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Hearts Out Of The Cup

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Hearts crashed out of the Scottish Cup last night when they lost their replay 1-0 to a Ross McCormack penalty at Motherwell.

I didn’t manage to make it through last night, but the result didn’t really come as a surprise to me to be honest. It’s not that I think that Motherwell are a particularly great side (no-one in the league is), but Hearts are still struggling to find any sort of decent form just now and playing against a side who have done well this season, led by an intelligent manager, it was always going to be an uphill struggle in my opinion.

The reports I’m hearing about the game sound very familiar indeed – Hearts absolutely appalling for 45 minutes, looked better in the second when they changed tactics a little, but ultimately weren’t physically strong enough to bully a result out of it. Once again I’m assured that our players received very little in the way of protection from the match officials, but without having witnessed any of it for myself it’s very difficult to comment. Suffice to say that if the performance was anything like what we’ve witnessed recently though, I do believe what I’m being told! Even the Radio Scotland commentary team admitted that the decisive goal came from a very dubious penalty, where Eggert Jonsson was adjudged to have deliberately handled the ball.

So is that our season basically up the spout now then? Oh no I forgot – we’ve got the Mickey Mouse Cup semi-final against The Establishment team to come next week………..great!

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MrH

Come on the famous!

11 comments

  • itsnomarooned says:

    I’m not prepared to believe it’s season over as yet but with performances like that it’s getting there. Like you I wasn’t at the game and listened to Radio Scotland and it did seem very much like the proverbial game of 2 halves. What I find just quite incredible is the way that it appeared the players just weren’t up for it in the 1st half – I mean what on earth is all that about?? The commentry did indicate that we were much better in the second half but posters on JKB returning from the match were very disparaging in their remarks. It’s a well worn cliche but we must just take every game as it comes now and treat each one as (sorry another cliche) a cup final. I truly despair!

  • STONES1874 says:

    Having been at the fixture I have to disagree with your points and im a little dissapointed that you are believing what your hear on radio scotland and how the media darlings Motherwell deserved their victory. I am struggling to remember the domination from motherwell in the 1st half and any save that Banks had to make over the full 90. The domination came in the 2nd half where we absolutely battered them only failing to draw level with the width of a post. We were average in the first half but the 2nd half performance was very encouraging and the fight we showed right to the death was there for all to see. Unfortunately we are still carrying players like Miko and Stewart (who’s delivery was disgusting) but Jonsson and Palazuelos were excellent and Nade came on the play the best 45 i’ve seen from him yet. I was at the lowest i’ve ever been as a Hearts fan over the festive period but I think we’ve shown were moving in the right direction over the past 4 games and if we can continue to get the support we got last night (about 3000) things can only improve and we can stick it right up the media, the opposition and in particular the SFA who once again displayed there blatant cheating against us with some appauling officiating. Mon the Jambos !!!

  • itsnomarooned says:

    STONES1874 – fair enough, I’m certainly prepared to defer to you as someone who was there. I’m not saying that Motherwell dominated but it didn’t appear we were at the races in the 1st half. I was much more impressed by the second half where we appeared to much more prepared to go forward etc but as I said, posters on JKB who were at the game (or at least claimed to be) were not exactly complimentary which could be just knee-jerk disappointment I suppose. It is a far cry listening to the match than being there I appreciate. I too believe there is movement in the right direction.

  • MrH says:

    I wouldn’t believe half of the stuff you read on there mate. It can be a good site at times but most of the posts the day after a defeat are sensationalist nonsense, no doubt fuelled by raw disappointment. And by the way Stones, I wasn’t referring to radio commentary as my source for believing that we were poor in the first half, although they did mention that we were. The boys I spoke to who were there said that both teams were rubbish in the first half, not just us. As for this perennial praising of the likes of Palazuelos and Jonsson, I can’t understand a lot of it. As a pairing they are too weak in there and one of the main reasons that we are struggling is a lack of strength in midfield. Btw agreed on Stewart at set-pieces – haven’t seen him take a decent one yet!

  • Specs Haver says:

    Interesting comments from Stones1874, since he was there !! Mr H – appreciate your comments re Eggert & Ruben, but they are both young and new to the team. I’d be very surprised and disappointed if they don’t keep improving.

    I reckon they (and the team as a whole) will benefit from having Kingston and Aguair back. One wonders if Miko will keep his place at the expense of Eggert or Ruben ?

    It never ceases to amaze me how players seem to need to be told how to play by a coach in half-time pep talks. There waas a quote by Frail that “we talked about getting tighter on their midfield in the second half” Surely players ought to that in EVERY game …no ? Or do they only do it if the coach explicitly tells them ? In which case, I hope Stephen Frail is actually spelling it out to them to “put the ball between the posts and under the crossbar”.

  • StockportJambo says:

    Reminds me of that old sketch set during the missionary era and the Spanish and Portuguese were teaching the South American natives how to play football. Went something like: “Ball! Kick! Goal!” I wasn’t there either, and listened on Hearts World instead. It sounded like neither team really played well in the first half – with Hearts particularly lethargic. Frail needs to give them the rocket up the backside before the game starts – with this team, by half time it’s too late.

  • MrH says:

    On the subject of whether you’re at a game or not, very often even those who were will paint a pretty inaccurate picture of what went on…….just read some of my match reports for examples!

  • itsnomarooned says:

    You do yourself a disservice sir! I generally don’t comment on these as I find they’re pretty much in keeping with my reading of the game. Individual player rating might be out by a point or 2 but that’s it.

  • MrH says:

    Well…..it’s open to your own interpretation of a game isn’t it? It’s truly amazing how different that any two people can view the same game of football, never mind thousands!

  • itsnomarooned says:

    It is strange isn’t it. I usually adjourn to the pub for some post-match analysis and regularly assume that one of the guys hadn’t bothered to go and had just met us for a beer! Vive la différence!

  • MrH says:

    Exactly, like some Hibbie mates who thought that Kenny Clark did US more favours than them on Saturday for example!

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