Hearts are too good to go down, says Lambie

RAY HEPBURN

17 Jan 1994

PARTICK Thistle manager John Lambie uttered the words that his Hearts counterpart Sandy Clark has banned at Tynecastle.

"You're too good to go down," suggested the Firhill manager.

Clark has insisted during recent troubled weeks that no-one at his club would be permitted to think along these dangerous lines.

But after Saturday's 1-0 defeat by the team immediately below Partick in the table, Lambie is not expecting Hearts to be involved in the relegation equation for long.

"I've never considered Hearts to be one of the teams who would be involved in who goes down.

They have too many good players," he added.

"This game is all about confidence.

They certainly started against us with a bit of zing.

We could have been three goals down by half-time.

Although we had chances after the interval, Hearts deserved to win -- they were the better team."

There was no doubt about that, but a problem remained for Clark's side.

They could not score the second goal that would have relaxed them and ended the contest.

Instead, Alex Taylor and Albert Craig came close to snatching an equaliser that would have been a travesty.

"One is never enough.

At

1-0 you are just a slip, an unlucky deflection, or a penalty away from losing your grip on the game," conceded Clark.

"But that apart, it was a satisfying performance.

Some of our football was excellent and for a change we got the victory to go with it.

We won a good point in the derby last Wednesday and the players have now followed up with a win.

But it's still only the start of our recovery."

With the Hearts chairman back from the south of France and in the main stand's pole position, his troops looked like a different army from the one so recently rooted in the trenches.

John Millar, who scored the winning goal, Scott Leitch, and Gary Mackay made up the midfield unit that spearheaded Hearts' impressive battle plan.

Their movement off the ball and swift, accurate passing had Thistle struggling to get a meaningful touch of the ball.

All that was required to complete an admirable afternoon's work was a touch more accuracy near goal from John Robertson and Maurice Johnston.

Thistle had problems in every area but Lambie will have spotted that the only players who briefly threatened Henry Smith were from his midfield.

The £250,000 he brought in from the sale of Gerry Britton and George Shaw to Dundee last week will need to be invested in the attack.

With Saturday's result cutting the gap between Thistle and Hearts to just two points, albeit a healthier distance above the bottom three places, now is the time to arrest any possible slide.

Just as we thought the honest Firhill manager was going to leave the day with the victors covered in his praise, he delivered the sting.

"It would have been a shame if Hearts had not won -- but we'll beat them in the cup," he concluded.

Taken from the Herald