Final Word

To misquote The Killers, ‘Fir Park was a friend of mine’. My first visit was way back in 1989 when it was more akin to the old Brockville than the oddity of stadium design it is now. We won 5-out-of-5 games against ‘Well that season and it was four years before I saw Hearts lose there. Indeed, right through the nineties we lost only a handful of times at Fir Park. Handy when the future-best-mate I met at university is a die-hard Motherwell fan. Since then, it’s been patchier and I haven’t even mentioned the 6-1 defeat in 2002 when I was made redundant the same day. (I can laugh now - honest). In fact, we’ve only won there four times since returning to the Premiership for the first time in 2015.

THE FINAL WORD

Scott Cockburn

That disappointing trend continued in Saturday’s pretty lame loss. Sadly, in hindsight it had all the classic ingredients of a Hearts defeat. Good win in the game before? Check. Massive away support? Check. Deflating defeat – check … out. In fairness, it’s rare when you can say almost no one played well so it probably has to be written off as a truly bad day at the office. We simply never got a foothold in the game and credit to Motherwell for winning the battle and (shall we say) breaking up the momentum of the game when they had to. Similar to the defeat at Aberdeen, lessons need to be learned but hopefully today’s visit of St Mirren allows us to get back on track with three points.

The clamour from the away support for the introduction of Liam Boyce last Saturday and the slight improvement his appearance brought reminds us of the additional, ‘talismanic’ presence of some players. Sadly, the ‘lift’ on Saturday probably only took our performance from the basement to lower-basement but the point stands.

Boyce’s importance and the belief in his scoring ability amongst the support gives him something of that status. His presence makes people – and hopefully opponents – think we are more likely to score. Equally, his absence is met with groans and cries of “who is going to score the goals?”. Fortunately, versus Dundee United both Ben Woodburn and Josh Ginnelly were able to step in to the role although they couldn’t repeat the

trick last week.

We’ve been fortunate enough to have a few such players over the years. From my vintage the most obvious would-be John Robertson and one of my earliest memories of Tynecastle was a young Robbo equalising in the last minute against Rangers as Hearts successfully came back from two goals down. Equally, who would forget his equaliser at Easter Road in 1995 when he struck home a loose ball as the final whistle was imminent? That of course spurned the famous line “It’s not over until the fat striker scores”. Perhaps the ultimate definition of a Hearts talisman. Yet, we’ve had others too. Rudi Skacel – another scourge of Easter Road – could always be counted on for something special and I recall his performance from 2012 when he almost single-handedly helped ten-men Hearts defeat today’s opponents 5-2 with a hattrick. He also scored a few more goals in 2012 of course. Older fans will talk of Donald Ford or Drew Busby in the same manner. These are players you can rely on to be the ones who dig you out of a hole. That said you don’t want to be wholly reliant on them. So, although hopefully Liam Boyce notches a goal or two today, we’ll also be hoping a few others can help out too.

The pride no doubt felt in the Gordon household at Craig becoming Hearts’ record international cap holder is amplified by everyone at the club. In winning his 33rd cap as a Hearts player, he has shown remarkable powers of both longevity and recovery since his Scotland debut back in 2004. That a player who can be counted as ‘one of our own’ takes the record seems even more appropriate. That’s no slight on previous holder Steven Pressley - although he remains a divisive personality in our support - but it just feels right that it should be a Heartssupporting, Academy graduate that owns the record. For almost a century the record books had the venerable Bobby Walker - subject of an excellent new biography by Colin Robertson and Andrew Hoggan incidentally - with 29 caps as our most capped player. As a fellow son of Gorgie, I think Bobby would approve that his own achievement has been surpassed - and will hopefully be further extended - by Craig.

FIRST TEAM RESULTS

SEASON 2021 -2022

DATE OPPONENT ATT F A LINE UP

Sat July 10 Peterhead (LC) 246 2-0 Gordon M Smith A Cochrane d Souttar Halkett Kingsley Haring Tues July 13 Cove Rangers (LC) 1983 3-0 Gordon M Smith A Cochrane Souttar Halkett Kingsley b Ginnelly c Tues July 20 Stirling Albion (LC) 211 2-0 Gordon M Smith A Cochrane e Souttar Halkett Kingsley Ginnelly b Sun July 25 Inverness CT (LC) 2989 1-0 Gordon M Smith A Cochrane Halkett Halliday a Kingsley Ginnelly Sat July 31 Celtic 5272 2-1 Gordon M Smith A Cochrane Souttar Halkett Kingsley Ginnelly b

Sat Aug 7 St Mirren 1039 2-1 Gordon M Smith Halliday Souttar Halkett A Cochrane Ginnelly a Sun Aug 15 Celtic (LC) 42361 2-3 Gordon M Smith A Cochrane c Souttar Halkett Kingsley Halliday a Sun Aug 22 Aberdeen 17449 1-1 Gordon M Smith Halliday a Souttar Halkett A Cochrane Ginnelly c Sat Aug 28 Dundee Utd 9324 2-0 Gordon M Smith Halliday c Souttar Halkett A Cochrane Woodburn a Sun Sep 12 Hibs 18177 0-0 Gordon M Smith b A Cochrane Souttar Halkett Kingsley Woodburn c Sat Sep 18 Ross County 3802 2-2 Gordon T Moore Kingsley Souttar Baningime Halkett McKay Sat Sep 25 Livingston 16175 3-0 Gordon M Smith Kingsley b T Moore Baningime Halkett d McKay c

Sat Oct 2 Motherwell 17028 2-0 Gordon M Smith Kingsley T Moore Baningime Halkett a McKay c

Sat Oct 16 Rangers 49650 1-1 Gordon M Smith Kingsley Souttar Baningime Halkett McKay c Sat Oct 23 Dundee 17557 1-1 Gordon M Smith Kingsley Souttar Baningime Halkett McKay c Wed Oct 27 St Johnstone 6083 1-1 Gordon M Smith Kingsley Souttar Baningime Halkett Ginnelly a Sat Oct 30 Aberdeen 9736 1-2 Gordon M Smith A Cochrane c Souttar pen Halkett Kingsley Ginnelly a

Sat Nov 6 Dundee Utd 18129 5-2 Gordon T Moore Kingsley Souttar Baningime Halkett McKay a Sat Nov 20 Motherwell 7908 0-2 Gordon M Smith A Cochrane Souttar T Moore Kingsley Devlin Sat Nov 27 St Mirren Thu Dec 2 Celtic Sun Dec 5 Livingston Sun Dec 12 Rangers Sat Dec 18 Dundee

Sun Dec 26 Ross County Wed Dec 29 St Johnstone Sun Jan 2 Hibs Wed Jan 26 Celtic Sat Jan 29 Motherwell

Sat Feb 5 Rangers Wed Feb 9 Dundee Sat Feb 19 St Johnstone

Sat Feb 26 St Mirren Wed Mar 2 Aberdeen

Sat Mar 5 Dundee Utd Sat Mar 19 Livingston

Sat Apr 2 Ross County

Sat Apr 9 Hibs

SUBSTITUTES

McEneff b Boyce e Ginnelly a M-Steven c Walker Pollock Roberts Halliday Henderson Halliday d Boyce Pollock a M-Steven e McEneff Haring Henderson C Smith Denholm

Halliday Boyce d Haring a M-Steven c Gnanduillet Pollock Walker McEneff C Smith

Pollock b Boyce Gnanduillet c M-Steven Haring Walker Henderson

Baningime Boyce Halliday M-Steven a Haring Gnanduillet

Baningime Boyce c Haring M-Steven b Gnanduillet McEneff Henderson

Baningime Boyce pen Haring b M-Steven Ginnelly McEneff Walker

Baningime Boyce pen Haring b M-Steven b Walker McEneff Henderson

Baningime Boyce Haring M Steven b Ginnelly Gnanduillet T Moore

Baningime Boyce Haring M Steven a Ginnelly T Moore McKay Woodburn b Boyce Gnanduillet M Steven a Devlin Walker -

Woodburn Boyce pen a Devlin A Cochrane Gnanduillet Halliday M-Steven Haring Woodburn b Boyce pen Devlin A Cochrane Halliday M Steven Haring Woodburn a Boyce Devlin A Cochrane b Ginnelly Gnanduillet M-Steven Woodburn a Boyce b Devlin A Cochrane M-Steven Gnanduillet Ginnelly

Halliday Gnanduillet Devlin McKay b Woodburn M Steven -

Baningime Gnanduillet Devlin M-Steven b Woodburn McKay Halliday

Devlin Ginnelly b Woodburn 2 c A Cochrane M-Steven Gnanduillet McAneff Baningime c Ginnelly b Woodburn a McKay Boyce Gnanduillet McAneff

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

13, 24, 28, 29 13, 20, 28, 29 13, 22, 28, 29 8, 27, 28, 34, 35,13 8, 22, 27, 38, 13 27, 34, 35, 13 22, 27, 35, 13 27, 35, 13 7, 8, 38, 13 14, 16, 21, 13 5, 8, 16, 17, 13 7, 8, 13 7, 21, 30, 13 5, 15, 16, 13 5, 15, 16, 13 5, 7, 15, 17, 13 5, 8, 15, 13 5, 7, 25, 13 5, 7, 11, 13

58 WWW.HEARTSFC.CO.UK WWW.HEARTSFC.CO.UK

FIRST TEAM

APPEARANCES 2021/22

PLAYER LEAGUE LEAGUE CUP SFA CUP TOTALS

STARTS SUBS GOALS STARTS SUBS GOALS STARTS SUBS GOALS STARTS SUBS GOALS

Craig GORDON 14 - 4* 5 - 4* - - - 19 - 8* Ross STEWART - - - - - - - - - - - Michael SMITH 12 - 1 5 - - - - - 17 - 1 Cammy LOGAN - - - - - - - - - - - Jamie BRANDON - - - - - - - - - - - Alex COCHRANE (L) 12 - 2 5 - - - - - 17 - 2 Stephen KINGSLEY 11 - 3 5 - - - - - 16 - 3 John SOUTTAR 12 - 3(1 4 - - - - - 16 - 3(1 Andy HALLIDAY 5 3 1 4 1 1 - - - 9 4 2 Craig HALKETT 13 - 1 5 - - - - - 18 - 1 Taylor MOORE (L) 5 2 - - - - - - - 5 2 Peter HARING 4 3 - 3 2 - - - - 7 5 Cammy DEVLIN 8 1 - - - - - - - 8 1 Beni BANINGIME 14 - - 1 - - - - - 15 - Ben WOODBURN (L) 9 2 2 - - - - - - 9 2 2 Scott McGILL $ - - - - - - - - - - - Aaron McENEFF 0 4 1 1 3 1 - - - 1 7 2 Gary MACKAY-STEVEN 7 6 1 5 - 2 - - - 12 6 3 Barrie McKAY 8 2 - - - - - - - 8 2 Jamie WALKER 0 2 - 0 4 1 - - - 0 6 1 Jordan ROBERTS $ - - - 0 1 - - - - 0 1 Josh GINNELLY 7 4 1 4 1 - - - - 11 5 1 Liam BOYCE 10 1 6(3 5 - 4(1 - - - 15 1 10(4 Armand GNANDUILLET 3 8 1 1 1 - - - - 4 9 1 Euan HENDERSON $ 0 2 - 0 3 - - - - 0 5 Connor SMITH $ - - - 0 2 - - - - 0 2 Finlay POLLOCK - - - 2 2 1 - - - 2 2 1 Aaron DARGE $ - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aidan DENHOLM - - - 0 1 - - - - 0 1 Leon WATSON - - - - - - - - - - - Chris HAMILTON $ - - - - - - - - - - - Mihal POPESCU $ - - - - - - - - - - - Loic DAMOUR $ - - - - - - - - - - - - Totals 154 40 23 55 21 10 - - - 209 61 33

$ Player on loan * Now left Club *Denotes shut out in goals column # Retired as player, now on Development Staff

UMBRO