Former Hearts stalwart Gary Mackay feels that a draw for the team in this Sunday’s Edinburgh derby would be an excellent result given their form of recent weeks.
Mackay, who is currently plugging his new autobiography, is clearly being realistic in terms of his expectations for the match, regardless of the old saying that ‘form book goes out the window’ on derby day.
He said:
‘If we come away from Easter Road with anything positive, and that includes getting a point, I think we’ll all be delighted.
‘I think for the supporters there’s a bit of trepidation after the last two results.
‘The results were poor but – as Csaba said himself – in relation to how we started the season, the performances were poor.
‘So hopefully, we can get a better performance and, if we do get that, I think we do have the players to get something from the game.
‘But they will have to believe in the structure that the manager set out at the beginning of the campaign.’
I definitely agree with Mackay’s last sentiment. The nature of the team’s play has indeed changed for the worse in recent weeks, and if Hearts do want to come away from Easter Road with a positive result, then they’d do well to return to the style of play we saw in the matches against Motherwell and St Mirren at Tynecastle.
However to say that ‘we’ll all be delighted’ with a draw at Easter Road is perhaps taking things a little far. That would certainly be the case if we were two goals down with five minutes to go of course, but before a derby match you always want to win, and with this one being one of the most unpredictable for years I would still say that has to be the aim, even if a draw wouldn’t necessarily be a bad result in that it would steady the ship to some extent.
We’ll just need to see what happens….
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I agree with Mr Mackay… I just can’t see how the team can win based on the last few performances.
But it’s not “based on the last few performances” is it though Dalien? It’s a derby game – and the form book traditionally gets thrown out of the window along with the wife (so you can watch in peace!) in these games. This one probably more than most. That, plus the fact that both Hearts *and* Hibs have had good & bad performances this season means that both teams are capable enough… just depends who turns up on the day and who ultimately wants it more. Having said all that, I think it will be a draw… which is absolutely fine by me so long as Hearts fight the corner and not throw away a golden chance to win through a stupid lapse in concentration.
Agreed SJ….
Incidently, have any of you guys read Mr Mackay’s book? I pre-ordered it through Amazon, and am about half way through reading it. It’s a surprisingly good read (given that he’s not the most litterit of human beings! ;o)).
Not only do the form go out the window at derby games, it wouldn’t be fare to make a prediction on the last two games; we should really take into account all performances, from Hearts and Hibs. For me this leaves us with a 50-50 chance, I would love it to be better odds, but I am also quite pleased that the odds aren’t lower. I still feel that the quality is there in the team, but they need to be able to use more of the initial ‘go and get it’ energy. I will probably regret saying this, but I think it would be good to give Makela a chance…
By the way I am not saying so because Makela is a fellow Scandinavian 🙂 just think he has the capability to score if given some time. Is it a gamble, absolutely, but so is playing Mole from the start? Makele has made a fool of himself, but this could a chance for the boy to redeem himself.
I’m not a fan of Makela, but thousands will be if he scores the winner on Sunday! As for the book SJ, no I haven’t read it but it might be one for the Christmas list….
Lets just hope it is a winner….