Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Heart of Midlothian v Celtic - Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain - May 7, 2023 Heart of Midlothian manager Steven Naismith reacts REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Today, Celtic sits atop of the SPFL by that crucial seven point margin. Hearts, our opponents yesterday, sit in fourth and St Mirren, already four ahead of them, have a game in hand. Kilmarnock, in spite of their win at the weekend being their first since they beat us in the League Cup, are just one point behind them. Hearts are in dire trouble.
They have played nine games. They have eleven points. Naismith takes his charges to Ibrox at the weekend for the first game in a triple header against the club over there. I don’t expect them to get anything from a single one of those games, much as I’d like to think otherwise. They are dire. Their manager is a joke. Their whole club is a joke.
In the aftermath of the game, Naismith was doing what people at Hearts do; he was moaning and making excuses. Which I’m sure some of their fans are going along with.
Honestly, the number of their fans who tried to post comments on here and who attacked me on social media last week … this is for you; you lot are the biggest mugs on the planet short of those across the city. Attack me? All I did was tell a little truth to you. It’s your own club which plays you for fools, and like fools you’ve swallowed every bit of it.
Look at the state you’re in. Celtic swept over you yesterday like you weren’t even there and if you’re blaming refs or officials or VAR you’re letting the guy on the touchline off the hook. More than that, you’re letting the people who hired him off the hook and you’d think you’d recognise the damage they’ve already done to your club and put a stop to that.
We good now? Then I’ll proceed with the point.
Naismith’s hiring was ridiculous. A guy with zero experience should never have got that job, and I’ve written the same about Barry Robson at Aberdeen. These clubs need to take themselves more seriously than that.
Hiring rank amateurs is a strategy that very rarely works out. Robson isn’t doing too badly. I hope he can win the League Cup … still, it’s a crazy appointment. The Hearts one is worse. It’s lazy. It’s unambitious. That is a club with no overarching plan.
I knew when we scored the second yesterday what Naismith would say after the game. Anything to deflect attention from himself. He moaned about soft goals, but more than that he just moaned about the refs and VAR and presented himself as someone more hard done by than simply outclassed by a vastly better, and smarter, manager.
Nothing about his comments surprised me in the least. The playbook over there is eerily similar to the one across the city. Lose an important game, and especially to Celtic, and the strategy is to fish for whatever excuses you think there are. There were several glimpses of him studying something on a tablet whilst the first half was still ongoing; “You just know that’s the second goal he’s watching, over and over again,” I said to my mates.
And it probably was. Because as I said at the end of last week, only the Ibrox club nurses a greater sense of grievance against the rest of the game. There is never any acknowledgement that Hearts might be the source of their own misfortunates as a club.
The after match comments were typical of Naismith, and they were typical of Neilson before him. Deflection and denial. Here’s what he didn’t say and won’t say; even a better Hearts boss would not have been able to cope with us yesterday.
Because that was us starting to get back to our best under Rodgers, and once we’re there no-one here will touch us.
In my opinion wee wink Martindale is a superior coach than serial loser Naismith will ever be and he is about as useful as a trap door in a canoe in the whole context of Scottish football . Naismith will be back on the BBC couch on Sportscene before long …watch this space !
Naismith will have a job on the BBC/Clyde/insert other before Christmas. He’s a clueless, no mark, bigot.
James, I said to my brother-in-law when Naismith and his pal were checking the laptop: “They’re probably watching the highlights from ibrox yesterday”. HH
i actually laughed out loud james, thinking of that bitter dick looking at the 2nd goal over and over….soooo true.
according to him, all our goals were sloppy….ffs….as you said, the only thing sloppy was his appointment….
i was v sceptical of BR’s return…but he is starting to make a major impression on the club…he must have the full support of the board.
HH
Fuck the haters mate, you do a fantastic job on here, you always tell the truth and get your facts right! HH here we go 3iar
Class is something that SW Scotland bigot lacks, always. Evidenced in the way he played, sorry kicked and barked, on the pitch. He walked away when his old club died, no shame in accepting the truth, yet he amongst many retreated from that position for nothing other expediency. The fact that he was a fairly regular representative in the Scotland SFA team speaks volumes about the depths to which they sank and in fairness are returning from.
He’s possibly a Levein reincarnation but definitely a worse manager. There’s something I never thought I’d say and yet another flop that can’t walk the talk.
Got to say I was gutted about that late winner against the women’s team yesterday, it took some of the gloss off my day sadly.
Easter road next for the Bhoys on our away travels from the evenly balanced fixture list. A win is of course predicted on form and after that dismal display on Saturday it should be another goal fest. HH
The only people to touch us will be the ref and his buddies running the llne and the others running VAR.
Sevco board call in Agatha Christie sleuth Hercule Poirot to solve the mystery of a klub only 12 years old only having trophies to their name.
The poor Jambos have still not gotten over the events of the 3rd of May 1986. Neither have I…for a totally different reason of course.
Hail Hail.
All this “sloppy defending” or “poor goals to lose” stuff started with the archbigots Jeffries and Brown many years ago. They were at Kilmarnock at the time and it has been a constant ever since by almost every manager since then. Rodger’s should join in with the same patter every time Celtic lose a goal. He would probably be the only one who was correct.
Naismith is a deluded Celtic hating clown whom won’t last the season, the only other job he’ll ever get is to replace fellow bitter dimwit Boyd when he gets hauled off the box, ‘not an ounce of decency, common sense or grasp of reality between them.
According to him it should have been 1-0 to hearts .lump a wid
Overall a very poor appointment by Hearts. No real thought process went into that.
Like you hope Aberdeen come good and win the LC.
I listened to SSB on Clyde tonight, I lasted 5 mins, a guy called Roger Hannah whom I presume to be a Sports Journalist, when asked for his whopper of the weekend named a Hearts player who in his opinion was to blame for Celtic’s 1st goal because he failed to match O’Riley’s run into the box.
A lovely passing move and a finish that probably should be goal of the Month and all this guy noticed was a Hearts player not matching a Celtic players run.
My God they’re hurting big time after our victory yesterday, one victory and they’re all bigging up the new man at Ibrox.
They’ll never learn.
EVERY time the camera went in him , he was looking at the tablet , he looked totally out his depth ! Embarrassing , as hot the tickets , Celtic should just refuse them any and refuse to take any for Tynecastle … Scottish football is a joke at the minute . And people wonder why big Ange left !
Levein was on the radio yesterday and agreed with Naismith about bad defending. Not one positive about Celtic as usual.
Nae Smith – Nae Class !