Derby draw was a wake-up call says Hearts boss John McGlynn

By BARRY ANDERSON
Published on Monday 13 August 2012 12:00

JOHN McGLYNN today advised Hearts players to use yesterday’s Edinburgh derby as an early wake-up call just two weeks into the new SPL season. The Tynecastle manager also stressed that leaving Easter Road with a point following a below-par performance should be considered encouraging.

Hearts extended their unbeaten run against Hibs to 12 games as goals from Andy Driver and Leigh Griffiths resulted in a 1-1 draw between the clubs. McGlynn, however, was unhappy with his team’s performance and said players should take note of the reasons why.

“It is a wee wake-up call for everyone,” said McGlynn, speaking exclusively to the Evening News. “You’ve got to apply yourself in every single game, your attitude has got to be spot on and you’ve got to be working extremely hard. We let ourselves down on that a bit yesterday, and because of that we didn’t do enough to win the match.

“One or two players that have been doing well maybe didn’t do so well yesterday. Mehdi (Taouil) has come on in a couple of games now and pulled the strings better for us. We just need to keep on top of things. A few players are away on international duty this week so we need to make sure they come back with a clean bill of health, then pick a team for the Inverness game.”

Taouil will now come into contention for a starting place this weekend. McGlynn admitted securing a draw at Easter Road, which leaves Hearts joint top of the SPL, was something to be relatively pleased with under the circumstances.

“That has to be the biggest positive,” he continued. “We went to Easter Road, didn’t play well, but we went away with a point. We learn from it and look to make sure that these reasons why we didn’t play well don’t happen again.”

Hearts were today waiting to discover whether Vincent

Lunny, the SFA’s compliance officer, will investigate yesterday’s first-half incident between David Templeton and James McPake. Television footage showed the winger kicking out at McPake after being fouled, and Lunny may now issue a retrospective punishment to Templeton.

“Firstly I’ll look at the incident again,” said McGlynn. “If the referee didn’t feel there was anything in it then he is the man in charge. He’s got two assistants and a fourth official, who were all looking at the incident.

“The ball was there and in play so everyone was watching what was happening, it’s not like it was a freak incident off the ball. No-one got booked so the referee obviously felt there wasn’t a case for booking anyone. There is high tension in a derby game. That isn’t the first incident like that to happen.”

Taken from the Scotsman