{"id":605184,"date":"2026-09-04T02:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/605184\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T02:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:56:10","slug":"is-hearts-mcpake-poised-to-gatecrash-pocognolis-scotland-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/605184\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Hearts&#8217; McPake poised to gatecrash Pocognoli&#8217;s Scotland squad?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The talk of the toon are the boys in maroon, but the chat in all corners of the country is about McPake. He really is the man of the moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In eight games, he has registered two goals and four assists for an increasingly easy-on-the-eye Hearts side, who are emerging as contenders for the campaign&#8217;s great entertainers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In the first 30 minutes at the home of their city rivals, they were magnificent. McPake &#8211; along with fellow Scotland hopeful Calvin Miller &#8211; was unplayable, hugging the touchline and leaving home full-back Felix Passlack for dust.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He destroyed the former Borussia Dortmund defender before teeing up James Wilson&#8217;s opener, with former Hearts striker Ryan Stevenson explaining that was the perfect example of how much of a handful he is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It is so hard for defenders when wingers play on the opposite side,&#8221; Stevenson said on Sportsound. &#8220;They always want to come on the inside, but he is happy to go on the outside and feint and go on his left side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;One of his biggest attributes is you don&#8217;t know which way he will go.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That was evident again when McPake took a stroll for his superb solo goal, one he was desperate for in his first derby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I thought we started the game really, really well,&#8221; McPake told BBC Sport Scotland. &#8220;Obviously, I got the assist in the first half, but I really, really wanted the goal.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The talk of the toon are the boys in maroon, but the chat in all corners of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-605184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}