Hearts are marshalled to a point by Hartley

JIM KEAN AT FIR PARK

Motherwell 1 Adams (29)
Hearts 1 Hartley (45)

AS ALL who share his precarious line of work must surely do, Gordon Marshall learned very early in his career that one of football’s facts of life is that the buck stops with him. Particularly when the ball doesn’t.

Despite mitigating circumstances and kind words from his manager therefore, the Fir Park goalkeeper was in no mood to be placated in the aftermath of the mistake which saw Paul Hartley’s free-kick elude him and earn Hearts a point, so Motherwell’s last line of defence offered not a word in his own.

"It was shocking and I just feel empty," said Marshall with the air of a man who knew the press pack he was facing were unlikely ever to be a harsher critic of his error than he himself was.

While such self flagellation was perhaps understandable in the circumstances, it was also misplaced according to Terry Butcher, and had it not been for a truly superb save from Marshall in the dying seconds of the game, the home side would have lost even more than the two points he clearly felt he’d cost his team.

That would have been an injustice as, after a shaky opening, they gave as good as they got against a Tynecastle outfit who ultimately delivered less than they at times promised.

On a day when torrential rain ensured the players were confronted with their first pitch of the season where the going was good to soft rather than firm, it was maybe no coincidence that the game’s two goals both came from set pieces.

’Well’s opener arrived slightly against the run of play when a Patrick Kisnorbo foul right on the edge of the box allowed Derek Adams to drill in a free-kick which caught the luckless Kisnorbo on the toe as he tried to clear it, which was enough to deflect the ball past Tepi Moilanen.

The Hearts goalkeeper had earlier fared better with a couple of similar efforts from Steven Hammell, while at the other end the visitors’ failure to add a cutting edge to their leading-up work looked destined to ensure they had hee-haw to show for their efforts at half-time.

Cue yet another free-kick which Hartley drove towards goal and which Marshall appeared to have covered, only for appearances to prove deceptive, albeit that given the conditions the ball had probably taken on the characteristics of liquid soap by this time.

Unfortunately for the scorer, he was robbed of the opportunity to build on his strike and prove that the gentle kick-up-the bum he’d publicly received from Craig Levein on the morning of the match had had the desired effect when he was forced to limp off injured minutes after the break.

The equaliser, meanwhile, merely added insult to injury for Motherwell skipper Scott Leitch, who was vehement in his protests that the foul which led to Hartley’s strike was no such thing, just one of the contentious decisions made by Charlie Richmond.

Some of his calls also upset Hearts fans as well, though, so if nothing else, the referee was at least consistent.

Thereafter, a Dennis Wyness effort which came back of the post and Marshall’s late stop from Phil Stamp was the closest the visitors came to snatching victory but at the end of a hectic few days, Levein seemed fairly content with half a loaf.

"We’ve played two high-tempo matches already this week and we came here expecting another hard game, which is exactly what we got. I’m a little bit disappointed, but in the end, it’s a point away from home," said the Tynecastle boss.

The fact his Fir Park counterpart reckoned this was a game Motherwell would have lost last season shows that, whatever other failings Butcher’s still wet-behind-the-ears squad may have, one quality they have added to their play is resilience.

"There has been a big change in that respect and I asked the players for a reaction to the defeat at Forfar on Tuesday. I got it and they showed great commitment in what was a full-blooded affair, if not very pretty at times," he admitted.

Even the beautiful game can have a bad hair day it seems.

Taken from the Scotsman