Levein hits wall after having had his fill of Well

ANDREW SMITH
AT FIR PARK

MOTHERWELL 2 McBride (pen) 58, O’Donnell 67
HEARTS 0

IN HIS peak years, Phil O’Donnell’s body treated him as if it thought he was pensionable age. Now in his footballing dotage, the 32-year-old finds himself bounding around like a young thing. Yesterday, his input galvanised a Motherwell side who were well worth their 2-0 victory over a lifeless Hearts.

Indeed, the sort of fire we have come to expect of the Edinburgh club was restricted to their dressing room afterwards. There, Hearts manager Craig Levein sustained a hand injury that required an x-ray after punching a wall in frustration. "I think the tactics board bore the brunt of it," his assistant Peter Houston joked.

It wasn’t a day for clever use of the mitts from Hearts men with an octopus act from Robbie Neilson sending O’Donnell turfwards in the box on 57 minutes. Kevin McBride confidently thumped the resultant penalty out of Craig Gordon’s reach. From then on there was only one team in it, Motherwell buzzing around with terrific purpose.

This was true of O’Donnell more than most and in the 67th minute he bagged the decisive counter with a ripper of a hit. Meeting a headed clearance from Andy Webster 16 yards out, O’Donnell made the sweetest contact, smearing a first-time, left-foot strike into the top right-hand corner of the Hearts net. "I knew as soon as it left my foot it was in," he said.

In offering next to nothing by way of a response, Levein’s men were in danger of being overrun in the latter stages, Motherwell’s youthful zest earning them a standing ovation at the final whistle. Having opened the season with back-to-back defeats, the Lanarkshire team are now finding their form with six points from two games.

"A day full of positives," Butcher later reflected. "We’ve beaten a quality side, returned to the top six and kept a clean sheet." The Motherwell manager was left slack-jawed by O’Donnell’s strike, but put down the midfielder’s form to the fact he has never been forced to slack off with injury this season. "My God, where did Phil get that one from? He has played in every game, scored in our two home games and never missed a training session."

Hearts supporters were forced to amuse themselves by running through their repertoire of Chris Robinson ditties. Yesterday, though, Robinson was absent from Fir Park as the result of being "on club business", which

probably amounts to no more than him taking it easy in Monte Carlo after attending Friday’s UEFA Cup draw.

Perhaps, if Robinson took up residency there and played the tables he could remove the need for the Edinburgh club to go through with the £22m sale of Tynecastle. Of course, the visit of Braga on September 16 will provide Hearts with their first taste of tenancy at Murrayfield. Robinson will surely be home by then.

Save for Patrick Kisnorbo clipping the outside of the post with a mishit shot on the cusp of half-time, the visitors, looking for the win that would have put them top of the table for a day at least, appeared strangely vulnerable. Which was in marked contrast to the command they had shown in whipping Kilmarnock a week ago. Scotland centre-back pairing Steven Pressley and Andy Webster struggled to contain David Clarkson. He twice zipped away from Pressley and had a low header cleared from the line as Butcher’s side began to give little indications of what was to come.

Hearts gave no indications that they were a team who had lost only two league games in 2004 until yesterday. "It was one very bad performance," Houston acknowledged. "Motherwell worked harder than us and you can’t say that often about Hearts sides." He had better hope his side don’t often offer so little this season.

Motherwell: Marshall, Corrigan, Hammell, Kinniburgh, Craigan, O’Donnell, Scott McDonald, Leitch, McBride (Fagan 88), Foran (Fitzpatrick 77), Clarkson

Hearts: Gordon, Neilson (McAllister 62), Maybury, Pressley, Webster, Kisnorbo, Stamp (Stewart 41), Hartley, Hamill, Weir (Wyness 62), Pereira

Referee: A Freeland

Taken from the Scotsman

Taken from the Scotsman