shannon2007

After the devastating defeat in Lyon, my Hearts side were really in the dumps and a 2-2 draw at Pittodrie didn't really shake off those blues. And then, suddenly, against Dundee United at Tynecastle we showed something of the form that took us to the title last season. Neil Mellor hasn't had that much of a look in, yet when he does play, he certainly seems to score. Of course when you're competing with a £2M signing and two international class veterans then getting a place in the team isn't going to be a sure thing. A brace against United staked his claim though, and with Anelka grabbing a glorious hattrick we cruised to a superb 5-0 win. Mellor though spoiled it a bit by being sent off in the dying seconds. Certainly an eventful day for him.

That win set us up nicely for the return match with CSKA in our penultimate Champions League group match. A win here would still leave us in a decent position, and in fact would guarantee us a place in the UEFA Cup - which in reality is about as much as we really should be expecting. Neil Mellor was again on fire with another brace, John Burns matched him and Nicolas Anelka grabbed a late fifth and we had secured that UEFA berth in style. Now all we needed was a draw in Germany against Leverkusen, or the match between CSKA and Lyon to end level and we would reach the last sixteen of the Champions League. Not bad for a side who were hiding when it came to the domestic scene.

Yet just as you think you've perhaps turned the corner, when you go to Celtic Park and get gubbed 3-0. Its almost as if I have two very different teams. A League Cup 3rd round tie with St Mirren gave us a bit of a break from the harder matches and we easly dispossed of them 3-1, before seeing of Dunfermline 3-0 in the League. Our confidence on the rise we headed of to Germany and promptly fell behind on the 19th minute. Even if we lost this match though, as long as the other tie stayed level we had made the last sixteen. As we contained the Germans for the rest of the game with a decent enough display, we could only keep our fingers crossed and sure enough CSKA and Lyon could only play out a goalless draw in Moscow and we had done it. The draw for the last sixteen gave us a dream tie as we were paired with Arsenal.

After a 3-0 defeat of Forfar to move into the League Cup Semi Final, the year fizzled out with three successive draws, before unbeaten in 20 league games Rangers came to Tynecastle. If it hadn't been that nine of those games were draws, Rangers would be streaking away with the title. As it was, Celtic were streaking away and we were so far the only side to inflict defeat on them. Given our supremely erratic form, and the fact Rangers had yet to lose in the League this season, it was odds on that we would win. And indeed, we did as a 78th minute Stefano Menegat goal gave a superb victory that leaves us 4th in the SPL at the turn of the year - but a massive 24 points behind Celtic.

As the transfer windowed opened again in January, so a group of players left the club. Goalkeeper Glenn Morris claimed that he 'had lost confidence in the managers ability'. Perhaps, given that we were actually in the last 16 of the Champions League, it was his intelligence that needed a confidence boost. A £250,000 move to Everton got rid of him, but it does leave us with only one keeper on the books. Sicot Cedric also leaves the club after failing to hold down a regular start, Middlesborough paying £250,000. Central defender Jesus Collado was the third player to leave, his attitude recently has been very bad and so the £500,000 from Rangers will do very nicely.

I would like to get rid of a few more players, but there is also the problem that we need to keep players for Europe so although there will be new faces, there might not be as many as I would like and the players we have will just have to get their heads out of their arses and start playing again!

retired_jgirl87

It's a grand tale of epic proportions, PM7. Great work. :thup:

shannon2007

Thanks Spav

shannon2007

Before the next World Cup qualifier with Luxembourg in March of 2013, Scotland had two friendlies in November 2012 and a third in February 2013. All the matches were at home, and for the first one against the Faroes I cheekily included 17 year old Hearts midfielder Gary Sim. Gary is a player I feel will one day be a regular for the Scotland side, and has made a few appearances for the Hearts first team and is a regular on the bench, which is where he started in this match, coming on after 55 minutes. Three minutes into his debut, Sim scored a fine goal and 13 minutes later was taken off injured. Scott Agnew and Derek Riordan had scored a goal apiece in the first half, and Garry O'Connor scored a late brace as we romped to a nice and easy 5-0 win.

Finland should have posed a tougher test, and in a sense they did as they actually scored a goal with five minutes left to play. By that point though, goals from Barry Ferguson, Garry O'Connor, Stephen Pearson and a Stephen Dobbie brace had put us 5-0 ahead, and O'Connor even had the luxury of missing a penalty. A few months later against Singapore, recalled Celtic striker Paul Gallacher grabbed a brace with other goals from Pearson and O'Connor in an easy but goal starved 4-0. It would surely be a lot tougher than this when the qualifying got underway once more.

Back at Hearts, and the January transfer merry go round saw Craig O'Reilly move to Dunfermline for £180,000 with right back Vytas Vytautus - having decided he needed a 'new challenge' - moved on to Dundee for a quarter of a million. We needed new faces, but finding them wasn't easy. The fans were probably a bit dissapointed in acquisitions of 35 year old veterans Andrius Skerla and Raul Tamudo but both were on a free transfer and we really need that kind of experience at the moment. Also on the way in were 19 year old keeper Joe Holmes from Blackburn for a massive £3,000. Left back Stuart Sim (22) comes in from Torquayfor £110,000. The former Rangers players is someone I had been keeping tabs on and now seemed like the right time to move. Promising 19 year old right back Scott Connolly comes in from Manchester City for £10,000 and finally 30 year old defender Scott Wilson, whom I had at Forfar for a short spell, comes in from Bradford at £850,000. Hardly massive names, but about the best we can get right now. The lack of depth in the squad also meant that before the end of the season youth team players Chris Murray, John Kerr and Mark Thomson would all get run outs in the team, even though none of them I would consider to be ready yet for a regular start.

It was clear even to the most stupidly optimistic of Hearts fans that we were not going to retain our title, the best we could do now was simply try and finish as high in the league as possible. Starting 2013 at Easter Road against arch rivals Hibs was ideal - if we won. Going into this match I was still without an Edinburgh derby win, and of course the press were talking about 'a jinx.' These runs have to end sometime, and today was the day, as goals from Mellor, Anelka and Burns gave us an excellent 3-0 win and any jinx had been well and truly buried.

Wins over St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup and Falkirk in the League extended our unbeaten run to nine matches as we at last seemed to find a modicum of consistancy. A double header with Aberdeen ended that as we lost 2-1 in the League at Tynecastle as the sheepshaggers bagged two very late goals. Revenge was gained in the League Cup Semi Final as a 2-0 win set us up for a replay of last seasons Final with Celtic. Dundee United and Dunfermline were seen off in the League and Hamilton were eventually overcome 2-1 in the Scottish Cup and finally it was time to face Arsenal at Tynecastle in what would possibly be our biggest match of the season.

retired_trainer

All right, I'm up to date now. Good luck against Aresnal.

Not following them as much as my dad. He still goes on about watching Alex Ferguson all those years ago. My uncle is a regullar though, never misses a game.

shannon2007

The excitement in the build up to the match with Arsenal was tangible. Having had a very sticky season in many ways, it seemed the team were starting to come good at the right time, even if the title was too far out of our reach by now. Yet if we could overcome Arsenal, that might well make up for our League dissapointment. And there was a growing feeling that we definately had what it takes to beat the London giants.

Four minutes into those match, all the hopes and dreams we had were somewhat destroyed as Francesc Fabregas sent Arsenal ahead. It was a devasting blow, and an away goal that would make it so much harder for us now. Fourteen minutes later, as Arsenal had been all over us, the English side were given a body blow of their own as they were reduced to 10 men. Yet even with an extra man, we simply found the task too much and Arsenal held on for their traditional scoreline. It was more than a little dissapointing.

With the heavy despair of such defeat still hanging over the players, they went to Forfar and were gubbed 2-0. Yet just as it seemed that perhaps confidence was dipping again, a visit from Champions elect Celtic might not be the ideal thing - unless we won. Which we did, by 2-0 and followed that up with an easy 4-0 win over Gretna. Those two wins behind us, we travelled down to London detetmined to salvage some pride for ourselves, and for Scottish club football which in reality hadn't been doing too well recently as the co-efficient had dropped down to 15th.

Few people gave us a chance. In fact no-one with any semblance of intelligence gave us a chance. Yet less than a minute had gone when the Emirates crowd were stunned into subdued silence as Neil Mellor sent us into a sensational early lead, and the away goal was cancelled out already. With Arsenal still rocked by what they had thought was impossible, we continued to dominate and only twelve minutes had passed when youngster Gary Sim added a second and suddenly the whole momentum of the tie was changing.

Arsenal now needed two goals, but of course they were more than capable of doing just that. Yet as the match progressed, it became clear that they simply were not going to breach our defence and we held on for one of the greatest results in the history of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. Amazingly we were in the draw for the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Champions League, and when we were paired with Barcelona no-one batted an eyelid. We were all still much to stunned to realise what we had done.

Yet perhaps the whole of our season could be summed up in our next game as, having pulled off such a fantastic result, we then proceeded to draw 0-0 with Airdrie United in the Scottish Cup. Yet perhaps this once the players could be forgiven and the replay was won easily enough by 2-0. Our third consecutive cup tie in a row saw us take on Celtic in the League Cup Final, a repeat of last seasons affair which Celtic had won on penalties. This time though we were determined to reverse the outcome, and even though Celtic would go and win the SPL title, they were far from invicible - a 5-2 loss at Gretna had shown just how poor a side they could be.

The match started well enough for us, and with 23 minutes gone John Burns sent us into the lead. Five minutes from half time the impressive Neil Mellor made it two and when Strasbourg bound Nicolas Anelka made it 3-0 just into the second half the match looked well and truly over. Somehow though it wasnt, and goals from Paul Gallacher on the hour and John Kennedy five minutes later suddenly had the Celtic support on their feet as they sensed a great comeback. Anelka and Mellor though both struck again to kill of Celtic dreams of the treble and bring the League Cup to Hearts in fine style.

Back in the League, as we chased what had once seemed an impossible Champions League place, Dundee were disposed of 4-0 and then in a tough fought derby at Tynecastle, Gian Diego Tipaldi scored a total fluke of a goal three minutes into injury time to send the Hibees home crying. As the season entered the home straight, our next stop was the Nou Camp to do battle with one of the most famous clubs in the world. If could overcome this obstacle, we could become heroes. But it was going to be a big ask!

shannon2007

If we had any belief that we could go to the Nou Camp and do to Barcelona what we had done to Arsenal, we were soon disabused of that notion. Thirteen minutes of relentless Barcelona pressure paid off with a goal from Robinho and twelve minutes later Iniesta added a second. Yet just as we were in danger of a serious beating, Barca took their foot off the gas and we managed to work our way back into the match - only for stand in Lukasz Mozes to get himself sent off fifteen minutes from time and end any chance we had of carving out a lifeline. Still, many better teams than us have been battered at the Nou Camp and in the end a 2-0 defeat wasn't the end of the world.

A 3-1 win over Motherwell in the League set us up for the return with Barca. We were kidding ourselves all week that the tie wasn't over yet, that if we could get an early goal then anything could happen. Two minutes into the second leg, Juan Carlos Pena sent Barca ahead and that was that. John Burns did level from the penalty spot but in the end the task was just too much and we bowed out of the Champions League after a glorious and fulfilling run.

As it had been after Arsenal, so it was after Barcelona as we headed for Scottish Cup action, this time the Semi with Celtic at Hampden. Neil Mellor gave us the lead four minutes into the second half, but Celtic hit back with 20 minutes left and the match went to a replay. Early goals from Burns and Mellor were enough to see us through, but dreams of a match with Hibs were ended as Rangers overcame our arch rivals and it was they we would face in the final.

It was also Rangers we were competing with for that vital 2nd place spot in the League. A 2-0 defeat at Ibrox in the final match before the split tipped the balance in favour of the Glasgow side, but a 3-2 win there for us just a couple of weeks later, added to by a 4-2 win over Champions Celtic wrapped up 2nd place and left us realising that this title could and should have been ours if it hadn't been for some silly performances early in the season.

The Cup Final against Rangers was a chance for us to a double, and to end a season of what might have been on a high note. Defender Scott Wilson sent us ahead after 14 minutes and just seven minutes later Nicolas Anelka made it 2-0. With Rangers having won only two trophies in six years, there was a level of determination about them to succeed and on the hour Stephen Dobbie gave them a lifeline and set us up for a tense final thirty minutes. Rangers battled hard, but moving into the last minute of the match, Neil Mellor finally added a third and the Scottish Cup was ours.

The summer was to prove a dissapointing time for the Hearts support as John Burns left for Chelsea and Charlie Adam demanded a transfer as well. The Hearts board were not providing me with enough money to replace the players who had left, and eventually I decided enough was enough and walked out on the club. I gave my public reasons as wanting to concentrate on managing Scotland which seemed fair enough, but didn't explain my letter of application for Newcastle United - a job I failed to get anyway.

For now then I would indeed concentrate on getting Scotland to the World Cup and then after that, it might be time to call it a day and enjoy all the lovely money I had made from the game.

shannon2007

The road to Brazil 2014 had continued with what should be an easy enough match at home to Luxembourg in March. A 20th minute goal from Stephen Dobbie set us up for the win, but as Luxembourg grittily fought for some semblance of self respect it wasn't until injury time before we finally wrapped up the win as both Gary Sim and Zander Diamond found the net beyond the 90 minutes and in the end the scoreline did tend to flatter us a little.

It was June before the next set of Scotland matches and I went into the tie with Azerbaijan and Greece having just quit the Hearts job. A Derek Riordan brace in just 18 minutes sent us on the way to an easy win in Bakul, with Stephen Dobbie bagging a 3rd three minutes after the break. Another decent win, and it set us up for the final match of the 2012-13 season at Hampden against a Greek side who surely knew they had little chance of getting to Brazil. Eight minutes into the match Barry Fergusons 18th strike for Scotland gave us an early lead, but it wasn't until nine minutes from the end of the match that Stephen Dobbie finally made the points secure and our surge towards Brazil continued relentlessly.

The new season started with a trip to Switzerland. The Swiss had not been having a very good time in the qualifying and had no chance of getting to Brazil. Nevertheless, we knew this could still be a potential banana skin for us, and that prophecy came true as the home side took the lead with less than a minute gone. Rattled by this set back, we pushed forward and with fourteen minutes gone Charlie Adam, fresh from his move to now English Premiership side Bristol City, pulled us level. Switzerland though seemed to sense that there was a chance here for a little bit of glory and on 25 minutes they were back in front. This wasn't the greatest performance we had turned in, but right on the half time whistle, Derek Riordan pulled us level again. The second half was just as tough as the first and it looked as it we would have to settle for a draw when Riordan grabbed the winner with 10 minutes to go.

With three matches left to play, a win over Portugal at Hampden would not mathematically clinch our place in Brazil, but it would leave us needing just one point from our final games with Luxembourg and Azerbaijan and surely not even Scotland were capable of blowing that. There was, as you would expect, a lot of excitement over the Portugal match. Even a defeat for us would not prevent us from winning the group, but a win and we could all go out and book our flights to Rio.

This was a match we were determined not to lose and fifteen minutes in Stephen Dobbie was on target once more. Yet Portugal are clearly not a poor footballing nation and it was not without a great struggle before Ian Murray sent us two ahead after 65 minutes - his first ever goal for Scotland after over 60 appearances. Portugal were a spent force and had settled for a play off place, but just to make sure Scott Agnew scored in injury time and now only total disaster could stop our march to the World Cup Finals.

Luxembourg are far from being amongst Europe's elite, but so far were doing not too badly in this group and would eventually finish a very respectable 3rd in the group. For forty minutes the thwarted our attempts to win, but Stephen Dobbie struck once more and then on 79 minutes he added a second and our passage to Brazil was well and truly booked. Our final match at home to Azerbaijan was to all intents and purposes meaningless, but the carnival atmosphere at Hampden, with Scottish expectations soaring to almost English levels of arrogance, a win was demanded and the players wouldn't dissapoint the Tartan Army.

A first half brace from Stephen Dobbie made the win inevitable, and late goals from Riordan and subsitute Neil Janczyk wrapped up an excellent qualifying campaign in which we had gone unbeaten. We were off to Brazil, and even though it was still a long way to go and we didn't even know the draw yet, there was a belief that all we had to do was turn up and the World Cup was ours. It was Argentina 1978 all over again. I could only hope we didn't draw Peru.

European World Cup Qualifying - Group 7

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | Q | Scotland | | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 4 | +20 | 28 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | Pl | Portugal | | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 23 | 9 | +14 | 23 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Luxembourg | | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 17 | -7 | 10 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Greece | | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 16 | -4 | 10 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Switzerland | | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 17 | -7 | 10 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Azerbaijan | | 10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 24 | -16 | 5 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

mrsevans7177

Impressive qualifying form, lets hope it continues to the WC itself :thup:

shannon2007

If the gods of the World Cup had been smiling on us so far, when the draw was made for the Finals it seemed they were positively loving us - we didn't get drawn with Peru. In fact, the euphoria that had been around ever since we qualified was in no way dampened by a draw that gives us a great chance of reaching the knock out stages. Placed in group D with Northern Ireland, Mexico and Nigeria - a possibly tougher group than it might look on paper, but certainly not a group of death. We hope.

The Northern Irish had been runners up in their qualifying group behind Sweden, and indeed had lost only one match, away to Latvia. They had come through a play off with Bosnia, drawing both legs 1-1 and arriving in Brazil courtesy of a penalty shoot out. This is definately tie we should win, but a word of caution given based on the fact that the last time the two countries met, in the qualifiers for Euro 2008, Northern Ireland won 1-0 at Hampden.

The Mexicans will be no push-overs, thats for sure. Having strolled through their qualifying unbeaten they will be full of confidence, and especially as the tournament being in Brazil probably suits them more than the other teams in this group. A 3-1 loss to San Marino in the build up to the tournament though will surely have dented Mexican confidence.

Nigeria arrive in Brazil having just won the African Cup of Nations with a 2-1 win over Burkina Faso in the Final. Having eased through their qualifying group with only one defeat, they are a team full of confidence and we cannot afford to underestimate them. In fact, it's an interesting statistic that the four teams in our group only lost twice between them in the whole of their qualifying campaigns.

Choosing the final 23 players was never going to be easy, and there were always going to be dissapointed players missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime. That wasn't my problem though and they would just have to deal with that, and I would deal with the 23 players who had made the grade.

Scotland Squad World Cup 2014


GK: Craig Gordon (31) 80 caps, Birmingham
GK: Paul Gallacher (34) 15 caps, Watford
GK: David Marshall (29) 6 caps, Blackburn
RB: Alan Hutton (29) 9 caps, Oldham
RB: Gary Caldwell (32) 27 caps, 2 goals, Bolton
LB: Steven Hammell (32) 18 caps, West Ham
LB: Stuart Sim (23) 0 caps, Hearts
CD: Andy Webster (32) 51 caps, 2 goals, Aston Villa
CD: Zander Diamond (29) 55 caps, 2 goals, Tottenham
CD: Mark Staunton (24) 26 caps, Celtic
CD: Patrick Scullion (28) 13 caps, Manchester City
DM: Ian Murray (33) 63 caps, 1 goal, Celtic
DM: Neil Janczyk (31) 24 caps, 1 goal, Celtic
MC: Barry Ferguson (36) 84 caps, 18 goals, Birmingham
MC: Gareth Williams (32) 9 caps, Rangers
MC: John Wilson (22) 0 caps, Arsenal
MC: Charlie Adam (28) 11 caps, 2 goals, Bristol City
MC: Darren Fletcher (30) 58 caps, 12 goals, Manchester United
MC: Gary Sim (19) 6 caps, 2 goals, Crystal Palace
FW: Derek Riordan (31) 50 caps, 23 goals, Blackburn
FW: Stephen Dobbie (31) 10 caps, 10 goals, Rangers
FW: John Burns (20) 1 cap, Chelsea
FW: Ross McCormack (27) 37 caps, 9 goals, Tottenham