Those of you who took a nervous glance at the SPL table this morning will know that this match is actually important. Hearts hold a very slim and tender 2 point hold on the 3rd spot, with Dundee United sitting right behind in 4th. Both teams need to win this match, particularly with the next few fixtures being so difficult for both teams and with Aberdeen sitting 2 points behind Dundee Utd. Aberdeen have what should be an “easy” game for them with a home match against Killmarnock.

As Csaba has said on the Hearts website, this match doesn’t decide who gets to play in Europe next year, but it will be a big player psychologicaly in the comming weeks. It is likley all eyes will be on Tannadice today with this being the biggest and most important match in the SPL this week.

Hearts have been on good form recently with silly mistakes costing them all 3 points last week against St. Mirren. Dundee Utd. drew with Aberdeen last weekend and lost to Hamilton the week before, not quiet as good as Hearts, but past form doesn’t mean to much in the SPL. I cannot stress how important this match is and how gut-wrenching it will be for those who are watching it, both who are wearing Maroon and and those who are wearing Tangerine.

Hearts will be without Kingston who worsened his Ham-string injury as a sub in last week’s match against St. Mirren. Nade is also out after reaching his disciplinary points limit. As such, Csaba seems to have gone with Calum Elliot up front along with Glen. Although this seems to have come from left-field, the only other choice would have been to gone back to a 4-5-1 formation (which as we all know didn’t work). Maybe Elliot can bring something new to the table, that je ne sais quoi that Hearts need. According to the BBC, Mikey Stewart is also in the lineup. Those of you that read this regularly will know my opinion about Stewart starting for Hearts. He should not - simple as that. Despite his error last week, I think Mikoliunas should be starting for Hearts again.

Here’s the expected lineups, courtesy of the BBC:

Dundee Utd: Zaluska, Dods, Dillon, Kenneth, Wilkie, Dixon, Kovacevic, Caddis, Grainger, Buaben, Gomis, Wesolowski, McCord, Shala, Conway, Feeney, Daly, Sandaza, D Robertson, McGovern.

Hearts: Balogh, Neilson, Jonsson, Karipidis, Wallace, Obua, Stewart, Aguiar, Palazuelos, Driver, Kello, Cesnauskis, Thomson, Mrowiec, Elliot, Templeton, Mikoliunas, McGowan.

My prediction: 1-1, neither team will be able to get past each other’s defence.

Previous results this season: Dundee Utd 3-0 Hearts, Hearts 0-0 Dundee Utd
Also - Coral give odds of 10/1 that Driver scores from outside the box…we’ll see.

Time for an important match (Yes, we get it, everyone has made that quiet clear). Anyway, the point that seems to be cropping up is how tired St. Mirren will be for this match. Rubbish, if the St. Mirren players can’t play two 90 minute matches within two days of each other, they don’t deserve to be called athletes. Anyway, it’s St. Mirren’s fault for asking on such short notice so they could get oodles of money so there.

So, now on to the pre-match where I’m going to ignore saying that St. Mirren will be tired. More likely is that they will be buoyed up by it and will be carrying the momentum from a good win over Motherwell in the Scots Cup. If Hearts can keep on doing what they were doing against Aberdeen, it should be a good game. The 4-4-2 (or whatever twisted version of it Csaba came up with) works very well with this Hearts squad, particularly when there’s a reluctance from most Hearts players to shoot the ball. As such, Csaba should keep the same squad as last week, with the exception of Michael Stewart. Unless he’s improved in training, his reluctance to make the harder challenges when they’re needed are hurting the squad and giving the opposition more chances than they should have. Once Miko gets back, Stewart should be benched, that’s the gist of it.

One point of nervous speculation over this match is Balogh, Driver and Karipidas who were ill during the week. According to the BBC, they should be fine for the match…we’ll see. Also, Laryea Kingston is out with his injury bouncing in and out of the squad.

Here’s the predicted line-ups, courtesy of the BBC:

Hearts: Balogh, Neilson, Jonsson, Karipidis, Wallace, Obua, Stewart, Aguiar, Palazuelos, Driver, Nade, Kello, Glen, Cesnauskis, Thomson, Mrowiec, Elliot, Templeton.

St Mirren: Howard, Ross, Potter, Cuthbert, Camara, Barron, McGinn, Thomson, Murray, Dorman, Brady, Hamilton, Mehmet, Smith, Wyness, Mason, McAusland, Brighton.

On the two previous occasions, Hearts have come better off, winning 2-1 at home and 1-0 away.

My Prediction:…difficult one. Trying to come up with one that isn’t the usual “1-0″ or “2-1″…

I’m gonna stick my head above the parapet and say Hearts win 2-0. It’s nothing like the BBC’s prediction of 1-1 but I don’t think St. Mirren will have the attacking capability to break through the Hearts defence or midfield.

A slightly shortchanged Believer

Right, my train to Haymarket is in half an hour so lets thrash out a pre-match thing. Hearts vs. Aberdeen, certainly one of the JT’s most important SPL games since the Derby at the start of January. I’m finding it difficult to come up with a prediction for this one but my Cynical side is coming forth saying that Aberdeen might win (boo! hiss!). In their past 3 games, they have had the better run of form. They beat Celtic at Home, then getting a draw against Rangers (again at Home) and then topping it all off by loosing to Falkirk in Falkirk.

Ignoring the Scottish Cup loss, Hearts have also had 2 wins and a loss, except they were only to the smaller teams: Kilmarnock, Inverness and the loss to Hamilton. If we do consider the Scottish Cup game, I think we can take something from it. Hearts had a superb 1st half, only failing to capitalise on their chances. If the JT’s can take the same style of play (maybe without Jonsson up front…) with a 4-4-2 formation, things should be alright.

Kingston might not be playing as he was playing for Ghana on Wednesday, but you never know. And as we all know, Zaliukas is out with a 3 match ban, meaning that the defence needs to be muddled about a bit again. This could be Hearts Achilles Heel today - the defence. Since Berra left, the defence has been good, but not what it was, particularly as it has changed in every match since he went South. Jonsson will probably be taken from Striker and be thrown back into the back 4 for this match, alongside Neilson, Wallace and…I’m not entirely sure to be honest. It is likely that the Dons will try to play the long balls and will be looking for a defensive mistake in order to get their goals. Offensively, Hearts should be alright, a half-decent midfield and 2 up front (Nade and Glen) should be able to create something. Hopefully they will have worked on shooting and set-ups in training and with any luck this will show up in the match.

Here’s the predicted linups courtesy of the BBC:

Hearts: Balogh, Neilson, Jonsson, Karipidis, Wallace, Obua, Stewart, Aguiar, Kingston, Driver, Nade, MacDonald, Glen, Cesnauskis, Thomson, Mrowiec, Elliot, Templeton

Aberdeen: Langfield, Foster, Mulgrew, Mair, Severin, Kerr, Vidal, Duff, McDonald, Miller, Mackie, Bossu, Diamond, Young, Aluko, Wright, Maguire, Crawford.

The Referee is Charlie Richmond

On Previous meetings this season, it was 1-1 at Tynecastle (+ 1 missing penalty…) and 1-0 Aberdeen at Pittodrie

My Predition: I’m gonna hedge my bets on this one and say 1-0 to Hearts (but it could go wither way :p)

A very hopefull Beliver

Well, It’s time for the 5th Round of the Scottish Cup and Elvis makes a very special return to play in the same competition that he won with Hearts. I’ll be intrigued to see what his reception will be. Anyway, returning to the football, Falkirk have been a regular thorn in Hearts side in recent years and Hearts vs Falkirk has always been an odd match in the SPL. In recent games, Falkirk have been on an alright run of form, beating Aberdeen last week and getting a draw with Kilmarnock and Motherwell and a loss to Rangers in their last 4 SPL games and a 3-0 loss to Rangers in the Wee-Diddy Cup. Hearts recent run of form has also been a bit of an odd one. There was the disgusting loss to Hamilton last weekend, a close win over Caley Thistle and a 1-0 loss to Motherwell in the last 3 SPL games and a 2-0 win over the Hibees (woo!) in the Scottish cup 4th round. Both teams are on similarly poor form (with Hearts being a little worse for it).

The match *should* (at least under normal circumstances) be a fairly easy win for Hearts, but as we all know, both teams can pull of a bit of a stunner from time to time. So far in the SPL, it’s 1 win apiece for the two teams, both coming on home turf.

Now for some hopeful thought. The only way I think we can get a good win is if Csaba decideds to stick his head above the parapet and go with a 4-4-2 formation with Nade and perhaps Glen up front while applying a positive attacking mentality. The mid 4 (probably: Stewart, Obua, Driver and Aguiar…assuming Csaba uses a 4-4-2) should be told to try and push forward and feed the ball to the front two and create some offensive chances. The back 4 need to “be as strong as the old Castle rock” basically, there’s not much that can be said about the back 4 apart from “I wish Berra were still here”.

The BBC lists the possible lineups as:

Hearts: MacDonald, Neilson, Jonsson, Zaliukas, Wallace, Obua, Stewart, Karipidis, Driver, Aguiar, Nade, Kello, Glen, Thomson, Cesnauskis, Mrowiec, Elliot, Templeton.

Falkirk: Mallo, McNamara, Bullen, Pressley, Barr, Holden, Arfield, Riera, O’Brien, McCann, Lovell, Olejnik, Higdon, Cregg, Finnigan, Mitchell.

You might be wandering why Balogh is missing from that lineup. Well according to the BBC, he has a neck injury and therefore will be unlikely. Isn’t that just like the JT’s? sign a great player and he picks up an injury before an important match…

I predict this will be a very close match. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was because both teams are being stupidly sloppy. My prediction: Hearts win 2-1

(I realise this was posted on Friday, I wasnt sure if would get up in time to write this on Saturday AND get to the match on time)

Well, last time we were here was Wednesday 12th November at Tynecastle and it was a poor match to say the least as Hearts squeaked by 1-0 in a game which Hearts should have been comfortable in. However, that was over two months ago and Hearts are a now a better team with great results against Rangers and Celtic and a fantastic victory over the Hibees in the Scottish Cup. Hearts are currently 4th in the table, only behind Dundee United on goal difference with 38 points and Aberdeen sitting right behind with 37.

Hamilton Academical sit in 9th with 26 points behind Kilmarnock on goal difference and 2 points behind Motherwell. The Accies, originally predicted to be knocked back down into the First Division this season, have been on a stellar run of form recently beating Kilmarnock, Inverness and Aberdeen in their last 3 SPL matches (not necessarily in that order) with 4 wins out of the last 5 and a victory in the Scottish Cup over Ross County.

The BBC reports that the line ups will be:

Hamilton Accies: Cerny, Swailes, Neil, McLaughlin, Canning, Easton, McClenahan, McArthur, Mensing, Thomas, McCarthy, Murdoch, Gibson, Akins, Lyle, McGowan, Offiong, Deuchar.

Hearts: MacDonald, Neilson, Zaliukas, Berra, Wallace, Obua, Stewart, Karipidis, Driver, Aguiar, Nade, Kello, Kingston, Glen, Thomson, Jonsson, Cesnauskis, Mrowiec.

I’m going to agree with these line-ups (I don’t know much about the Accies so I can’t comment much on them) but the Hearts line up seems about right, much the same as last weeks. It’s unlikely that Hearts are going to get Ballogh’s signature so it’s probably going to be MacDonald in goal again because it’s unlikely that Kello has learnt to kick the ball in a straight line. It’s a safe bet to assume that Csaba is going to stick with the fairly successful 4-5-1 formation with Nade up front. Although it would be good to see Kingston start again in place of Karipidis (I’m I the only one who thinks he makes TOO many mistakes in a match?) but with the team gelling, it’s probably not going to change. Marius Zaliukas has returned from suspension, but with 2 red cards from only 19 appearances (not a great ratio), it *would* be likely that he would remain sidelined after recent match conduct. However, as Eggert Jonsson is currently ill, Zaliukas will be playing alongside Berra, Neilson and Wallace (The sending off against Aberdeen was highly dubious and I don’t think it deserved a sending off. To me, it appeared to be the Aberdeen player being an idiot).

I predict it to be a much closer match than it normally would be with the final score Hearts 2 - Accies 1. I suspect that David Obua is begging to find his feet in Scottish football and will probably get one of the goals. Bruno Aguiar with the second.

In other Hearts news, Csaba Laszlo is reported to be in talks with a striker playing in Europe whom Csaba calls “interesting”. Now, we must remember that Lithuania is also in Europe, so I wouldn’t rule out another Kaunus of Ripo loan but we can always hope it isn’t. What worries me is that this player is currently in Europe and as such, may need a period to adjust to Scottish football which is exactly what we don’t need. As you all know, we need John Robertson. But seeing as he’s not available, we need someone who can start scoring the moment he steps on the pitch. Just to let you speculate wildly - a representative of Vlad’s “Ukio Bankas Investment Group” has been sent to assist in the transfer negotiations…see it as you will

(Quick question…”with” is still a word in the English language? My word processor seems to have forgotten it exists)