Billy Brown could have coined the phrase ‘run it off’.
My old Hearts assistant was as tough as they come but also a brilliant man manager and I’ll never forget the day he helped me out of a rut by telling me just to keep running.
It wasn’t a part of my body that had taken a whack, it was my confidence that had hit an all-time low. We played Dundee United one night and no word of a lie I was their best player. I was absolutely rotten. I’d been struggling for a few weeks and the next day at training Billy pulled me because he could see I was in a bad place. I thought he was going to give me pelters. But instead he turned my season around with the simplest but most effective advice I’ve probably ever had. He told me to run harder than ever in that session, shoot on sight in the small-sided games and just fly into tackles.
So I did exactly that. I ran about like a headless chicken to try and get myself going again. And it worked a treat. A double against Aberdeen in the next game got me back on my feet and there was no turning back.
It’s advice I would give to any player going through a tough time. During the League Cup defeat to Kilmarnock on Wednesday night a small section of the Hearts support booed Toby Sibbick when he came off the bench to replace Lewis Neilson.
Jeering one of your own? That’s totally not on.
No matter if a player has made mistakes or hasn’t been playing well then the supporters need to get behind them. It’s not like he’s a player who will down tools. Every player has good and bad spells but Sibbick’s a young lad and if he’s low in confidence and he hears that then it’s not going to do anyone any favours.
On his game he’s a good player. A strong player – and an important player.
He deserves backing not boos. I was at the Liverpool game on Wednesday night and Trent Alexander-Arnold was having a bad game. But the Liverpool fans kept him going, they were backing him and willing him to keep going. It was the definition of support.
Nobody knows what’s going on in Sibbick’s life and while 99.9 per cent of Hearts fans will back him through this spell that number really should be 100. They need to help him because he’ll be an important player in a busy few months at home and abroad.
There’s no getting away from the fact the Killie defeat was a sore one. I took a pounding off their fans on social media afterwards but at the end of the day my last game for Hearts was a 5-0 win against Killie and I scored a hat-trick. That’ll not change.
But on Wednesday Hearts were poor and I think everything caught up with them after a really busy period. They’ve had two big games in Europe, a trip to Celtic Park amid five games in under three weeks and now injuries are piling up with Kye Rowles and Liam Boyce out medium and long term.
So it’s understandable but still disappointing because a domestic cup is a big thing for Hearts and they’d have been wanting to win it. The loss of Boyce with an ACL injury is absolutely horrendous.My heart goes out to the big man. Any time you hear that injury you wince because you know how bad it is.
I remember it happening with Jamie Hamill during training and we all knew it was serious because of his scream – and Jamie is a hardy boy.
Unlike any other injury these days an ACL almost always begs the question, ‘Will he come back from that?’ With the support of the club I’m sure Boycey will. I certainly hope he does. He has been first class for Hearts on the pitch and I know he’s excellent round about the place too, a top team-mate.
Back on the park and the Jambos need to hit reset now when they travel to take on Livingston on Saturday. Three points are needed and should they be delivered then it’ll be all systems go for the start of the Euro group stage next Thursday.
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