Tepi's safe hands provide steel in race for Europe

BY PAUL KIDDIE AT TYNECASTLE

Hearts 2
Motherwell 1

DURING Antti Niemi’s distinguished career at Tynecastle, there were numerous occasions when the Finnish goalkeeper produced saves at vital times for Hearts, stops which ultimately helped contribute to important wins for the Jambos.

The legendary Gorgie figure has, of course, since left the Capital to parade his skills in the English Premiership with Southampton.

And, as Niemi was keeping a clean sheet for Gordon Strachan’s Saints against West Bromwich Albion at St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday, his compatriot Tepi Moilanen was producing another significant display between the posts as Craig Levein’s side edged past struggling Motherwell at Tynecastle.

The towering keeper was brought to the club on loan after Roddy McKenzie broke his thumb during the winter break in Portugal, the Finn having fallen out of favour under former Scotland boss Craig Brown at Preston North End.

He has settled in quickly to his new surroundings, conceding just one league goal - against Rangers at Ibrox - before Saturday’s visit of the Steelmen.

Although he was beaten by Keith Lasley’s vicious second-half shot which cancelled out Kevin McKenna’s equally impressive strike after 29 minutes, the performance of the Finnish ace was one of the key elements on a day when the team failed to fire on all cylinders.

On four separate occasions the loan star denied the visitors when it looked like Terry Butcher’s outfit were set to hit the target. He was first called into action as early as the sixth minute when he parried a shot by Lasley after a neat backheel by David Clarkson had presented the Fir Park star with a shooting opportunity.

Conceding a goal so early would not have been part of Levein’s game plan, the Gorgie boss looking for his men to seize the initiative against the team second from bottom of the Premierleague.

That they duly did when McKenna cracked home his sixth goal of the season. The Canadian, forced into action as a striker in the absence of the injured Mark de Vries, picked up a pass from Gary Wales and sent a stunning strike whistling past Francois Dubourdeau to break the deadlock after 29 minutes.

Motherwell could well have gone in level at the interval. Moilanen had to look sharp to save from James McFadden’s 43rd-minute free-kick, and the visitors looked to have a strong case for a penalty on the stroke of half-time after Jean-Louis Valois brought down the ’Well attacker as he broke into the box, the visitors enraged as referee Mike McCurry waved play on.

The Hearts keeper then blocked from David Partridge four minutes after the interval, although Lasley finally beat him with a cracking goal in the 53rd minute, the ’Well man clipping the ball past Valois before rounding the Frenchman and lashing home an unstoppable shot.

Moilanen then produced a crucial save to keep the scores level in the 64th minute, the Finn doing well to keep out Clarkson’s shot.

The visitors were looking a real threat at this point but the wind was knocked out of their sails seven minutes later when Phil Stamp burst down the left to cross for substitute Stephen Simmons to knock the ball home from close range.

It is a team effort, of course, and Moilanen was doing what he is paid for. And, while it would be wrong to single out the Finn’s display as the sole reason why Hearts kept on course for Europe, his saves certainly helped, as his manager acknowledged afterwards.

"When things are going against you, you need to defend well and you need your goalkeeper to help out," said Levein. "What we have done since Tepi arrived is defend very well but on Saturday we looked off the pace at the back and made a lot of wrong decisions.

"We didn’t look as confident as we have done in recent games although we dug deep and got points and Tepi had to pull us out of hole on a couple of occasions."

Winning with a below-par performance will make the three points all the more enjoyable for Levein and his players, with the race for third spot looking increasingly likely to be between Hearts and Kilmarnock, who defeated Aberdeen at Rugby Park.

Saturday’s encounter was a match which could so easily have been lost and when the dust settles on the current campaign the hard-fought win could well prove to be a significant moment in the race for UEFA Cup qualification.

Things may have worked out differently for the visitors had McFadden not blazed over from a great position with 20 minutes remaining with the teams locked together at 1-1. And Levein understandably declared himself satisfied with the outcome of what was an extremely testing 90 encounter.

"I was very pleased," he said. "I knew before the game that Motherwell would be very tough as they had won three games in succession before Saturday.

"When a team does that it would indicate they are in form. People may have looked at the table and thought ‘three points for Hearts’ but we didn’t expect that and we were given a tough match.

"I thought we were well on top in the first half. We played most of the game in their half and had a few opportunities when the final ball let us down.

"I felt comfortable at half-time. You never get 90 minutes when you’re in complete control of the game and we expected Motherwell to come into it. They got a goal at a good time for them and were in the ascendancy at the time but we made a decision to try to change where the game was being played.

"We brought on Stephen Simmons and in taking off a defensive midfielder (Neil MacFarlane) the idea was to try to put pressure on their defence and it worked for us with Simmy getting the goal."

Butcher was clearly enraged by McCurry’s decision not to award his side a penalty at a vital time but refused to criticise the whistler for fear of punishment from SFA beaks.

"I thought we played some very good football and were hit by a sucker punch in the second half and after they took the lead Hearts defended very professionally," he said.

Taken from the Scotsman