Kyle Reese

There was a bit of a gap forming between 4th place and the rest. Win today, and 5th down will have a bit of a job catching us. Lose and things start to tighten up a bit. Aberdeen are the best team outside the top four in my view. Important game for us if the ambition is to secure European football. We aren’t where we are by accident, we are a handy side. Need to get back to winning ways though. Controlling games and creating chances is nice, but these draws are starting to cost us. Hope Boyce is back.

Ah, okay. Cheers. That’s some genuinely tragic stuff, if that’s what he’s pulling. Tory then, I’m guessing?

Has this attendance situation been explained on another thread? Keep reading people saying that the attendance will be more than 10k, but all the official stuff from Aberdeen, and in the media saying they are only selling <10k tickets.

Tynecastle is a shithole? Takes all sorts, I suppose.

Would there not be some H&S requirement to log the exact number of supporters in the stadium though? Radio was reporting that you are only selling 9999 tickets or something like that.

What are your thoughts on the keeping crowds below 10k thing? Seems a bit mental to me. Surely it's better to just sell as many tickets as you can and check covid passports?

Nope, not recently. It's a fair point though.

It's one stadium where any supporter who prefers "fair weather" is likely to avoid.

The age old Hearts conundrum. I propose we just buy Gorgie and turn it in to a Heart of Midlothian athletes’ village.

I wasn’t really doing that to be honest. There was already stadium chat, and I was offering my own opinion on it. I admit I will be biased, but if I was a true neutral, then I think I’d still feel that way about Tynie, in how it looks at least. Pittodrie is what it is. It will need to be addressed soon you would think. Unfair to judge it to harshly until you get the new one.

Obviously I’m a teeny tiny bit biased here, but I think Tynecastle looks brilliant these days. It’s just so compact, and sort of industrial looking. Gorgie was always a pretty industrial area, and the compact blocky style of the stadium feels appropriate for our roots in the area. It also looks like one structure. I always prefer stadia that look like one complete entity and not just four separate buildings.

I have it on good authority the unfinished second floor is going to have a few retail units in it. So far we have The Edinburgh Woollen Mill with a cardigan outlet, A brogues shop, and a model car maker specialising in beige Rovers from the 1980s. Amirite? Something about sparries’ too, I think?

Not that much of a shame, in my opinion. Joking aside, I’m glad you asked me that question earlier, was interesting reading up on it, as was your info.

So definitely Hibs, then.

Tough one to call. Hearts are in a bit of a funk at the moment. Controlling games and even creating a lot of chances, but just not finding the net enough. A good start to the season but beginning to huff and puff a bit. Aberdeen are a decent team who have taken a long time to get going, but are on the up now and moving in the right direction. Sometimes these things just take a while to click. I’ll go for a narrow Hearts win by 0-1. Boyce to score. Need to get back in to a rhythm again. Too many draws are killing us.

In fact, it was your own team who were the last to play Hibs at Hibernian Park:

Hibernian Park was the home ground of the original club (Hibernians), but this was long after they had folded and been replaced by Hibs. Not quite sure why Easter Road has been referred to is this way. Maybe an old colloquial name for their home, that had lingered? Honestly don’t know.

The right kind of striker in January would transform us in this 343 imo. Frustrating that a summer target Adebayo is doing so well just now. Looks like we (rightly) decided to not just bring in anyone, when our preferred targets weren’t obtainable. I think Savage will bring in a gem in the window.

Pretty much exactly as I saw it too. I think we have improved dramatically as a team, from last season, but playing three games in a week has exposed our lack of comparable quality in depth. There’s a drop off in quality when the likes of Halliday comes in, and Cochrane goes out.

Missed opportunity. We are dominating midfield and possession most weeks, but we just aren’t scoring enough goals. Three point from the last nine is really disappointing. I hope (and suspect) Savage has a striker lined up for January. We are two or three upgrades away from being a very decent side. Probably can’t complain too much, but it’s frustrating playing well and not winning.

Not too keen on that matchday squad, tbh. Too many players who haven’t looked great in their last appearances. Thought that plenty times in the past, and it’s turned out to be inspired though. Come on the Hearts!

Stewart was known for being a difficult player to manage, and I don’t think he had a lot of respect for Levein. He made a few pops at him, and Levein gave a few back. Now it’s just repeated sniping as far as I can see.

The squad we have now is more down to Savage, and his staff. Just much better recruitment. Doubt the accounts will show that we are spending fortunes. We got rid of a lot of players as well.