Tynecastle
Hearts v Liverpool
Thursday August 23rd, 2012
Europa League, 7.45pm
By Kevin Wrenn
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1. Why you were looking
forward to going to the ground (or not as
the case may be):
It was a rare chance to
get to a European 'away' game and
even more surprising seeing as LFC
decided to take a tiny 1200 tickets.
Whether Hearts limited this or not
is unknown but it wouldn't be the
first time LFC has played safe on
tickets in-case they don't sell
out. Ridiculous and this meant there
were far fewer Reds in and around
the city than usual.
2.
How easy was your journey/finding
the ground/car parking?
Another stupid point
here was a 9am start from Anfield on
the coach. We arrived at 2.30pm
which was far too early. Fair enough
if you've travelled to Madrid or
Munich (if only). After a pleasant
journey through the borders and
along the A road into Edinburgh the
coach dropped off right outside
Tynecastle. I had a fair idea where
I was and so set off on the 30
minute walk into central Edinburgh,
past the tram renovations.
3.
What you did before the game
pub/chippy.... home fans friendly?
I ended up having a few
beers on Rose Street in the centre
of Edinburgh where the street
entertainers were keeping the Fringe
visitors happy.
A generally pleasant
atmosphere and tapas for lunch. How
very 'European'....
Went to the
Haymarket pub near to
the ground which was
abysmal. We were
threatened by 3
separate members of
staff that if we
didn't stop singing we
would be kicked out.
It is apparently a non
singing pub!
All this managed to do
was empty his pub.
Seemed a bit silly
given that it is 15
minutes walk from a
football ground and
the songs were non
offensive and returned
in kind by Hearts
fans.
Walking
to the ground was a
low key affair, very
few police, not many
away fans and in
general an air of what
the French call
'Meh!'.
4.
What you thought on seeing the
ground, first impressions of away
end then other sides of the
ground?
The
Main Stand side of
the ground was very old and badly
designed with all manner of
entrances and ginnels leading off
and around it. However, it was
clearly a 'quadrilateral' stadium
and that beats the bog standard
bowl ground any day in my book.
5. Comment on
the game itself, atmosphere,
stewards, pies, toilets
etc...
LFC were total rubbish. Let's get
that out of the way. Raheem Sterling
showed that he might be the next
bright young English wide player,
Borini missed a sitter, and in
general the tight pitch and 2nd XI
LFC team meant the game was a poor,
poor affair. Charlie Adam excelled,
by which I mean he was by far the
poorest player on the pitch. Mr
Rodgers wants a quick, fluent and
hard working style. So many of our
current crop aren't up to this.
He'll need time.
This continued
throughout the first half. The home
fans made some noise, but nothing
like the fuss the TV made about it.
In the second half they upped it a
bit, but an OG consigned them to a
defeat.
How disheartening it
must be to know your team played 1
up front in the biggest game they
would play all season, against a
very poor LFC 2nd team, and still
lost.
I would like to make
mention of the woeful standard of
policing and stewarding. From the
huge amount of illegal
substances being imbibed in
the toilets to the moronic lack of
effort to move people off the
'shelf' that sits between the tiers,
right through to the arrogant
refusal of police to move when
clearly impeding the view
of the match. A shambles and some of
the worst match day management I've
seen for years.
6.
Comment on getting away from the
ground after the game:
We came out to
find the road blocked by huge
iron blockades, and the
coaches parked 1/2 a mile down
the road. No escort to the
outskirts left us in the
wonderful world of the
continuous red light. Not a
lot for the game managers to
be proud of.
7.
Summary of overall thoughts of the
day out:
A really poor away trip.
Terrible game, ridiculous pub, woeful
policing and stewarding and 2 teams
that did very little to make it any
more appealing.
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