There’s been a fair amount of positive press for Hearts over the past couple of weeks, and rightly so given the decent run of form that Csaba Laszlo’s side have managed to put together.
However despite the fact that Csaba’s team have been able to go toe-to-toe with both Old Firm sides recently and show them up for being the average football teams that they are rather well, for me the acid test of the progress being made at Tynecastle will actually come from a fixture like this Saturday’s at Falkirk.
It’s matches like this that have generally been Hearts’ weakness over the past couple of years. Very often a fine result or performance against one of the league’s so-called better sides has been followed by a defeat somewhere like Motherwell, Falkirk or…er…Easter Road, and this sort of thing tends to have a pretty damaging effect on morale, immediately reversing a lot of the momentum built up by the initially promising result.
We’ve talked at length on this site about the gap between the Old Firm teams and the rest becoming narrower, but for me the main difference remains the Glasgow teams’ ability to grind out victories all over the country, as opposed to just raising their games for particular fixtures.
I don’t necessarily put this down to superior ability – not at all in fact. For me it’s all about belief and the pressure of playing for a club expected to win every game, and for the rest of the SPL clubs to get closer to the Old Firm, this is exactly the sort of mentality that needs to be instilled into their players. They should know now that these teams can be beaten in one-off matches by pretty much anyone, but now the more difficult step has to be taken of believing that they can be beaten over a sustained period of time – and that means going to every venue in the country and playing for the three points as if it were a cup final. That is what the Old Firm players do because they have to – their fans and the media would not and do not settle for any less. It’s a trying ask for another club’s players to have the same sort of thought process going into each and every match, but not impossible, as Alex Ferguson once proved, albeit a very long time ago. But if it can happen once it can happen again.
Falkirk has not been the happiest hunting ground for Hearts in recent seasons, and I suspect that it won’t be the easiest game in the world on this occasion either, despite our hosts’ struggles so far this season. John Hughes always has them well pumped up for taking on his old foes, and they are a side who boast some pretty decent players too.
If Csaba can get his team to play with the same passion as they did against Celtic and Kilmarnock though, then they should be in with a great chance of getting the three points in this game. It will also be a very positive sign that things really are coming together at what is a very important stage of our season….
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Agree 100% with your points there, Mr H. To re-gurgitate a favoured managerial quote – “This is our biggest game of the season” …. well, since the last one, that is. I said on here a few weeks ago that (in my opinion) 63 points would be enough to get 3rd, although it may turn out to be a lower figure. You’d have to declare Falkirk (even away from home) to be a more “winnable” game than any of our last 5. So 3 points on Saturday would leave our 2 rivals needing 5 extra points from the “Best Six” fixtures than us – which is quite a tall order. However if we don’t win on Saturday, they could cut the gap further, which would give them a mental boost. Interesting times…..
Indeed – I think Saturday will be the toughest game we’ve had in weeks to be honest.
I think you guys are worrying too much, to be perfectly honest with you. Don’t get me wrong; I take your point, but I don’t think you’re giving Csaba and the boys enough credit. Falkirk are not as good a team as Celtic or Rangers (they are genuinely struggling at the moment), and lets not forget we have followed an excellent 2nd half against Rangers with another great performance in a potential banana-skin encounter with Kilmarnock. Two points dropped last weekend will IMO galvanise the team, and they’ll know that nothing less than a win will do if we’re going to get 3rd. Lets wait and see, but I think Csaba will have them well up for this one.
I hope you’re right, but I do think you may be over-rating us just a tad, SJ. The point is not that Falkirk are a poorer side than the OF – it’s more to do with our attitude when we go to places like that being up for question, and to be honest our away record at such venues, even under Csaba, is still not particularly great. That’s why a win this weekend would represent significant progress for me.
Fair enough. I just think we turned that particular corner when we demolished Kilmarnock. Although I do accept that it was slightly different since it was at Tynecastle.
Strangely I used to like Falkirk until John Hughes started to manage them. One of my friends is a season ticket holder with them and has been for years, maybe my liking of them in the past has been down to sympathy for him. Or admiration as at least he didn’t change clubs like my other mates to the OF.
These games are always tough and I always feel slightly wary of getting too excited about the prospect of being favourites for them.
I would like nothing better than to be a support of one of the clubs to help put John Hughes in First Division management. Should be an interesting game.
I’m worried about this match – apparently we haven’t won at Falkirk for the past 4 seasons – in our favour though is (a) our current form and (b) Falkirk’s injury woes. Generally though if you haven’t won at a particular ground the pendulum turns. Glad Yogi has kept his job for this match. I’ll be watching the scoreline from downunder during the night.