After the famine now comes the feast. The Hearts roadshow, which has seen the Jambos play eight of their nine Ladbrokes Premiership fixtures away from home due to the construction of the new main stand at Tynecastle, came to a temporary halt on Saturday with a 2-1 victory over Ross County in Dingwall.
Since the start of the league campaign at the beginning of August Hearts have had just one ‘home’ game – and this was the goalless draw with title-chasing Aberdeen played at Murrayfield.
To say Hearts have endured a difficult start to the season is something of an understatement. A shocking Betfred Cup campaign which saw Hearts finish third in their group behind Dunfermline Athletic and Peterhead, not only saw the Gorgie side suffer the embarrassment of early elimination from the competition but meant the departure of Head Coach Ian Cathro.
There then followed a month where Jon Daly was in interim charge, a spell which began with a 4-1 hammering at league champions Celtic. After what seemed an eternity, Craig Levein was appointed Head Coach and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in Gorgie and beyond.
At least the Hearts supporters had the return to the new-look Tynecastle to look forward to in September. Not so fast, Maroon Army. An error with the ordering of the seats for the new stand – which the club fully owned up to – meant the club’s return to Gorgie was put back to November 5th. More fireworks before the fireworks.
Then came the news of striker Kyle Lafferty’s gambling addiction and, just a couple of days ago, Hearts issuing a statement confirming the club had been the victim of internet fraud.
Given all this one might excuse the Hearts support to be experiencing disillusionment comparable to the start of season 2013/14 when Hearts started the season with a 15-point deduction because of going into administration. But the Hearts support have remained steadfastly behind their team, as demonstrated by the fact 1,400 fans made the long trip to Dingwall on Saturday.
There is a feeling in Gorgie that, perhaps, the pendulum is now swinging in Hearts favour.
The Maroons presently sit in seventh place in the league table – just one point behind Hibernian and one point from a top six place. Hearts will break into the top six and leapfrog their city rivals if they defeat St Johnstone at Murrayfield next Saturday – Hibs are on Betfred Cup duty the same day.
The St Johnstone game marks the start of a remarkable run of fixtures which will see Hearts play all their Ladbrokes Premiership games in Scotland’s capital city until two days before Christmas. Even the one away fixture scheduled in the next ten games will be played in Edinburgh – at Easter Road in the first Ladbrokes Premiership Edinburgh derby for more than three years.
Hearts Head Coach Craig Levein is clearly relishing the prospect of his team ‘returning home’. He told the official Hearts website:
“We can only go on past evidence, and that is that Tynecastle is where we pick up the majority of our points, so my aim now is to get us as much momentum as possible until we get back there next month, feeling good about ourselves, and when we get on a role, that will help enormously.”
There will be another huge home support for this Saturday’s game with St Johnstone at Murrayfield before Rangers visit the same venue seven days later. Rangers have sold their ticket allocation of 14,000 and it is expected the attendance at this game will be in excess of 30,000.
Hearts away record last season was dismal but the Jambos have already recorded three wins on the road in their opening nine games. After the Rangers game, Levein’s side will face Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle, Ross County, Hamilton Academical, Motherwell and Dundee in successive games at Tynecastle before Celtic visit Gorgie the week before Christmas.
That old cliché of ‘there are no easy games at this level’ springs to mind but there’s no reason why Hearts shouldn’t be looking to take maximum points from the majority of these games which will propel Craig Levein’s men up the table.
Hibernian, Aberdeen and Rangers have all stated they are vying for second spot in the Ladbrokes Premiership this season (although as the Dons are presently joint top they may have even higher ambitions) If Hearts can turn the new-look Tynecastle into a fortress then there may be another name muscling in on the race for second spot.
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
