Seven words to begin this thread - What an awful pitch to play on!!!!
And Cathro professes he wants his team to play footie? Well it aint gonna happen on that tattie patch! I already studied the condition of two sports pitches in good condition at the weekend: one at Annfield and one at the Stade de France. Tynecastle comes woefully far short in that respect and who's supposed to be maintaining it!?
Lenny spot on with his tactics and the view that this awful pitch was not conducive to playing controlled footie - keep it physical and tight!! Marvin imperious in his mid role, esp in these shit conditions, and he does occasionally remind me of Pat Stanton in his prime with certain movements that he makes but Pat was an 'all rounder', the main difference. Darren Mac also a 'rock' in our defence - give that man a Scotland cap Gordon! And well done Lenny in bringing back Rocky!
He did OK and his presence was good for our defence!! As for the ref, Gollum, IMO he was lenient but kept the game flowing. One 'bone of contention' was that cynical, dangerous Goncalves foul on David Gray in the last mins of the game - a rear tackle/foul and an easy straight red card TBF and I think Marvin did him a favour by pulling him aside for him to eventually pick up a lenient yellow card. He was a fairly amiable lad during the match and that foul just looked totally 'out of character' but what damage has it done to our captain? Also did you see the fake act by their Greek defender, Tzirios(?). I watched a Sky video replay of that incident and what a f###### joker - no contact on his face whatsoever and I wish a good, vigilant referee would quickly deal with this kinda 'fake act' and rebuke the b####### in no uncertain terms and tell him to get on with the game!!! Even getting back on his feet was an Oscar winning performance - still holding his untouched face!!!!
So another replay match beckons and it looks like the Hibs legions will be packing ER for this one - a full house guaranteed and how financially convenient that is for both clubs! Lastly there have been two SC ties of SPL v Championship teams and the difference is not greatly identifiable again with Morton being fairly unlucky not to take Rangers at least to a replay if not beating them fair and square in a 'very open' match!