First goal was always going to be key, admit both managers, but forward Obua fortunate to be the beneficiary

Published Date: 22 February 2010
By STUART BATHGATE
HEARTS manager Jim Jefferies said the first goal was crucial after his team beat Hamilton Accies 2-0 yesterday – then admitted he had almost taken David Obua off the park minutes before he scored it.
Playing up front again rather than in his more familiar wide role, Obua opened the scoring with a header from a Ryan Stevenson chip with a little more than an hour played. His manager, however, had been tempted to replace him after deciding he was not making enough of an impact. "I think it was all about the first goal today," Jefferies said. "David Obua didn't start the second half as well as I wanted and I was very close to subbing him. The problem I had was that they're a big side and at set plays I need his height, in defence as well."

So Obua stayed on and made the breakthrough, and later substitute David Templeton got the second to take Hearts five points clear of Aberdeen. Laryea Kingston came on as a substitute too, making his first appearance of the year after convincing Jefferies that, despite his bust-up with previous manager Csaba Laszlo, he still wanted to play for the club.

"Fresh start," Jefferies said when asked what he had said to Kingston before agreeing to include him in the squad.

"I heard his side of the story. I said I didn't know if it was right, but we'd have a clean sheet.

"I said I'll know very quickly – if you don't want to play for us you better tell me now. He said he wanted to play for us and he liked it here, so I said I'd put him on the bench and give him his chance. He's got to use the time between now and the end of the season to get back in favour again with the fans."

There has been a fresh start, too, when it comes to discipline. Hearts have cut down on their card count since Jefferies took over, and as a sign of the desire to draw a line under some of the excesses of the past, have rescinded the fines issued to Suso Santana, Ian Black and Eggert Jonsson for the sanctions they received after the club's last match at Hamilton.

All three had opted to appeal against the fines, but before those appeals were heard Jefferies decided, with the support of the club and of the players' union, that they should be scrapped.

"I came into the club in the middle of the situation and decided with support from the club that we should draw a line under what happened and start afresh. While it's a clean slate for everyone, I've told the players that anything in the future will of course be dealt with." Jefferies, left, said last week he plans to introduce a disciplinary code of conduct for the Tynecastle players.

Back at the match, Accies manager Billy Reid accepted the home team merited the points. "We never scored a goal, so I don't think we deserved to take something out the game," he said, and went on to agree with Jefferies' analysis of the game. "I thought the first goal was always going to win it for either team, and unfortunately it was Hearts who got it. Goals change games and that was evident today. Hearts got it, and they deserved their victory."

Reid is confident his team will be stronger when top scorer Mikael Antoine-Curier and Dougie Imrie are back from injury, and although Hamilton are now just a point ahead of bottom club Falkirk, the manager is holding his nerve well. "There's no need to panic," he said. "The one thing we need to start doing when we're not playing well is nick games. Hearts have not played particularly well today and they got the three points."

Taken from the Scotsman