Hearts bounced back from last week’s shock defeat at Parkhead with a 1-0 win over Motherwell at Fir Park this afternoon.
We spoke last week about the Celtic result perhaps being a blessing in disguise in terms of getting rid of the complacency that’s been creeping into the Hearts make-up recently, and it was good to see them getting back to basics today in order to cement their position as favourites for the SPL title.
It was also good to see Hearts getting this positive result without top scorer Andrius Velicka, who is expected to complete a move to Norwegian club Viking Stavanger in the coming week.
It has seemed lately that although Hearts have some supremely talented footballers in the side (particularly Neilson and the mercurial Goncalves), Velicka has been slowly becoming the only man capable of scoring decisive goals for the club. Therefore it was very considerate of Motherwell’s Stephen Craigan to prove to us that life after Andrius does not necessarily mean a lack of Hearts goals’
Fir Park is never an easy place to get a result at the best of times, but particularly so this season as Motherwell have been very impressive under the shrewd management of Mark McGhee, a man who has been linked with the Hearts job recently. Therefore this is a fine result, even if on paper Hearts should always be able to take care of anything that this country has to offer.
There are likely to be more changes to the squad in the coming months after the seemingly inevitable departure of Velicka, and before long we could even see Hearts with an entirely new strike force.
This would seem like folly given that Hearts are challenging for a clean sweep of trophies this season, but if Real Madrid do indeed follow up their alleged interest in Calum Elliot (a figure of £8.5 million + more after a certain number of appearances) then it would be harsh of the club to stand in the lad’s way.
That’s all in the future though and in the meantime Hearts just need to concentrate on winning each game one at a time, starting with Rangers at Tynecastle on Wednesday. I’m not one for predictions generally, but if Hearts don’t score at least five in that match then I’m sure we’ll all be more than a little disappointed….
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I’d settle for four against them again. I’m not greedy. Even though I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Jambo till the day I die, I’ve not forgotten my roots. I remember what it was like before Romanov came riding into town and we were rubbish, not being sure who was coming or going. How times change, eh?
Yes but we only got 4 the last time we played them at Tynie and that was a big disappointment. I don’t care if we’re all greedy, gloryhunting types now – I want a shoe-ing.