Maybe as a Jambo, with Celtic coming to town you take a bit more notice of the goings on in the crowd. I did. Make no mistake, I am not about to pontificate that the Hearts support is to a man angelic and devoid of isms. Neither will I see the opposition's antics through a fetid rage red mist. At least, I will try not to.
But as a mark of the passing times I will state here for the record what I saw and heard at Tynecastle yesterday, in the shape of bigotry and racism as it descended from the stands.

I saw exactly one Union Jack in the Hearts support - it fluttered about aimlessly in the Roseburn Stand. You can argue that the display of the Union Jack is not in itself an act of bigotry. It's not. But it has more of an affiliation to that bigotry-laden ideology we all know and hate than it does to Heart of Midlothian Football Club.

There were exactly zero renditions of billy-boy, anti-Catholic songs from the Hearts support. There were at least three renditions of that number where the Celtic support gave it  - "mumble mumble (do they even know the words until they get to ) soldiers are we". I don't even know if that song has been classified as racist or bigoted by UEFA or whoever, but for the same reason as the Union Jack, it has got to go.

Each rendition had an uptake rate of exactly 100 per cent of the Celtic support. Each time the effort was drowned out by a cacophany of boos from the Hearts quarters.

For the last ten minutes of the game, the same 100 per cent of Celtic support belted out "Oh the wee Huns are Sh*-ite" and the Hearts support by then did not have the energy to respond. There were a few TriColours but not many. Behind me I kept hearing this bloke shout: "F***ing Chink" every time Nakamura did anything remotely interesting with the ball (not very often). The saddest thing about that is, for the first half dozen times he said it, I heard 'Tink' not 'Chink' - see how far those dark decades of the seventies, eighties and nineties thrust the stereotypes into my psyche. My kids will not suffer the same level of indoctrination but the above litany of useless c**p is too much still. It's time to stop!

None of the above bothered me in the slightest, apart from the "wee huns are sh*-ite" but that had nothing to do with being deeply offended by an attack on 'hunness' and everything to do with the fact that we had once again thrown away a lead against Celtic, and they were far, far, far too happy with themselves. My conscience is truly blunted to expressions of bigotry but just because I don't recoil in horror in the face of such horror does not mean I don't recognise it as horrible. It is time to stop!

Rant over.

So the game had a big billing - it was the return of Steven Pressley to Tynecastle after the acrimonious divorce of captain from club late last year. Ever the optimist, there was another agenda on my mind. For me, the game was the league's last-chance saloon. If Hearts could get a result against the runaway champions
and after the other ugly sister won 5-0 against Dundee United, having clutched at their straw and brought back the Scotland manager and nine-in-a-row hero Walter Smith, maybe the league was not all over.

The longest of long shots I know and even for me this was the very last chance for a wobble to be introduced that might just turn into a tailspin. Sounds crazy but if you saw the final of the darts championship in some workingmen's club in deepest, darkest England, you'll know that it is never over until it's over.

The favourite goes six sets to nil up in a first-to-seven set final against the 150-1 outsider, who then claws his way back to six sets each and had the favourite effing and blinding at himself. The favourite cruelly dispatched the final set 3-0. But there you go. Never over 'til the fat man flings the arrows.

The Steven Pressley show? I mentioned in an earlier blog that I would be happy for Pressley to be applauded onto the park on his return to Tynecastle. I have to say, though, that the minute I saw him emerge from the tunnel in the black and green of Celtic's away strip I felt no connection to him. I just saw a member of the opposition, the bad guys, someone who was to be castigated and villified for the next 90 minutes. So did the rest of the Hearts' support - so if you have read that he was applauded on to the pitch by the Hearts support that is a myth.

How did he play? Pretty well within himself for the most part. After all, he is a centre-half, not exactly the most expressive of positions. He committed the same niggly fouls he used to do for us, he organsised and motivated the back four pretty well, he made a couple of well-timed and important challenges and he got found out for pace and mobility a couple of times.


All in all, I think he just played a mature, professional game and was not affected either way by the circumstances. A couple of points; having won the toss he made Hearts shoot to the Gorgie end first (always annoys us when that happens), and he looked livelier than usual when he came up for corners.
Anyone who has ever played any team sport knows it takes only seconds to develop an affiliation to your team, exactly as long as it takes to pull on the team colours.

A little aside - a Sunday League team I played for in green, white and gold was Albion Park. I was 21 and they were coached by Mickey Weir and his brother. That wee sh*te was truly full of himself! I may never have been anywhere near his level of football, but when you are fit and 21 and a Hearts supporter, you take great pleasure in catching a wee Hibee sh*t like him and crunching the tackles in. The beautiful game indeed.

So Pressley took great pleasure in the victory. It was obvious and why shouldn't he? From our perspective we seem better off now that he is gone. We seem more settled and focused. So everyone's a winner. I hope,  though, that is it now no more lingering threads connecting him to us - I no longer wish to read about Pressley the ex-Hearts talisman forced to quit and join etc etc etc.

Hearts started the game in fiery spirit, and set about their task of outgunning Celtic all over the park in good fashion. For such a massive squad the line-up looked somewhat makeshift - Julien Brellier injured and Bruno Aguair suspended, we had to make do with Andrew Driver on the left and Neil McCann inside in central midfield. The much-villified McCann actually had a decent first half, putting himself about in midfield (it struck me that he was putting tackles in because he didn't have the time to think about it and bottle it like normal).

Nerijus Barasa was performing his usual thuggery in the right-back berth but managed to nobble himself somehow and he had to go off to be replaced by Ibrahim Tall, who doesn't seem to be cutting it for me. Maybe their second goal would have been stopped if Barasa/Robbie Neilson had been there. Much gusto by Hearts had Celtic on the rack without really looking like they would buckle, we seemed to be short on ideas for the final ball. When Bednar played it square to Miko 30 yards out, with the full compliment of Celtic's defence stationed between him and goal, we remained seated wondering what final-ball failure he was about to conjure.

I love it when a plan comes together, Miko has been very good at lulling the opposition into a false sense of security, no-one in the Celtic defence thought for a second that they were in any danger of a venemous net-bound shot from the wee Lithuanian. One step in with the left and he unleashed an unstoppable left-foot pearler into the net with Artur Boruc stranded and helpless.

My half-time comment, other than waxing lyrical over Miko's strike was to say: "We have put an awful lot into the game, but I worry about the last 20 minutes. In real terms it was the final 45 minutes that I had to be worried about." The proverbial game of two halves.

Shortly after the interval Driver was taken off to be replaced by Calum Elliot, playing out of position in midfield, and McCann moved out to his normal berth where Driver had been. Heard later that Driver was ill and probably should not have played at all.

The ball was out! A clear foot over the line on the half just below the Wheatfield Stand, the linesman ignored and Celtic retained possession, which they kept for another 10-15 seconds as they navigated their way into the Hearts box and set a drive towards Gordon. It was a hard shot but Gordon spilled it (is it my imagination or is there a conspiracy of silence when Gordon makes a mistake?)

He seems to be being treated like porcelain. Mind you if his infallable reputation keeps his price maximised then how can I argue with that? Yan Venegoor of Castlemilk netted the rebound. I was gutted, the ball was out, man!

Hearts forced a number of corners in the second half but frustratingly the quality of ball in was just not good enough, always too long, too high and too predictable, so we never came close. I would like to see the stats on Hearts goals from corners this year. I bet it is very low.

The killer came from Jiri Jarosik, who collected the ball on the left and seemed to take Tall with him inside. Without the challenge going in, he hit an effort which I thought was Gordon's all the way until it went in, I guess it bobbled over his hands, bouncing just in front of him. Cue the Celtic support and a rendition of: "Thats why we're champions" to the tune that we used to sing "Vladimir Romanov" to. As I said, they were far too happy with themselves.

Hearts probably deserved a draw, but from the point we went behind, we never really looked like we believed we could get things back even. Celtic, on the other hand, always looked like they believed they could take the game and I guess that indeed is why they are champions.

Read this and catch up with the rest of this season and last at jambosforever.net

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