DC92

That tactic worked quite well in the second half at Pittodrie last month. Hopefully we've got a better plan to combat it this time.

More or less the same, but they weren't in a worse position last season. They're 2 points worse off after 19 games and Hearts are 1 point better off after 22. I think if the same results played out this time we'd scrape it by the skin of our teeth on goal difference.

This is a massive game because, while a defeat isn't a disaster on paper, last season will start to play on people's minds. If we win, I really can't see anyone catching us. I can imagine there'll be a clamour to play a back 4 after the other night but I'm not sure either way. It feels like whenever we change formation we fix one issue while creating another, which probably isn't surprising. How is Lembikisa defensively in a 4 when we're not playing the whole game in the other team's half, for example? We don't need to overcommit in this game. That said, the back 3 hasn't looked nearly as solid with Halkett in for Rowles anyway. I'm guessing Baningime is out, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a back 4 with Cochrane pushed into midfield. That would give us the option to switch to a 3 without making subs, if we needed to.

We were minutes away from 6 points from 6 in Glasgow until VAR intervened at Ibrox, and Aberdeen were on course to take 6/6 against Rangers until the same thing happened to them at Pittodrie. The reality is Killie or anyone else winning 3 games against the OF in one season is the exception rather than the norm for obvious reasons.

I agree and that's probably the way it should be. I'm not 100% convinced by Naismith myself yet. There seems to be zero patience whatsoever from some, though. Next time we lose or drop points at home it'll be time for him to go again.

Clear and obvious.

It has been fine margins, and we absolutely are liable to drop points from time to time if we keep playing the same way, but we've consistently been on the right side of those fine margins for a long run of games over several months now. The games we've lost have all been fine margins as well (Celtic at Tynecastle aside) and while we don't create much, we are generally making more chances than the opposition in the games we're winning. Midfield is an issue. The blend looked wrong on paper last night and against Ross County and it proved to be so on the pitch as well. Nieuwenhof and Denholm in the same midfield isn't good enough and doesn't work. We've got a few options so I think we'll get by, but it needs addressed at some point. Unfortunately, the common theme in the drop in defensive performance is the return of a rusty looking Craig Halkett, as well as the loss of Rowles, who's been excellent in recent months. Hopefully Halkett can quickly get back to how he was, otherwise it's a concern for the next couple of weeks. I don't think we're seeing fundamentally different things here. After the shambles at the end of Neilson's time, I'm just happy for us to be getting results consistently and pulling away in third, which can't be taken for granted. If we lose a game or two I'm not going to panic like some others seem to whenever we lose a goal, because there's a body of evidence that suggests we'll continue to pick up points. If we f**k up third or haven't improved in 12 months time then I'll be frustrated, but for now I'm reasonably happy (still need a couple of players in this window).

None of them seemed to be giving much credit. Michael Stewart made sure to point out we only played well in the last half-hour (not the whole half) and even then we didn't have any good "patterns of play". That's probably not completely without merit but it feels like a high bar for what constitutes a good performance considering we definitely had more of the play and more of the chances over the 90 minutes as a whole. And the missed penalty could easily have been a negative momentum-shifter as much as Nieuwenhof's goal was a positive one, but it wasn't. I got the sense they'd made their mind up on the game at half-time and didn't want to row back on anything. It's a sentiment that's there among plenty of Hearts fans as well. Quite a lot of us made our minds up on Naismith early (I also thought he was a dud) and are reluctant to admit they might be wrong. We've put a long run of consistent results together since getting knocked out of Europe (11 wins and only 2 defeats v the bottom 9 in all comps, a win at Parkhead, beaten every team in the league except Rangers, etc.) but still whenever the first sign of adversity appears there are a host of people going "Aha! There it is! I knew this was coming! That's the REAL Hearts!" and it's getting a bit tedious now. That's not me saying we don't have plenty of room for improvement and I do think we'll have sticky patches to come this season. I wouldn't even say I'm completely sold on Naismith yet, but maybe he's earned a bit more leeway than he seems to get from some.

Listened back to the end of the game on Sportsound there. Richard Gordon asks whether Hearts can sustain this run of clawing back points from behind and scoring late winners. Before tonight we'd only managed one single point from a losing position and had scored one late winner all season.

Tait is a player.

Thankfully I don't tune in all that often these days, but the idea that Preston's shrieking is limited to home goals at Tynecastle is a definite myth. I've always found his "excitement" levels generally just reflect the game, even if the away team at Tynecastle is giving us a doing. I bet if you searched Kickback you'd find a dozen threads calling him a w**k with an agenda against the club for this reason. The reality is he's just irritating to listen to.

I remember him coming across as a bit of an arsehole in Paulo Sergio's unveiling press conference. Obviously if he was Hibs it would have automatically been put down to that.

Scott Fraser on loan apparently. I'm pretty sure Levein tried to sign him a few years ago which doesn't bode well. I've barely seen him play/can't remember him but he feels a bit "Andrew Shinnie".

Hibs' current showing is definitely putting ours into perspective.

We've somehow managed to palm off Andy Halliday, Jordan Roberts and Conor Sammon onto them in recent years. Don't give up hope.

Lembikisa looked good when he came on. I'll leave it at that.

I think our entire squad of 20 has 10 goals between them this season.

The report I read suggested Hearts decided to send him back early. He's been pretty poor but it's a bit surprising unless we've got someone lined up. ETA:

I was surprised to read in Hearts Standard that he'd only started 3 league games. Then I checked and saw he'd actually started 10. Maybe they're only counting the games where he kicked a ball. With Halliday and Lowry going you'd like to think we've got somebody lined up. We definitely need someone to fill the creative void with McKay out.

The VAR controversy well has run a bit dry over the winter break so they'll be delighted to fill another 45 minutes with Shankland to Rangers chat.

I see there are rumours that Shankland is ill and will miss the game tomorrow. Great news for Kenny Macintyre and the Sportsound lads if so. I'm more worried about whether we'll be able to score without him.

Slightly surprised at how positive the response to this is. He's had a couple of good games recently, but overall I'd say he's been a frustrating player with very little end product. He scored 2 goals in 40+ games in 2023 and, up until he got a couple against Livi, he hadn't registered a single assist in 68 appearances for us. I know there will be a lot of sub appearances in there, but that's not a good return. Maybe it makes sense to tie him down in case the last couple of games were the start of a Gino-esque transformation in the second half of the season. Maybe it just makes sense to keep a player who probably doesn't cost much and is a willing runner. I won't get upset about it regardless, but it's a "meh" from me on what we've seen so far.

That's probably about right. A good finisher, but goes missing in a midfield two. Might be better in a three, where he can roam about more, but we didn't see much of him there. I'd say he showed his best form for us at left-wing-back. Almost completely out of the picture since Naismith came in, even when we had a midfield injury crisis in August and we're chucking defenders in there.

Rotherham fans didn't rate him but this two-minute highlight reel calls him a dream full-back for clubs so I don't know what to think.

McKay has missed basically the whole season so far and Lowry has been poor, so I'm not particularly surprised we're interested in Dhanda. I would be surprised if we're willing to pay what Ross County will want to get him this month, though.