Scottish Premiership Heart Of Midlothian V Motherwell Sat 26 Nov 15:00

[Kmcalpin]

I didn't make the game today but had to make do with listening to the radio which I detest, but can't resist. Commentators made a string of telling comments about us.....couldn't compete with Hearts....standing off Hearts.....losing all personal battles.....not working as hard as Hearts when not in possession.......creating nothing. So, we aren't talking yet about being outplayed by brilliant footballers but rather we just can't get the basics right. A lot, though not all, of this is down to an uncompetitive, slow and lacklustre central midfield.

 

The starting line up was the same as last Saturday's and that only succeeded for 45 minutes then. Its a cautious, safety first line up with little in the way of creativity, certainly not right for today. That said the players themselves must shoulder some responsibility for a lacklustre performance. As Mark McGhee has said himself, if they aren't doing it then you train them to do things the right way and then if they still can't do it you punt them. Until other more experienced players are brought in then perhaps we ought to show more faith in young players ie persevering with Jack MacMillan at left back with Hammell or Chalmers as deputy.

 

We definitely suffer from a lack of competitiveness and leadership in the engine room and once again it seems it was our downfall.

[Tweed]

We all know Hearts are strong and powerful and we all know we aren't.

 

I think the formation McGhee set us up to play was fine. We had a good shape, we looked reasonably robust. However we had a problem that when we got the ball back, we kept giving it straight back to them which in turn meant that we spent most of the game around our 18 yard box. Had we been able to relieve the pressure for a couple of minutes at a time when we did get the ball back we may well not have succumbed the way we did. And that concession of possession was our downfall. Lasley gifted the ball to them on a plate and two seconds later we were behind. It was amateurish. We crippled into half time at 1-0 despite a disallowed one and a good fizzing shot which Samson parried.

 

Ainsworth for Ferguson was a good change. Hammell for McMillan seemed a bit unnecessary. Ainsworth gave us something we were lacking - he seemed right on it and I feel that if we had stayed at 1-0 when we put the pressure on them we may have nicked a goal as Hearts haven't won for a while and it would have been interesting to see how they coped with pressure. But we giftwrapped them a second by not marking the centre forward.

 

Even so we had a good spell and the second half formation seemed to work but we then sold the sloppiest of thirds. What the france Hammell was doing letting a clearance bounce and Walker managed to pounce and punish us.

 

Three goals conceded, all completely our fault, gave the ball away time after time but I think there was enough in the second half to show we can compete with Hearts. But individual errors were the thing of the day and we need to stamp them out. Also think if we keep the ball better there is less pressure and the opportunities for making these errors will be reduced.

[superward]

Hoped we could take our chances and get a draw but feared we may get beaten well. Onwards though.

['Wellfan 2k7]

Sportscene results stats were showing us 9 attempts with -1 on target. How does that work?

 

 

Apparently hearts nearly scored 3 own goals then. We should have had 4, had it not been for hearts excellent show in defence. Not a bad performance overall, individual efforts lost us the game. Less mistakes and a bit more luck would have seen us win.

[superward]

My mate works for bbc sport - apparently an issue with Opta stats being sent through. It was the same for Dumbarton shots on target.