Well, after the fiasco leading up to this game at least Brewster can now empathise with O’Neill and McLeish! It can’t be easy going into a game knowing that no matter the result the team will get no praise for the performance.
Robbo announced his team early and it came as no surprise to the Caley Thisle fans that, after all his moaning, there were only 3 changes to the team which placed Dunfermline the previous week.
Jason Thomson, a 17 year old making his debut. I’d be prepared to give them this if it weren’t for the fact that he was Heart’s best player on the day.
Graham Weir, 24 appearances this year! Enough said there I think.
Neil Janczyk, his sixth appearance of the season and a squad player at best but then so is Prunty, who we were forced to bring on last week against Rangers.
So on to the game itself, as first halfs go it was dire, not because Caley Thistle were playing a team decimated by the flu bug but because Robbo played his usual tactics, stopping the other team from playing at all cost. It was a tactic that we are all used to seeing Caley Jags play but one we found it very difficult to deal with.
After the break Caley looked more composed and slowly took control but the game really didn’t come to life until the 58th minute, when Ritchie Hart floated in a free kick and Darren Dodds rose, completely unmarked, to head the ball beyond Craig Gordon and into the net.
The next ten minutes were probably Hearts best of the game as ICT were forced to defend wave after wave of attack. However Mark Brown was never tested during this time, thanks to some very assured and composed defending. The same composure was not evident in the Jambos defence, as became evident in the 72nd minute when Barry Wilson latched on to a short pass back by Berra and Gordon was left with no option but to bring him down .
Barry stepped up to coolly to slot home from the resultant penalty and it was game over. Thistle spent the rest of the game running down the clock, playing the ball to the corners and making three substitutions.
By the end of the game the away fans were chanting, “bring on the Celtic”. This may be seen as over confidence by some but I would see it more as a realisation that with the team on this form, there is nobody in the SPL that we need fear.