Prediction v Hearts (a)

Last updated : 12 September 2002 By Phil Swainston

What a grand way to celebrate my birthday on Tuesday. A nice meal, an excellent bottle of red and a thumping good win against the champions. Boy did I get relaxed that evening! I even managed to get a glimpse of the goals on Wednesday morning and a snippet of TB’s post match interview. Was impressed by the quality of Fagan’s goal and the casual way McFadden rolled in the penalty. Terry seemed to be as surprised as anyone in the interview but as I said last week football always has the ability to throw up a few shocks and surprises every season. It was good to see Fagan coming on and scoring and Sengewald making an apparently competent debut on Tuesday. It all helps in increasing the depth of the squad ready in time for the long Winter haul.

Casual penalty
Lets hope TB gets everyone back down to earth quickly though. We need to remember that we are only where most of us thought we would be in terms of points after the last two games. The fact that we got 3 points from the wrong fixture is largely irrelevant.

Hearts away is another tough game and normally would have all us Well fans fearing the worst. Spirits will be up however, and confidence restored after the Hibs loss. Lets hope that the team approach this fixture with the same spirit and determination that was apparently evident on Tuesday. Anything less and we will return empty handed.

Hearts seem to be getting plenty of plaudits at the moment and are probably favourites to finish third. After suffering their first defeat of the season on Wednesday they will be determined to get back on track and will probably be relishing the prospect of turning us over. Tyncastle has never been a happy hunting ground but perhaps things will change on Sunday.

I am going to predict a narrow defeat for us on Sunday. Hearts will be ready for us, our element of surprise has gone and we never seem to win in Edinburgh.

Hearts 2 - 1 Motherwell