Jonnyboy
31-10-2018, 11:06 PM
Where to begin? Maybe deal with the off the field incidents first. Bobby Zlamel apparently punched in the face by a Hibs ‘fan’ and Neil Lennon reportedly struck in the face by a coin thrown by a Hearts ‘fan.’ Add to that the fact that both assistant referees were apparently struck by thrown objects during the game. Additionally, we saw flares being tossed around and although I heard Brian McLaughlin of the BBC mention a flare thrown from the Hibs support into the Hearts stand he must surely have realised that the dark red coloured flares were unlikely to have been thrown by a Hibs fan. He is, of course, a Hearts fan and perhaps resorted to selective memory. Those points aside, the behaviour of elements of both supports was quite frankly shameful.
These people are the lowest of the low and a great advert as to why alcohol at games should remain a no, no. Watching the Hibs fans filling the Roseburn Stand it was astonishing how many of them seemed off their faces. Alcohol and whatever else will be blamed but the real culprits are the ‘fans’ that behaved in that way. They bring shame and quite probably financial penalties to the club and I can only hope they are caught on CCTV. I expect I’ll take some criticism for what I consider to be home truths but surely no right minded fan can condone any of the misdemeanours?
As to the game, we made life very difficult for ourselves by going down to ten men and although I heard the Sportsound guys defending Flo over his second booking the fact remains that he knew he was on a yellow and should not have gotten involved. It gave Dallas a very easy decision to make and let’s be honest he got loads of his decisions wrong over the ninety minutes.
When I heard the starting eleven I speculated that we might set up in a 4-1-3-1-1 formation with Marv in front of the back four, Milligan, Slivka and Mallan in the middle with Boyler playing off Kamberi up front. Needless to say I was wrong as Neil went with Efe, Daz and Milli at the back, allowing Whitty and Lewis to play wide in a five. From the off, Hearts seemed to target Milligan with numerous balls delivered into the space behind him but the Aussie coped well enough, aided by the alertness of Daz whenever trouble looked to be in store. The hosts came flying out of the traps and had us on the back foot for the first ten or fifteen minutes but when Hibs were awarded a rare fee kick about twenty-five yards out, Mallan struck a beauty that just dipped too late and hit the top of the bar on the way out of play. I’m convinced if it had been on target it was a goal because Zlamel was getting nowhere near it.
After Hearts were once again repelled, Hibs won a corner and Mallan’s deep cross was met square on by the head of McGregor and in truth I felt he should have scored rather than hit the side netting. It was amusing hearing the Hearts fans shouting ‘hoof’ every time we cleared the ball from danger and irony is clearly not their strongpoint because Hearts’ whole game plan seemed to involve punting high balls forward in the hope that they might find a team mate. Mallan went close on another two occasions, first striking the bar and then almost fooling Zlamel with a drilled free kick towards the near post.
A stunning save by Bogdan proved to be his only real save of the night but it was a real beauty. Just ahead of half time, Kamberi and Djoum got involved and Dallas wasted no time in booking both. Once again he just couldn’t wait to get his card out, just as he’d done earlier in the game in booking Bartley for a robust but fair challenge on Haring. It seemed that every time a Hibs player tackled an opponent, the Hearts players were in his face demanding free kicks.
At half time it was spot the personality as I watched Neil from the Young Ones wander over the pitch to the tunnel and then announcer Scott Wilson whipped the home support up into frenzy by introducing a stalwart of the East Lothian Decorators Federation to conduct the half time draw.
Early in the second half, Boyle and Smith exchanged shoves and Dallas solved the issue by booking both. Next into the book were Bozanic and Kamberi. My take on it, and TV pictures might prove me wrong, was that a 50/50 ball was contested by the two players and as a result, Garrucio ended up on the deck. For me there was no foul but the roars from the home stands and the carping in the face of the ref by Bozanic led to Kamberi losing the plot a bit and looking like he wanted to go fighting. He never got near a Hearts player, largely thanks to Slivka holding him back but Flo’s petulance combined with the pressure being heaped on Dallas by the Hearts players resulted in a second yellow and subsequent red with a good twenty five minutes still on the clock.
Hearts clearly fancied their chances now and enjoyed most of the possession from thereon in but much to the dismay of a clearly disgruntled Hearts support they totally failed to make the advantage of the extra man count. They dillied and dallied and huffed and puffed but still got no shots on target. A lot of that was due to the sterling work of the ten men and the fact that a late strike from a Hearts man hit the outside of the post and went behind. A late scare was on the cards and it arrived in the shape of a Dikamona header hitting the net but as the fans and players celebrated I noticed, with great delight that the assistant referee had his flag up for offside. I haven’t seen the incident again but in a perverse way I hope the lino got it wrong.
All in all I’m happy with the point after so many things went against us and I feel the ten men for the last twenty five minutes deserve enormous praise for their work rate and concentration levels.
The players
Adam - One stunning first half save and a bizarre couple of punches in the second were pretty much all he had to do all night.
Efe – it seemed that every cross into the box was cleared by Efe and although he had a couple of ropey clearances late in the second half he was basically sound.
Daz – Looked to struggle a bit early on with a couple of poor headed clearances but thereafter he was just Daz.
Milli – Targeted early on as part of Levein’s master plan (which was effectively, getting his defenders to hoof the ball into that corner) he looked assured throughout and on the one occasion I recall him being caught in possession he soon atoned for his error.
Whitty – I don’t expect I’ll get many agreeing with this but I thought Whitty was excellent tonight, especially in defending set pieces when he invariably stopped Jimmy Dunne getting anywhere near the ball. To my mind, Dunne is their best player by a distance and Whitty deserves both the credit for negating any threat and earning my man of the match award.
Slivka – Didn’t do anything spectacular but didn’t do much wrong either. He was there when needed and threaded a few decent passes to team mates.
Marv – Restored to the team and made captain for the night I thought his booking was harsh and given that it came early it didn’t stop him going about his business as usual.
Stevie – Rattled a few good shots at goal and was unlucky not to score. Add to that his willingness to run himself ragged in repelling the Hearts eleven and he can be pleased with his night’s work.
Lewis – Time and again Lewis was faced with the tricky Morrison and time and again he dealt with it, albeit with the help of Milligan on a few occasions.
Boyler – Ran his socks off, got hacked down a few times but as usual, he just got up and went back for more. Was clearly ‘noised up’ by Michael Smith and probably shouldn’t have pushed him but the laddie must be sick to death of getting little or no protection from officials.
Flo – Not a game he will remember with any great affection. Booked in the first half for what Dallas clearly indicated was persistent fouling (Dikamona and Haring fouled more often than him but neither was booked) he should never have reacted the way he did in earning his second yellow.
Oli – Got the last ten minutes when he replaced the knackered Boyle but in truth Hibs were defending pretty deep and he didn’t see a lot of the ball.
Emerson – The most interesting thing about Emerson’s appearance was that it was him and not Ryan Porteous that Lenny brought on. A clear indication to me that even down to ten men, Lenny still wanted to go looking for a winning goal.
Andrew Dallas – As alluded to earlier, he seemed to give Hearts a free kick every time one of their players lost the ball in a tackle. In a multitude of baffling decisions the one that sticks out most for me was him giving a free kick to Hearts after Oli Shaw had attempted a tackle and missed completely.
The fans – To those of you who, like me went along to Tynecastle to watch your team beat their oldest rivals, I salute you. To those morons who sullied the name of our club by their behaviour I say, I hope you’re identified and punished accordingly.
And finally ………. As they used to say on News at Ten, I was both stunned and surprised to find hot water in the gents. I was so impressed I washed my hands twice – pity there was no soap!
These people are the lowest of the low and a great advert as to why alcohol at games should remain a no, no. Watching the Hibs fans filling the Roseburn Stand it was astonishing how many of them seemed off their faces. Alcohol and whatever else will be blamed but the real culprits are the ‘fans’ that behaved in that way. They bring shame and quite probably financial penalties to the club and I can only hope they are caught on CCTV. I expect I’ll take some criticism for what I consider to be home truths but surely no right minded fan can condone any of the misdemeanours?
As to the game, we made life very difficult for ourselves by going down to ten men and although I heard the Sportsound guys defending Flo over his second booking the fact remains that he knew he was on a yellow and should not have gotten involved. It gave Dallas a very easy decision to make and let’s be honest he got loads of his decisions wrong over the ninety minutes.
When I heard the starting eleven I speculated that we might set up in a 4-1-3-1-1 formation with Marv in front of the back four, Milligan, Slivka and Mallan in the middle with Boyler playing off Kamberi up front. Needless to say I was wrong as Neil went with Efe, Daz and Milli at the back, allowing Whitty and Lewis to play wide in a five. From the off, Hearts seemed to target Milligan with numerous balls delivered into the space behind him but the Aussie coped well enough, aided by the alertness of Daz whenever trouble looked to be in store. The hosts came flying out of the traps and had us on the back foot for the first ten or fifteen minutes but when Hibs were awarded a rare fee kick about twenty-five yards out, Mallan struck a beauty that just dipped too late and hit the top of the bar on the way out of play. I’m convinced if it had been on target it was a goal because Zlamel was getting nowhere near it.
After Hearts were once again repelled, Hibs won a corner and Mallan’s deep cross was met square on by the head of McGregor and in truth I felt he should have scored rather than hit the side netting. It was amusing hearing the Hearts fans shouting ‘hoof’ every time we cleared the ball from danger and irony is clearly not their strongpoint because Hearts’ whole game plan seemed to involve punting high balls forward in the hope that they might find a team mate. Mallan went close on another two occasions, first striking the bar and then almost fooling Zlamel with a drilled free kick towards the near post.
A stunning save by Bogdan proved to be his only real save of the night but it was a real beauty. Just ahead of half time, Kamberi and Djoum got involved and Dallas wasted no time in booking both. Once again he just couldn’t wait to get his card out, just as he’d done earlier in the game in booking Bartley for a robust but fair challenge on Haring. It seemed that every time a Hibs player tackled an opponent, the Hearts players were in his face demanding free kicks.
At half time it was spot the personality as I watched Neil from the Young Ones wander over the pitch to the tunnel and then announcer Scott Wilson whipped the home support up into frenzy by introducing a stalwart of the East Lothian Decorators Federation to conduct the half time draw.
Early in the second half, Boyle and Smith exchanged shoves and Dallas solved the issue by booking both. Next into the book were Bozanic and Kamberi. My take on it, and TV pictures might prove me wrong, was that a 50/50 ball was contested by the two players and as a result, Garrucio ended up on the deck. For me there was no foul but the roars from the home stands and the carping in the face of the ref by Bozanic led to Kamberi losing the plot a bit and looking like he wanted to go fighting. He never got near a Hearts player, largely thanks to Slivka holding him back but Flo’s petulance combined with the pressure being heaped on Dallas by the Hearts players resulted in a second yellow and subsequent red with a good twenty five minutes still on the clock.
Hearts clearly fancied their chances now and enjoyed most of the possession from thereon in but much to the dismay of a clearly disgruntled Hearts support they totally failed to make the advantage of the extra man count. They dillied and dallied and huffed and puffed but still got no shots on target. A lot of that was due to the sterling work of the ten men and the fact that a late strike from a Hearts man hit the outside of the post and went behind. A late scare was on the cards and it arrived in the shape of a Dikamona header hitting the net but as the fans and players celebrated I noticed, with great delight that the assistant referee had his flag up for offside. I haven’t seen the incident again but in a perverse way I hope the lino got it wrong.
All in all I’m happy with the point after so many things went against us and I feel the ten men for the last twenty five minutes deserve enormous praise for their work rate and concentration levels.
The players
Adam - One stunning first half save and a bizarre couple of punches in the second were pretty much all he had to do all night.
Efe – it seemed that every cross into the box was cleared by Efe and although he had a couple of ropey clearances late in the second half he was basically sound.
Daz – Looked to struggle a bit early on with a couple of poor headed clearances but thereafter he was just Daz.
Milli – Targeted early on as part of Levein’s master plan (which was effectively, getting his defenders to hoof the ball into that corner) he looked assured throughout and on the one occasion I recall him being caught in possession he soon atoned for his error.
Whitty – I don’t expect I’ll get many agreeing with this but I thought Whitty was excellent tonight, especially in defending set pieces when he invariably stopped Jimmy Dunne getting anywhere near the ball. To my mind, Dunne is their best player by a distance and Whitty deserves both the credit for negating any threat and earning my man of the match award.
Slivka – Didn’t do anything spectacular but didn’t do much wrong either. He was there when needed and threaded a few decent passes to team mates.
Marv – Restored to the team and made captain for the night I thought his booking was harsh and given that it came early it didn’t stop him going about his business as usual.
Stevie – Rattled a few good shots at goal and was unlucky not to score. Add to that his willingness to run himself ragged in repelling the Hearts eleven and he can be pleased with his night’s work.
Lewis – Time and again Lewis was faced with the tricky Morrison and time and again he dealt with it, albeit with the help of Milligan on a few occasions.
Boyler – Ran his socks off, got hacked down a few times but as usual, he just got up and went back for more. Was clearly ‘noised up’ by Michael Smith and probably shouldn’t have pushed him but the laddie must be sick to death of getting little or no protection from officials.
Flo – Not a game he will remember with any great affection. Booked in the first half for what Dallas clearly indicated was persistent fouling (Dikamona and Haring fouled more often than him but neither was booked) he should never have reacted the way he did in earning his second yellow.
Oli – Got the last ten minutes when he replaced the knackered Boyle but in truth Hibs were defending pretty deep and he didn’t see a lot of the ball.
Emerson – The most interesting thing about Emerson’s appearance was that it was him and not Ryan Porteous that Lenny brought on. A clear indication to me that even down to ten men, Lenny still wanted to go looking for a winning goal.
Andrew Dallas – As alluded to earlier, he seemed to give Hearts a free kick every time one of their players lost the ball in a tackle. In a multitude of baffling decisions the one that sticks out most for me was him giving a free kick to Hearts after Oli Shaw had attempted a tackle and missed completely.
The fans – To those of you who, like me went along to Tynecastle to watch your team beat their oldest rivals, I salute you. To those morons who sullied the name of our club by their behaviour I say, I hope you’re identified and punished accordingly.
And finally ………. As they used to say on News at Ten, I was both stunned and surprised to find hot water in the gents. I was so impressed I washed my hands twice – pity there was no soap!