Hearts on the rack

Great to discover that the big Scotland-England clash is on ITV4 tonight. Even though I'm a Leither and a Son, I'd have loved to have got a ticket for the game at Tynecastle tonight. But it's going to be a tough watch, I fear.

On paper, even a weakened Tottenham Hotspur team playing its first competitive game of the season in this Europa League qualifier against Hearts are easy favourites - they are ten times as wealthy, for a start. And sadly, due to a little defensive over-crowding and a really unlucky deflection, Spurs have their away goal within the first five minutes - Van der Vaart being the man who's done the initial damage.

At the moment, just getting the ball is the Scots' main problem. John Sutton has just had a shot. But it would best be described as a long-range speculative punt. Then, oh dear, on 13 minutes Jermaine Defoe makes it 2-0 and the Spurs fans start to chant "easy","You're supposed to be at home" and "Are you West Ham in disguise?"

You won't catch me saying this often, but 'mon you Jambos! I fear that their main task now is avoiding too much humiliation. (As I type this, Defoe makes it 3-0).

Incidentally, the ITV commentators and summarisers haven't bothered to learn a single thing about Hearts.  Such arrogance.
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