Hearts boss unimpressed with players' route-one tactics

It's difficult enough when you lose a Scotland international (Lee Wallace) due to injury but add a protracting contract situation with another key player (Marius Zaliukas) and a highly-rated signing (Darren Barr) struggling to find his feet, then the headache becomes huge.

Against Motherwell, it was certainly clear for all to see that the absence of Wallace is creating a real problem for Jefferies, adding fuel to his frustration about a failed attempt to sign Tony Capaldi as cover a fortnight ago.

Like Ruben Palazuelos, Eggert Jonsson is an honest individual who sticks to any task he's given but, unfortunately for the Icelandic international, he was handed the short straw on this occasion.

In Chris Humphrey, he found himself with a real handful and it was no real surprise the former West Brom winger set up both of Motherwell's second-half goals, first crossing for Nick Blackman to guide the ball home then leaving Jonsson for dead as he put the ball on a plate for John Sutton in front of goal.

For Jefferies, two aspects in particular proved unpalatable as his side failed for the third time this season to win in front of their own fans in the SPL. He was furious that Blackman, another of the players who looks a great addition to the Motherwell ranks by Craig Brown, was given so much space to score the all-important opening goal while the fact Hearts then resorted to lumping high balls up to Kevin Kyle didn't leave him best pleased either.

"I thought it was a very even affair in the first half. We had a couple of half-chances and they had one when, following a mistake by one of our players, they hit the post, which was a break for us," said the Hearts manager.

"You know in a game like that the first goal is always going to be crucial and it was the way that we lost it (that was galling]. The last time we played at Tynecastle, (Morgaro] Gomis has hit one for Dundee United from 30 yards and there is not a lot you can do about that.

"This time it was different. Eggert Jonsson is not a natural left-back and the winger, who is very quick, has taken him on and got a cross in.

However, when the cross comes in we've got enough defenders there yet the Motherwell striker has had eight yards of space as he's guided the ball into the net.

"We had four players at the back of him not doing anything, not marking anyone. They w ere static and got caught flat-footed. If they were marking him in the first place and he has run eight yards, how can't we? That's the bottom line.

"The follow up to that is they've got something to hang on to and did the right things. They kept it tight, they made angles and their movement was better. They deserved to go on and win because what we did is exactly what we spoke about at the team talk.

"We don't want balls lumped up to the front men but they take that easy option, which is maybe partly down to the fact they've lost a bit of confidence after the other night (the Co-operative Insurance Cup defeat at Falkirk]."

Despite sending out an attacking formation, with David Templeton and Suso Santana being encouraged to get down the flanks to supply the ammunition for Kyle and Calum Elliot, Hearts never really troubled Darren Randolph in the Motherwell goal during the first-half. And, while Jefferies had been hoping the introduction of both Rudi Skacel and Stephen Elliott shortly after the interval would ignite the flame in the home ranks, neither of them had touched the ball as Motherwell went in front and, after they added the second, the Hearts players didn't look as though they and either the hunger or desire to try to launch another fightback.

"Motherwell did it right," added Jefferies. "They attacked the ball with one of their central defenders but always gave a bit of cover with the other one. I think we had a half chance when little Stephen Elliott went round the keeper but he was off balance as he tried to put it in all in the one movement."

"Not long after half-time you could sense nothing was happening and I thought Rudi coming on would create a buzz in the crowd and he'd get a lift from that but as soon as we did that we lost a goal due to the fault of defenders.

"For the second goal, Eggert has been run at and didn't make the tackle when he should have, then found himself in a position where he couldn't tackle him as he'd probably have brought him down.

"However, the loss of the first one was the crucial one because it made us have to chase the game and all we did was lump the ball up to big Kevin Kyle - the easy option."

Templeton, who had been replaced by Skacel by the time Hearts conceded their goals, acknowledged that Motherwell had made it difficult for both him and Santana being so well organised at the back. It will be much the same, no doubt, when Rangers come calling this weekend but the new recruit to the Scotland Under-21 squad is hoping that might be just the game Hearts need to kickstart their home campaign.

"Motherwell were the better team on the day and deserved to win.

In the first half we weren't as sharp as we could have been and wanted to up the tempo in the second, but it didn't happen," said Templeton.

"It was quite hard because when myself and Suso got the ball they seemed to double up on us and we were going backwards instead of forward, which I like to do. I thought we still had a strong enough team to win the game, so it is disappointing. Missing Lee Wallace and Marius Zaliukas is difficult because they are two of our best players.

"So hopefully we can get a settled back four if Marius can come back in again and kick on from there.

"The two goals we conceded today were soft again and we need to try and sort that out. Once we do we can hopefully start keeping clean sheets and, sooner rather than later, pick up the points here.

"We'd love to beat Rangers. That could kick-start things for us at Tynecastle and, hopefully they'll be tired from playing the Champions League and we can take advantage of that."

Taken from the Scotsman