Hearts in the right place - and Gordon sale a good 'un

Like most Jambos, I spent the week cussin' an' a-hollerin', gnashin' my teeth and wailin' - barking at the moon mostly. A very disappointing performance against Hibernian on Monday night at home, has meant the season started with our Hearts missing a beat. If you had read some of the articles, though, in the Daily Record for instance - you could be forgiven for believing that the Tynecastle club's season was already terminal.

So this weekend I found myself, feet up, beer in hand and Heart on sleeve, nervously settling down (if you can do such a thing) to watch the match. Surprisingly Hearts started looking confident and assured, with crisp and neat passing. Ball retention is therefore high and we look easily the better team. This can only be down to the fact that we are playing midfielders in midfield - 'I mean who'd ah thunk it?'

Joel Palazuelo and Eggert Jonsson in central midfield alongside Michael Stewart made a huge difference to the balance of the team. We were, however, still lacking fairly dismally in the last third of the field. Still, we were well in control when Eggert made his mistake, a young lad and hopefully he will learn from it. But he really should have just melted it out the park when he had the opportunity. The winger stole the ball from Eggert instead and cut back for Barry Nicholson to dispatch the goal at the second time of asking. Aberdeen 1 Hearts 0

Unsurprisingly this time. Hearts all but collapsed into their Monday night malaise after the shock of the goal against the run of play. Aberdeen took pretty much complete control of the game and my gills were becoming greener as each minute of the first half passed. The mental scar open again and weeping deep burgundy red.
Hearts won this fixture last year, 3 - 1. Before we took the lead Aberdeen played us off the park; they oozed style and class for pretty much all of the first half in that game until we got them in a stranglehold.

In this encounter  however  for all Hearts' punch-drunk performance after the loss of the opener, Aberdeen did not have the same quality at their disposal. It is early days in the season for them to I guess. With not much happening outside a constricted central third of the park and half-time fast approaching, the single moment of clear quality arose to settle the match. A scramble for the ball on the edge of the box and it fell to Kestutis Iveskivicius, a neat ball played into the path of Stewart, who clipped a great ball over the keeper and into the back of the net. Craig Gordon would have saved it mind you! Half-time: Aberdeen 1 Hearts 1

Bolstered by the equaliser at exactly the right time, Hearts went on to take control of the second half. Andruis Ksanavicius came on for Andrew Driver who had not done too much in the first half. It may be that Ksanavicius may take Driver's place in the team, he looks decent enough out there, and provided a bit more penetration down the left flank.

Miko came on for Iveskivicius. This is easily the best way to play Miko, he seems to come on the park carrying much more urgency when brought on from the bench. He was even seen producing a couple of early crosses into the box!Jonsson recovered well from his early mistake to put in an assured shift alongside Palazuelo, who worked hard enough i guess but the jury is still out on him. He overcooked a couple of diagonal balls designed to drop in just behind the full-backs - devastating if they come off, maybe he just needs to find his range.

The game never really looked like finding a winner and a draw was certainly the correct result, a tad more quality needed from both teams I think but neither should be too disappointed.

For Hearts, we have a chance to build a bit of confidence and pick up three points next week against Gretna (they threw away a two-goal lead against Hibs, good grief ).

Now, a word on the Craig Gordon sale. The only downside I can see is that he has not immediately got his move to one of the big four in the Premiership. For all his talent, he is playing for Sunderland, there is the distinct possibility that he could find himself in a real battle to beat the drop, worse find himself relegated into the Championship and swallowed up in the huge machine that is English football. This could cost him his rightful place at the top of the game.

On the other hand he could prove to be worth 15 points to them which may be just enough, after a storming season, to take them into Europe and maybe a great run in the FA Cup. Let's hope so.

From my perspective, Hearts have done exactly the right thing. This is a stonking amount of money for him. Selling earlier and we would have got less, later and clubs would have started to look at the length of his contract remaining and begun to calculate based on that. This was exactly the right time to sell for all parties concerned.

No matter what any of the anti-Vlad brigade (Jambo or otherwise) can say, there is absolutely no way we would have commanded anything like that kind of money for Gordon if it were not for Vlad's financial clout. He would most probably have been a Celtic player for the last three years, and we would have spent the £450,000 we got for him on servicing an unmanageable debt.

Read the complete article and more match reports, rantings and general haverings from Tynecastle way at www.jambosforever.net