Hearts v Livi

Given that this is away from home i'd be happy with a draw, every point counts, esp in away results, however Hearts are still a mess with no manager, and I feel we can get a win here.

Naismith and Halkett are huge players for them though, hopefully Halks isn't yet back to his best, Naismith is a wee moaning git but he pushes them on and hardly ever gives the ball away, and big Ikpeazu is always a handful for defenders to deal with, not much of a football player but bulldozes his way through defences.

We've got the players to beat them though, but we really need Robbo and Dykes to start up front, together they are a real handful for any defence, and Hearts defence with Berra looks extremely vulnerable. Hoping big Marv is ok after going off injured on Sat, his physicality is needed against Ikpeazu.

Suppose we also have to take into account the official for this match, Greg Aitken, the haddie that failed to give us a stonewaller of a penalty when Robbo was hauled down by the Hearts keeper, then sent Souda off for an attempted overhead kick. He has also sent a Livi player off in about 6 other occasions (can't be arsed checking actual red cards he's given us but it's a lot), so we'll prob end up with 10 players again.

Ahh - Haitkin - think I’ll amend my prediction, we don’t stand a chance.

Crawford, Bartley and Lawson all doubts for this one, we're dropping like flies. Maybe Souda will finally get a start now, kinda running out of players to start in front of him.

Erskine is back fit too thank feck, he's another player that is quite skilful on the ball, just can't shoot very well.

I hope Bartley makes it. He's been really good recently. Watched him on View From the Terrace. He's a bit of a character. He also has a thing about Hearts probably due to having played for Hibs.

To be honest i wouldnt be adverse although not pleasing on the eye to another shitfest like Saturday in this one if only to ensure we get another point on the board.After Sundays debacle at Ibrox for them im sure they will come out to readdress their situation and especially to impress their new manager who by all accounts will be anounced tommorrow.Surely Gary will start wee Robbo up front with Lyndon to at least give us an offensive threat although i wont hold my breath.Will be tough against Halks and co but i wish the lads the best of luck again,oh and try and keep eleven men on the park albeit with an absolute arse in the middle.

Marv, Marv, super Marv, super Marvin Bartleyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

1-0 Livi HT.

Think that's the first goal we've scored at Tynecastle since we came back up into the top flight. Naismith going off injured is a big boost too, so far so good with every other score also going our way.

4 Livi players booked, 0 Hearts players, getting the feeling Aitken has a thing for booking us.

So close and yet so far, as a win slowly slips away for another draw against Hearts. Everything turned on its head there as we slipped to 8th place and County make a comeback to beat Hibs 2-1 and go into 7th.

A scunner I know but I said i'd take a draw here so in the cold light of day this wont be as bad a result as it feels just now. We move 4 points clear of St Mirren and have at least stopped the run of defeats. Just need to get that elusive win to take us on a wee run up till the Winter break and open up a big gap on the bottom teams.

Aye, was watching the feed tick down & it was all Livi, then we fail to defend a corner, something that has been food & drink to us over the last few years & again we fail to manage a game out.

While draws usually suggest the game could have gone either way I’ve yet to see us draw a game we looked like losing, it has been draws we have looked like winning until the equaliser

Im sick scunnered of us failing to hold on to leads late in the game. I'll give more of an opinion tomorrow when I feel more rational. Grr!

Just watched the highlights of both goals, bloody hell, some defending by us, 8 Livi players standing in the box and only Guthrie made an attempt to stop the ball, pish attempt but an attempt all the same, rest of them just stood there watching.

Nice finish by Marv for ours.

Hearts were poor and we weren't much better. Both teams spent large amounts of time just kicking high balls out of defence. A football spectacle it was not. I just knew in my gut that we wouldn't hold that lead and so it turned out.
I've come away from games we didn't win this season still feeling optimistic because I felt we'd nevertheless looked good. Last night wasn't like that. It all looked rather desperate.
I never thought I'd say this but maybe Dykes needs to be dropped. There was something about him that made me think either he wasn't fit or he wasn't interested. He set high standards for himself early in the season so I know he can play better. He didn't win the same number of high balls and he often didn't bother chasing loose ones. Disappointing.
Aitken was his usual self. Booked Livi players and let the Hearts ones off. Bartley's booking in 7 minutes was ridiculous - almost as if Aitken hoped there would be a 2nd one later. (I'm paranoid!   )  All 50/50 decisions went the way of the team with the large noisy crowd. I hope that's the end of him for the rest of the season.

All the speculation over Dykes has maybe distracted him from his job, seems to be in an article every week saying he wants to move to a bigger team to play at as high a level as he can, or that he wants selected for Scotland. Needs to start playing well for us again or neither will be happening. Hasn't particularly shown enough pressing of the ball since coming back from his injury, I put that down to Robbo not being on the pitch helping him, but that wasn't the case last night.

We need to get the finger out here, this was a great chance to move 6 points clear of bottom spot, and then push on and battle Hibs for a top six place, instead we've dropped below County AGAIN, and still within touching distance of St Mirren. Goals have dried up too, one in our last four games, and it came from Bartley, about time the Livi players who have produced the goods in the past for us stepped up and started banging them in.

orco wrote:Hearts were poor and we weren't much better. Both teams spent large amounts of time just kicking high balls out of defence. A football spectacle it was not. I just knew in my gut that we wouldn't hold that lead and so it turned out.
I've come away from games we didn't win this season still feeling optimistic because I felt we'd nevertheless looked good. Last night wasn't like that. It all looked rather desperate.
I never thought I'd say this but maybe Dykes needs to be dropped. There was something about him that made me think either he wasn't fit or he wasn't interested. He set high standards for himself early in the season so I know he can play better. He didn't win the same number of high balls and he often didn't bother chasing loose ones. Disappointing.
Aitken was his usual self. Booked Livi players and let the Hearts ones off. Bartley's booking in 7 minutes was ridiculous - almost as if Aitken hoped there would be a 2nd one later. (I'm paranoid!   )  All 50/50 decisions went the way of the team with the large noisy crowd. I hope that's the end of him for the rest of the season.

From what I've read, Holts comments and Callum Carson's too, based on the overall performance a draw was perhaps a good result for us, Hearts had a few very good chances in the first half and we were fortunate to be 1-0 up, but disappointing to lose a late goal and not hold on for all three points.

My own thoughts are, maybe we wouldn't have deserved the win and a draw was a fair result, but it would be good if we sometimes came away with a win we didn't deserve, other teams have done that to us, Aberdeen at home being one I can remember straight away, or Accies away with their late dodgy penalty decision.

We're still looking at other results doing us a favour, St Mirren play Hamilton on Sat for example, either of them wins and they'll be either level or just one point behind us (if we lose against Killie), so hoping for a draw there. Would be nice to not have to bother about their result and just take care of our own for a change. Who knows though, maybe we'll get a win against Killie, then beat St Mirren away and everything will be all rosy a week on Saturday.

Dont get me wrong,im greatfull that we managed to get another point on the board.But like most it felt like a deafeat to me.Its becoming a nasty trend that we cant see out games from a winning position so many times this season so far.It surely must be concerning to Gary and Davie and really will have to be addressesed soon before we inevitabley get dragged down due to our own shortcomings.Tynecastle is never an easy place to get anything from but christ 2 mins from the end is a bitter pill to swallow.Yes we can all try and be optomistic about the games coming up but for me guys apart from the obvious striking problems theres something not right here and i just cant put my finger on it.If we are are gonna stay in this league i really hope its because we are good enough and not because others arent.Would hate to think that further down the line we are going to be hoping others will do us any favours.If thats the case then so be it,but its going to be murder to whatch if at best it hasnt been so far.Concerned

Further down the line? We're relying on other results going our way just now Troy.

13 points from our fist 11 games, after playing every team once.

2 points after 5 games so far, but have played Motherwell, Sevco and Celtic. So still a decent chance to get wins from the teams we have left to play. The home games against County and St Johnstone are going to be crucial, wins there would be massive. The St Mirren away i'd gladly take a draw, very tough team at home and if we don't lose it to keep them from closing the gap on us it would be as important a draw as any we've had.

We could be doing with winning more of our home games though, that's what kept us in the league last season.