Once again the game was watched on BBC Scotland tonight and had the added fun of me trying to find the channel for my Dad to watch the game on freeview who lives down in Shropshire, England. Safe to say anything technology wise is far from his strong point. Wonder how many other English Hearts fans there are like me, my Dad keeps his eye on the scores due to me being a fan so thought it would be nice for him to watch it rather than make do with me telling him about it in the morning.
Strangely Jordan Roberts missing from the squad tonight, hoping it’s nothing serious or a falling out of favour as he’s been great so far. Elliott Frear coming in for him and Andy Halliday making his first start for Hearts. Nice to see the Red Card To Racism logo on the players shirts tonight and the cards held up as they lined up.
Hearts started well knocking the ball around with ease and creating plenty of space out wide. The BBC commentary team of the mind numbing duo McLeod and Dodds took only four minutes to mention both the sea and the wind. The start was encouraging from the Jambo’s and was nice to see Olly Lee spreading the ball around nicely. But with just 7 minutes on the clock disaster struck as the impressive Josh Ginnelly pulled up with what looked like pain in his thigh and had to go off and replaced by Craig Wighton, safe to say there was a sad feeling in the Carding household. As an ex Shrewsbury Town boy this exiled Salopian has a soft spot for him and was overjoyed reading that he wants to stay here permanently.
On to another player loved in 3 Faces Of Foleys pubshed, it was great to see Michael Smith thriving moving well around the pitch and playing some lovely passes. Safe to say Hearts were comfortable and seemed to be dominating up to this point. But after a few defensive errors Doolan was left in space to get a shot off but thankfully we have Craig Gordon in goal, danger averted. Worrying that we seemed to be switching off a little at the back.
Centre back Popescu made a penetrating run as he took on two Arbroath players but unfortunately his shot was blocked, but great play from the Romanian. Annoyingly it seemed that the referee began to react to shouts from the bench as he awarded some harsh free kicks Arbroath’s way, I think we will have to get used that the standard of refereeing will be even worse than the dire officiating in the Premier League.
Craig Gordon again showed class to once more deny the veteran Doolan. Safe to say Hearts needed to do more of the simple stuff, stop wasting passes and allowing Arbroath to have more chances. As the first half entered its last 10 minutes the Jam Tarts changed to a 4-4-2 with Wighton joining Boyce up top. Safe to say it wasn’t the best of first halves and the sides went in goalless at the break.
Hearts began the second period well as Frear put in a dangerous ball but Wighton couldn’t get anything on it. Jamie Walker did very well to work the ball into the box and get the ball to Smith who’s shot hit Wighton. Hearts were dominating well as Walker swung but missed the ball then Lee hit it and was once again blocked by an Arbroath body. Craig Wighton was played through by Boyce but the keeper slid out well to stop him. As Hearts enjoyed a strong spell Elliott Frear had an effort that looked destined for the top corner but went just over, even the keeper looked as if he knew he had been beaten. Great spell from Hearts.
Elliott Frear was replaced by Aidy White. The Jambo’s needed to step it up a bit as everything they threw at the Red Lichties was being blocked. Andy Halliday looped a long ball towards Liam Boyce who smashed wide from an angle, a frustrating night for the Northern Irishman in front of goal but a great ball from Halliday. Another peach of a long range pass from Smith into Wighton who chipped the ball superbly over the keeper after a great run to put Hearts 1-0 up. My wife told me to sit down and stop waving my scarf around, forgot I’m not in the ground. Ah well at least we were in front with 20 minutes to play.
The goal seemed to settle Hearts for a bit as we began knocking the ball about and finding space once again. Liam Boyce had a shot blocked and then dragged the rebound just wide, it was good to see Hearts still going for goal and not sitting on a 1-0 lead. Heading into the final 10 minutes Jamie Walker came off and was replaced by Peter Haring, who it’s great to see getting more minutes under his belt.
It’s funny hearing the commentator apologising for any bad language as you can clearly hear the old school character Dick Campbell with there being no fans there. There was a moment of worry as Stephen Kingsley went down after being caught on the ankle. We had a late scare as Ruth shot was blocked by Halliday in the 91st minute and went just wide as Gordon was sent the wrong way. Hearts managed to break with Boyce but there was just too much on his pass for Aidy White to get on to. Arbroath kept pushing lots of players forward as the game headed for its end and McKenna had a late effort but blazed over with the last kick of the game.
That game shows that not all games will be easy as we managed to scrape a tough 1-0 win. Not the most easy on the eye game of football and there will be more games we will need to win like this. It’s not about playing pretty but about coming away with three points and that’s exactly what Hearts did this evening at Gayfield, wasn’t pleasing on the eye for the majority but a wins a win. A very different game from last week but there were a few positives as Smith and Kingsley played well, the two centre backs weren’t scared of getting forward, Wighton will gain confidence from getting the goal and Gordon was solid when called upon. 6 points from our opening two Championship games is just what we wanted and Hearts sit happily at the top of the table.
My Man Of The Match was Michael Smith, he kept his composure well, looked calm and comfortable on the ball and his passing was on point this evening. He really is on his way to becoming a true hero at Hearts in my eyes.
PLAYER RATINGS
Gordon – 7
SMITH – 8
Halkett – 7
Popescu – 7
Kingsley – 7
Halliday – 7
Lee – 6
Ginnelly – 6
Walker – 6
Frear – 6
Boyce – 6
Wighton – 7
White – 6
Haring – 6
No Championship action for Hearts next week as we travel to Hampden for last seasons Scottish Cup Semi Final again Hibs, yes you read that right last seasons Scottish Cup Final. Classic SFA, also don’t see why the game is being played in Glasgow when both sides are from Edinburgh and pointlessly travelling through to Glasgow during a global pandemic. Here’s hoping Ginnelly’s injury isn’t too bad and the knock to Kingsley was just a knock and nothing serious.
Thanks for reading my thoughts on Hearts against Arbroath.
Daz Carding
@Salopian_Jambo on Twitter
Football Days With A Salopian Jambo 