5th December 2021 Livingston 0 Hearts 1

 

It has not been a great football weekend for me. I was going to go and watch Edinburgh City v Annan on Friday. However I had been feeling under the weather all day and decided to stay at home. Probably a good idea as Annan won 1-0. Saturday was even worse. I decided to go and watch Penicuik v Sauchie. I caught a 37 bus to go out to Penicuik but by the time I got to Kaimes Crossroads snow was coming down in a blizzard. Penicuik is always worse than Edinburgh for snow so I got off the 37 and caught an 11 home. I was proved right as Penicuik was called off. I did think of going to Bonnyrigg as an alternative but that match also fell victim to the snow. Come Sunday I was suffering football withdrawal symptoms so was determined to be to see Hearts at Livingston. The game had been moved from Saturday to Sunday given Hearts previous match against Celtic had been moved to Thursday to accommodate Sky TV coverage. I wandereed down to Princes Street to catch an X28 to Livingston and arrived at Almondvale Shopping Centre at 13.55 after a journey through Wilkieston, Kirkliston, East Calder and Mid Calder. The Tony Macaroni Stadium is  a short walk from Almondvale but I checked out the bus stop for the return journey before walking to the ground. I arrived at the ground at around 14.15 and got in with my ticket and no COVID vaccine check given the crowd was expected to below ten thousand.  I bought my lunch of a pie and a coffee before taking my seat in the stand in the fourth row from the front. The goal to my right was almost invisible due to the setting sun but thankfully the sun was much lower come the kickoff and I had a good view. 

I had not gone to Parkhead on Thursday given the mite number of tickets available to Hearts fans and the horrible atmosphere with the ground with the attitude to the Celtic fans towards any team or supported other than their own. I did however watch the game on Sky and thought Hearts had played well in the second half  and probably deserved a draw given the Celtic goal was well offside but bot the referee and linesman disagreed or were looking away from the incident. Hearts made a few changes from Thursday starting eleven. Alex Cochrane came back into the starting line up with Peter Haring reverting to the bench while Boyce replaced Josh Ginnelly as central striker. This was despite Ginnelly being announced as McGinely by the stadium announcer !Livingston are a strange side. They are basically the 'old' Meadowbank Thistle under a new name after the club moved from Meadowbank to Livingston in 1995. The intention of the owners was that the move would attract greater crowds being the only senior side in West Lothian. While crowds are higher than at Meadowbank given the catchment area they are. still disappointing. I think this may be due to people in Livingston having long standing loyalties to other sides. Livingston included former Hearts midfielder Jason Holt in their starting eleven along with former Hibs loan players Andrew Shinnie and Stéphane Oméonga.

The game started slowly an the first incident of note come when Michael Smith went down after a run down the right. He got up and tried to walk to the touchline but went down again. He was replaced by Taylor Moore with what was later confirmed as a back injury. Livingston were outnumbered Hearts in midfield by playing a 4-3-2-1 formation against Hearts normal 3-4-3. The 4 includes two wing-backs leaving Harts outnumbered in the centre of midfield. Andrew Shinnie had a chance when he went through on a on to one with Craig Gordon. Gordon did well to block his effort and the ball rebounded to Craig Sibbald whose attempt from outside the box hit the post. The ball again fell to a Livingston player, this time Omeonga whose pass found Holt outside the penalty area. His fiercely struck shot was turned onto the pst by Gordon who then blocked rebound before John Souttar finally clearing the danger. Robbie Neilson looked to strengthen the Hearts midfield and Peter Haring replaced Ben Woodburn just before the half hour mark. Jack McMillan cut in of the left an had has shot comfortably saved by Gordon before the half time whistle. The whistle blew without Hearts having a shot on target during the first half. 

Hearts were out early for the second half and looked in the mood to change the game. However within a minute Cammy Devlin tackled a Livi player near the touchline in front of where I was sitting. Devlin managed to clear the ball but if flew over the touchline and into the crowd. A young lady sitting i the row infant of me was hit in the face by the ball. Her glasses flew off as the ball smashed into her nose. Devlin saw what happened and looked distraught as he waved towards the paramedics to come and attend her. As the game continued the paramedics took her and her companions away for treatment. Surprisingly her glasses were found still in one piece. She returned after around twenty minutes of treatment to cheers from those of us siting around her but unfortunately missed goal. As a postscript Devlin ran across to where he was sitting at full-time and took off his shirt asking that it be passed to her as a gift. Hearts went ahead in forty-nine minutes hen Souttar broke over the halfway line before passing forward to Barrie McKay just outside the penalty box. McKay took a touch then fed to ball forwards to Liam Boyce on is right as he ran into the box. Boyce took a touch and fired across Strjyek into the far corner of the net to give Hearts the lead. First shot on target for Hearts lead to the first goal. McEneff forced Stryjej to tip his shot wide before Hearts thought they had doubled their lead. McKay fired into the net from the edge of the penalty area but the goal was ruled off by an offside decision against Boyce earlier in the move.  Gordon then made another save from a Shinnie shot before Livi substitute Cristian Montano shot across the face of goal shortly after coming on. Boyce was replaced by Armand Gnanduillet with ten minutes to go after going down injured. The substitute has a great chance but was unable to control the ball in the penalty area allowing the Livi defence to clear. As the game moved into injury time a McEneff pass set Gnanduillet clear. He rounded Stryjek but from the right hand edge of the penalty box sent his shot into the side net rather than the goal. 

Just before the final whistle I had moved towards the exit as I knew there was a bus back to Edinburgh at 17.05. I walked quickly towards the bus stance at the Almindvale Shopping Centre and had a short wait before an X28 arrived. Managed to get on although the bus was back and headed home. Going through West Lothian it was surprising the number of houses wth Christmas lights blazing outside already. Thinking about the game I was happy to see Hearts gain another three points. However the main talking point of the game was again the performance of Craig Gordon. On his current form he is definitely the best keeper in Scotland if no the whole go the UK. He was an great keeper at eighteen but seems to have improved with age. I finally arrived home around 18.15 after a good day out.

Teams

Livingston: Stryjek, Devlin, Fitzwater, Parkes, Penrice, Sibbald, Holt, Omeonga , McMillan, Forrest, Shinnie. 

Subs: Anderson, Montano, Panayiotou

Hearts: Gordon, Smith, Kingsley, Souttar, McEneff, Woodburn, Boyce , Devlin, Cochrane, McKay, Halkett. 

Subs: Moore, Haring, Gnanduillet