The Heart stoppers

ANDREW SMITH

PARTICK THISTLE 0
HEARTS 0

A GUT-WRENCHING upset may not have befallen them. Hearts, though, could only have experienced a queasiness in their stomachs when reflecting on what might easily have been the outcome of their Scottish Cup third-round tie at Firhill yesterday.

The Thistle era of Dick Campbell and Jimmy Bone came darn close to beginning in the most spectacular fashion, courtesy of their players delivering the new management team a performance full of endeavour and exertion. But for the width of an upright, which Juan Escalas thumped with a drive in the 35th minute, the home team could well have nailed a famous cup win against a strangely lacklustre Hearts side, who they will now face in a replay at Tynecastle a week on Wednesday.

Despite stepping up their efforts in the second period, John Robertson’s men will be grateful not to have become a Premierleague powerbroker broken by a relegation-threatened First Division team. This, even though they did cause activity around some Kenny Arthur’s goal towards the close, Kevin McKenna having several efforts off target as well as a shot that almost wriggled over the line after deflecting off sponsors man-of-the-match Adrian Madaschi. In fact, the Hearts manager was grateful. And gracious.

"For sheers guts, effort and determination, Partick fully deserved a draw," Robertson said. "I felt we dominated possession, especially in the second half, but had no cutting edge. When you see some of the other results today I’m just glad we’ve got a second chance."

Campbell considers his team, too, have a second chance and promises they will "give it a right go" when making the trip to Gorgie on January 19. He seemed to like what he saw and take more than small satisfaction from it. "In the three days we have worked with them we have focused on defence and it seemed to pay off," he said. "The basis is there in that we didn’t concede a goal. We restricted Hearts to Phil Stamp’s 40-yard free-kick in the last five minutes. Apart from that, Kenny Arthur didn’t have a save to make."

As well as being an absorbing one on the field, yesterday’s occasion was a good cup-tie for copy. Like any normal week of late, there was a daily drip-feed of scaremongering concerning Vladamir Romanov’s always-imminent Hearts takeover. But Thistle’s appointments of old soaks Campbell and Bone on Tuesday allowed the Firhill club to rival the Edinburgh side in the column-centimetre-munching stakes.

Robertson chipped in on Friday by declaring Bone the man who taught him everything he knew in the game. The Hearts manager probably appreciated the relief of nattering about something other than the doomsday scenario that would unfold if Romanov doesn’t acquire Chris Robinson’s shareholding by next month. Those in the know maintain the Lithuanian will stump up to prevent Robertson being forced to slash his playing budget by £1.2m and, potentially, lose a clutch of his high-profile players.

Naughtily, such cuts have been presented as a fait accompli in certain sections of the press. Don’t Hearts enough on their plate without everything surrounding them being painted a funereal black? This extended to many tipping them to suffer a cup shock against wily old foxes Campbell and Bone, two men whose combined years in the game would approximate to Methuselah’s age when he popped his clogs.

The little bit of John Lambie lovin’ for Thistle following the sacking of co-managers Gerry Britton and Derek Whyte had certainly stabilised team affairs. And going into yesterday on a two-game unbeaten run meant Campbell fielded the same starting line-up as drew with St Mirren the week before.

Oh, how Robertson would have dearly loved for that luxury to be open to him. Instead, he was without three of the men who have been hugely influential figures at Tynecastle over the past 18 months. His loss of Mark de Vries and Alan Maybury was permanent, of course, with both joining up with their old Hearts manager Craig Levein at Leicester City.

But the absence of Paul Hartley through suspension robbed the Edinburgh side of the man who has made them tick in recent months. Robertson acknowledged as much and also admitted he had to get new players in to solve the problem, evident against yesterday, of failure to convert territorial advantage into goals.

Not that Partick made this easy for them to do, even if Campbell expressed annoyance by the visitors’ level of possession. "There is work to do, but I’d be disappointed if this wasn’t the case," said the man attracted to Firhill from Brechin City.

At least yesterday there was plenty of work they did do, the home players eager as beavers on uppers. Granted, this was only to be expected with a new management team to impress. What was a surprise, though, was how edgy their hustling and harrying made the visitors.

This was especially true of Hearts’ backline. They seemed to issue collective gasps whenever even harmless looking balls were played across the box, and seemed no more certain when bulky but skilful strikers Armand One and Escalas came at them in possession.

They appeared to relish pitting themselves against Scotland international centre-backs Steven Pressley and Andy Webster. They regularly came off better, too, and in the 35th minute Escalas clipped the outside of the upright after a fine Thistle move that began with a One two-step and impressive close control from the lanky frontman.

In the second half, Hearts inexorably took a strong grip. It wasn’t until after they committed Ramon Pereira and Patrick Kisnorbo for the ineffectual Graham Weir and Dennis Wyness around the hour mark that they really started to take the game to the home side. Even then, though, they failed to carve out any glaring opportunities. Campbell’s men really did have them in the soup.

Taken from the Scotsman