Coventry Saint

It was a great finish mate, you should be proud.

I think it's less of a penalty than the one given against us for Celtic last season, but even then Flynn has put his arms out and given the ref a decision to make. The biggest issue there was it sparked Jim into his anti-diving tirade that we all knew was going to get shown up within a matter of weeks.

I didn't notice at the time, but having slagged Adam for being a whinge, I have to applaud his totally nonchalant reaction to that red card there. He literally glances up and carries on jogging.

Ah, perhaps not. Didn't think of that.

Well, it is very close. But taking all sentiment out of it, we really ought to be giving the attacker the benefit of the doubt in situations like that. Plus, I'm very sure he's behind the ball there.

Piss off.

I can do you one better than that. If you're only looking at the position of the defenders, I think he looks offside. BUT he's actually behind the ball, so is 100% onside. (Using the lines on the pitch, the ball is right on the 18-yard line, whereas Cummings is just behind.) So yeah, definitely onside, I'd say. (PS: Pro tip - you can use the , and . keys to do frame-by-frame advance on Youtube.)

Alexa, show me a striker trying to defend...

Foul all day, every day, and this would get awarded all over the park. I'm just glad the ref didn't have this weird idea so beloved of fans (and many refs) that fouls have to be some sort of 'super fouls' in order to qualify as penalties. Bizarrely, as catastrophically bad as the ref was, he got most the big calls correct on the day.

So it's a foul?

It absolutely was. Absolutely mental to put your arms across a player as he runs past you in the box. I know stills prove nothing, but just prior to this Cummings has the choice to put his arms across Henderson, or not to. It inarguably interferes with JH's run, when he was otherwise going to be completely free to cross wildly into the stand, or shoot wildly into the stand.

All joking aside, it remains very saddening that we can't have fans in decent numbers in for this. I imagine the atmosphere would have had the potential to be fairly febrile (in a good way) after the events of last summer. I'm struggling to put my finger on my optimism levels right now, either for this game or the season as a whole. I think we have a decent squad but I retain doubts about our tactics/lack of a plan B. But we are stronger than last season and showed even then that we could give most teams a game on our day (aside from Hibs, for some fucking reason). I think we'll make a slightly defensive move and bring in either Tait or McCarthy for Henderson (with Fraser at RWB if McCarthy comes in), but the rest of the team picks itself at this stage. Regardless of Celtic being a basket case, that was not an easy game to win for Hearts at the weekend and they are 100% an upgrade (for the quality of the league) on Hamilton. Pessimistic me says Hearts 'revenge' win by the odd goal. 2-1, probably.

f**k the league: Hot Potato is the real quiz.

I'm actually livid, btw, that Hearts got to serve their Championship during a season when nobody could go to games and as part of a reduced fixture list. Let's face it, it's basically like you were never there.

It's typically pretty good and is generally quite slick. St Mirren TV has been a thing for several years now so it's not like they've only been getting to grips with it since last summer. Not a huge fan of the commentators myself (bit partisan for my personal taste) but if you have an away audio option it should be fine.

You obviously wouldn't have seen much of St. Mirren last season but that soft penalty yesterday but would have been well down the list of soft penalties they got last season. Welcome to the Premiership. Ignore the fact it was in the box: was it a foul? The answer is 'yes', btw.

Didn't fancy inserting an amusing post to match your pseudonym?

Yep, Brophy nearly laid Main on for the effort that was well saved in the first half too. Definitely looks like there's a partnership brewing there. Just need Main to improve his coversion rate slightly.

We absolutely will be. You can never underestimate the role these early games will go on to play later on in the season.

This is all actually making me look forward to our Hearts matchday thread. See you in October lads.

I mean, McPake isn't correct there, though, is he?

Given we were in total control by the end, the reliance on cross after cross was a bit worrying. Dundee mopped them up, or gladly accepted the fouls we conceded, quite happily. Neat passes in the channel, followed by a cross to the back post. Clear. Repeat. We had spells of knocking it around quite well, and some of our movement was good. I mentioned at half time that McGrath had been quiet which meant, obviously, he started to pull all the strings after the break. But despite that, we didn't really create much. I can't actually see Dundee being in much danger this season; Cummings alone should have enough goals in him to keep them competitive. His finish for your second was excellent and completely natural. Entertaining game overall and it's nice to feel the simmering rage coming back.

Others may disagree, bit it's been an issue for us for some time. Last season Jake Doyle Hayes kinda did the job, but we lost a lot of big games in the middle of the field. I don't really feel like McGrath has shown up today. Maybe the endless tabloid transfer chat has finally broken him.

Yeah, I was already in 'how's this fat fucker still on the park?' mode and even I saw absolutely nothing wrong with the celebration. Fucking bizarre.

Absolutely a Shaughnessy og, but it was coming. We're losing the midfield battle at the moment. Adam is a hacking, whining c**t, btw.