HEARTS 4 - 1 ICT (final score) (26/08/06)

[Alex MacLeod]

Link to official site:

Match report

If this is from Fiona then its a very good piece of journalism and a good reflection of what I saw.

[PandB]

Thought that was Roscoe's poorest performance in an ICT shirt, he was turned inside out today. I'm a little concerned that our only apparent cover for the RB slot is Pedro, cos a RB he's not!!! Rory looked out of his depth up front. We may have to sign another striker to cover for Denzil and I believe that selling Proc and Parrat may come back to haunt us. We were coping until the 2-1 and then the last 15 mins then the flood gates just opened and we were then given a harsh lesson!

[RiG]

4 - 1 flatters the Jambos but they deserved their win. If we can't take our chances then we don't deserve to win games but we didn't deserve to lose by 3 goals.

Wilson had a couple of good chances as did Bayne who missed an excellent chance right at the start of the 2nd half. I have to wonder what might have happened if Bayne or Wilson had scored with their second half chances? Might have been very different indeed.

As pointed out above both Hastings and Tokley were utter garbage. Sorry but they were. Tokely especially. He got himself a new arse torn by the Hearts left midfield and was left standing on numerous ocassions. I though Rankin was pretty annonymous as well (not as bad as McCann for hearts! I never even knew he was on the pitch!). Black, Wilson and McBain were good in midfield. Munro good at the back but Dods a bit iffy at times. Bayne did well up front as did Wyness while he was on.

The defending for the 2nd Hearts goal was disgusting. As Hartley lined up the kick he looked at Mole (35) and nodded his head to say back "away a bit". Mole did and he moved to the back post where not one ICT player followed him. The less said about the 3rd goal the better despite the lads great finish. As for the 4th - pffft. Repulsive defending.

Getting sick of long ball when it is clear when we pass the ball we play so much better. Long ball does not work!  :008:

We played well in spells but that won't save us at the end of the day. What we need is points. Not playing decent for 50 minutes of the 90. We need to put the ball in the net and I wonder if CC will now regret not getting in another striker now?

[davieB]

IMO McBain was easily our MOM. He took players on every time he got the ball, and he covered Hastings non stop.

Our defence is worrying. Last year they were fantastic, this year they're the opposite. Hastings/Munro..fine, Dods and Tokely just aren't there at all.

Up front we're severely lacking. Wyness just isn't doing it, Bayne gives everything but I just can't see him getting us 15 goals a season, and Rory :017:...for such a big bloke he falls over way to easily. As I said earlier, wothout Dargo we look a far lesser team, but we can't keep relying on one person to get  us the goals.

Oh, midfield. Blackie and Rankin...both very good players, but I do begin to wonder if we're missing the solidity of Russell in there?? I don't know what the answer to that one is...

[Guest Father Ted]

It's just as you say Alex, they took their chances and we didn't. That's the point I'm trying to make. We need to make these chances count, not p*ss around, thinking " It's Hearts so we don't expect  to win anyway" We'll take points from the diddy teams. I don't have money to waste watching a team with that attitude

It's been more or less the same team up till now. It's time for change. They should have to earn their place.  This format isn't working.

[Guest Jock Watt]

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.

Yes, but 11 corners without a goal being scored from any of them is simply not what you'd expect from professional players!

[Scarlet Pimple]

Then, is it a touch of nerves ?

And perhaps Rankin is not quite up to the pace or urgency of the SPL yet especially against a "top" team such as Hearts. Also has his role been made  clear to him-the statements about his alleged anonymity seem to indicate he may be a bit lost out there. ?

Just asking.... :006:

[+Gringo]

Good match report on The Scotsman web site and some interesting comments at the bottom - but since when has John Rankin been a defender?

Quote: Inverness defender John Rankin tried to make amends after Inverness were awarded a free-kick 16 yards out but there was only more frustration as his left-foot drive curled around the post. Unquote

[tm4tj]

Too many knee jerk reactions for my liking. :010:

Things will not really pan out until we have played each team home and away. This is new ground for us, a 4-1 defeat.

The same players given a level playing field should offer the same results.  The opening fixtures were tough ones, the next few on paper appear slightly easier, thats not being complacent, it is fact. Lets stop questioning players/managers abilities or convictions at this early stage. Fair enough to comment if we thought they did not play well, but the hiring and firing is up to the management at ICT.  Lots of people willing to criticise CC, but Donald Park seems to be immune from all of this??

It has been tough, only time will tell if we will survive.  What has happened to all the posters who were happy as long as we would finish eleventh or above. :017:

[Johnboy]

  Lots of people willing to criticise CC, but Donald Park seems to be immune from all this.

That's one of the perks of the assistant manager's job...!!  :003:

[The Mantis]

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.

[The Mantis]

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

[IcyTea]

My tuppence worth...

We missed Dargo's runs and movement big time.

Rossco had another poor one, his pushes forward can be good but he needs track back better, all too often its up to Black, Dods, Rankin to cover.

I liked ICT's attitude going for the equaliser when we were 2-1 . There is no point sitting back and consolidating the score that gives us no points, might as well go for it and entertain the supporters as well. Hopefully against lesser teams it will pay off.

On the way back into town I overheard hearts fans saying that the score flattered them, a look at the stats clearly confirms this.

Bayne's and Barry's miss..............ouch!!!

[Govan Jaggie]

Some of out first half football was excellent.  Most if not all of out defending was shocking.  Ross was appalling.  I would say we probably deserved to loose but not by 4-1.  CC made some shocking tactical desicions!  Caff must be fizzing at Russel going on at RB.  I now Caff isnt a RB but he is better there than Russel!.  Rory McAllister isnt fit to wear the shirt.  We need another striker asap.  I would have put Keogh on for Wyness and pushed Barry upfront to get on the end of Baynes flicks.

I said after the St Mirren game that it was going to be a long season and god knows it feels it already!!! :007:

[Naelifts]

I know what you are saying Roger but we have started many a season in this fashion. Its been a tough run of games, our defense was uncharacteristically sloppy................we played enough good football on Sat to give me hope