SCRAMBLED EGGERT

Scorer: HEARTS: Craigan (og)

By Kenny MacDonald

EGGERT JONSSON admitted he couldn’t claim his first Hearts goal after the visitors made it six points out of six at Fir Park this season.

The Icelandic midfielder’s drive deflected past Graeme Smith off Well defender Stephen Craigan, below, to give the Tynecastle side the points.

While their goal had some good fortune to it, their win didn’t. Going into the game with just one win in nine away games against a side who’d won three league games in a row, Hearts had little reason to have much in the way of confidence but once again they won comfortably at Fir Park.

Stephencraigan

Jonsson, below, admitted: “I’ve never scored for Hearts but I can’t really claim that one. It took a pretty big deflection. I think my shot was going out for a throw-in!

Eggertjosson

“The pitch made it hard and the game was one big battle but we’re happy with the win.”

For Motherwell it was one of those days which made you wonder how on earth they’ve got into third spot in the table. Flat-footed at the heart of their defence, unimaginative in midfield and well-covered in attack, they never looked like pegging things back after falling behind.

Although they looked better when Darren Lee Smith came on — and the young sub came close to equalising in a late flurry — Hearts’ strength in defence meant they were second to virtually everything on a day when the swirling wind ruined the match.

It was only in the final 15 minutes that Motherwell forced Steve Banks into doing any work at all. Ross McCormack, a frustrated and forlorn figure for most of the day, fired in a free-kick which skipped off sub Smith’s head but was turned around the post by the diving Banks.

The Hearts goalie had another couple of hectic moments after that, notably when he dropped Stevie Hammell’s inswinging corner but Marc Fitzpatrick was unable to force the bouncing ball home in the scramble that followed. Banks made another save from McCormack late on but Motherwell got what they deserved out of the game, as manager Mark McGhee admitted.

Strong

He said: “We deserved to get beaten. It was a game that required a real physical effort but the conditions today were as much of a challenge to us as Hearts were.

“It was a fairly difficult game for both teams but they put out a big strong side and we weren’t able to compete with them. They were first to virtually every second ball.

“I hope when we go to Aberdeen on Wednesday we can get back to passing the ball on a pitch we can play on. On our own surface it’s impossible. I can’t ask our defenders to risk getting on the ball. All we can do is knock it on, miss out the midfield and get it up front. We’re not best suited to playing that way but we’ll give it a go.”

Motherwell were angry that ref Craig Thomson didn’t stop play in the build-up to Hearts’ goal with David Clarkson down with a head knock which would eventually see him substituted.

McGhee said: “The referee can stop the game but I still thought there was a handball on the way up to Christian Nade. But however the goal manifested itself, they deserved to win.”

Hearts got a stranglehold on the game from the early stages and never let go. Inside 90 seconds, home keeper Smith was forced into a fine stop from Nade’s drive after Cesnauskis’ corner squirmed across the Motherwell box.

The Lithuanian wide man was again prominent a few minutes later, wriggling into good position and playing a one-two with Nade before setting up Lee Wallace in space, who should have done better than blast his attempt wide of goal.

With those two forays under their belts, it was no real surprise when Hearts went ahead, even if their goal owed a lot to the wind and the referee.

Whether Jonsson’s long-range wind-powered drive would have tested Smith is debatable, but the deflection off Craigan took the ball zooming into the corner of his net for a fortuitous opener.

Well protested about the Clarkson clash of heads during a previous attack. The hitman went back on after treatment and was immediately lectured for making his feelings plain to the referee but he lasted only 30 minutes before being subbed with blurred vision.

Forlorn

Motherwell’s performance in the opening third of the game, though, had been so uninspired that a change of some kind was no great hardship.

Too often, in trying to make allowances for the wind, they overhit passes straight into Banks’ grateful hands. So dire had been the home team’s first-half display — it had taken them 39 minutes to manage their first shot at goal — that the Fir Park support could only be optimistic that their side would utilise the wind after the interval. However it was a forlorn hope.

Even with Smith on at the expense of the out-of-touch Stephen Hughes to provide width, the pattern had been set.

Little fell Motherwell’s way and Hearts’ backline stayed strong until the home side finally managed to put together a few late desperate attacks.

Tynecastle coach Stevie Frail said: “We deserved the three points. This is a difficult place to come and the pitch here has been well-documented, so we tried to miss out the midfield because of it.”

Striker Andrius Velicka missed out with a pelvic injury but Frail was unaware of any bid from Norwegians Viking Stavanger. He said: “The only reason he didn’t travel with us on Friday is because he’s had this injury and hasn’t trained all week.

“It’s up to other people if he moves but if he does it gives someone else the chance to stake a claim.”

MOTHERWELL: G Smith, Quinn, Reynolds, Craigan (J Murphy 83), Hammell, Hughes (D Smith 54), Lasley, Fitzpatrick, Clarkson (Lappin 30), Porter, McCormack. Subs not used: Daniels, McLean, D. Murphy, Archdeacon.
HEARTS: Banks, Neilson, Karipidis, Berra, Goncalves, Cesnauskis (Mikoliunas 72), Jonsson, Palazuelos, Wallace, Elliot (Zaliukas 89), Nade (Beniusis 83). Subs not used: Basso, Thomson, Ivaskevicius, Ksanavicius.