Billy Brown is the new assistant manager at Hibs.
It's going to feel odd typing that for some time to come. Rumours had been swirling all week but it still came as a bit of a shock when the announcement was made.
That shouldn't really be the reaction.
Everything you've heard about Hibs v Aberdeen last Sunday is probably an understatement.

Woe Flowers of Scotland is a post from: Just Football

by William Heaney

Scottish football is in crisis. With Scottish clubs exiting European competition even earlier than usual, fans and the media are mourning the latest ‘death' of the national sport. Newspapers and radio phone-ins are leading the now annual debate asking "where do we go from here?

The boys done good, as the adage goes. It might have been a distinctly unexotic first step into Europe's junior competition yesterday evening, but they were steps plenty big enough for Jim Jefferies and his half-baked Jam Tarts. In fact, you might even say: we proved to be rather...sticky customers?

The phrase "European competition" had a somewhat redundant feel to it this evening, after Tottenham Hotpur cruised to a comfortable win against Heart of Midlothian at Tynecastle in a match that felt at times like a training match for the visitors from the Premier League. It was a match that might, under a certain light, have had the feel of a possible surprise on the cards.

The only managerial soap opera that was to have transpired in Edinburgh this summer was to have been at Easter Road involving the love triangle between Hibernian FC, Colin Calderwood, and Nottingham Forest. Then again, when "Mad Vlad" Romanov blows into town to see about things over at Tynecastle, general upheaval can never be too far out of the reckoning.

Chelsea and Sunderland march proudly over the border to ensure that Rangers and Hibs are otherwise occupied as this stuttering SPL start continues.
Rangers are out of the Champions League, a result that also marked Madjid Bougherra's last game for the club.
Hearts lost Jim Jefferies, gained Paulo Sergio, gambolled through their European tie and landed a Europa League play-off with the Hotspurs of Tottenham.

It seems we're running out of ways to describe Vladimir Romanov's unpredictability.
Apparently from nowhere came the news that Jim Jefferies was to be relieved of his position as manager. Shock, gnashing of teeth and frank changes of opinion followed.
Jefferies' assistant Billy Brown was sacked.

Dunfermline and St Mirren brought the first round of games in the new Scottish Premier League season to an end on Monday with fans already witnessing some early season drama over the weekend.

Jim Jefferies' Hearts managed to pull off a surprise in Saturday's early morning kick off by holding champions Rangers to a 1-1 draw at Ibrox.

The first of this weekend's six preview posts, starting with the first game - Rangers v Hearts. Quite a match to kick things off.
The game
Championship flag a-flappin' in the Govan breeze Rangers have the perfect chance to dismiss as exaggerations any rumours of their footballing demise.

"It could be a stoater."
That's how I signed off my preview of tonight's Hearts v Celtic game.
We got a rather one sided 3-0 win for Celtic. We got two red cards as the referee stuck rigidly to the letter of the law.
And, above it all, we got someone from a home section of Tynecastle trying to attack Neil Lennon.

Third place was eventually delivered to Hearts in the least stressful way.
Dundee United's defeat to Rangers last night gave Hearts the league spot - and the European qualification - that they have deserved.
Things might have fizzled out of late but Hearts gave us one the major narratives, one of the major positive narratives, of the season.

One thing - one of the many things - that the Scottish Football Blog might occasionally lack is a "view from Gorgie."
I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king. But I've never been a Hearts fan.
Thankfully, in this week of guest posts, Scott McIntosh has been and always will be.

Celtic 4 - Hearts 0Is that it then? Did Hearts title challenge amount to little more than a scrappy win over Rangers and three days of hope before a meek capitulation against Celtic?
That's how it will play in today's papers.
Maybe we were all a bit guilty of being overly optimistic.

Kilmarnock v HeartsTwo of this season's SPL's success stories go head to head. Big game for Hearts this as they look to pick themselves up from their Scottish Cup disappointment before a potentially season defining double header against the Old Firm.
Jim Jefferies' anger at the defeat to St Johnstone must have been partly fuelled by his frustration that this could be a team on the verge of achieving something special.