McLean makes a point to Fir Park faithful

JIM REYNOLDS

22 Aug 1994

TOMMY McLean returned to Fir Park at the weekend for the first time since walking out on Motherwell to take over as manager of Hearts.

Not surprisingly he was the target for a real old barracking by a section of the home supporters -- the ones who had obviously forgotten how the wee man had turned the club around, both on the playing and financial sides -- but the man had no intention of hitting back.

"Of course, I expected a bit of stick," he said.

"It always happens when a manager brings another team to his former club.

"There have been reports from certain quarters that I left Motherwell only because of money, but that is rubbish.

I had 10 great years at Fir Park and I won't say anything derogatory about the club."

McLean's main concern now is to turn around the fortunes of Hearts, and on Saturday's evidence he has a big job on his hands.

True, Hearts got their noses in front with a fine goal from Mo Johnston after 51 minutes and should have wrapped up the points shortly afterwards, but for the biggest part of the match they had to play second fiddle to Motherwell.

The home side did a get an equaliser from a soft penalty award which Tommy Coyne converted 12 minutes from time, and their manager Alex McLeish was much relieved afterwards.

Said McLeish, who early this morning will lead his side to the Faroe Islands for a UEFA Cup match: "We dominated for long spells, but when you do that you have to take advantage.

Before we equalised, Tommy Coyne should have scored when he was clean through.

After that I thought we were never going to score."

Motherwell had new signing Andy Roddie on from the start and the lad did enough to show he may well be another of those Fir Park bargain buys who make it big.

The Hearts goal came when Steven Frail moved forward to combine with Gary Mackay, whose cross to the far post was met by Johnston, who sent the most delicate of headers past Steve Woods.

That looked like being the winner until the seventy-eighth minute, when Phil O'Donnell tumbled in the box when going for a cross.

The referee judged he had been pushed in the back by Jim Weir and gave a penalty which Coyne slotted home.

I can understand Hearts feeling hard done by, but Motherwell had, perhaps, stronger claims for a penalty in the first half and certainly nobody could grudge them a point from a match they should have won.

Taken from the Herald