Dissonance as well as rubbish football afflicts Hearts

Our old friend Cognitive Dissonance was at play again last night.  Hearts manager, Paolo Sergio, seemed to accept Stephen Elliot’s second minute attempt was cleared so quickly officials might not have had a chance to ascertain if it crossed the line, but he tried to reconcile his frustration at this reality by publicly adopting a position which, on reflection, he should accept is in contravention to the rules of the game.

Elliot’s attempt struck Joe Ledley, who was standing on the line with his arms stationary and by his side, before being cleared by Fraser Forster.

Sergio said, “If you don’t see the ball over the line then you should see the handball which is a penalty and a red card.”

It’s scarcely credible that the Hearts manager is unaware of the rules of the game which clearly establish that for a handball offence to be committed the player needs to deliberately use a hand or arm to play the ball, not have the ball played against his stationary hand or arm.

No one had much of a clue whether the ball had crossed the line or not until after watching multiple TV replays and even then, while I can understand the attacking team claiming a goal, TV evidence does not provide conclusive proof that the whole of the ball crossed the line.

This will no doubt be the source of Sergio’s frustration; his team could have taken the lead but didn’t.  Armed with this frustration he then created a false scenario which allowed him to reconcile his feelings of grievance.

What a shower.  Struggling to operate in the SPL and pay tax, disorganised team structure and afflicted by football’s Cognitive Dissonance epidemic.

Last shout for Taggsybhoy’s CQN music quiz at Jury’s Hotel on Saturday contact him with your team name and numbers (max of 6 to a team). Proceeds going to the Vanessa Riddle Appeal

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