Management thoughts on the draw tonight at Fernieside.

Posted on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Mike says –

“Tynecastle are a good footballing side. They have good players and play the game in the correct manner. After St Marks Park we all knew that they would be very much looking forward to locking horns with us tonight.

We have had a lot of hard and important games recently, a few of the players have looked tired, the league is already won and we have a cup final at Tynecastle Park on Sunday. We also have not lost an away game to an East of Scotland side since April 2009. When talking about preferred football formations and styles of play I always talk about balance – attack, defence – left sided players, right sided – strength, subtlety – pace, guile – height, mobility – experience, youthful exuberance – balance. How do you rest some of your best players, blood a few youngsters and get a result against a very good side away from home? How do you get the balance right? With Sam returning from Ireland today but aware of what I was planning, that’s the conundrum I have had since Whitehill on Saturday.

When Archie scored to make it 1-1 in the 92nd minute we celebrated as if we’d won the league. One part was because we had retained our amazing away record and the other was because Ross Archibald, a right back, a right midfiled player or a substitute had scored his 21st goal of the season – on you go Rosco. There was also relief for me, relief that I’d got the balance just about right. We took a big chance in leaving Chris Townsley, Kevin Sivewright, Robbie Manson, Ross Archibald and Keith McLeod out of our starting 11. All 5 along with the unavailable Omar Kader will start against Edinburgh City on Sunday but tonight belonged to Mark Burns, Chris Smith, Jordan Finnie, Andrew Sinclair and the rest of the senior squad who made up our team. Starting away from home against a team as good as Tynecastle without 6 regular players says a lot about Chris, Danny, Deano, Stewart, Gavin, Jack, Donal, Burnsie and the the young boys who came in. Sam and I were delighted with the performance they put in.

I thought a draw was a fair result. Both teams had chances in an end to end game and I for one was relieved at the final score. After Edinburgh City in the South of Scotland Challenge Cup Final on Sunday we have 3 league games by the next Saturday – that’s 4 games in 6 days. I think Sam can pick the teams for those.”

Mike