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Hearts vs Thistle Scottish Cup Quarter Final Replay - Tuesday 12 March / Thistle vs Hearts - Scottish Cup Quarter Final - Monday 4 March


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7 hours ago, Barney Rubble said:

Look, there are elements of that I do not agree with.

The main ones are that Hearts should have been in the next round by half time.

We also got lucky with our goal which was frankly (just) offside. Not that any of us will ever complain about benefitting from a refereeing decision.

We've made the most of tonight, and now the target of a Scottish Cup Final has only Hearts and Fake Thistle as obstacles. We should move forward with absolute confidence in our own abilities to win this year's Scottish Cup.

I am not sure that Elliot was offside. I think there was a Hearts player on Slaters side keeping him onside. (Just).Also being a bit nit picky, for their goal a Thistle player just behind Saunders was being held back

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6 hours ago, Fearchar said:

There seems to be plenty of willingness to defend Hazard, but his positioning for the goal was dreadful, and he watched a ball make its way along the crossbar. His recent record also leaves some questions to be asked. I'd prefer to see Sneddon back between the sticks, even if he isn't so tall.

Hazards distribution was very poor, most of the time he was too slow to make the obvious pass and ended up with the big kick to the halfway line that was easily dealt with by the Hearts defenders.

I would also bring back Sneddon.

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Despite all the possession and territory Hearts had in the 1st half, they weren't really creating clearcut chances. So I don't agree that we should've been dead and buried by halftime.

2nd half was more even. I thought the change of formation was a key factor with Elliot pushed up and McMillan at fullback.

If only we'd managed to sneak a second goal, because Tynecastle will be difficult.

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7 hours ago, Fearchar said:

There seems to be plenty of willingness to defend Hazard, but his positioning for the goal was dreadful, and he watched a ball make its way along the crossbar. His recent record also leaves some questions to be asked. I'd prefer to see Sneddon back between the sticks, even if he isn't so tall.

That's my take on it too. He was caught in no-man's land.

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1 hour ago, Lenziejag said:

I am not sure that Elliot was offside. I think there was a Hearts player on Slaters side keeping him onside. (Just).Also being a bit nit picky, for their goal a Thistle player just behind Saunders was being held back

I just watched the BBC highlights, and couldn't believe the bias of the commentator saying repeatedly that Elliott was offside. He most certainly was not!

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10 hours ago, King Kenny said:

I think for a change we should look at the positives from that game.

We are sitting bottom of the championship and were playing a team who for a large part of the season were riding high in the league above.

I don't think anyone can deny we were extremely poor in the first half. We sat off them and allowed them to dictate the play.

However, I thought we were very good in the second half.

We showed a lot more desire and battled away with some strong challenges being thrown about.

Mansell had absolutely nothing to work with but ran his socks off all night. To say he isn't good enough on what was his first start is a  bit harsh. He tired badly and Caldwell should have changed it but he never gave up.

The defence were excellent in the face of a strong Hearts attack. Hard to believe that it was the same team who conceded 7 goals in the last 2 games.

I may be in the minority but I don't think Harkins was that bad. He's never had pace, not sure why that is just being picked up on now! I thought he helped the defence and stood up to the physical nature of Hearts play.

We live to fight another day, hopefully the players will take some confidence from that second half performance.

Agree with all of this. Harkins stood up to the physical side of hearts game. He did the dirty stuff and imho was oustanding in this role which allowed the creativity of others. 

Mansell looked great in first half, chasing, and for first 20 mins of 2nd half caused all sorts of problems. Against a far bigger club and on paper better team he was superb. Keen to see him play against lower ranked teams. Far more stamina and speed than dools.

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11 hours ago, javeajag said:

Hearts were way better than us . 

I agree with pretty much all you post javeajag but i'm not having this. 

In the 1st half we restricted hearts to three chances and they resorted to long shots, yes they had more of the ball and we struggled to keep posession and to do anything creative for the first 35-40 mins but we stood up to their bully boy and falling down cheating tactics. We really frustrated them which was evidenced by their fans reaction at half time and that of their manager bouncing about in the 2nd half. Last 10-5 mins of that half we came more into it and kept and used the ball much better. I daid to my son at half time, we keep that up and we'll be in danger of getting a replay and an additional game we don't need.

In the 2nd half we matched them in all areas. Granted they had 2 excellent chances that on another day they would have buried but I'd submit we made them snap at chances cos for a change we managed to close players down in the box.

Our goal was a cracker, lovely passage of play, for a change quick and decisive, best worked goal I've seen for ages at firhill, by us!!

 

We harried and harassed and although in the 1st half they passed through our midfield fairly easily we stood up in defence  2nd half Caldwell moved Harkins more central and appeared to be deployed as a bully them like they were us role which broke up their play time and again.

So, I respectfully submit that hearts were not "way better than us". At many points both teams looked like a pair of mid table premier teams huffing and puffing their way to a point apiece.

We need this attitude for 90 minutes for every game from now until the end of the season and we should be ok. Therein lies the problem, we'll most likely bomb against DU!!!

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10 hours ago, Barney Rubble said:

I thought Michael Stewart was bang on the nuts BJ. Analysed it fairly for me, and certainly was graphic in exposing our weaknesses in the first half.

Liam McLeod on the other hand was a thoroughly irritating we **** whose by-line was that 'Thistle are facing double relegations'.

********.

Yes, it wasn't that Stewart was particularly wrong in identifying our shortcomings in the first half - we were undeniably pish - it was that he dwelt on every minute error unremittingly whilst reminding viewers of Hearts' complete domination of every area of the park. Aye, it hadn't gone entirely unnoticed.

As you say, McLeod was on hand to offer his unstinting echo chamber support to Stewart whilst reminding us on what seemed like 85-90 occasions that Thistle face the prospect of "back-to-back relegations, and you can see why".

Christ, I've had more pleasure being told I'm being made redundant.

Hearing them both completely dumbfounded and trying to deal with the event of our equaliser was nearly as pleasing as the natural joy of the moment itself. I would absolutely love to have heard the camera squad calling for urgent medical assistance for the pair if we'd snatched a winner.

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8 hours ago, Fearchar said:

There seems to be plenty of willingness to defend Hazard, but his positioning for the goal was dreadful, and he watched a ball make its way along the crossbar. His recent record also leaves some questions to be asked. I'd prefer to see Sneddon back between the sticks, even if he isn't so tall.

Agree. Didn't do much else wrong but for a big tall chap he was sadly lacking for the goal. Great move by hearts but he shouldn't be beaten like that.

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Got to be honest about their goal - it was a looping, speculative effort that was met just right by Berra. It went in just under the bar and just over Hazard's fingertips. Not a great goal to lose, but I've seen far worse. 

Our goal was clearly onside. Been said above - there was at least one Tarts defender playing Christie onside at the point where Slater's deft wee ball in with the outside of his right foot was delivered. It was a thing of aesthetic grace.

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3 hours ago, Lenziejag said:

I am not sure that Elliot was offside. I think there was a Hearts player on Slaters side keeping him onside. (Just).Also being a bit nit picky, for their goal a Thistle player just behind Saunders was being held back

I stand corrected, Christie was dead level when the ball was played as proven by a screenshot.

Edited by Barney Rubble
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I hope Thistle can learn from last night and go into the Tynecastle game with a more aggressive 'harrying' game where we simple don't allow HoM to pick up the pass, and have time to look around and then casually slot the ball to another HoM player, that lack of aggression irritated me watching it on the TV, and I think the majority of the guys in the JH stand?  Hopefully Cardle can start the game next week and simple get in about Hearts, I think that kind of game is one that Hearts will struggle with.

One thing I feel we need to address is the throw-in issues we have as a team, too often our throw-in's are simple gifts for the opposition, (that was noted by the BBC commentary team last night). There must be something we can do in training to make this set-piece better?

Lets hope at the game on Saturday we kick on from last night's second half performance and start another run of good results.

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Bottom line, a decent result, but what a great opportunity spurned. Hearts roundly and loudly booed from the park, fans ranting and raving at Levein.

In that first half, our midfield were abysmal yet again. Harkins, Slater, Fitzpatrick all hopeless. Mansell and Elliott aside, pressing was non existent, we won no second balls, all passing was either negative or went astray, and we seemed barely able to string 3 passes together, all resulting in prolonged waves of pressure. It was a horrific site to behold. Saunders cheap concession of the corner was typical of the poor quality, although he had a fine game aside from that. In fact, the Hazard-Saunders-Anderson apex was the spine that we can thank for withstanding the unreasonable level of pressure, and that's got to be deemed a positive after the County/Dunfermline debacle.

Substitutions came far too late in the day and why oh why oh why did he bring McGinty on to hold out for a draw? All common sense told that we should have went in for the kill in the final minutes.

Nothing to fear at Tynecastle except fear itself.

'mon tae **** Jags. :mad:

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4 minutes ago, The Jukebox Rebel said:

Substitutions came far too late in the day and why oh why oh why did he bring McGinty on to hold out for a draw? All common sense told that we should have went in for the kill in the final minutes.

 

Spot on with the McGinty change.  Our best chance of winning the tie was last night. Why play for a replay? Given the draw later I can't help feel that last night was an opportunity missed. That being said I wasn't expecting us to get anything from the match so can't be too critical.

I was quite impressed with Mansell last night. There were a few dissenting voices in the JH stand particularly early on with shouts for him to be replaced by either Doolan or McDonald. Don't think they could have been at Dunfermline last week where those two were very poor and exhibited no hold up play whatsoever. When Mansell came on in that match we finally looked like having a forward who could potentially keep possession and I thought he did well last night too.

Hope we give it a go in the replay but would trade a win there for 3 points on Saturday.

  

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Lot said about their goal but first and foremost it was down our lack of marking. We should've had a player outside the box to make the pass back corner not so inviting. Not his decision to make but Fitzpatrick is going to offer very little defending corners in the box so he could've been pushed out to mark. Worryingly we continued to defend corners 11 in the box  for the rest of that half.

I get infuriated when the goalkeeper fails to recycle the ball quickly enough, especially on occasions like last night when we were trailing for so much of the game. Re recent Jags goalies Cerny was about the worst I've seen in this regard. I had some sympathy for Hazard last night as the shape of the team didn't always suit a quick recycle but gotta say I'm surprised that a Celtic keeper's default clearance is a boot up the park. 

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10 hours ago, HeWearsNumber9 said:

Yeh first half we where nervous and scared of hearts it was a painful watching but we grew in confidence and showed they really are not that much better than us. Northy atmosphere was the best I can remember for a very long time and the goal was fantastic scenes ,also can’t remember when I last went so mental . I also really don’t understand the hate for harkins ,on the ball he wasn’t great held onto it too long a couple of times but really I struggle to pick many thistle players who got more involved ,won more headers or mad more tackles than he did. Mansell also I thought the lad absolutely ran his socks off despite being visibly f****d at the end he kept at it and gave it it his all. Admittedly I don’t thing the boy is up to anything special by any means but he really did give it his all. Anderson struggled ,Spittal quiet ,slater was very poor but had a great second half  ,fitzy quiet ,McMillan and Elliot both ok second half’s but where absolutely torn apart first half,big hazard was much better with crosses and good handling can’t fault him for the goal. Penrice was good too didn’t do anything wrong .Saunders was my man of the match thought he was excellent battled away hard against a really tough opponent in that huge lad up top. Special mention to cardle who I thought changed the game . Extra special mention to our miles who was useless ,as always.  All in all realistically not the worst result in the world  ,still in the cup another pay day with that and never say never eh? Mon the Jags.

Agree with this- Hazard finally looked a real goal keeper last night and that one handed save was a belter-also thought Saunders was MOM-a fair few really important challenges to keep us in the game. Mansell had almost hee haw service most of the game and battled and ran at them for 90 minutes. Storey, I thought did his usual falling over and not looking up but his pace really bothered them- I'm not his biggest fan but if he'd come on ten minutes or so earlier he might have been able to hurt them.

Edited by westertonjagfan
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11 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Lot said about their goal but first and foremost it was down our lack of marking. We should've had a player outside the box to make the pass back corner not so inviting. Not his decision to make but Fitzpatrick is going to offer very little defending corners in the box so he could've been pushed out to mark. Worryingly we continued to defend corners 11 in the box  for the rest of that half.

I get infuriated when the goalkeeper fails to recycle the ball quickly enough, especially on occasions like last night when we were trailing for so much of the game. Re recent Jags goalies Cerny was about the worst I've seen in this regard. I had some sympathy for Hazard last night as the shape of the team didn't always suit a quick recycle but gotta say I'm surprised that a Celtic keeper's default clearance is a boot up the park. 

yep, drives me nuts too-Cerney was the same. Make a decent save then stop and wait for the opposition to get back into defensive positions and then boot the ball towards a target man who's too wee to trap the ball. Oh for the days of a swift ball out to ATS and a rush towards the goal.

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1 hour ago, Blackpool Jags said:

Yes, it wasn't that Stewart was particularly wrong in identifying our shortcomings

BJ, like you I have never liked Stewart as a pundit. He’s a bit of a know-it-all and hugely Hearts biased. 

I’d rather tackle a hoard of swarming bees than listen to his droning nonsense.

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Didn't see any mention of the flare that was set off!  What exactly is the purpose of all those stewards?? Apart from walking up and down the stairs,what do they actually do?

Wonder if Budge and her co- directors will do/ say anything about the flares! (not holding my breath though!)

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What I think is really clear is that our team's performance is massively affected by confidence and self-belief. While this is normal, it seems exaggerated with the current Thistle team. In terms of ability I don't think we should be at the bottom of the league, but we are. I think this is down to team morale and very shaky mental strength which quickly collapses when things go against us. I think it was a weakness under Archie and continues to be so.

The Ross County collapse, after being on a good run, was recent evidence of this. So was the way that Thistle eventually, very slowly, got into the game last night. We were hopeless at the start, but got much better as confidence started to return. It's not about trying harder, it's much more complex than that.

It makes the rest of the season difficult to predict. We could very easily go straight down. But if we can take confidence from last night, build on it in the next few games, we are very capable of climbing out of this. Players shouldn't be written off after a couple of bad games. But neither should we get too complacent if things go well for a few games.

What isn't clear to me is how much responsibility the manager takes for this. He has responsibility for signing players, picking the team, sorting tactics. And yes, he has responsibility for making sure the attitude is right. But sorting mental fragility is a very very difficult thing to do, and if that is running through our team then he's up against it. At the moment, having seen a team that was capable of winning a few games then falling apart as soon as things go wrong, I'm less inclined to blame and more inclined to just hope.

I reckon our support could be essential.  

 

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That was the first time ive left the ground before half time. It was shocking viewing and how we managed to still be in the draw ill never know. Hearts are not a great team and if we had been a half decent team ourselves would have an unbelievable chance of major cup final. I agree with an earlier post regarding cardle, he will be the difference this year

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1 hour ago, Bristol City Jag said:

Spot on with the McGinty change.  Our best chance of winning the tie was last night. Why play for a replay? Given the draw later I can't help feel that last night was an opportunity missed. That being said I wasn't expecting us to get anything from the match so can't be too critical.

I was quite impressed with Mansell last night. There were a few dissenting voices in the JH stand particularly early on with shouts for him to be replaced by either Doolan or McDonald. Don't think they could have been at Dunfermline last week where those two were very poor and exhibited no hold up play whatsoever. When Mansell came on in that match we finally looked like having a forward who could potentially keep possession and I thought he did well last night too.

Hope we give it a go in the replay but would trade a win there for 3 points on Saturday.

  

Don't  agree with you guys on the mcginty point. Caldwell seemed to realise that if we lost after all the effort we put in, especially in the 2nd half, it would have a detrimental effect on moral and confidence. Mcginty coming on saw us go 3 at the back, mostly 5 when hearts attacked, but allowed for us to attack with pace down the flanks on the break.

He'd to balance between boosting moral in players and fans and pushing the opportunity to win the tie. How many times have we lost a game like that in the last minutes. We looked so much better at the back last night and the players should be right proud and take the performance into the next league games. 

I for one thought he got the tactics right last night and made changes as the right times but what do I, a humble fan know. Just my opinion.

 

As a footnote, I went to the JLS for a change as that's where my son goes, and the support created a right good atmosphere. 

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