After Hearts disappointing performance at  Motherwell today brought a home match against St. Mirren unthinkable SPL. After lunch I decided to watch Arsenal v Newcastle on Sky before walking down to Tynecastle. As a result I was later in arriving and after going though Covid checks and then the turnstiles I finally arrived at my seat around 14.40 as the sides were warming up. To be perfectly honest I have never liked St. Mirren despite being the first side I saw a Hearts win at outside Edinburgh with a late goal by George Fleming securing a 1-0 victory in 1969.  St Mirren lay down to Celtic in 1986 to allow their opponents to win the league Iain goal difference from Hearts. This was followed by St. Mirren beating Hearts in the 1987 Scottish Cup Final and the 2013 League cup Final. The final straw came in 2019 when a 1-0 defeat in Paisley lead to Hearts being demoted, not relegated, when the season was ended early after the initial Covid outbreak.  Hearts make four changes to their sta

  With the international break over I decided to head to Motherwell today to watch Hearts in their first match since the 5-3 demolition of Dundee United a fortnight ago. Hearts received over 3000 tickets from Motherwell and they went straight on a general sale. I managed to get a concession ticket in the lower part of the South Stand for £17.50. My next decision was how to get to Motherwell. Going by train involves at least one change so I checked to see if I could find any buses running where I could get a seat. On the Orwell Hearts site I found that there was a bus running from Benson’s Bar in Dalry Road. I managed to book a seat for £13 which was £5.20 cheaper than the train. Left home at 11.00 to walk to Benson’s for 11.30 departure. After a Heineken 0 I went outside at 11.30 to find the bus had been delayed by traffic due to the rugby international at.Murrayfield. Eventually arrived after a fifteen minute delay and headed to Motherwell. We arrived in Motherwell around 13.10 and th

I was not sure if I would be able to get to a match today. Natalie was mean to be childminding but was having a bad day so i said I would do it. This meant I would be tied up between 14.00 and 17.00 and unable to got out. However Craig phoned at 10.30 to say he was running late and as Claire was now finishing at 16.30 I would not be required. I therefore decided to revert to my original plan and head out to Tranent to watch the match between the second top home side and league leaders Penicuik. After an early lunch I left home at 12.30 and, to allow me to get some exercise, walked to Abbeyhill where I caught a 104 bus to Tranent. I got of the bus a stop early in Tranent and walked to the ground. I was surprised on the way to see that the RBS branch in Tranent was still open. Given the size of the town I would have expected it to have been on the list for closure. Forester Park is just of the High Street and I arrived at the ground around 14.10. I paid my £4 entry and entered the ground

Heading off to Ainslie Park tonight for my fiftieth match of the season. Decided as I had walked quite a bit today that I would catch a bus to the ground. I walked to Tollcross to catch a 27 bus and arrived at Ferry road around 19.15. It was a short walk to Ainslie Park and after showing my season ticket entered the ground around 19.20. I purchased a programme and took up a stance at the peremirer fence to read this before heading towards the stand. I met Alan who was already seated and we had a chat. We were both win agreement the Edinburgh City had been awful last Friday against Albion Rovers. As the teams came out I decided to take a viewing stance near the goals and move back to the perimeter fence at the Ferry Road end of the park. Spartans currently sit third in the Lowland League nd a win tonight will move them up to second behind Bonnyrigg Rose. There have been a few changes in the sides squad since I last saw them at Easthouses. Dan Baur and Aaron Murrell have moved out on sho

While Remembrance Sunday is not until next week this is Hearts last home match before 11th November and the club are therefore remembering the players who lost their life’s during the two works wars. The programme cover shows the Hearts War Memorial at Haymarket where the annual Hearts Remembrance service will be held on 14th November . It had been a miserable morning but had cleared up by the time I left home at 14.00 to walk down to Tynecastle arriving around 14.20. Again there was queueing on the Foundation Plaza, both for fans collecting tickets and at the extended barriers for Covid checking. I showed the app on my phone as part of the Covid checking before entering the ground. I had a wander around the concourse before taking to my seat around 14.40 in preparation for the match. Hearts were still missing top scorer Liam Boyce who returned to training this week but was not yet ready to start again. Michael Smith was also missing due to injury. Into the side came Taylor Moore, Ben

  Ainslie Park again tonight for Edinburgh City’s league fixture against Albion Rovers. This will be the first time I have been at a return fixture this season having attended the first match between the sides at Cliftonhill back in August . I had an early mal and set off at around 18.15 for Ainslie Park. I walked as far as Hanover Street and then caught a 23 bus to Goldenacre. From there I walked along Ferry Road to Ainslie Park arriving around 17.20. I as was heaingto the entrance I received a text from Jim saying he was in the ground in our usual stop, the embankment at the Pilton End. I showed my e-ticket, purchased through Fanbase to gain entry. It was disappointing that there were no programmes on sale as the City issue is one of the best in Scotland. The programme editor, Alick, has had computer problems and is awaiting the arrival of a new PC to allow him to continue production. It may be that there will be no programme for next weeks match against Stranraer unless delivery is

After the miserable weather over the past couple of days this match was subject to a 9.00am pitch inspection. I did not have much hope about the game going ahead but surprisingly the pitch passsed the referees inspection. I left home around 13.15 to catch the 13.30 31 bus out to Bonnyrigg. However I had forgotten that the Scotland v Tonga rugby international was on today and buses coming in past Murrayfield Stadium were delayed by the crowds in the area. The bus eventually arrived at around 13.45 with an expected journey time of just under an hour. Surprisingly the bus made up some time on the journey out and I got off in Bonnyrigg around 13. I had a short walk to the ground and paid my £4 concession admission charge before taking a stance in the covered enclosure, No programmes were available today as Bonnyrigg thought the game would be called off due to the weather forecast and did not want to have the expense of a print run. With the weather now looking fine I wandered across to the