Will Killie Bully Hearts Off The Field Again?

Hearts take on Kilmarnock at Tynecastle this afternoon looking to make amends for how things turned out the last time that their former manager Jim Jefferies brought his Ayrshire side to Gorgie.

Back in early October, Jefferies’ side had clearly done their homework on the weaknesses of their hosts, and in the end they ran out 2-1 winners after an uncharacteristically physical display had battered Hearts into submission, once again pouring scorn on the popular suggestion that our team are ‘a big, strong side’.

I say ‘uncharacteristically’ above, because generally in recent years, Kilmarnock sides have been among the more positive, ball-playing visitors to regularly visit Tynecastle. Indeed some of the very best games of SPL football I’ve seen have been in this fixture, particularly a certain ‘Hearts 5-3 Kilmarnock’ result back when Jefferies was still in the Tynie hotseat.

But it was a vastly different Killie outfit who plundered the three points in October. Their game plan was basically to ensure that anyone in the Hearts team who could play football would be kicked around until they didn’t fancy it any longer, and unfortunately for us Jambos, it was a plan that worked extremely well. Michael Stewart had started the season impressively but he could hardly get a kick before being clattered by Killie hardman Pascali, who actually reminded me a little of one of Jefferies’ old Hearts enforcers, Pasquale Bruno (and not just because of the name!).

Csaba Laszlo’s team have gone onto have a pretty decent season since that match, which has included a 2-0 win over the same opposition at Rugby Park, a result that was reportedly a tad fortunate to be fair, though. However one of Csaba’s main weaknesses continues to be the lack of genuine physical presence within his team, and this hasn’t been helped by the fact that one of the few strong players in his team, Christophe Berra, is no longer at the club.

Hearts will therefore have to be on their guard for another very tough match this afternoon at Tynecastle. They’ll need to be prepared to scrap for every ball out there and discipline themselves not to go into hiding after a few ‘robust’ tackles, otherwise they’ll end up with nothing.

It should be a good contest….