Hearts add steel to their armoury

MIKE AITKEN at Almondvale

Livingston 1 Rubio (61)
Hearts 1 Stamp (8)

Referee: A Freeland. Attendance: 7,531

HAVING lost only one of their last six matches and succeeded in grinding out a draw at Livingston, signs are emerging that Hearts have learned at least one lesson from the Old Firm this season - namely, how to make the best of a bad job.

Indeed, but for a couple of exceptional saves from Alan Main during the first half, Hearts might even have established a two- or a three-goal advantage by the interval in this game and gone on to win. Whether their play merited such a reward, though, was another matter.

Over the piece, 90 minutes contested at the kind of fever-pitch pace which does little to enhance the reputation of the Premierleague as a theatre of fine football, Hearts worked hard enough in all departments without ever exerting much authority on the creative side. For the visitors, it was a day when perspiration made up for the lack of inspiration.

This was partly because Hearts asked Phil Stamp to squeeze in beside Neil MacFarlane and Scott Severin in central midfield and didn’t encourage defender Alan Maybury to make the attacking runs down the right he does in home matches. Austin McCann, the left-back, saw more of the ball in Livingston’s half on the other side of the pitch but used the ball poorly. Jean-Louis Valois was also quieter than a church mouse. As a consequence, Hearts lacked width.

Craig Levein, the Hearts coach, acknowledged narrowing the play was a deliberate response to a slack display at Tynecastle the previous week when his midfield was spreadeagled and Motherwell were able to pour through the gaps. Although understandably wanting a tighter approach away from home, the truth was Hearts over-egged the pudding and didn’t stretch the opposition in wider areas or deliver enough tempting crosses.

If the service wasn’t much to write home about, the striking partnership of Kevin McKenna and Gary Wales didn’t have one of their better days either. As the target for all long, high balls, the Canadian did well enough in the jump, but was too static to trouble Livingston’s big men at the back.

Without offering much in the way of movement needed to pull opponents out of position, McKenna was an ersatz striker in this game, a centre-back imitating a centre-forward.

Having said all of that, this was the kind of match Hearts would probably have lost last season. So it said a fair bit about the solid performances from Steven Pressley and Andy Webster in central defence, as well as the protection offered to the back four by Scott Severin’s commanding presence, that Levein felt disappointed about dropping two points rather than ebullient about gaining one.

After spending months resting between games to protect a knee injury, Severin returned to training only two weeks ago and is starting to feel the benefits. The Scotland player believes his fitness should be much improved in the closing weeks of the season after a steroid injection in his knee helped to clear up a nagging muscle injury. Severin agreed with the observation that Hearts might have taken nothing away from this game 18 months ago and put down the improvement in mental and physical resolve to the fact that "we have more steel in the side now".

As for Livingston, they shot themselves in the foot at the start of the game, wobbled for the rest of the first half and fought back with enough gusto after the interval to merit a share of the spoils. Just four points clear of the backmarker position, the Almondvale side made life hard for themselves when Gustave Bahoken’s weak headed clearance landed at the feet of Stamp, who made an expert job of thumping an 18-yard shot past Main. If the veteran goalkeeper was unable to get a hand to that one, the subsequent stops he made from both Wales and McKenna were outstanding and kept his side in the game.

Having gone in at the interval just one goal adrift, Jim Leishman and David Hay were able to remove Bahoken and Eugene Dadi, send on Oscar Rubio and David Xausa and produce a far more compact performance in the second period.

Rubio converted Lee Makel’s corner-kick with a powerful header for the equaliser but knows how much ground the current side have lost on the one which finished third in the league last year.

He says the players now need two, three or even four touches to accomplish what they did 12 months past with one. Rubio’s solution, at least in the three matches remaining before the split, is to repeat the cup-tie style which took points from Hearts and Dundee last week.

Taken from the Scotsman