Hearts burned by hot Pepper

By MOIRA GORDON
Published on Saturday 18 August 2012 23:51

ON THE face of it, it looked like it could be the perfect preparation for Hearts’ Europa League play-off. With a two-goal lead and an extra man advantage already in place by the interval, the impression was that Hearts were en route to an easy win.

But as they proved two weeks ago, when they struggled against St Johnstone, it’s rarely that straightforward. This time it wasn’t simply a case of losing some focus and the opposition coming at them with the bit between their teeth, although Caledonian Thistle undoubtedly did. This time they can blame some of their frailty on the enforced reshuffle of resources.

Captain Marius Zaliukas was injured in the passage of play which saw Hearts awarded their 41st-minute penalty and while the centre-back tried to run off the dead leg he sustained when he collided with Ryan Esson, he eventually collapsed to the turf, unable to continue, three minutes later.

It ruled him out of the second half and it has rendered him a major doubt for Thursday night. “It’s at the top of his thigh,” said Gorgie gaffer, John McGlynn. “It doesn’t look good, to be fair, but it is still very, very early. If it is severe, though, there’s not much chance of him playing on Thursday.”

In his absence, Darren Barr was moved back into the heart of defence, Inverness charged forward and the game was flipped on it’s head.

It had all started positively when Arvydas Novikovas, who earned a starting berth in place of the suspended David Templeton, opened the scoring with a beautifully worked goal in just the 15th minute. The ball was played forward from Andy Driver, who found Darren Barr and he stayed calm and collected to deliver an inch perfect pass and the Lithuanian winger curled a lovely shot beyond Esson.

It was the kind of goal which lifted spirits around the ground and while they perhaps should have had a penalty in the 27th minute when Simon King hauled John Sutton to the floor, they did finally get a spot kick 12 minutes later. It was the same men involved but this time King was judged to have impeded the Hearts striker, the referee stating that there was a tug the Hearts striker’s strip. Despite a delay in proceedings as his skipper was treated for his dead leg, Sutton kept cool and eventually slammed the spot kick home.

It was looking all too simple at that stage, with Inverness losing any control they had on the game and Hearts seemingly cruising to three points. That looked even more likely when Richie Foran was sent off for a reckless challenge on Ryan McGowan. Tempers were fraying on the pitch and in the technical areas but, if there was fire in the Inverness bellies at the point, it was nothing compared to the spirit they showed after the restart.

“We gave them new tactics and they stuck to them and worked their socks off,” said Inverness boss, Terry Butcher. Those new tactics seemed to centre on them throwing everyone forward en masse, the premise being that it was all or nothing for a side who had not yet tasted defeat in the fledgling weeks of the new campaign. The central defenders were solid, lunging into last gasp challenges and getting their bodies between any shooting opportunity and Esson’s goalmouth. They were then granted a way back into the game when Hearts young full-back Callum Paterson clipped the back leg of Graeme Shinnie as the Inverness player made another foray down the flank and into the box. While he won the penalty, it was his brother Andrew who stepped up to put the ball into the net and his team back in contention. That was in the 58th minute and it left Hearts rattled.

McGowan could have put it beyond them, though, in the 72nd minute but he was wild with his finishing as he came under pressure from the dogged defence.

He was also denied two minutes later when King pulled off another shuddering blocking tackle. But with more than two minutes of stoppage time already gone, Hearts showed their naivety, getting caught by another quick break and when the ball finally found young

debutant Conor Pepper, he got the touch necessary to divert the ball into the roof of the net. It was a dream debut for the 18-year-old Irishman. “I’m just trying to take it all in. It was the right place, right in front of our own fans. I just wanted to get something on it so it went over the line. I didn’t even see it go in, I had my eyes closed. I just got a foot on it. I can’t describe how it feels.”

“It feels like a victory,” said his ecstatic manager. “Wow, what a feeling that was. But I was worried that Hearts might still get a winner. That’s the way the game was going!”

For McGlynn, though, the signs were worrying. “We have got to learn we can’t be that naive. If we can lose goals against Inverness Caledonian Thistle then we are liable to lose them against Liverpool. But there were things we did very well. We have to stick together.”

Taken from the Scotsman