Scottish Pundits Talk Pure Mince

Pundits are so predictable in what “informed” opinions they are about to spout forth. Take half time in the Hearts Aberdeen match today. The team that is winning will have been playing brilliantly, the losing side “having a mountain of work to do”.

After 45 minutes Hearts are 2-1 up at half time in the days` live Setanta Sports Sunday Special Spectacular Soccerathon. Craig Levein and Roy Aitken are given all the ammo they need by Rob McLean to tell us how good Hearts have been.

Apparently they should have been out of sight in the match and Aberdeen lucky to have been thrown a lifeline. Ex-Dons manager Roy Aitken expertly explains to us that Jimmy Calderwood will be telling his players to start the second half better than they did the first when they had lost two goals in sixteen minutes.

Well worth the appearance fee that comment Roy. It probably had caught Jimmy`s eye.

So onto what makes the experts think Hearts have been so good. Well they scored two goals and Aberdeen have scored only one. They`re clearly miles better. But despite the first Hearts goal when the away defence had six chances to clear the ball and the second when Nade (legally) charged into Langfield, the Dons goalkeeper never had a save to make.

In contrast, the team who were lucky to be still in the match smacked the bar and had several good efforts blocked by last ditch defending. They had several dangerous balls crossed and forced the keeper into a couple of good saves. Despite that, they were damned lucky to be just a goal down.

All you ask for from these guys is a balanced opinion which is not based on purely who`s winning, as it`s guaranteed to be or what the managers can do to get a good result for their team.

A wee bit of thought and insight would be more than welcome as opposed to the easy way of just backing the team most likely to win. Judgement of the whole match and not just the goals is what football analysis should be about.



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