Survival no reason for fans' unbridled delirium.

Tynecastle celebration was well over the top

JAMES TRAYNOR

15 May 1995

Hearts 2, Motherwell 0

RELIEF spilled over at Tynecastle on Saturday.

Hearts supporters jumped the walls and ran on to the pitch at the end of their team's final match of a difficult season.

Hearts were not broken after all and remain a premier division club.

However, there was something incongruous about the manner in which these fans cavorted on the grass.

Their joy suggested their team had won something when, in fact, they had done nothing of the kind.

Hearts had been straddling the abyss but managed to avoid plunging to the depths of despair like Dundee United and perhaps even Aberdeen, yet that the Edinburgh side found themselves in such a perilous position was no cause for celebration.

These fans should have gone home relieved and happy, but unbridled delirium? Please.

At least one or two of the players seemed to be embarrassed by the singing and dancing and John Robertson, who scored the second of Hearts' two goals, put a proper perspective on the afternoon when he said: "That was one of the most tense matches in which I've played, but we shouldn't be celebrating staying up.

"We shouldn't see people running on to the pitch because we managed to stay in the premier division.

We are a bigger club than that and have to do much better.

We should be back here next season trying to qualify for Europe, because that's the kind of target a club like ours should always have."

The crisp football which Robertson says Hearts played after Brian Hamilton had given them the lead is what the Tynecastle supporters should be celebrating, and the fool who sat at the back of the main stand urging the players to "kill" and "maim" the opposition would be better staying away altogether.

The premier division needs Hearts and their fans, but no-one needs morons behind them.

Proper backing can be a powerful force, of course, and Alex McLeish, the Motherwell manager, admitted he had leaned on various people throughout his first season as a manager, a season in which he emerged as one of the most promising young men in his field.

Under his guidance Motherwell finished second to Rangers and claimed the one UEFA Cup place available through league performances and said: "I found myself leaning on and listening to people like Alex Ferguson and Alex Smith who have a great depth of experience.

"Billy McNeill also phoned up from time to time offering advice, and I hope I'm a good listener.

When I feel it is necessary I will heed the advice of people like them and try to learn from the mistakes they have made."

McLeish made some mistakes of his own this season, but not too many and his players also were usually correct in their actions which is why they will be playing in European football again next season.

It also is the reason McLeish was unwilling to be hard on them after this defeat at Tynecastle.

"Hearts treated this match like a cup final and I don't think it would be fair at this stage if I were to criticise my players," he said.

"They didn't want to be but they were a bit flat.

They got the club into Europe and that says more for them."

Neither McLeish nor his players said a great deal about the incident in 65 minutes when Alex Burns' cross appeared to fool Craig Nelson.

It seemed the Hearts keeper caught the ball when it was over the goal-line, but only Burns was upset when the referee allowed play to continue.

"This sort of thing can decide games as we all know," McLeish said.

Had the goal been given Motherwell would have been on level terms and Hearts' anxiety would have become intense especially with Aberdeen winning at Brockville.

A point would not have been good enough to avoid the play-off and it was only in the final minute Robertson swept away all tension by scoring the second goal.

Brian Martin had tracked Gary Mackay's run from a deep position and tackled the Hearts defender, who had a good match, inside the box.

The penalty was given, Robertson scored, and Hearts were safe.

They had lived dangerously with their goal surviving one or two other difficult moments apart from Burns' cross after Hamilton had scored the opening with a splendid header.

The former Hibernian midfield player arrived just inside Motherwell's box in 51 minutes to connect with a precise John Colquhoun cross from the right and Steve Woods was beaten.

"I'm not the most prolific scorer, but by the law of averages if you keep making runs into the box you know that a goal will come," he said.

"I'd say that was about the most important one I've ever scored."

Hearts' manager Tommy McLean said he had to rely heavily on his more experienced players yesterday, but one of them, Craig Levein, will not travel with the Scotland party when they leave for a tournament in Japan on Wednesday.

"He had three injections because of an ankle injury before the game, but he won't be fit to travel to Japan," McLean said.

"David Hagen also had a foot injury, but he played without the injection.

He doesn't like them."

It was the kind of dedication to duty which can make the difference between success and failure, and next season Hearts will have to see more demonstrations of this devotion.

Taken from the Herald