Maybe it`s just as well that no-one will expect Hearts take anything from their next SPL match (v Rangers at Tynecastle), because the sense of let-down after today`s 2-0 defeat to Motherwell would be too much to take for a 2nd successive week?. coming only 4 days after the previous let-down against Falkirk !
Yet again, we saw Craig Brown`s well-organised and well-motivated team get the better of Jim Jefferies’ team in every aspect of the game – except perhaps goalkeeping, because we had Marian Kello to thank for keeping the score down.
Over the 90 minutes, I can only remember 2 worthwhile shots at goal (Templeton and Calum Elliot) and a header (Kyle) from Hearts, plus a failed attempt to dribble round the keeper in the 2nd half by Stephen Elliott. Meanwhile, Motherwell hit the post in the first-half after a fine passing move, and forced 3 excellent saves out of Kello before scoring 2 excellent “strikers goals” through Blackman and Sutton in the last 30 minutes.
Oh how we miss Lee Wallace – both for his defensive play and his rampaging forward runs. Eggert Jonsson drew the short straw today to play left-back, and was simply unable to cope with Chris Humphrey at any time during the game. Both goals came through him on the right, playing intelligent passes to a team-mate who instinctively knew what to do. I`m sure all teams will now attack Hearts on the right-wing while Wallace is absent, since today`s game showed what can be achieved. Motherwell`s forward players moved very smartly and always seemed to give more options to their man with the ball, compared to the home team.
For Hearts, I`d say that only Kello, Mrowiec and Skacel (when he came on) were up to standard, while Stevenson and Calum Elliot were very disappointing. Kevin Kyle put in a lot of effort and took a fair bit of punishment – yet very few of his knock-downs or passes produced any threat. JJ acknowledged after the game that his team had played too many long balls up to Kyle – and it was clear that the Motherwell defenders had done their homework in terms of cancelling out any advantage he would get from his height alone.
Rudi Skacel got a great reception when he replaced David Templeton (who was very closely marked today), but unfortunately Hearts went 1-0 down within a minute – not his fault of course, but it quickly put a dampener on the day for Rudi and the fans.
No doubt better days will lie ahead for Hearts and the fans ? but JJ must find a way of making the defence more dominant.
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