Miller produces a heartening debut

MIKE AITKEN
AT TYNECASTLE

Hearts 3
Pressley (44), Miller (49), Hartley (86)

Dundee Utd 2
Robson (19), Archibald (53)

Referee: M Ritchie. Attendance: 10,305

WITHOUT a win for six weeks - they’d drawn three and lost two of their previous five games - Hearts were encouraged by a haphazard victory over Dundee United in a hectic match where all five goals stemmed from set-pieces and the outcome hinged on baffling refereeing decisions as much as lively football.

Since this was only Hearts’ third win in nine league matches under John Robertson, no-one in the home dressing room was complaining too much. Believing they could hardly perform with as little inspiration as they’d shown versus Partick Thistle at Firhill in the Scottish Cup, Hearts did their level best to disprove that line of thinking with a first-half performance which lacked drive as well as ideas and confirmed how the uncertainty surrounding the future of the club and the players has taken its toll. "It took us 40 minutes to get into the game," rued the head coach.

Hugely fortunate to go in at the interval on level terms, the introduction of loan signing Lee Miller up front at the start of the second half, as well as a busier standard of play from everyone else, helped the Tynecastle side earn three points in the SPL for the first time since 4 December.

True, the winning goal stemmed from a hotly-disputed free-kick near the end where Paul Ritchie, the former Hearts’ centre-back, insisted he’d won the ball cleanly when he tackled substitute Stephen Simmons. While the support of his own manager, Ian McCall, was to be expected, Ritchie also had the backing of Robertson, who reckoned the award was dubious at best. "A very soft foul," he acknowledged. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Paul Hartley scored the winner with the benefit of a deflected shot - his 12th of the season - from the resulting free-kick.

Hartley, understandably, didn’t want to discuss the whys and wherefores of a refereeing performance which saw Mike Ritchie start badly by failing to penalise Grant Brebner for a clear foul on Phil Stamp - Stevie Crawford should have taken advantage of this blunder by opening the scoring - and then fell away. The best to be said about the official’s display was he was even-handed in his mistakes. United felt one of Mike Ritchie’s gaffes cost them a point, but the referee’s off-day could just as easily have punished Hearts.

Now up to fifth in the SPL, though still nine points adrift of neighbours Hibs, Hartley felt a return to winning ways was overdue and would do much for morale at Tynecastle as the club prepares for a Scottish Cup replay with Thistle at Tynecastle on Wednesday, and a CIS Cup semi-final against Motherwell in February as well as continuing the chase for third place.

"I thought this was another game that would slip away from us and maybe it was about time we had a bit of luck," observed Hartley. "It feels like a long time since we had a victory and it’s a good feeling to get back to winning ways.

"We played some good football in spells but it was a frantic match where we had to dig out the result in order to stay in touch with the teams above us.

"Craig Gordon is different class in goal and he pulled off a brilliant save in the first-half when Barry Robson’s effort took a deflection off Steven Pressley’s head. They were leading 1-0 at the time and if a second had gone in then it would have been hard for us to come back. Lee Miller made a difference for us when we played two up front in the second-half and getting the goal will work wonders for his confidence.

"We’ve lost the backbone of our side in central midfield and up front as well as a top-class full-back without bringing anyone in other than Lee, so hopefully the manager can bring in the right players and the supporters show a bit of patience."

As for United, they went in front thanks to a deflected free-kick from Robson which would have earned a half-time advantage but for Tony Bullock’s misjudgment of Stamp’s corner and Pressley’s volley at the back-post. Hartley’s free-kick after the break enabled Kevin McKenna to set up Miller for a tap-in with his second touch of the ball just three minutes after appearing as a substitute.

While Anatoly Byshovets, the Russian coach due to become director of football under Vladimir Romanov, talks of jam tomorrow and of signing international strikers in the summer, Hearts depended in this game on a 21-year-old striker who hadn’t started a match for six months.

United drew level at 2-2 when Alan Archibald ran onto Mark Wilson’s free-kick and fired another deflected shot past Gordon. That looked as if it might be good enough to secure a draw until Ritchie was penalised for challenging Simmons three minutes from the end. The centre-back was adamant the official erred. "The referee made a wrong decision which cost us at least a point," he said. "That’s why we are where we are in the league. I felt we deserved at least a draw. I can’t repeat what I said to the referee in the heat of the moment, but he knew I wasn’t happy."

McCall, who can’t afford to lose tonight’s re-arranged Scottish Cup tie at Gretna, was also entitled to feel hard done by, though the manager still needs to address the issue of how United have become so accident prone. The backmarkers in the SPL have a problem with their goalkeepers and concede goals they shouldn’t.

That said, this was a decent display in which the Tannadice club made life hard for Hearts by asking their front players - Crawford and Jim McIntyre - to drop back and defend in wide areas, making it difficult for Robbie Neilson and Jamie McAllister to push out of the full-back positions. This prevented the home side from finding any real width, a problem Robertson partially solved in the second-half by switching from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 and instructing his players to operate at a higher tempo.

Taken from the Scotsman