***Official FC Zurich v Heart of Midlothian ko 18:00 - Match Thread***

[NB GIN]

5 hours ago, Mr Elwood P said:

Halkett going off was the determining factor in our loss last night. Folk don't seem to realise an away loss by 1 goal is actually a decent result. Have a wee look at Rangers away form in the Europa League and Champions League QF's ...

It was a good result but we got away with it 

I prefer a solid back 4 and 231 in front of it 

But regardless of the formation we are more solid with a 4 at the back. 
 

Smith  Cochrane are decent fullbacks 

 

 

[Debut 4]

Barrie McKay showed the kind of tenacity each of our players need to show.
 

Something I’ve criticised the guy about for a while but last night showed what a player he can be when he brings that to his game.

 

Zurich can be beaten but let’s not forget they are an athletic side, they get about the park well, aside from obvious weaknesses we could exploit.  But to exploit them we need to be at our best mentally.  No hesitation or apprehension, plenty responsibility but most of all, stay switched on. 

Their goals showed our worst habit.  Take the lead and drop off the pace.  
 

They were always going to react but it’s how you react to that yourself , knowing it’s happening and wake up.  

 

[No Idle Talk]

Having had some time to reflect, I don't think last night's performance was as bad as I felt it was at the time.  

 

But I am standing by my view that it was a bit disappointing. We really didn't work their goalkeeper at all and they had at least two other golden opportunities to add to their tally. 2-1 was the final score, and thats not the end of the world by any means, but honestly the tie could have been out of sight on another night. 

 

Losing Craig Halkett was a huge blow on two counts. He is a class player and we are more vulnerable at the back without him. But it was also a blow because it brought Toby Sibbick into the game. He was really poor last night. Twice when balls were played into our box he completely lost his man and ended up standing alone in no man's land. His awareness of what is going on around him is not at the level it needs to be at. He is not a centre back. That's not scapegoating him, that's just the truth. 

 

At the end of the day the tie is still there for us to win and I do think we will play better at home. I remain optimistic that we will qualify. 

[jambopilms]

8 minutes ago, Sub4TiddlerMurray said:

It’s interesting that some players seem to get singled out on JKB. Every player made some poor passes, including McKay (eg close to our box) and Shankland (3 times in the first 10 minutes or so he lost possession).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You cant expect forward players to not occasionally lose the ball, frustrating as it is. Defenders don't get the luxury to make mistakes or it costs us.

[martoon]

Apologies if already posted elsewhere but...

 

[TrueJambo]

Call yourselfs fans but all you do is slated and ridicule no faith talking about fearing cricket scores etc. You guys aren't fans and are more suited on your computer screens rather than at matches

[August Landmesser]

35 minutes ago, martoon said:

Apologies if already posted elsewhere but...

 

just really daft behaviour - no excuse for punching someone, but c'mon, what were they thinking? Clowns...

[maroonlegions]

56 minutes ago, No Idle Talk said:

Having had some time to reflect, I don't think last night's performance was as bad as I felt it was at the time.  

 

But I am standing by my view that it was a bit disappointing. We really didn't work their goalkeeper at all and they had at least two other golden opportunities to add to their tally. 2-1 was the final score, and thats not the end of the world by any means, but honestly the tie could have been out of sight on another night. 

 

Losing Craig Halkett was a huge blow on two counts. He is a class player and we are more vulnerable at the back without him. But it was also a blow because it brought Toby Sibbick into the game. He was really poor last night. Twice when balls were played into our box he completely lost his man and ended up standing alone in no man's land. His awareness of what is going on around him is not at the level it needs to be at. He is not a centre back. That's not scapegoating him, that's just the truth. 

 

At the end of the day the tie is still there for us to win and I do think we will play better at home. I remain optimistic that we will qualify. 

Not according to RN, he said he thought Sibbick  had a very,very good game in his interview . 

 

And there lies the issue with me.

[Wee Mikey]

44 minutes ago, martoon said:

Apologies if already posted elsewhere but...

 

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

[A_A wehatethehibs]

8 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

That is a face that could go viral for all the wrong reasons. Get the memes going boys 

[Fitzroy Pointon]

59 minutes ago, martoon said:

Apologies if already posted elsewhere but...

 

 

[Wee Mikey]

5 minutes ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

That is a face that could go viral for all the wrong reasons. Get the memes going boys 

 

That's a face befitting of a H1b5 top.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Wee Mikey

[No Idle Talk]

29 minutes ago, maroonlegions said:

Not according to RN, he said he thought Sibbick  had a very,very good game in his interview . 

 

And there lies the issue with me.

 

I suspect that is probably Robbie defending his player rather than him actually believing that. 

 

Manager speak. 

[JAYEL]

1 hour ago, martoon said:

Apologies if already posted elsewhere but...

 

Did his mate get changed at Half time ?

[Ked]

28 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

Dentists strike in Easter road hitting the locals hard

[Ked]

29 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

Kind Hearts supporter tries to rearrange teeth for disadvantaged hobo.

[Ked]

31 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

Row of condemned houses discovered in hobos mouth.

[Ked]

33 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

Bad teeth and no beef sees man remain a virgin

[martoon]

36 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

 

Ooft.

 

I'm no oil painting myself but...ooft.

[martoon]

47 minutes ago, August Landmesser said:

just really daft behaviour - no excuse for punching someone, but c'mon, what were they thinking? Clowns...

 

No one to blame but themselves, really.

 

They wore Hibs colours to provoke and that's what happened.

[martoon]

27 minutes ago, Salad Fingers said:

 

 

Indeed.

[Baxfee]

43 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

Separated at birth? 

[il Duce McTarkin]

20 minutes ago, martoon said:

 

No one to blame but themselves, really.

 

They wore Hibs colours to provoke and that's what happened.

 

A mate of mine, Celtic fan, has been to more away games with Hearts in Europe than most Hearts fans I know. Not once has he be dinked in the coupon, but then he's not an attention seeking dick.

[Des Lynam]

1 hour ago, martoon said:

Apologies if already posted elsewhere but...

 

I don’t want to condone violence but that would be well deserved. 
 

 

[John Rambo]

Can we please post some nice pictures? You know, landscapes and stuff?

 

'That' picture is showing in the side panel on the right of the screen and it is traumatising me.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

JR

[ecky92]

People actually moaning because we got beat from the Swiss champions away 😂

I would’ve bitten your hand off to be only a goal down going into the second leg at home. 

[Clerry Jambo]

Really missed our only classy midfielder Beni. It’s like night and day when he’s in/out the side, just our luck. 

[oritem8]

17 minutes ago, ecky92 said:

People actually moaning because we got beat from the Swiss champions away 😂

I would’ve bitten your hand off to be only a goal down going into the second leg at home. 

In a blind comparison yes.

In reality, they are a shadow of the team that won their league last season. Hence why they have been rag dolled this season. We should played our usual 4231 and attacked.

We bottled it. Simple as.

 

[jambopilms]

2 minutes ago, oritem8 said:

In a blind comparison yes.

In reality, they are a shadow of the team that won their league last season. Hence why they have been rag dolled this season. We should played our usual 4231 and attacked.

We bottled it. Simple as.

 

If your blinded by the stats.

If you watched the game you would have seen a decent team who tore us apart a few times.

[south morocco]

14 minutes ago, Clerry Jambo said:

Really missed our only classy midfielder Beni. It’s like night and day when he’s in/out the side, just our luck. 

That’s the breaks I guess. Him and Halkett in for the full game would have made a bit of a difference. 

[Mr Elwood P]

3 hours ago, NB GIN said:

It was a good result but we got away with it 

I prefer a solid back 4 and 231 in front of it 

But regardless of the formation we are more solid with a 4 at the back. 
 

Smith  Cochrane are decent fullbacks 

 

 

If it's a back 4 I'd go:

 

Smith Halkett Rowles Kingsley 

 

Then Cochrane becomes an issue. The 3-4-3 will improve as Atkinson and Cochrane improve. We won our penalty last night due to Atkinson marauding into their box. Loads to work on but he's a real threat in the opposition box.

 

If Halkett is out for 2 months we need a very good centre back in ASAP.

[oritem8]

24 minutes ago, jambopilms said:

If your blinded by the stats.

If you watched the game you would have seen a decent team who tore us apart a few times.

I watched us use a formation that doesn’t work. The players clearly don’t like it / can’t play it.

we lost because of that.

 

[Jeffros Furios]

2 hours ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

What a coupon!!!! Must be well used to getting slapped. 🤭

 

 

Looks like some inbreeding between Riordan and Griffths .. I do hope he has no children 🥺

[Jambo-Fox]

2 hours ago, martoon said:

Apologies if already posted elsewhere but...

 

Silly wee ladies 

[Restonbabe]

23 hours ago, Sooperstar said:

He should have abandoned the shape and tactics they've been practicing all week?

Aye.  Best defender came off after 6 minutes. 

We were clueless when they attacked 

[Kiwidoug]

8 hours ago, Wonfiveone said:

Good trip, in my opinion, only spoilt by the Billy boy brigade singing on the bus their bigoted Rangers version song about fenian blood etc.

Contrary to what some of the less intelligent fellow supporters were singing when we were held back after the game, the last thing St Gallen can be described as is a “shithole” : the place is immaculate with no litter, fag ends or chewing gum on the pavement., although I did see some empty beer bottles at the old town area where our fans were based. If anything this place makes Edinburgh look like a “shithole” in comparison.
That said, everything is horrendously expensive compared to home. With eating out and drink very expensive even in McDonalds. The people are friendly, helpful and shop and eatery staff we encountered spoke brilliant English.

The town itself is a mixture of old and new with lots of old interesting buildings.

Other than using it as a base for sightseeing there is probably not much to do. Lake Constance is a short  free train ride away and we spent an afternoon there in Rorschach which is a smaller version of St Gallen.

Difficult to say how many Jambos were here. Six bendy buses were provided to take us to and from the stadium, therefore there must have been five hundred or so supporters. Whilst the club were selling tickets for all four sections of one of the goal ends they only opened up one section.

Hopefully this answers your questions and gives you an impression of this place and perhaps confirms what you already know about a minority of our fans.

Thanks for taking the trouble.  Very detailed.

[NB GIN]

1 hour ago, Mr Elwood P said:

If it's a back 4 I'd go:

 

Smith Halkett Rowles Kingsley 

 

Then Cochrane becomes an issue. The 3-4-3 will improve as Atkinson and Cochrane improve. We won our penalty last night due to Atkinson marauding into their box. Loads to work on but he's a real threat in the opposition box.

 

If Halkett is out for 2 months we need a very good centre back in ASAP.

Agree we do he is going to be a huge miss 

[martoon]

1 hour ago, Jambo-Fox said:

Silly wee ladies 

 

😃 

 

A typo...I hope.

[martoon]

16 minutes ago, GinRummy said:

I really do hope it hurt like ****. Shame the other one never got smacked as well. Pair of arseholes. 

 

Aye. 

 

Daft thing to do.

 

Even dafter to complain.

 

Provocation was their aim and it happened. 

[Jambo-Fox]

14 minutes ago, martoon said:

 

😃

 

A typo...I hope.

In this woke world can’t be too careful!!

[Sub4TiddlerMurray]

6 hours ago, jambopilms said:

You cant expect forward players to not occasionally lose the ball, frustrating as it is. Defenders don't get the luxury to make mistakes or it costs us.

 

I don't. My point was that it was unfair to criticise Devlin for a couple of misplaced passes when every other Hearts player did likewise. Overall, given it was lashing down with rain and the ball like the proverbial bar of soap, I think the team put in a brilliant performance.

 

 

 

[Sub4TiddlerMurray]

1 hour ago, Jambo-Fox said:

In this woke world can’t be too careful!!

 

Unfortunately, being careful/thoughtful is obviously asking too much for the anti-"woke" brigade

[August Landmesser]

4 hours ago, Dirk McClaymore said:

 

A mate of mine, Celtic fan, has been to more away games with Hearts in Europe than most Hearts fans I know. Not once has he be dinked in the coupon, but then he's not an attention seeking dick.

Christophe Berra?

[Sub4TiddlerMurray]

6 hours ago, maroonlegions said:

Not according to RN, he said he thought Sibbick  had a very,very good game in his interview . 

 

And there lies the issue with me.

 

Sibbick had one real moment when he was ball-watching rather than keeping tabs on the Zurich striker behind him (who shot wide). Other than that he did indeed have a very very good game. Please do point out any other phase when he was less than very very good (so long as you balance your criticism with some of the excellent defending he did). 

 

 

 

[Tasavallan]

BBC: your match coverage stank.

 

Tom English: keep your anti-Hearts rhetoric to yourself.

 

Michael Stewart:  good try but no cigar.

 

Hearts only lost 2-1 away from home.   Not 7-0 like Utd.

[Kirky Jambo]

I thought it was a pretty poor performance, a bit passive and not good enough at retaining possession. Some poor defending but understandable when you lose the mainstay of the defence after 5 minutes.

 

All that said, the BBC Sportsound reaction was totally over the top. Especially against the backdrop of United losing 7-0 against AZ and Motherwell going out to Sligo.

 

They were talking about Zurich as though they were useless huddies. In reality you could see when we did commit men forward near the end they rapidly countered and almost scored. Some caution was necessary as evidenced by Dundee Utd only a week ago.

[Kirky Jambo]

11 minutes ago, Tasavallan said:

BBC: your match coverage stank.

 

Tom English: keep your anti-Hearts rhetoric to yourself.

 

Michael Stewart:  good try but no cigar.

 

Hearts only lost 2-1 away from home.   Not 7-0 like Utd.

Was just posting a (less concise) version of this at exactly the same time 😁

[Aussie Jambo]

On 19/08/2022 at 07:19, fila said:

Potentially the speed of the game and movement catches him out ? I don’t think people realise how big the step up is .

My local amateur team Peninsular Power are through again to the last 16 of the cup , and can give the Roar a good game . It would be like Penicuik Athletic getting to the last 16 of the Scottish cup on a regular basis 

😂😂

 

[Aussie Jambo]

On 19/08/2022 at 07:20, Captain Lithuania said:

Clear to see how it took you over an hour and 45 minutes to create an account on iPlayer.

More questions than the Spanish Inquisition. Especially the TV licence. 😂 I never paid it when I lived in the UK. 

It kept crashing all the time, or sticking on a loop and crashing and  I ended up watching the results on BBC. Yeh I thought I was all savvy with technology but it appears not. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

1 hour ago, Tasavallan said:

BBC: your match coverage stank.

 

Tom English: keep your anti-Hearts rhetoric to yourself.

 

Michael Stewart:  good try but no cigar.

 

Hearts only lost 2-1 away from home.   Not 7-0 like Utd.

 

I had far less problem with Stewart last night than I normally do. I thought most of his comments were fair.

 

Whoever the game announcer was was far worse.