Soccer Archives - Justin's Blog

Happy Days in Metsville

I was introduced to the New York Mets in 1985, my first summer working at the Southampton Fresh Air Home. The Mets were great with Gooden, Strawberry, et al and all the kids (at least the smart ones) loved them so I hopped on the bandwagon. With a World Series the next year it seemed like I had made a pretty good choice!

The next 30 years though haven’t always been as easy and being a Mets fan has become very much like being a Hearts fan. In fact, even more so over the last couple of years where financial problems […]

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:17-05:00October 23rd, 2015|Categories: Heart of Midlothian, Mets, new york|Comments Off

A Brief Sporting Interlude

I’m no Elias Sports Bureau, but I can’t think of a time when both Heart of Midlothian and the Mets would have topped their respective divisions this side of 1986! (great year for the Mets, painful one for Hearts).

It most likely won’t last, but I am going to enjoy it while it does!

#HHGH #LGM

:: Justin ::

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:18-05:00August 13th, 2015|Categories: Baseball, Heart of Midlothian, Mets, Soccer, Sports|Tags: Baseball, Heart of Midlothian, Soccer|Comments Off

Heart of Midlothian :: We’ve won the league flag

There has been considerable debate this week as to whether we wanted Hearts to with the Scottish Championship today by virtue of cross-town rivals Hibs not winning or wait until we play Queen of the South at Tynecastle and win it in front of our own fans. General consensus was that Hibs would win relatively easily today against Rangers and we could have our party next week. This of course fails to take into account Hibs never ending ability to buckle when the pressure is on, especially if Hearts are involved!

And so, a year on from being on the very edge of extinction, Heart of Midlothian have won promotion back to the top tier of Scottish football and the future […]

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:19-05:00March 22nd, 2015|Categories: Heart of Midlothian, Personal, Scotland, Soccer|Tags: Heart of Midlothian, Personal|1 Comment

Hearts 10 (ten!) – Cowdenbeath 0

It really isn’t very often that this sort of thing happens, though with the way this season has been going there was chat on the message boards that one of these days, someone was going to take a real beating.

We’ll today they did. The Blue Brazil of Cowdenbeath came to Tynecastle and probably wished they never had.

The score may have been 10-0, but it actually could have been more.

With Falkirk drawing with Rangers last night, the league table is looking better and now Hearts just need 16 points from their final 1o games to win the Scottish Championship and guarantee promotion.

Next week is a week off, […]

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:21-05:00February 28th, 2015|Categories: Heart of Midlothian, Soccer|Tags: Heart of Midlothian, Personal|Comments Off

Have you heard of the Heart of Midlothian?

It’s been a while since I have blogged about Hearts, in the meantime, we have basically gone bust, been relegated, and started all over again.

For those of you not used to the world of soccer/football, the team that finishes bottom (and sometimes second bottom too) of a league is relegated to the second tier league (in Scotland there are four leagues in the senior game – to complicate it even more there are additional feeder leagues). It’s almost like the worst team in Major League Baseball getting replaced by the best AAA team).

Well, due to them going into administration last year, Hearts were docked 15 points and finished bottom of the league (only just as it would end up). This […]

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:21-05:00February 22nd, 2015|Categories: Heart of Midlothian, Personal, Scotland, Soccer|Tags: Heart of Midlothian, Personal|2 Comments

Therap and the Heartbleed bug – safe and secure.

Many, if not all of you, have heard about the “Heartbleed bug“. First and foremost, the website and service provided to you via “secure.therapservices.net” was not and is not affected by this issue. The version of OpenSSL (the offending program) that we use is not on the list of affected instances. We are continuing to communicate with our suppliers, and will act rapidly if there are any changes in the situation that do affect Therap.

Some points to make about the situation:

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:29-05:00April 10th, 2014|Categories: Security, Soccer|Tags: Heartbleed, Security|Comments Off

We’ve no won the big cup since this time last week

19-05-12

I will return to more Therap blogging shortly, but I’m still basking in the warmth of last week’s cup final win.

Here’s a few ways you can share the joy:

http://youtu.be/yXGC_OkTCcg

Join in singing the Hearts’ Song

http://youtu.be/hB6J8hY02iA

Watch the goals from last weekend to the Hibs’ fans favourite tune (Sunshine on Leith by the Proclaimers)

Read the speech that will never be given

http://youtu.be/dc4n0pmwWkk

or, as Mum did when she called last week after watching the victory parade, join in a chorus of:

Pictogram

The Hearts are […]

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:50-05:00May 26th, 2012|Categories: Heart of Midlothian|Comments Off

The Hearts are Having a Party

What a day!

In fact what a weekend!

On Friday night Calum and I headed up to Clifton Park, New York to see one of our favourite bands, Rancid (we’re going again tonight in Boston). Great show, lots of bouncing, dancing, and singing – a good warm up for things to come.

By 10 o’clock on Saturday morning (3pm British Summer Time) we had made it to Legends Sports Bar on West 33rd Street in New York City which was showing the game. The Bar seemed to be split between Hearts fans watching the Cup Final and West Ham fans watching their game with Blackpool to secure promotion to the English Premier League (I’m not sure that I saw any Hibs or Blackpool […]

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:51-05:00May 20th, 2012|Categories: Heart of Midlothian|Tags: Heart of Midlothian|Comments Off

The most important football match in the last three centuries

On Saturday, the famous Heart of Midlothian Football Club will take on the lowly Hibernian in the Scottish Cup.

This is the first time the teams have met in the cup final since 1896! As you can imagine, it’s rather a big deal!

In many ways, I think Hearts have more to lose. Ove the past few years we have definitely been the better team, including of course winning 4-0 in the Sir Paul Hartley semi-final.

Video on Hearts 4-0 Hibs – Scottish Cup Semi Final 2006

Or in a previous cup match in a an earlier round which ended with Wayne Foster’s amazing goal (possibly the only piece of footballing skill he ever showed, but it was more than enough). The iconic “Foster […]

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:51-05:00May 16th, 2012|Categories: Heart of Midlothian|Tags: Heart of Midlothian, Scottish Cup Final|Comments Off

Happy Burns' Night

To celebrate the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland’s bard, here’s a bit of poetry.

If you’ve never been to a Burns Supper, get it on your bucket list

ODE TO A HAGGIS

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
You pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’need
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead

His knife see Rustic-labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails […]

By Justin Brockie|2016-11-03T04:23:54-05:00January 25th, 2012|Categories: Scotland|Tags: Personal, Scotland|Comments Off