T'was the night before the derby...

Okay, so it's not quite the heady mix of nerves, nausea and excitement that afflicted me before the cup game and it's not as if the result of this particular game has any sort of specific and meaningful outcome, but nonetheless I'm already looking forward to tomorrow. This feeling requires no explanation, it's a derby. Enough said. Going head to head with your local rivals is about as good as it gets but there are no prizes for second place, it's winner takes all.

For Hearts, this game - like any other - is about finding the points that will take them to Europe. In that respect, it's just as important as every other game we'll play between now and the end of the season. For Hibs, it's about finding themselves a place in the top six and finding some sort of highlight to a generally rotten season. A win against us might just give them the confidence and impetus to go on a last-minute run of form, although the jury is out on whether or not even a fifth place finish would be enough to keep Mixu in the hot seat.

But regardless of the benefits a win would bring for either side, it's so much more than just three points. There's pride at stake, and that's what makes it so special.

While some might be content to revel in the bravado gleaned from a decent league position and a few recent wins, I've never been one to tempt fate. Hibs might be having a difficult time right now but if anything, that makes them infinitely more dangerous than they would be if, for example, the positions were reversed. They got themselves a much needed win but they've been ritually humiliated both on and off the pitch in recent weeks; even their own manager saw fit to blast them in the press. They're not playing nice football but either are we, and the individual quality in their squad doesn't really reflect the performances that they've been churning out. Something has to give, and what better time and place for a renaissance than at home against your greatest rivals?

Of course, this sort of comeback would require some serious grit, commitment, a bit of luck and a dollop of decent football. They'd also need to rely on Hearts coming out and giving far less than we've offered in the past few fixtures against the likes of Motherwell and Dundee United. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective. Can Hearts keep that up and can Hibs find it in them to handle it, overcome it and then win? I'm not one for predictions, but I just hope the Hibs supporters have more faith in their team and manager than I do.

It's a derby and the old cliche is true, you really don't ever know how it's going to work out. But I have faith in the players and the manager, they've earned that this season, and I get the feeling they won't let us down tomorrow.

Moaning minnies of the SPL

Maybe I don't remember details as clearly as I should. I can barely remember who scored in any fixtures which happened longer than 2 weeks ago, I can't remember specifics about most transfers and I don't have any real recollections of specific comments made in television or press articles over the past few years. But I am sure that the level of catty comments between managers has never been quite this bad. There are handbags strewn across the SPL playing field.

Vladimir Romanov arrived in Edinburgh and was initially described as a breath of fresh air when he first began casting opinions on all and sundry. To begin with, his critique of the Scottish game and the SFA was refreshingly honest and we watched and listened with gleeful admiration. Of course, we all know how that turned out and these days, both Jambos and other onlookers are less inclined to pay quite so much attention to his profound rantings and Mafia-tinged tantrums. Love him or loathe him, there's no doubt that he was something new and different - football people just don't tend to sustain that sort of outspoken behaviour for very long.

So, by rights, we shouldn't really be all that surprised by recent events. Hearts supporters have adopted a certain siege mentality when it comes to criticism. We had to. Anything less would have seen the majority of us in straightjackets by the halfway point of last season. But before now, there was usually a good reason for the drama and scandal, a tangible reason for people to stick the knife in and cast aspersions upon the fine name of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. But to all intents and purposes, we've been really rather well behaved this season. A few red cards and Marius Zaliukas aside, our players haven't been getting into trouble or holding any impromptu press conferences to publicise dressing room unrest. Rumours of our demise were greatly exaggerated and we haven't had any plumbers trying to sue (or buy) us. We've even been doing rather well on the football pitch and have beaten off some decent competition to hang on to the coveted third spot....

Ah. Yes. That'll be it. We're doing rather well. We aren't supposed to be doing that, are we?

Perhaps Messrs Calderwood and Levein paid a little too much attention to rumour and underestimated both our squad and new-manager-on-the-block, Csaba Laszlo. Hearts didn't pick up many new players and going on last year's showing, not even the Special One himself should have managed to make a team out of that motley crew. But he did, and that might have been more than a little disappointing for those who expected to take advantage of our weakened state. These windows of opportunity don't come along very often and the prospect of a less competitive Hearts must have been very appealing for those who covet a regular place in the top end of the table.


McGhee might have fallen into the same trap, and probably had greater cause for hope following Motherwell's brief period of success last season and their reward of an even more brief soujourn into European football. But more importantly, there's that little incident with our managerial vacancy and the trip to Lithuania which culminated in a last minute change of heart in a departure lounge.

Thumbscrews wouldn't get it out of him but does anyone honestly believe that he doesn't regret that decision? I might wear maroon tinted glasses but I'd put money on the fact that he does. Laszlo's more than a thorn in his team's side, he's a constant reminder of what he could have had. Ouch.


Or maybe they're just moaning about Hearts because we don't play particularly pretty football and still manage to take points from them. Maybe our brand of smash and grab football is anathema to these sporting purists. It could be that simple, but it probably isn't. As Csaba explained, it's not about being attractive - it's about the points on the board. If you have nice football, you can die....and we wouldn't want that...we've got European adventures to consider.

Proper peckers

David Obua seems to be a name which crops up more often than anyone else on this blog at the moment, but again, it was our erstwhile Ugandan who inspired the comments which in turn, inspired this blog entry. According to Colin Duncan of the Daily Record, Obua was celebrating our win against Dundee United by dancing like a 'proper pecker'. He wasn't alone, apparently Ruben Palazuelos was throwing some rather nifty shapes and the travelling Hearts support were having a right old party in the stands too.

And who could blame any of them? I can think of several reasons why we have every right to party like it's 2009.

1. No matter which way you look at it, that was a big result for us. A hugely important win. When asked to predict the score on Saturday morning prior to the match, I'm ashamed to say that my gut instinct didn't include thoughts of winning or even scraping a draw. Despite having noted that United's form hadn't been all that spectacular since the transfer window closed, the absence of Flood wasn't enough to convince me that United wouldn't be up for this one - Tannadice has hardly been a happy hunting ground for us in recent months and I just couldn't see where we'd find the grit required to get through this fixture unscathed. I'm delighted to say that where my faith was lacking, the players certainly weren't suffering from a lack of guts and while it wasn't pretty, three points were bravely snatched and dispatched back to Edinburgh. Three points which moved us 5 points ahead of United and 6 ahead of Aberdeen and kept us firmly in the third spot.

2. David Obua may only have arrived recently in Gorgie but many of the players who turned out against Dundee United have been through the mill with the supporters over the last year or so. They will remember how it felt last season when we struggled through almost every game and ended up stuck in the bottom six. The players didn't operate as a team, didn't seem to know how to play as a unit and had absolutely no sense of direction. The supporters were miserable, the boo boys were out in force and the atmosphere at games was bordering on murderous at times. Stevie Frail, for all his good intentions, was completely out of his depth and the general feeling was one of hopelessness and frustration.

How things have changed. Hearts took an impressive support with them on their travels to Tayside and while it might be one of the most overused cliches in football, they really were the twelfth man. The players may not have been purveyors of beautiful football, but they should be commended for their tenacity and commitment and were spurred on by the support they received from the stands. A million miles away from what we had last year and in my book, definitely worth a wee dance or two.

3. Csaba Laszlo. This man is glue. Super glue. I don't need to go into any lengthy detail about why he's important or explain how he has been the catalyst for the changes we've witnessed at Tynecastle, but he's the reason that we're currently sitting in third. He's also the reason why we can go to games without that horrible sense of foreboding. Vladimir Romanov may be many things, and has made many mistakes, but signing this man was a masterstroke and at the risk of wishing away the rest of what could be a fantastic season for us, I can't wait to see what he does this summer. If he's given the means to build his own squad and bring in some quality in the next transfer window, I think we could be watching something special next year. If the judges for Manager of the Year take our full circumstances into consideration, he surely has to be in with a shout. I'm a fully fledged and committed member of Csaba Laszlo's Barmy Army, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Plenty of reasons to be positive, plenty of reasons to be hopeful, plenty of reasons to have a wee dance. It's all looking rather rosy in the Gorgie garden and I, for one, intend to make the most of it.

Teenage munchkins & mediocrity

When Hibs fans blethered on about the youthfulness of their squad we tittered in amusement, and we were quite right to do so as for a while, claims of inexperience were their favourite way to excuse mediocrity. But in the aftermath of this weekend's debacle against St Mirren, I've heard plenty of Jambos using much the same reasoning in their defence of what was quite simply a rubbish performance from the boys in maroon. Furthermore, we've also heard Csaba Laszlo complaining about the height of the team that took to the field on Saturday, players so afflicted by vertical challenges that they're probably now down on record as the shortest team fielded by Hearts in the last 5 years.

But does any of this stuff really matter? I'm not convinced. Yes, we have a relatively youthful squad but in those ranks we have a number of younger players who are almost seasoned first teamers these days: Andy Driver, Lee Wallace, Eggert Jonsson. If youth and inexperience are such huge obstacles, then why was Gary Glen probably one of our best players on the day? As for the height issue, would being a few inches taller really have ensured that our players remembered to mark their opposition? It wasn't height advantage that gave Dorman all the room in the world to stick in that equaliser, and I certainly don't remember our defenders being overwhelmed by aerial challenges. In fact, I don't remember our defenders being overwhelmed by St Mirren at all.

I could go into the players-out-of-position argument and while I'm happy to acknowledge that this might have an effect, I don't believe that it had any real impact upon the game this weekend. St Mirren were livelier than we might have expected following their mid-week Cup rumble with Motherwell on Thursday, but they didn't ever really test us. Indeed, we were hardly unleashing wave after wave of attack either but the difference was that I don't remember us ever really looking like we weren't in control of the game - we just didn't have that final ball. It was sloppy, unlucky and frustrating stuff to watch though. It was mediocrity in motion.

It's little consolation to hear that both Aberdeen and Dundee United failed to bring home three points, and even less so when you consider that our two nearest competitors for the coveted 3rd spot were playing each other. Make no bones about it, this was an opportunity lost and there's no amount of excuse mongering that can disguise the fact that this weekend might prove to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. I'm tired of pulling out that old cliche, the one about how being a Hearts supporter is bad for the blood pressure because they never do things the easy way. I'm even more tired of hearing it being used when lady luck had absolutely nothing to do with the problems we're facing. We could have given ourselves a cushion but we failed, it's that simple. There are no excuses, and I hope the players realise that too.

Brown trout

The title of this blog entry may not get us many hits for Hearts related content, but I really couldn't think of anything more appropriate following the events of the weekend. So yes, we went to Easter Road and we won. How tremendous was that? The atmosphere in the Hearts end was just brilliant and having now watched the highlights again on the telly (about 4 zillion times), it was great to hear the Jambos outsinging the Hibbies yet again.

It's easy to be magnanimous when you've just beaten your local rivals in a cup match, and being entirely honest about it I'd have to agree that Fletcher's red card probably was a tad on the unfortunate side, but I have little sympathy for them as a group of supporters at the moment. Yes, they're having a tough time and it's clear to anyone that Mixu just isn't up to the job, but the empty seats at Easter Road on Sunday belied an attitude which deserves nothing other than criticism. They had their team beaten before a ball had even been kicked. How can their team go out on to that pitch with anything approximating self-belief when the fans can't muster up enough faith to get themselves to the game in the first place?

I'd feel sorry for them if it wasn't so wickedly satisfying to take delight in their misfortune. Again. So, it's 108 in a row. They haven't won the big cup since 1902 you know....

But on to Mixu Paatelainen. If he was anyone other than the manager of Hibernian I might actually feel slightly sorry for him. Or at least, I would have done until he saw fit to publicly snipe at our captain. There's no doubt that with the benefit of numerous replays, it's possible to see why the red card might have been considered a harsh call, but similarly, any sensible human being with basic football knowledge can understand why it was given in the first place. For all that Fletcher isn't known as a dirty player, Christophe Berra certainly isn't known for his cheatery either and what Mixu fails to understand is that the chain of events was caused by stupidity on Fletcher's part and not anything more sinister than that. If he wants to take a gamble like that during an important derby, then the consequences of his actions rest with Steven Fletcher and nobody else. A tackle doesn't have to break a leg before it can be considered reckless, and muttering viciously about Berra because he had the audacity to take evasive action won't change the fact that Fletcher screwed up. It's that simple.

The Scotsman reported this morning that Hibs are considering an appeal and forgive me for being a cynic, but I'm not convinced by this move and I seriously doubt whether any of the Hibs fans will be either. Mixu may well be the only man on the planet (other than Pat Nevin) who thinks that they have any grounds for such an appeal and considering that the ref has already reviewed his decision and declared that he was satisfied with the actions he took, who in their right mind would really think they stand a chance of getting anywhere? His coat is on the shoogliest of pegs and desperate attempts to appease the less cerebral of supporters won't change that.

What it will do, however, is make Mixu look like an even bigger fool than he already does.

His lack of intelligence can perhaps be excused as a lack of managerial experience, but there's no way to disguise a lack of class. Mixu's petulant exit from the dugout without pausing to shake hands with Csaba Laszlo on Sunday was every bit as revealing as the 'get it up ye' gesture made by Riordan towards the Hearts fans. Out-witted, out-played, out-thought and most definitely out of their depth.

www.heartsfcnews.com

Obua: not fit for purpose?

Despite a less than illustrious start to his career in maroon, occasional flashes of footballing ability and a growing faith in Csaba's judgement had ensured that David Obua wasn't written off quite as quickly as might have been expected by a nervy Hearts support. Some neat passes, a decent first touch and talk of his versatility had reassured onlookers that given time, there was a chance that the South African player of the year and former Kaiser Chiefs star could become a useful addition to the squad.

While some were quicker to lose patience than others, a fair number amongst the support did try their best to overlook some awkward flaws in his game and gave due consideration to the fact that a period of adjustment could be required. He was slow to move in for the tackle, preferring instead to attempt pass interception from a safe distance. He was visibly off the pace and wanted too much time on the ball. His positional awareness was shaky. His workrate was less than convincing, and at times he looked like a man who would rather be anywhere else than on a football pitch. If this wasn't enough, his build was anything other than typical of your average SPL player and despite being reasonably tall, he looked worryingly like he might snap in a strong breeze.

Listed in this way, these not inconsiderable problems seem to present conclusive evidence that he just wasn't likely to make it but it would appear that we're nothing if not optimists down in Gorgie. A few moans and groans from the stands was as bad as it got for Obua - the fans merely raised an eyebrow at his trousers-around-the-ankles press conference houdini antics and even forgave him for the heinous act of turning out in green boots.

But a charmed existence of this kind can't last forever and when you're on a sticky wicket as it is, the second last thing you should do is push your luck. The absolutely last thing you should do is snuff out any remaining goodwill and make yourself the most disliked man in Gorgie by spitting at your own fans.

I'm not the type to boo or heckle players and in a cauldron like Tynecastle where players are so close to the support that they can hear every word, I fail to see how booming criticism and insults are likely to effect improvements in performance. Nonetheless, supporters are entitled to voice their opinions and should be able to do so without the intended target responding with a torrent of abuse and globs of projectile saliva. Had Obua demonstrated half as much vigour or aggression with a ball at his feet, there's every chance that he would have avoided such a situation in the first place because while lack of ability can be forgiven, lack of effort certainly cannot. To those who would gladly gnaw off their own arm for a chance to wear that maroon jersey, it's the ultimate act of disrespect. A universal footballing sentiment and a characteristic of supporters which I'd imagine is every bit as prevalent in South Africa as it is in Scotland...

So, where to go from here? Csaba Laszlo has voiced his disappointment in Obua's performance thus far and it remains to be seen whether or not he can do enough to convince the manager that he deserves another chance. However, I'd hazard a guess that the supporters would quite gladly do a whip round for his plane ticket back to Uganda and that his actions this weekend may have been the final nail in his coffin where they are concerned. It might be going a little far to suggest that his position is completely untenable, football fans are also characteristically fickle and short of memory, but I've seen nothing to suggest that he has either the required levels of commitment or bottle to turn this situation around. If I were him, I'd begin with a grovelling apology to the fans but I'm not holding my breath - his rotten attitude could well be a more significant problem than his questionable footballing abilities.

I always thought Csaba had a bit of a twinkle in his eye...

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The closest Ewen Cameron will get to Tynecastle this season...

Sedatives please, and plenty of them...

See? Just when you think it's safe to express even the tiniest little bit of joy, it all comes crashing right back down again around your ears. We barely had time to celebrate the win over Rangers before we received news that the wages issue had become even more bizarre and twisted, with the press indicating that the highest earners may have agreed to defer their wages until January and the win bonuses would follow on in 'due course'...whatever that means...

If her name alone isn't enough to leave people quaking in their boots, Jurga Chomskyte-McGeever is fast becoming the ominous Cruella de Vil of this horribly realistic pantomime. If the UBIG execs think these events to be of sufficient importance that they warrant comment from Lithuania, the very least they could do is take the time to come up with something better than: "It's merely a glitch. Everything is fine." The one thing that we had managed to work out for ourselves is that everything is very much not fine, and after months (years?) of overdosing on vague, we'd really be grateful if someone might take the time to give us something more factual than the convoluted smorgasbord of rumour and supposition that the local media serve to us on a daily basis.

While I refuse to be cajoled into fitful hysteria by the Daily Record's endless claims of outstanding bills, court cases, disconnected water supplies and poverty stricken den mothers, the Hibs fans' obsession with the cost of aluminium in Eastern Europe and falling UBIG share prices, or the News of the World's reportage on Vlad's transatlantic dealings with dodgy Russian oligarchs, everyone has their breaking point and mine is approaching at quite an alarming rate of knots.

On the face of it, you'd think everything was just dandy. Csaba continues to smile, crack jokes and neatly sidestep any probing questions relating to financial matters. Berra and Stewart have been wheeled out to confirm that the players agree. You would almost think it was business as usual if it wasn't for the fact that the papers are now also full of reports linking half of the squad with moves to the Premiership and the club website is carrying ready made CVs for Kingston and Driver on the front page. There's no doubting that certain members of the playing staff are destined for greater things, but since when were we awash with superstars? And they say Celtic are the PR gurus...

I have no idea what's likely to happen in coming weeks, but come the end of January, if I can look back on this blog entry and laugh I won't mind the blushes one little bit. It's good to exercise the cynicism every once in a while but to be honest, I'd really rather not think about any of it at all.

www.heartsfcnews.com

This is Tynecastle

A month is a long time in the life of a Hearts supporter but November is one I'd gladly repeat. It's a strange feeling this hopeful optimism thing, and it had been missing for far too long. There have been ups and downs, but for once, it's a joy to be able to look back on a whole 4 weeks without shuddering in dismay or having rueful regrets over missed chances and opportunities or disasters of Lithuanian origin. So while I might live to regret unleashing this positivity upon a blog which will still be here to ponder over should it all go belly up in weeks to come, I'm going to do it anyway. I want to remember this feeling.

5 wins on the trot - what about that? We know that the media had us written off earlier in the season but I'd be surprised if there were even many amongst the Gorgie faithful who truly believed that this team could take us anywhere of note. Yet they have, and if third position is the best we can do this season it'll be a whole three places higher than my original hopes for 2008-09. There's still a long way to go before we'll know if European nights are coming to Tynecastle but simply being in a position to consider it a real possibility is something that would have generated laughter only 3 months ago.

That fragmented squad, so sparse in quality and consistency hasn't just been rejuvenated under Csaba Laszlo, it has been altered beyond recognition. Bringing on the more talented players such as Berra and Driver is an achievement, but it's not really half as impressive as the incredible change in Nade, the improvements that we have witnessed in Wallace, Zaliukas or Jonsson or the renaissance of both Karipidis and Aguiar. Csaba isn't solely responsible for their individual talents, but he is certainly due some credit for taking this mish mash squad of under-confident players and slotting them together in such a way that they are beginning to look remarkably like a good team. I might sound like I'm grateful now, but I'll really be waxing lyrical if he also manages to sort out Kingston's attitude, Stewart's temper and Miko's inconsistencies....

I don't want to ruin the mood of this blog entry so I'm not going to give screen time to the difficulties we encountered in some of these narrow wins. One goal more than your opponent is all that you need, and for as long as it brings us 3 points, I won't have any complaints about the manner of our victories. More importantly, our most recent win was jam packed full of enough spirit, skill, aggression, determination and intelligence to justify a very long list of superlatives and it was this display which brings me on to the whole point of this entry - Tynecastle.

God I love that stadium. I can confidently state that there is no place on this earth that I would rather have been than that rickety old stand on Saturday afternoon at 14:15 (+ remarkably generous additional time). When the first goal went in the place rocked, when Larry poked home the second it erupted, and when the final whistle went, Tynecastle roared so loudly they probably heard us in Leith. It took the breath away. After months of lacklustre performances from both the team and the support, it was a special moment and one which I hope goes some way to reminding these players just how incredibly proud they should be to wear that strip. If there was a man out there in maroon who didn't feel on top of the world after experiencing that, I don't care who he is, he's not cut out for Heart of Midlothian.

I could go back through this whole entry and temper the optimism with some stark facts and less inspiring realities, but I'm not going to. Even if things aren't quite so much fun in the coming weeks, for now I'm just happy to enjoy this feeling. Today, being a Jambo is great.

www.heartsfcnews.com

Are we expecting too much, too soon?

It's probably never a good idea to kick off a blog with a moaning session but it's impossible to avoid one after watching Hearts wither like chocolate in an oven on Sunday when they turned out against Celtic. There's no denying that as football fans, we've been through the mill in recent months (or years) and the appointment of Csaba Laszlo appeared to inject the club, players and to a certain extent the supporters with a renewed sense of vigour. Progress has been made since the beginning of the current season and improvements are visible across the board, from the club's communication with the fans right down to the squad's team spirit, and to our surprise, we've even seen the press writing some vaguely nice things about us of late. Add a cracker of a derby against Hibs and a courageous performance against the Dons to that mix and you can maybe see why, for a moment, we were thinking things might be on the mend down Gorgie way.

But then we played Celtic.

I was full of positivity and superstitiously concealed hope before the game. I cast my eye over the news in the days leading up to the match and noted that a few of their key players were injured and bolstered this little seed of confidence with the fact that their recent performances in the SPL have been a little less than brilliant. I made my way to Tynecastle on Sunday with a spring in my step, convinced that even if we didn't take 3 points, we were sure to give them a game. I was oh so wrong.

From kick off, we seemed lethargic and disorganised. Our defence which had held so well against Aberdeen the previous week looked fragile and disorientated, our midfield which had controlled the previous few SPL encounters with such confidence was disjointed and sloppy and our lone striker was very, very alone. I'll exclude Janos Balogh from any criticism given that was rarely troubled by Celtic, couldn't have done anything about Maloney's goal and Caldwell's second was the result of scrappy antics at the goalmouth which should perhaps have been ruled out anyway, but most of the outfield players just didn't seem to have turned up at all.

Our lynchpin players such as Stewart, Driver, Berra and more recently added to this list, Bruno Aguiar, all seemed to choose the same date for their 'off day' and most were anonymous throughout. We perhaps only have inconsistent refereeing to thank for the fact that Mikey managed to stay on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes given that his discipline appeared to disintegrate as the match went on and his frustrations started to bubble over into his attempts to win the ball back from a greedy, ball-hogging Celtic. However, I was just glad to see that at least one of our boys in maroon hadn't completely given up so I won't slate him for that. The only other individual worth a mention would be Christian Nade who continues to look more like the striker we thought we had bought all those months ago. He harried, nipped, bustled and at times, seemed like the only Hearts player capable of controlling a football or making an accurate pass. Gold star for him, and I look forward to seeing his continued improvement in the coming weeks. So, yes...it wasn't the most enjoyable 90 minutes I've ever spent in Tynecastle and the only reason I really managed to stay for the duration was the knowledge that it probably really couldn't get any worse.

Post-match comments from Csaba were a little odd, given that he seemed reluctant to direct any sort of criticism at the players but I'm working on the assumption that his aim here was probably damage limitation of some description, given that his comments on the club website since then have been rather less kind. Understandably, Jambos everywhere will be gutted at the result, but reactions to the team's performance are likely to be borne of a much more deeply held concern that some of this current crop just are not good enough. It has to be said that we're weaker in some positions than others, I'm hoping to see the defence bolstered by new recruits in January and regardless of how Tullberg does when he recovers from injury, I still want to see reinforcements brought in there too. But other than that, I'm quite prepared to treat last Sunday as a glitch if we can get back to the kind of performances we witnessed in the weeks prior to that. Improvements are visible and progress has been made, so maybe we need to be a little restrained and try not to expect too much too soon. By Christmas, we'll know whether or not we really do have a renewed sense of direction or whether this is the shape of things to come. Seatbelts on, it's looking like it might be a bumpy ride.