Endeavour aplenty but no reward

Natasha Woods at Tynecastle

HEARTS were booed off the pitch yesterday, which said everything about the quality of football now expected from Craig Levein's men. Hearts were poor, dismally so, but a wonderful goal from Paul Hartley was enough to beat an Inverness side which lacked nothing in effort, but plenty in quality.
"We had too many players who didn't perform to the best of their abilities today. I cannot take much from it, but we did win," said the Hearts manager, who will spend the next few days praying the injury crisis which has decimated his strike force will ease by the time his team face Braga on Thursday night in the second leg of their Uefa Cup tie.

There was a warm handshake between Levein and John Robertson as they emerged from the tunnel before kick-off; the two former teammates at Tynecastle now managers in rival dug-outs. What Levein would have given for a striker of John Robertson's pedigree, injuries having left him bereft of all his recognised forwards bar Dennis Wyness, a former Inverness man.

So it was Wyness who filled a lonely berth up front, while the likes of Kevin McKenna and Ramon Pereira were left to conduct the half-time draw - the Spaniard the most likely to be fit enough to play a more active role in Portugal later this week. Another Spaniard - and a former Hearts favourite - lined up in opposition yesterday and it was Juanjo who almost claimed first blood as Inverness began brightly.

Andy Webster was caught out by Juanjo's pace early in the encounter, robbed of possession and left toiling in pursuit as Juanjo chased in on Craig Gordon's goal.

Fortunately the Hearts goalkeeper is no slouch himself and he won the race for the ball. But it highlighted the initial pattern of play, Inverness harrying their opponents and giving them no time to settle on the ball.

It was a tactic which unsettled a strangely sloppy Hearts, who gifted possession with inaccurate passing. Still the home side could have opened the scoring when McAllister found Phil Stamp unmarked at the far post, but the midfielder's header was too close to goalkeeper Mark Brown.

Levein's frustration was evident on the touchline, his frantic instructions carrying loud above the oddly subdued atmosphere at a blustery Tynecastle. Thankfully Robertson's reaction to events was not audible on the quarter hour mark when Richard Hastings, in his first start of the season, presented Hartley with an opportunity which he finished with some aplomb.

The Inverness centre-half, in attempting to control the ball on his chest, merely presented it to Hartley who delivered a delicious lob which dropped into the net behind the advancing Brown.

Robertson would have appreciated the quality of the finish, but was distraught at the way possession was conceded.

How the visitors needed a similar break in front of goal. Their endeavour continued to trouble Hearts, but the ball seldom broke their way in areas where it mattered most.

Hearts, meanwhile, showed only glimpses of their quality. Early in the second half a Steven Pressley header was comfortably cleared off the line by Liam Keogh.

Inverness looked solid at the back, but they largely relied on set pieces to offer threat up front. Ross Tokely twice almost capitalised, first seeing an effort deflected wide after a goalmouth scramble and then getting in on the end of a Barry Wilson freekick as the hour mark came and went.

It was a glorious chance, for the inviting delivery curled the ball right to his feet in the six yard box, but his finish was wide and ugly. It did provide Hearts with a warning that the points were far from safe.

If only Inverness had some guile to add to their graft they make have smuggled a point away from Tynecastle. Instead, in the dying minutes, Stuart Golabek hit a right-foot shot wide of goal. The full-back is left-footed and the finish showed exactly why.

26 September 2004

Taken from the Sunday Herald