St Johnstone 1 - 0 Hearts: Jim Jefferies sees for himself the scale of rebuilding required

Published Date: 01 February 2010
HEARTS operate beyond the normal. An unwritten law in football has ruled that a club prepared to ditch a manager on the eve of a fixture will usually reap the benefit the following day in the form of a passionate performance from a collection of re-invigorated players.
But the Tynecastle club have long since disassociated themselves from convention. Not even the return of a living legend could provide the jolt required to bring life to a disparate crew of players, thrown together, Jim Jefferies admitted later, in far from satisfying style.

The returning manager's connection with the club might date back more than 50 years, but being dyed-in-the-wool does not necessarily help when presented with names such as Dawid Kucharski and Marius Cinikas.

Jefferies made few bones of the fact that he knew next to nothing about many of those in his squad.

Even the younger, Scottish ones are mostly strangers to Jefferies, who has spent the past eight years working small miracles in Ayrshire with Kilmarnock. While the manager needed no introduction to the healthy following of Hearts fans who travelled to Perth, many of his players needed to announce themselves to Jefferies.

Unfortunately, too many left too little of an impression on Saturday.

Only Michael Stewart and Andrew Driver (pictured below), who made a long awaited return from injury in the second-half, were anything close to eye-catching, but then Jefferies already knows all about their attributes. Others faded into the background and might already have told the new manager everything he needs to know.

St Johnstone continued their recent run of impressive form and were worthy winners.

Jefferies will hope, however, that the new manager boost will kick-in during tomorrow night's Co-Operative Insurance Cup semi-final tie with St Mirren, when the players will have had more chance to come to terms with another turbulent chapter at Tynecastle.

Everyone seemed curiously subdued on Saturday, from the travelling fans to the players.

Hearts' attempt to form a coherent response to Csaba Laszlo's surprise dismissal the previous day was further hampered by an injury to Marius Zaliukas. Jefferies was forced to make running repairs to his side, including the deployment of three different left-backs inside 90 minutes.

"You have to put things into perspective," said Jefferies later. "I came in last night and have barely seen the team.

"I have spent most of the time talking to a couple of the backroom staff, asking questions like: 'Does this boy do this, can he do that, can he play here, can he play there?'

"There are so many injuries, and then with Marius going off, we had to again change it. And then I am asking the boy coming on: can he do this, can he do that? It was very difficult.

"But it was great today to find out things about boys I have never even heard of. There was a boy out there today I did not know anything about – (Rocky] Visconte. I am relying on people to tell me this and that, but ultimately I will look to be the judge of whether they are good enough or not. I can't wait to get started."

Wisely, Jefferies clearly treated this trip to McDiarmid Park as an opportunity to do some prep. In less extreme circumstances, he might have preferred to wait until tomorrow night's visit to Fir Park to lead Hearts back into a match.

But the club had no-one else to turn to following the exit of not only Laszlo, but also his assistant Werner Burger. Billy Brown, Jefferies' long-term assistant, and Gary Locke, the club's former captain, helped warm-up the players on Saturday but are not even on the pay-roll yet, although Jefferies expects this to be finalised this week.

"I thought I was a big Jambo 'til I met Gary Locke," smiled Jefferies. "He will be in there and be the link between us and the players."

Jefferies noted the muted atmosphere in the dressing-room, and remarked that someone had told him it was "no different to when they win".

Team spirit is obviously an issue although the bond which existed between the players and Laszlo could not be questioned. They did his bidding and more often than not achieved results.

The Jefferies way is likely to be a little easier on the eye, though Saturday possibly marked a nadir in terms of entertainment. St Johnstone were at least interested in the concept of passing football and did put together a smattering of neatly effective moves.

From one of these passages of play, conducted down the left flank, the home side grabbed their winner on 50 minutes. Filipe Morais fed the over-lapping full-back Danny Grainger, and his cross found Kenny Deuchar on the edge of the six-yard box. The striker opened his foot and scored for the first time in the league in almost two years. To the surprise of no-one this proved to be the only goal, although Hearts almost managed to seized an undeserved equal-iser in the closing seconds when the substitute, Gordon Smith, stabbed a ball towards the goal-line after a scramble. Gary Irvine was the saviour for the home team with a timely block, and Derek McInnes's side are in good heart as they look forward to their own semi-final appointment against Rangers on Wednesday.

Jefferies, meanwhile, has inherited a multitude of problems which go far beyond a crippling injury list. Jose Goncalves is one. The defender had an ally in Laszlo, who fought to include the out-of-contract player in the team despite pressure borne from above.

Jefferies, unsurprisingly on what was his first day in the job, took a different view and left him out of the squad. The 24-year-old Portuguese defender has made no secret of his desire for a return to his homeland with Sporting Lisbon.

But if the player remains at Tynecastle after the closure of the transfer window today he will, according to Jefferies, come back into contention, and could even feature tomorrow at Fir Park.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Murray Davidson (St Johnstone)

On a day when such talents were at a premium, the St Johnstone midfielder at least sought to put his foot on the ball and spray passes around. He receives a rosette for attempting to be creative.

Taken from the Scotsman