not fecking 9.30 anyway! Emm, I'll probably give the breakfast of champions a miss, but if you're wanting to get the 10.30 train then I can be at Queen St for 10.15 (I don't have to get a carry out for the train...)If you're going to go for the 11.00 train let me know though, because I have got a few work-related things to get through and even an extra half-hour would make a difference.

Oh Jesus, I'm getting a headache already just thinking about it. I'm too old for this nonsense: I'm taking up bowls or something.

Another opportunity to go to Central Park lost.

Meh. You and your fancy-dan innovations. What's wrong with the Diggers? Hoping Daddy Stan will have a day off work and nappy duties and can meet us. Probably be heading through around midday or else earlier with Capital Caley and co, depending on work. I love Tynecastle, and have seen some of my favourite games there - the Cup win and the two 3-2 games (one win for us, one for Hearts, both crackers) - but if you look back at the history of the fixture there have been some really turgid games: loads of 0-0 draws and 1-0 defeats. Hopefully this will another of the occasional high-scoring games.

Didn't make it down today due to work. Sounds like that equaliser was the least we deserved, and the fact that it was Shinnie scoring it is good news. Sounds like he's been looking stronger and stronger in recent weeks and if he gains more confidence from scoring today then he could be a really important player for us. Foran & Hayes sound like they've been good too.

I wonder... A new thread to the same effect has also sprung up on P&B in BIG ANGRY CAPITALS to reflect how disgusting the whole situation is.

Might be a moot point if it turns out Meekings is injured again, but did the people at the game think today's defence looked like it would be a better bet in the meantime than the Piermayr-Proctor-Tokely-Shinnie line-up? Three goals conceded doesn't sound great, but if those were just about Motherwell's only three chances then it suggests the defence did OK for much of the game. Good to hear that the players seemed to be right up for it and that Davis and in particular Shinnie seemed to play well again. I've not been very impressed with Shinnie so far, but it sounds like he's started looking a lot better in the last couple of games.

Jeezuz. It sounds like we've been excellent and that Motherwell couldn't have been much worse - and yet it's 1-1. Poor defending again. Big test of character now, because Motherwell are bound to start getting better at some point.

Sounded like a cracker from Davis.