A game of three thirds

scott herbertson

First off, I was really looking forward to this game. I have had a bad week at work and have been looking after three 4/5/8 year old kids for the last 36 hours. The payback was three hours off with a 6 pack of Grolsch and the Setanta on the set.

Things started to go wrong as soon as my wife came back to liberate me and I switched the computer and telly on.

Starting with the teams – Hibs having Zemmama back and more crucially Jones (I had had high hopes of defensive errors but more of that later…). But worse than the Hibs news was the Hearts team selection which merited an unheralded 3 pages of disbelieving posts on Kickback before the match had even started.

There had been consensus before the game that the match would be won and lost in midfield where if we could even up against Hibs most thought we would win. About 90% were going for 5 across the middle.

On Saturday we had had a terrible start against Dundee United when the many changes to the team meant a lack of cohesion early on which Dundee Utd really should have exploited. Once the guys acquainted themselves with each other we just had too many good players and ran out comfortable winners in the end. Man of the match was Beslija, with Aguiar a close second. There was a consensus that these two should be kept in the team with Brellier added and Pinilla as the lone striker.

Giving a midfield of

Chesnauskis, Aguiar, Brellier, Hartley, Beslija

My only worry, if we played that team, was that Hartley, Pinnila and Pressley might be suffering from the exertions of two big international games and in Pinnilla’s case jet lag.

In the event Pinilla was injured, and worse was to follow with the astonishing news that Miko and Veliuskas would play and Brellier was not even on the bench. This just seemed to give the midfield to Hibs. As the players came onto the pitch I watched the scottish guys closely – the body language of Pressley, Hartley and Wallace was awful, and I suspect the team choice stunned them as well. It must be remembered that Ivanauskas had made much of how the tiredness of those on international duty would be reflected in his selection and that the midfield battle would decide the game. Beslija, Brellier and Aguiar had not been on duty, whereas Mikolainaus and Chesnauskas had,

The thought (and a horrible one) went through my head “6-2” as I remembered a similar feeling of disbelief and dread on hearing Jeffries selection of Petric in midfield in that ill fated game. It looked like a team selection guaranteed to let Hibs have time on the ball.

And so it proved. Hearts were all over the place in the first 30 minutes and the midfield was more lightweight than a Jamie Oliver souffle. Hibs scored quickly and again and looked as if they could get many more. Zemmama and Brown combined again and again and I thought Mikey Stewart had a great game orchestrating most moves with Thomson as the anchor. We even made Sproiule look good. Killen led the line very well – in the niggly and physical style I associate with Shearer (that’s meant as a compliment) and for me was narrowly behind Stewart as Hibs outstanding player. For thirty minutes Hibs were not just dominant they we totally in control of the game.

Only a moment of madness from Hibs clownish keeper broke the momentum. Velicka took it well – he is a central forward who can score and score frequently. The rest of his game looks less appetising but he is currently on a ‘20 goals per season’ run of form. The only thing that can stop him would appear to be the selection policy where the man of the match one week drops onto the bench the next.

Once the goal had gone in we found our selves in the second third of the game. This was a stop start and more even phase. Neither side created many chances for the next twenty minutes, but you felt that Hibs had been rocked by the nature of the goal they had lost and that Hearts players had woken up to the task. The ball started to come more to the wings and Wallace and Tall began to come forward. Still, the smart money would have been on Hibs to recover their compusure and go on to take the game.

No substitutions at half time confirmed the worse for all Hearts fans. I posted on Hibs net at half time that either Hearts would take off Miko and do well, or he would be sent off. In the event he was sent off just as Ivanauskas had the board out for his substitution…

The foul that got him hooked by the referee rather than his manager was innocuous and was embellished by some theatricals from Sproule (who was fortunate to stay the course after a blatant dive in the box) . Undeserved at the time, but earlier he had caught Murphy with a trialing leg which, even if not entirely deliberate deserved a yellow. Ivanauskas described Miko's contribution as 'not clever' so perhaps the penny is dropping.

In the event the departure of Miko was the saving of Hearts.Although it would have been nice to have eleven men, the ten woke up from the restart and from then on Hearts if anything were the more dangerous team. With Beslija and Aguiar on Hearts had players who were comfortable with a quick passing game. Hibs looked increasingly anxious and it was not a surprise to me when Hartley hit a great 40/ 50 yard ball to the left corner – a pass which incidentally had it come from the likes of Sauzee would have had the Scotsman employees dribbling with sycophantic joy. From Hearts they will probably call it a ‘speculative hoof’. Coco again obliged with some mis-positioning and bingo – it was 2-0.

Hearts held on fairly comfortably after that- except one goalmouth scramble where Gordon may or may not have fouled and had to pull off a good near post stop – even venturing a few breakaways, until the 93rd minute when in a dramatic finale Rob Jones ( who was another to have a good game for Hibs) headed hard and high for the top right hand corner only for Gordon to leap athletically and gracefully to palm the ball away.

A showstopping finale to a blistering and emotional game. Probably slightly more than Hearts deserved, though it has to be said that after their smooth start it never got better for Hibs whose match seemed to happen in reverse. By the end they looked like a team which had been mugged….and we all know who the mug was.