Robertson's sour homecoming

ALAN PATTULLO AT TYNECASTLE

Hearts 0
Motherwell 1 Foran (28 pen)

Referee: J Rowbotham. Attendance: 10,598

IT WAS always going to be memorable. Most anticipated that John Robertson’s delayed return to Tynecastle - this was his fifth match in charge of his beloved Hearts but his first at his old stamping ground - would likely be an emotional affair and so it proved, with the new manager going for the jugular in the clinical nature he once reserved for the penalty box in his days here as a free-scoring striker.

Only this time the identity of his victim was referee John Rowbotham rather than some hapless defence, with Robertson perhaps prompted by the awful realisation that his first match in charge at Tynecastle would also be remembered for less cherished reasons.

Motherwell’s determined victory is the first time a club from outside the Old Firm have beaten Hearts in the league at home since Dundee’s win as far back as October 2002. It is the first defeat Hearts have suffered at the hands of anyone at Tynecastle in the league since a game against Celtic in January.

It is tempting to deduce that Robertson, a keen student of the Tynecastle club and likely to have been aware of this defeat’s significance, craftily decided to blow a gasket in order to deflect attention from the spearing of this long and impressive run. Yet the emotion seemed real enough as he sat fermenting in front of reporters. On a day too cold even for snow it was all one could do to stop placing palms against Robertson’s face, so heated had he become over not just Rowbotham’s handling of the match, but also the accusation that he had sworn at the official in the tunnel at the end of the game.

As suspected at the time there is some history between the pair to be examined, specifically a high-octane game between Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Robertson’s former club, and Clyde during the First Division promotion run-in last season. A penalty Rowbotham awarded to Clyde and which brought them back into a game they eventually lost 2-1 had Robertson fulminating afterwards, even though his side had just taken pole position in the championship race.

"To think that could have undone a whole season’s work," he complained at the time. Suffice to say the resentment hasn’t mellowed with time, and nor has the same official’s award of a heavily-debated penalty for Robertson’s Inverness side against Dundee United earlier in the season served to douse the hostility. Like a horse-whipped movie outlaw hell-bent on revenge but knowing the consequences, Robertson stepped through the swing-doors of the Tynecastle media room and gave Rowbotham both barrels. It was, admittedly, a rant, though never less than eloquent for that. Not that this will sway those we must refer to on these occasions as the ‘beaks’. He might as well have the suit and tie already looked out for the inevitable SFA appearance.

"When you get the decisions that Mr Rowbotham kept giving against us then it is shocking," he raged. "It’s scandalous some of the decisions he gets away with here. The fourth official has agreed with me on a number of occasions that he got it wrong and then after the game goes quiet. Some of them were daft wee things like saying there would be three minutes’ injury-time, and then only playing two minutes. I am not saying we are going to score in the last minute but we might have had the opportunity.

"I made my feelings clear to him afterwards," Robertson continued. "He called me into his room and then lied. It’s as simple as that. He told me I swore at him, which I didn’t do. I have witnesses to prove that. He’s just made it up as he goes along. No doubt I will be visiting the SFA but referees have to be brought to task. He said he was reporting me for foul and abusive language and I asked him what I said. He replied: ‘You called me a f***ing cheat’. I said: ‘No I didn’t call you a f***ing cheat at all. Like most of the decisions he made today, he just made it up."

It was a first-rate burst of polemics from Robertson, although, crucially, its force was dimmed somewhat by the feeling that Rowbotham, for all his faults, had actually called the game’s decisive moment right. When Martyn Corrigan was nudged over in the box with the goal at his mercy he had been denied a goal-scoring opportunity by Alan Maybury, who was, undoubtedly, the last man. Regretfully for the welfare of a game which had started very tastefully indeed the Irishman had to go, and did.

One might also like to bear in mind that Hearts benefited from this rather cruel rule just three weekends ago, when Dundee’s Jonay Hernandez was ordered off for a similarly ill-advised challenge in the box. That particular game thereafter degenerated into something that was about as compelling as watching a politician snooze and, though Saturday’s match retained at least some elements of attractiveness - i.e. Hearts made a decent fist of it - there was still reason to mourn such an early red card.

Yet no-one could claim that Motherwell would not have triumphed had it not been for the advantage they held in numbers. Richard Foran had already looked lively before he tucked away the winning penalty after 27 minutes, and in Stephen Craigan they had the afternoon’s outstanding performer.

Terry Butcher’s side must have tossed their miserable form of September and October onto the bonfire along with Guy Fawkes, and have established a run of form which has brought three successive victories and nine goals, with none conceded. Butcher won’t mind the spotlight being placed on Robertson’s verbal tangle with the referee since his best work is clearly done in the dark of a wintry afternoon such as this.

Taken from the Scotsman