Friendly, Wednesday 13 November 2013 – Tynecastle Stadium
Hearts took a break from the battle of trying to avoid relegation from the SPFL with a friendly game against German Bundesliga side Wolfsburg at Tynecastle on Wednesday evening.
Billed as a fund-raiser to help the club hopefully come out of administration, the German visitors were top class opposition for a team that has struggled for much of the season. Yet, Hearts youngsters were far from overawed.
The best chance of the first half came when Wolfsburg’s Caligiuri missed a penalty five minutes from half time.
Hearts Jamie Walker, as he did at Aberdeen on Saturday, proved a tricky customer with his darting runs on the wing while goalkeeper Mark Ridgers proved more than an able deputy for Jamie MacDonald.
The best chance of the game came 12 minutes from the end when Evseev had time and space in the penalty box but contrived to drag his shot wide.
Hearts themselves had chances, particularly Brad McKay whose header went wide towards the end of the game.
Hearts brought on Adam Beith, Billy King and Sam Nicholson in the second half as manager Gary Locke sought to give more of the even younger Hearts squad a run out. A special mention for young goalkeeper Jack Hamilton who made his first team debut, coming on for Mark Ridgers, and who made a fine save moments after coming on.
All in all, a useful exercise for Hearts who matched quality opposition all the way. And a big thanks to the crowd of 5,535 who contributed to Hearts financial cause on cold, windy Wednesday November evening.
Hearts: Ridgers; McKay, McGowan, Wilson, Hamill; Smith, A. King, Tapping, Walker; Robinson; Stevenson.
Wolfsburg: Grun, Ochs, Schafer, Klose, Caligiuri, Dost, Lopes, Polak, Kutschke, Evseev, Seguin..
Referee: Brian Colvin
Top men and women: The Hearts supporters who made a big commitment to their team six weeks before Christmas.
Author of The Team for Me - 50 Years of Following Hearts. Runs Mind Generating Success, a successful therapy practice in Edinburgh. Contact me if you want rid of any unwanted habits. Twitter @Mike1874
