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Heart of Midlothian vs Saint Johnstone 2017-10-21


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The second, and hopefully penultimate, SPL game at Murrayfield sees Hearts entertain a Saint Johnstone side who started the season at a rate of knots but have since spluttered. Whether this is because they hit their trickier fixtures, lost form or ran short on luck is hard to tell from here but they no longer appear as intimidating a proposition in October as they did at the end of August.
 
Hearts season so far has almost been a mirror image. We started the season as a laughing stock but have since begun to steady the ship and could overtake our visitors on Saturday.
 
In essence both teams appear decent neither are really good.
 
It’s the kind of meeting where all three results seem like distinct possibilities but Hearts have a little bit more momentum and home advantage of a sort so are probably favourites
 
This should be the biggest attendance for a meeting of the two clubs since at least 1954 when 21,000 turned out for the second leg of a league cup quarter final to see Hearts score twice and secure a 7-0 aggregate win. One can only imagine how many more would have bothered attending if the tie was in the balance.
 
In more recent history Saints are going for a ninth consecutive unbeaten game against Hearts but a first away win in three visits since Murray Davidson’s early brace in March 2016 set up a 3-0 win and effectively secured Saints in the Top 6

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We've been absolutely holocaustal against Dundee and Aberdeen, Rangers game was a return to form despite the scoreline. We've been missing O'Halloran lately aswell, so he should come straight back in.

No Ricky Foster or Steven Anderson means at least two youth players in defence. Aaron Comrie will be at right back, and he seems to be settling well at this level, suspect Liam Gordon will meet his old club aswell.

No idea how Hearts have looked under Levein, suspect they'll be far more structured than Cathros, with simple things like midfield runners and full backs providing crosses being the order of the day once again.

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Pretty much the same as Hitzfeld's Dortmund, but with more Prince Buaben.
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Hitzfeld had previously described his Dortmund as "Like Craig Levein's Hearts but with less Jean-Louis Valois"

Note that I only did first year German at university so I might have missed some nuance in that translation
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Running with just four experienced defenders was always liable to cause problems for Saints this season, with the hope being I guess that we'd never be missing more than one at a time. So obvious concerns about us defensively for this game. There was an assumption before the European games that Gordon would play and the same is arguably happening here but going with the left-sided Gilchrist would maybe bring a better balance, with Shaughnessy playing between the two youngsters. I don't think he's as strong a leader or organiser as Anderson but he'll need to step up to the plate here.

After that I guess it'll be whether it's Cummins or Wotherspoon that O'Halloran comes in for, and whether Paton or Millar gets the nod.

Obviously looking forward to the trip to Murrayfield, first time I'll have been there in well over 20 years. Not sure it would even have been fully redeveloped at the time.

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Running with just four experienced defenders was always liable to cause problems for Saints this season, with the hope being I guess that we'd never be missing more than one at a time. So obvious concerns about us defensively for this game. There was an assumption before the European games that Gordon would play and the same is arguably happening here but going with the left-sided Gilchrist would maybe bring a better balance, with Shaughnessy playing between the two youngsters. I don't think he's as strong a leader or organiser as Anderson but he'll need to step up to the plate here.
After that I guess it'll be whether it's Cummins or Wotherspoon that O'Halloran comes in for, and whether Paton or Millar gets the nod.
Obviously looking forward to the trip to Murrayfield, first time I'll have been there in well over 20 years. Not sure it would even have been fully redeveloped at the time.


The redevelopment was 1991-94

It was floated on the wave of optimism after the 1990 grand slam
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The one time that I'll get to see saints play at Murrayfield, which is the closest stadium to my house and a 10 minute trip and I'm in Fife, fucking Fife for a wedding!!

I jest of course, I'm not really that bothered given how shite we are right now, but for the novelty factor I'd imagine a decent saints following will attend.

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57 minutes ago, Widge said:

The one time that I'll get to see saints play at Murrayfield, which is the closest stadium to my house and a 10 minute trip and I'm in Fife, fucking Fife for a wedding!!

I jest of course, I'm not really that bothered given how shite we are right now, but for the novelty factor I'd imagine a decent saints following will attend.

Are they opening up the top deck for you?

03_Heartsd-1a_rdax_1917x1080_80.jpg

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Are they opening up the top deck for you?

03_Heartsd-1a_rdax_1917x1080_80.jpg


We'll bring 200 fans and you'll be delighted as it'll give you something to mock us over once we pump you 6-0
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 I meant “you” plural  
I wasn’t envisaging a few thousand Saintees in the lower deck and widge being put in the top deck on his own
 
Unless he’s really, really unpopular amongst his fellow supporters


Being culturally superior by being from Edinburgh, it wouldn't surprise me if I was unpopular. Well I guess that'd be more to do with jealousy more than anything. Being ostracised from an already small support would take some doing though I'd imagine.
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