Lawrence Shankland and Liam Boyce can make it a memorable and magical night against Rosenborg if Hearts go hell for leather.
Sometimes football can be over-complicated when it’s really the simplest game in the world. And it’s also amazing how a mindset can shift when situations and scenarios seem just exactly the same. Hearts just need to go for it. Everything else needs to be put to the side. If they can manage to get a result and get through this tie, it will just lift everything in terms of the mood around the club. There has been a lot of murmurings over the management situation, then the signings came in late.
Getting a result up at St Johnstone on the opening day of the Premiership season was a good start, but it was deflated a little bit with the result at the weekend against Kilmarnock. But this is a big game against a side with some European stature and pedigree from the past in the Champions League. Hearts need to go after it. It sounds simple, but that is the club ethos and I feel it’s when they are at their best. That’s when the fans get right behind you. When they see players getting after it and having a go.
They’ll accept mistakes and misplaced passes and hiccups along the road if they see the side sweating for the cause. Listen, as I said, football is the simplest game in the world. Run harder than Rosenborg run. Put tackles in. Give an extra yard for every yard they give. I’m not daft. I understand there is a technical and tactical side to the European game and you can’t just rampage around like headless chickens. That’s not what I mean.
The framework and the structure for the gameplan will be put in place, but it’s working off that with enthusiasm and fire. It’s basic stuff, but I always think that’s when Hearts are at their best. When they act and play like that. The game against Kilmarnock was always going to be tough because they are an enigma for them. The record against them is not good.
Still, it’s another point on the board for an unbeaten start in the Premiership. It’s the old adage, if you cannot win a game, then just make sure that you don’t lose it and Hearts managed that even without reaching their best. Winning would have given everyone a bounce going into the Rosenborg game but, to be honest, they need to be like that anyway and Lawrence getting a goal back over in Norway means it is all there to play for. Football can play tricks on the mind sometimes. It always amazes me.
Last year in the play-off for the Europa League, Lawrence scored the opening goal with a penalty in the first leg which was away from home against FC Zurich. In the end, the Swiss managed to turn that game around and that put a dampener onto things going into the return at Tynecastle. Even though it was a reasonable result away from home in Europe and a goal was in the bag, it felt different to this. The fact that Hearts were 2-0 down in the first leg of this tie and managed to pull that vital goal back just changes everything going into the second.
It makes no sense. It’s an identical set of circumstances. You have lost the first leg 2-1 away from home, but it just feels very different. Let’s face it, at 2-0 down in Norway, this tie was effectively dead. But Lawrence getting that goal back fires that wee edge back into Hearts on Thursday night. It shows psychology is such a massive thing in the game. If Lawrence hadn’t got that header, it would be seen as over and done with by many before this game kicks off.
Now it feels as though it is there for Hearts and, although it might seem an obvious thing to say, much of it will again hinge on Lawrence. And Boyce. Over the course of the 90 minutes, the whole team will have to defend properly. Jobs will have to be carried out to the letter. But, when it comes to the top end of the pitch, it might come down to a half chance or a brief sight of goal and you’ve seen how important these boys are. They can get you a goal from nothing.
That’s why these guys are the main men because the hardest thing to do in any game is score and those two have done it for years for fun. This tie is alive and it is all set up for a magical European night at Tynecastle. Let’s hope the boys do themselves, and the fans, justice. You might go out, but if you are going to, go out fighting. Hell for leather. It has to be the way.
