HARTLEY DENIES TIMID ACCUSATIONS

Hearts midfielder Paul Hartley denies the Tynecastle side were too timid against Motherwell in their Bank of Scotland Premier League match at Fir Park.

Starting with only 18-year-old Calum Elliot in attack the Jambos struggled to make any impact going forward in the first half and deservedly trailed to a Brian McLean goal at the interval.

Jambos head coach Graham Rix introduced utility player Stephen Simmons at the interval to bolster the visitors' attack and the second half belonged to the Edinburgh men although their equaliser did not arrive until the last minute courtesy of Hartley's penalty following a clumsy challenge by McLean on Gorgie stopper Andy Webster.

But Hartley denied the Gorgie men, beaten only once in the SPL all season, displayed undue reticence in the opening 45 minutes.

The Scotland midfielder said: "I was set up behind Calum with two players wide to give us support so it wasn't us giving them too much respect, it was just the system we used.

"We changed at half-time and it was a lot better. We looked more of a threat and we got our rewards with the penalty in the last minute.

"We knew it was going to be tough at Fir Park. You don't always play pretty football, sometimes you just dig in and we tried to do that."

After Celtic's surprise defeat at home to Dunfermline the Tynecastle side are now only one point behind the SPL leaders and Hartley is hoping to quickly put further pressure on the Hoops, starting with the match against Livingston next week.

He said: "We've had two hard games but we've managed to get two points from them after we've gone behind in both matches.

"Now we've got a couple of home games and hopefully we can take advantage."

Rix, who curiously dropped Czech striker Michal Pospisil from the squad then moaned about being short of forwards, is looking to next week's match against the struggling Almondvale side to get his first win as Gorgie boss.

However, the former Portsmouth and Oxford manager was not too disappointed after draws at Aberdeen and Motherwell in his first two games.

He said: "You've got to respect the teams that you are playing against. It's not easy to go to Aberdeen or Motherwell.

"We came out in the second half and showed a tremendous spirit and a determination not to get beat so rather than look at the negatives I have to look for the positives and there are definitely positives there.

"We've played two games, we're unbeaten, we've showed great spirit and our next game is at home so I'm looking forward to it."

Motherwell manager Terry Butcher insists his side need to retain their concentration right until the final whistle if they are to turn draws into victories.

He said: "I couldn't fault the players effort or attitude but that's what can happen, it only takes a split second, someone hesitates and then the other team are in.

"They threw four men up at the end which is fine, we expect that. However, we need to learn to deal with that but we didn't."

Taken from sportinglife.com