Hearts improve: only one man sent off
By: Graham | January 5th, 2008You can imagine Stephen Frail attempting a bit of wry humour in the tunnel before today’s game. “Let’s get to the end with eleven men, eh?” Barely forty minutes later, Calum Elliot became the 26th Hearts player sent off since we last came from a goal down to win a game in the SPL. That was in July 2005 – against Kilmarnock.
When Elliot left, the score was 0-0. All too predictably, but possibly against the balance of play, Killie grabbed the lead just before half time.
The second half saw Hearts dominant and play with some of the passion that has been missing (or misdirected, to say the least) in recent games. On sixty minutes Andrius Velicka found the net and from that moment it seemed inevitable that a winner would follow. Unfortunately, what seemed inevitable proved to be elusive. In the last five minutes Killie even had a couple of chances to win it themselves but the conditions and the effects of too many games over the festive period meant that players on both sides ended looking extremely puggled and finishing suffered. (Christian Nade came on with about fifteen minutes to go and looked puggled immediately.)
On the plus side, the crowd remained solidly behind Hearts for this one, helped by a sense of injustice at Elliot’s sending off and augmented by the referee allowing Killie’s Nish to stay on the park after a clear dive when he had received a yellow card only minutes earlier. But it’s still only one point in the last seven games and St. Mirren’s victory over Hibs means the 2006 cup finalists are now keeping each other company at the foot of the table.
Now next week, if we can just keep eleven men on the park…..
Category: Hearts
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Comments
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It’s hard to see a red card and a draw with Killie as much improvement, but it really is. You got a goal, and more importantly only conceded a goal with a man down for more than a half. Not a lot of consolation considering the way the table looks, but I would put serious money on Hearts staying up … Gretna is just too poor.
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United States
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No, I don’t think relegation is a real worry: Gretna’s start to the season was just too bad and they are too far adrift. And, to be honest, I’m sure Hearts will rise closer to the top 6 by season’s end. I also think this brush with the bottom (as it were) may have been necessary to bring about much needed changes at the club. Cloud, lining, silver all come to mind.
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United Kingdom -
If I had to guess, I’d put you ending up around 8th. I think things will get better and Hearts will go on a little run, but there’s too many good teams ahead of you to get to 6th in the next 13 matches. Maybe if Hibs continue to falter, we could have a top six without Edinburgh representation, which would have to be a first.
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