Let's talk about Barrie McKay. He’s not one of those guys who bigs himself up so it’s time someone did it for him. For me McKay is the best player in this country who doesn’t play for Rangers and Celtic – and easily has the quality to play for either of the big two.
But just because he quietly goes about his business and doesn’t talk in headlines, he never seems to be in the conversation when Scotland call-ups are being considered. Next month the national team has three games and I really hope Steve Clarke sees what I see whenever I watch Barrie.
If so, he’s got to be in that squad because for all the good players we have from middle to front, few can open defences with a pass or a run in the way he can. He was brilliant against Hibs at the weekend but he’s been amazing for the past 18 months and it’s high time his talent was recognised.
At 27 he’s reaching his prime and has a wealth of experience behind him after bursting on to the scene as a kid at Rangers and then spending a large chunk of his career playing near the top of the English Championship. He’s got one cap but with his talent there should be plenty more and if the partnership he has formed immediately with Lawrence Shankland is anything to go by then Scotland and Hearts can be the beneficiaries.
They look like they’re on the same wavelength. The ball Barrie played in for the goal and the touch and finish from Lawrence were all absolutely outstanding. It’s what separates Hearts from the rest outwith the big two I feel. They’ve got that quality.
I don’t think there are many players in Scotland who could have seen that pass and executed it the way McKay did. When you’ve got an understanding with a player it’s like a sixth sense – you know where he’s going to make that run without even thinking about it.
Shankland and McKay are only two competitive games into the season but you can see the partnership is clicking. They created three or four good chances for each other at the weekend and the only frustration was that they took only one of them.
The most important thing for Hearts is that they stay strong, fit and injury-free. The players would have been fuming at losing a goal with the last kick of the ball at Easter Road.
You could sense that Hibs were throwing everything at in injury time because Hearts hadn’t put them away and while it’s only 1-0 the team that is trailing always has hope and belief.
That’s what would have annoyed Robbie so much. Hearts should have been out of sight with the chances they missed but with only Shankland’s goal to show for their dominance the game was never over.
It would have felt like a defeat at the time but when the dust settles and they look at the bigger picture, Hearts took a point from a tough fixture away from home.
They’ve got four out of six. Their new signings are bedding in well and they’ve got European football on the horizon. In that context a 1-1 draw at Easter Road is nothing to worry about. What was worrying though was watching Alex Cochrane getting pelted by coins, lighters and even chips. It happened in a couple of derby games I was involved in at Easter Road, where Rudi Skacel had lighters lobbed at him from that very section of the ground.
That is also the area that James Tavernier had a bit of trouble from the Hibs fans a couple of years ago. So it was no great surprise that it happened again and I’d have thought that the authorities would have had plenty of stewarding and policing at that bit of the ground because they’ve got previous for this kind of behaviour.
I think it’s wrong obviously but it happens so often players almost just shrug it off. There’s a kind of ‘just get on with it’ mentality – even from referees. But when you think about it, that kind of behaviour is unacceptable.
In any other walk of life if someone came into your workplace and threw a lighter or coins at you, would you just stand there and take it? But in football it seems players are expected to go back to the area where they’ve been targeted to take the throw-in and carry on as if nothing has happened.
I love football but it’s the one thing about it I hate. You just don’t see behaviour like that at any other sport and it’s sickening that for some reason people think it’s acceptable to throw things at football players – acceptable to call them and their families things that are ridiculous and nothing to do with football most of the time.
The friendly banter is brilliant. I don’t mind people telling me I was rubbish and having a joke about me being a Jambo, but some of the stuff that gets said? What kind of example is that to kids who are sitting there?
Hibs have to take strong action if and when the culprits are identified. But they also have to ask themselves why that section wasn’t better policed.
