Now that the latest round of the international matches is out of the way, it’s back to ‘proper’ football this weekend when Hearts travel to face Falkirk.
This match is the first of three very winnable matches for Hearts, and there is a real opportunity there for them to put down the foundations of a successful season. We’ve talked about the various
problems that we know exist with the current first team squad (lack of a decent striker, etc), but I think in general most people would acknowledge that Csaba Laszlo’s side have been making steady progress, especially given the disappointment of last season.
After Falkirk, where we don’t have a particularly good recent record, Hearts then face Inverness at Tynecastle, before travelling to face Craig Levein’s Dundee United at Tannadice. You could argue that all three of these fixtures are fraught with a certain degree of danger from our point of view, as Hearts are by no means a side guaranteed to score goals in every game, but looking at it positively you have to say that a good opportunity is there.
Falkirk have started the season poorly, but I’ve been highly impressed by their performances against Hearts under John Hughes in recent times, and the fact that they are desperate for a win will make the trip perhaps even more difficult than normal. Having said that though, if Hearts can score early against a side bound to be lacking a bit of confidence just now, then they have every chance of coming away with the three points there – that certainly has to be the aim.
Inverness have also been a tough opponent for Hearts in recent years, and manager Craig Brewster appears to once again have them very well organised. But Inverness at home really should be a match we’re looking to win, and if Hearts do go into that on the back of three points at Falkirk, the momentum they’ll take into that match will serve them well. It doesn’t guarantee a win of course, but they would be disappointed with anything less.
And then there’s United away, which is admittedly a tough fixture. Levein’s teams are always difficult to beat and his record there against Hearts has been excellent, but since the departure of Barry Robson and Noel Hunt, United haven’t looked quite as dangerous as they were, and they are possibly a side that are more suited to playing games away from home at the moment. At Tannadice they’ll need to commit more men forward, which is definitely something that Hearts can exploit if they’re set up appropriately, and this therefore represents another opportunity for three points.
All of this is looking at things from a positive point of view of course, and we could just as easily end up with very little out of these three matches. But just imagine the lift it will give the players and fans if they can win all three – they’d almost certainly be top of the table if they were to achieve that, and once a team gets on a run like this they can often take a bit of stopping.
We’ll see……..if it all goes pear-shaped on the back of this, then perhaps it’s time to hand the reigns of positivity over to Stockport Jambo on a full-time basis…………..!
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Out of the three, I’d say the toughest fixture will be ICT… even though it’s at home. They’ve had a decent start to the campaign, and we always seem to struggle for goals against them. Dundee Utd have had a nightmare start, but they will adjust under Levein and I expect them to be back up there within a few games… hopefully not starting with us but given our record there it wouldn’t surprise me. Falkirk is the great unknown – they can either be Pele or Smelly… let’s hope the aroma around New Brockville is of the latter variety when we go there on Saturday.
I’m reasonably positive about this game. Although I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing? If they lose I will lapse into being grumpy again. Still worried about the striking options and where the goals will come from, okay I know a hatful have been scored but they need a scorer. For all I know Tullberg will be that man. Why is it teams like Killie and Hibs can produce goalscorers but Hearts can’t? Dundee Utd are once again having to pay the price every successful-ish club outside the OF suffers from, having to sell top players to stay afloat. I would like there to be just 3 seasons where a third team can push the OF and not have to worry about their players being snapped up. The next 3 fixtures will be interesting and big test for the team.
Big test indeed, but as I said in the article, three wins would be some shot in the arm……..
3 “winable” games, as you say, Mr H. However our recovery is still quite fragile (with no real goalscorers in the team), so its hard to say whether we’ll gain much more from these coming games compared to what we got from them last season – which amounted to not a lot !! If we can get 3 points at Falkirk, I’d say that would be a significant achievement in itself.
I?m drawn to the ?each game as it comes? mantra much loved by football managers and players stuck awkwardly in front of TV cameras (which used to drive me mad). I think Hearts (not just the team) are a very much a work in progress: many players are short on quality; Romanov is still Romanov etc. but Csaba is the best manager we have had post Burley and he talks (and I think, if he is allowed, will ?walk?) a very good game. I would be very surprised if we strung an exciting series of results together this season to be honest. I think our success this year will be seeing real endeavour on the park and tactics from the manager that make some sort of sense (both sadly lacking recently). We are at best at about the same level as the 3 teams we are about to play so the results could easily go either way.
I agree with your imcd – that is definitely the realistic view to take on it. I’m merely throwing in the possibility of us winning all three and the potential lift that could give everyone…..
Slightly OT I suppose, but just on the subject of making rash predictions on what points we can be looking at in future games, I see Lord Foulkes has said in his latest drunken dribble in the Scotsman that we should expect 15 out of 15 points from our next five games. Last time that was predicted was by Stevie Frail – and we promptly lost every single match. I’m with ‘imcd’ 100% on this… one game at a time (like two or three at a time is an option!).