hopefully our good friends up the road take something off the maureens to confirm our top 6 place, which puts all the pressure on hearts to win

Every week folk say they want Babunski in the starting eleven. I can see why.

There's not a chance in hell though. He'll make the odd 5 minute cameo and be away in the summer.

Stillliving wrote:

Always_United wrote:

Every week folk say they want Babunski in the starting eleven. I can see why.

There's not a chance in hell though. He'll make the odd 5 minute cameo and be away in the summer.

 
I don't think Babunski would start for any team in the SPFL. He just isn't up to the demands of the agricultural Scottish game.

 
I'm not one of the ones that continually call for him to start and certainly not on that pitch last Sunday.

But horses for courses for me,  this Hearts side are not your typical Hearts side and they  their fight and dig has been questioned on multiple times this season.

They have a wee guy that's 5ft nothing in the middle of the park and 17 year old laddie (great player) that's built like the side of a fiver.

We will need to keep the ball a hell of a lot better than we have in recent games and he is capable of that.

That said I do think it's unlikely but the question was what I would do.

Beardy23 wrote:

if we finally have Doc and Sibbald fit they will start,

 
Definitely. Sibbald isn't back to his best yet but definitely starts alongside Docherty.
And again I would expect Stephenson to nail that 3rd midfield slot.
Hearts have been playing well but they're definitely fragile when under pressure. And they definitely start this game under more pressure than us. It's a fantastic surface so hopefully we can play a bit of football. Vital not to concede an early goal.

451 without the ball.

Walton
Strain Manny Graham Ferry
Svelj Luca Doc Sibs Glenn
Dalby

Goodwin mentioned that 1 or 2 are touch and go for Sunday but will be given up until Sunday before a decision is made.

Going by the rest of the conference, I don't think it's Docherty.  I take it Gallagher is one but who could the other be?

I hope we don't set up not to lose but I got that vibe.

Wow, what a result. We really know how to be hard to play against.
We're like that annoying Italian team that visits you and shuts up shop then nicks it with a breakaway.

Credit to Goodwin for making the positive changes, Middleton especially, lovely clipped cross for Dalby's acrobatic header.
With better touch in the final 3rd we could have got a second.

Sam Harding did fine. One wee misjudgment but luckily it didn't cost us. Gallagher did what Gallagher does and Doc played 90 minutes.

Brilliant backing from the travelling fans. Back to back wins at Tynecastle in the same season. Need to build on this and take advantage next week, a European place is still possible.

CCX2 2010 wrote:

Another brilliant result, in what I think was one Goodwins biggest results in his two years in charge.

8 point gap on the teams chasing us and just three David Grays world beaters and the SSBs.

Just another standard performance,  solid at the back and Big Sam's usual lethal finish when given the opportunity in front of goal.

Cool and composed debut from young Samuel and will learn from the experience of Gallagher who strolled it today.

The captain again, top class even when strapped to the wandering Campbell,  I just really don't see what that boy is adding or what his strengths are.

Spoke to Sevelj outside the ground today who said he had just strained his groin but should be back gor next week, we missed him in the middle today. Hopefully nothing too serious with big Ross.

Onwards and upwards.

JGTA

 
When the Hearts player got red I texted my Jambo mate and said that makes it 10 v 10 because we have Campbell in the side.

Good news on Vicko 👍

Over the moon.

TBH thought we'd get a point the day, but that's no saying that I thought we were'na good enough to baet Herts, just that following yesterday's result we the Midden, that Herts had mair to play fir.

Looking at the stats, we musta performed some great defending the day.

Great result fir abody. Well done to Jim and the lads.

For my money, we qualified for Europe today.

I can’t see Hearts, Motherwell & St Mirren clawing back 8/9 points on us. And I’m sure (I think) that Celtic will win the cup.

Huge game on Saturday.  Win and we should be good for 5th at worst.  We'd likely be back up to 4th and I have a feeling that the Fun could take points off Hibs.  Hibs can't keep this form up until the end of the season and neither will the Dons.  

I think our biggest concern is around fitness and suspensions.

A fortuitous red card against the Jambos - think we probably would have gone on to lose that game otherwise (by the odd goal).  Good to see Critchley totally fail to address going down to 10 - he's mince.  Fully expect Motherwell or St Mirren to make the top six and Critchley to get punted if Aberdeen put them out of the cup.

Goodwin has a great chance to really make a name for himself over the next 6 games.  Finish above the Dons in their best season for years will stick it right up the ovine loving northeners.

MockChop wrote:

For my money, we qualified for Europe today.

I can’t see Hearts, Motherwell & St Mirren clawing back 8/9 points on us. And I’m sure (I think) that Celtic will win the cup.

 
Said similar yesterday at full time, we are in a great position.

Yesterday, was pretty similar to the Ross County game. A match that was not easy on the eye, where we never created much, but nicked a 1-0 win after another good headed goal. Albeit, we rode our luck more yesterday, and to be honest the match certainly turned on the sending off of Wilson, as we hadn't been in it at all up until that point, and it just looked a matter of time until we went behind.

But given we were missing Sevelj and Graham i can understand us struggling to hold on. They are two huge players for us. No two ways about it.

I was happy for young Sam Harding to get his debut. It was a hard venue and match for him to play his first match for the club, but if i'm honest i felt he struggled and Goodwin done the right thing by subbing him off fairly early. His exposure to the first team will need to be sporadic and well managed.

Two best players yesterday were Jack Walton and Declan Gallagher, the latter i'm not a huge fan of, but thought he led the backline very well yesterday considering he had two young players each side of him (and Manny on his wrong side).

The two up front with Dalby and Moult just doesn't work, i wish it did, but whenever we play it, zero chances get made for either. I don't think a great many get created when the wingers come on either, but slightly more creativity at least. Despite the win i was again yesterday very unsatisfied about this aspect of our game. Even against 10 men for large portion of the match i think we created only one or two chances, and their Keeper was largely untested all day long.

Was pleasing at least to see David Babunski finally get some significant game time, and i thought he done 'ok', but not great. Better than Campbell, but tbh i would like to have seen him on the ball a bit more or try to impose himself on the ball a bit more, considering we had a man advantage.

Agree with comments above that suspensions/injuries will probably be our undoing if we miss out on Europe. We need to really hope Sevelj and Graham are back next weekend for what will be a tough game against a team fighting hard for their survival in the league. And obviously we need to hope Ross Docherty continues to be available, he was again one of our better players yesterday.

Allan Campbell should not feature again. I'd rather Babunski or even Fiorini got game time over him, he's completely ineffectual, but it looks like he's Goodwin's new version of Jordan Tilson i.e. a player who he will continue to stubbornly select.

Lastly, that may be the poorest Hearts team i've ever seen in all my time watching football. They have very little about them. Even the season when they got relegated and were a team full of kids they had more about them. I think Motherwell might well beat them next weekend.

Oh, and very lastly. Sam Dalby's header. Absolutely fantastic. Got some power on it considering the ball was behind him.