Stephen Frail got off to the worst possible start to his temporary reign as Hearts manager this afternoon when his side were beaten 4-1 by Dundee United at Tannadice.
I didn’t manage to get up to the game today, but it does sound as though there were several controversial incidents up there that saw the match swinging in United’s favour, even if the home side probably did deserve their victory.
The match referee was Alan Freeland, who is no stranger to having the occasional bizarre game where he is the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. It would appear that today was another of those occasions, much to the derision of the travelling support.
In-demand United captain Barry Robson was the man who did most of the damage for United, scoring the crucial opening goal from a controversially awarded indirect free-kick inside the Hearts area, and then later completing a hat-trick with two late penalties. Noel Hunt scored United’s other goal after 84 minutes. Hearts captain Christophe Berra had cancelled out the opening goal before half-time from Stewart’s corner. Three Hearts players were also sent off this afternoon: Marius Zaliukas, Michael Stewart and Lee Wallace. This only further endeared Mr Freeland to the maroon masses.
Anyone expecting things to suddenly change for the better with yesterday’s announcement about the management situation would have been bitterly disappointed with this result today, but this was always going to be a tough match for Hearts, even at the best of times.
United have been a decent side this season and although their form has dipped lately, I think Hearts possibly felt the backlash of their anger over today’s game not being cancelled after witnessing the horrible events at Fir Park on Saturday. It’s an absolute disgrace that this game was played today while other matches involving teams with less involvement than United e.g. Celtic and Rangers, were cancelled. In this respect you have to hand it to United for coming out and winning as well as they did today. Fair play to them.
For Hearts though, the bad run continues and there is much hard work ahead if they are to salvage their season. Frail (and whoever comes in as manager) needs to be given time to put his mark on things – it won’t change overnight and people will just need to be patient. Very patient……
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This season is a write-off. We need a clearout of players this month, and a concentration on survival and building team spirit for the new man to come in… hopefully before the summer so he can have an impact in the transfer window & pre-season. Like you say, there is much to be done, and a lot of damage to be un-done.
just a pity ken dodd has taken ill but , his diddy men may still be available ,, let,s face ,, you cant get any worse ,, or can you ? CANNY WAIT ,, to find out ……………..
“there is much hard work ahead if they are to salvage their season”
Forget it H.
I’s not a new manager you need, its a whole new team. Having Frail as the caretaker manager is going to change nothing, even if he has full charge of deciding the team and subs, maybe its time he left (or gets fired).
We don’t need a whole new team at all. We still have the core of a decent side there and given time a good management team could steer them back into the top two or three. But where we are now is the product of literally years of mis-management – it takes time to undo that and it will probably get worse before it gets better. We can’t really afford any knee-jerk reactions to some of the defeats that undoubtedly lie ahead.
I don’t think Hearts need a whole new team. Whilst yes, the players have to take responsibility for their poor performances, its not so much that they are completely out of their depth in the SPL. They beat Rangers 4-1, Beat us 2-0 in the CIS cup and drew 1-1 at Tynecastle. Therefore it?s obvious they are not a poor team as a whole. But the uncertainty behind the scenes is probably the most contributory factor in this whole circus. What Hearts needs is a manager who is in control of the team and everyday managerial affairs. Perhaps a couple of players here and there would also keep their cause. But I doubt that is going to happen. I think Hearts will finish in the bottom 6 this year.
The only thing of importance to Hearts in the league this year is staying in it. Anything else is a bonus, even though we aren’t all that far behind third place at the moment (considering the run we’ve just had). The main thing is to get some stability and clear leadership – if we can get that this season then we have to look ahead to next year with a bit more optimism.