Tynie boss Bingham in plea to cut out mistakes

Published on Thursday 21 April 2011 09:51

Tynecastle head coach David Bingham leads his side into East of Scotland League Cup action against Capital rivals Edinburgh City at Fernieside with a stern message for all of his players - "cut out the silly mistakes."

Bingham reckons that on their day, Tynecastle are capable of beating any side in the league and said: "With the attacking array of talent that we have available we must try to pick the right option more often. We get ourselves into good offensive positions but the hardest part of football is putting the ball in the net."

Bingham was a proven goal-scorer with Forfar, Dunfermline, Livingston, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Gretna with a total of 149 goals in a 13-year period. Now 40, he is happy to pass on his undoubted knowledge to the Tynecastle players. "My philosophy is that I want my players to go forward and be positive but if there is nothing on then play the ball back."

Tynecastle reached the final of the Image Printers East of Scotland Qualifying Cup last month where they conceded an extra-time goal to lose 2-1 to Spartans.

"I felt that we were hard-done by that day but what's done is done," rued Bingham. "My fear after that game was that the players would suffer a hangover and that's what happened in our next game when we deservedly lost 2-1 to Lothian Thistle. However, our players deserve credit for the way they approached the game against Hawick Royal Albert from the First Division because that fixture had the hallmark of a big upset and we won 5-0.

"Inconsistency is always a potential problem with young players but we have had a lot of good performances and good results. I know what my players can do, especially in training when some of them are absolutely fantastic. I honestly believe that we have enough football in our side to hurt most other teams."

Tynecastle and City have met on four previous occasions this season with one win each and two drawn games and an identical goals tally. "There is not a lot between the sides and they are on a good run at present," added Bingham. "What really has killed City in the Premier Division is the amount of draws they have had.

"Both ourselves and City are desperate to progress and I believe that if we play well enough then we have the capabilities of winning but we also know that City have players who can hurt us."

Robbie Arthur is out and Eddie Mearns faces a late fitness test.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh City's co-manager John Green was an interested spectator when Tynecastle drew 1-1 with Vale of Leithen on Wednesday evening and he said: "I look at this league and think that there is not much between any of the sides.

"In the Premier Division, between second and 12th positions, none of the final placings have yet been decided and it would take a brave person to predict these final positions because it is very tight and each game is hard to call.

"On their day, any team can beat any other. We have drawn 12 league games this season and lost only three. We all realise that we want to improve and it would have been nice to have turned six or seven of these draws into wins. To achieve that, we need more consistency.

"We are looking to build a good young squad who will listen to what Gary Jardine [co-manager] and me are saying. Eleven of our boys have come through our youth system and our responsibility as coaches is to make them better players.

"We have shown remarkable character this season, summed up by our recent 3-3 draw with Edinburgh University when we trailed by three goals with only 20 minutes left. We are also in the final of the SFA South Region Challenge Cup so there are a lot of positives from this season.

"Tomorrow, I know that Tynecastle will play at a very quick tempo and will start very quickly. They play a similar style to us so we could cancel each other out. In Paul Devlin they have one of the most under-estimated players in the entire league while their goalkeeper, Ross McMullen is - along with our own Andrew Stobie - one of the best young goalkeepers in the league."

The game kicks-off at 2.30pm with extra-time and penalties, if necessary.