In good heart for the season

RODDY MACKENZIE
28 Aug 1995

Hearts 1 Motherwell 1

CRAIG Levein has grown weary of the question. Twelve years at Tynecastle and precisely 400 matches in a maroon shirt have been spent watching other clubs share the silverware.

On the opening day of a new season, and playing for his fifth manager at the club, the inevitable question comes up: Can this be the year Hearts end their separation from major trophies?

At this stage, the Hearts' captain can only offer: ''Who knows? I'm fed up saying that I want to win something with Hearts and every year goes by and nothing happens.

''I know that this year I've got a good feeling but that's all I'm prepared to say. It's early yet. It looks good at this stage and I'm sure the manager is looking to bring in the type of player who will fit into the system that he is playing.''

This was an encouraging start, if nothing more. At least Hearts gathered a point from their opening league fixture which is more than can be said of the previous three years.

Manager Jim Jefferies has shown his willingness to accentuate the positive and this was as an attack-minded Hearts as has been seen at Tynecastle in recent years.

New signing Alan Lawrence played through the middle with the rejuvenated John Colquhoun, and Allan Johnston and David Hagen occupied the flanks in a fluent Hearts attack which Motherwell struggled to shackle in the first-half. The suspended John Robertson is due back to face Dunfermline on Wednesday.

The most pleasing aspect for Jefferies must have been the variety of attacks. The system is fluent enough to allow defenders to come forward and try their luck and, at times, Motherwell seemed unsure of where the next threat would come from in the Hearts' team.

It is a remarkable statistic that, of the 12 outfield players Hearts used on Saturday, 10 of them had a direct attempt on goal. The only two who did not try their luck were Fraser Wishart (who limped off after 51 minutes) and Scott Leitch (who played only the final six minutes).

Yet for all of this, Jefferies must be concerned that Motherwell goalkeeper Scott Howie was not overworked and his team did not manage a goal in a first-half they dominated almost totally.

''When we went in at half-time, frustration was the biggest factor,'' Levein admitted. ''Motherwell had hardly been up the park in the first-half but what we had to try to do is keep our concentration in the second-half, try not to give anything away and we knew something would surely come.''

At the end of a hard week, Motherwell deserve credit for their first-half resilience and making it a more even contest in the second-half. They had the man of the match in the tireless and creative Paul Lambert and, for the time they spent with their backs to the wall, arguably created the best three chances.

Chris McCart was denied a first-half goal only by the goalkeeping instincts of Henry Smith, Dougie Arnott headed a delightful goal in 64 minutes, and Alex Burns underhit a lob in the closing minutes which allowed Smith to show his agility again.

In fact, it took a goal of genuine quality from David Hagen midway through the second-half to deny them a win.

''I thought we controlled the second-half after we scored. If Burns had scored with his lob, there would have been no way back for Hearts. I'm not unhappy with the point,'' manager Alex McLeish concluded.

Taken from the Herald