Lacklustre Hearts lose out

JIM KEAN AT FIR PARK

Motherwell 2 McBride (59, pen), O'Donnell 67
Hearts 0

SCOTLAND’s third force? Hearts resembled more of a spent force at Fir Park.

We may never get to the bottom of how a team that had been so impressive against Kilmarnock just seven days before were able to transform themselves into the inept outfit who took the field here, but it was a dramatic piece of shape-shifting that had a frustrated Craig Levein attempting to go ten rounds with the tactics board in the away dressing room once it was all over.

The fight didn’t go the distance, although, as painful a process as it clearly was, the boss did at least manage to land a blow which was more than any of his players ever threatened to do.

Levein’s side could have gone to the top of the SPL had they won this one but that was always going to be a temporary high so it’s safe to assume that it was the defeat rather than its consequences that got him so fired up.

Or probably, to be more accurate, the manner of the defeat.

There aren’t too many occasions when Hearts have to settle for the silver medal in the hard graft event but Motherwell were more than a match for them in that department and also had a much clearer idea of where the goals were located so, bar a bright enough start from the visitors, they were always toiling.

"It was a massive disappointment," admitted Peter Houston, deputising for the head coach while the latter headed to hospital for an x-ray on his injured hand.

"Normally, you can get away with two or three not playing to their usual standard but not six or seven. We didn’t work as a unit and Motherwell deserved it because they worked harder than we did. It’s not very often we say that about the opposition," he added.

Throughout the 90 minutes, Hearts posed a serious threat to Gordon Marshall on no more than three occasions, all of them involving Patrick Kisnorbo who clipped a post late on in the first half and then had a couple of efforts saved in the dying seconds of the game.

That apart, there was precious little to get excited about if you were a Jambo and once the inquest into what went wrong has been concluded, Levein and his players will just have to chalk it down to one of those bad days we all have and start preparing a suitable welcome for Rangers and Braga who are next to visit the Capital. Different parts of course.

Houston wasn’t best pleased with the spot-kick that allowed the home side to take the lead with Phil O’Donnell going down in a crowded penalty area and whether it was soft or a stonewaller, it’s unlikely to be the last such controversial incident seen this term if referees clamp down in similar situations as they have been instructed to do.

Craig Gordon made a decent fist of getting to Kevin McBride’s effort but the on-loan Celt hit it too well and too accurately for the keeper, and given that Hearts hadn’t looked like scoring all afternoon there was only one possible outcome thereafter.

Motherwell’s second merely emphasised that point, albeit that it was still a thing of beauty as O’Donnell watched an attempted clearance drop towards him on the edge of the box before volleying the ball back to whence it came, significantly quicker, mind you, than it had made the outward journey.

The midfielder admitted recently that he would have been in an asylum had he dwelt on all the injuries that have plagued his stop-start career, but perhaps at the age of 32, he’s finally going to be allowed to perform as he can without constant interruption.

"Phil has had a few knocks but he looks as if he’s enjoying his football and his body language is good," said Marshall, another of the elder statesmen in Terry Butcher’s pic’n’mix squad of youth and experience - a squad some thought might struggle to live up to the exploits of last season.

"No-one in and around the club doubts our ability," argued the keeper, "and we certainly haven’t lost the spirit that was here. If anything we are more resilient than ever."

Much to Butcher’s delight, this was Well’s third victory in a week, so while his Tynecastle counterpart sampled the delights of NHS tea on Saturday night, the ex-Ibrox skipper was justifiably looking forward to a few glasses of his favourite vino.

Taken from the Scotsman