6th February 2019 Hearts v Livingston 0-0

Another game against Livinston. Fourth time Hearts have played them this season and they have only won once, in the  Scottish Cup. Goal difference thus far stands 5-1 in favour of the Livi Lions. Left the house just after 19.00 and arrived at Tynecastle at 19.20 for the 19.45 kick-off. Was chatting to Eric before the game and we had a conversation about the worst players we have seen playing for Hearts. He went for Pat McShane while I suggested Archie White. Other names that came into the conversation included Crawford Boyd and Jim Denny. You will notice that there is no picture of the programme for the match showing here. I get my programme by subscription from Hearts and as of today (Thursday, the day after the game) it had not arrived in the post. Programme arrived on Friday 8th February and I have added photo at foot of this post.

Craig Levein made one change from the side that beat Kilmarnock in the last match. Olly Lee replaced Callumn Morrison, which had been a halftime substitution at Kilmarnock. Of more interest was the return of Uche Ikpeazu, after four-months out injured, who took a place on the bench. Steve Clarke, the Kilmarnock manager, had said after Fridays game that it was difficult to play against Hearts who had ‘three big lumps’ at the back. If he thinks Hearts central defenders are big lumps I hate to think what he thinks about the Livingston trio of Alan Lithgow, Dermot Gallagher and Craig Halkett. I was also surprised to see Craig Sibbald was on the Livingston bench as I have always rated him as a good player.

Hearts started well and John Souttar broke from defence early in the game passing three players before shooting narrowly past the post from just outside the penalty box. After eight minutes Hearts had the ball in the net when Steven Naismith sent a looping header past Liam Kelly into the net. The goal was however disallowed for offside although I thought Naismith was onside given a Livingston defender was challenging him from behind. After a bright start the game degenerated with both sides employing long high tactics which were easy meet for the respective defences. Jake Mulraney looked threatening on the Hearts left but while he has pace going forward I have reservations about his crossing ability and his defensive qualities while playing as a wingback. Hearts first shot on goal came in forty minutes when an Olly Lee effort from outside the box was comfortably saved by Kelly.

Halftime was enlivened by the half-time draw. As usual Hearts had ex-players doing the honours and tonight they were Jim Brown (1970s midfielder), Colin Cameron (1998 cup winner) and Ian Black (2012 cup winner). All three were scathing about the first half and I particularly liked Black’s comment of - ‘in my day we used to play football’. Livingston had an early chance on the second half with a shot across the face of the goal after Oliver Bozanic lost possession. This was Bozanic’s last contribution of the night as soon after he was replaced by Ikpeazu to great cheers from the fans. Ikpeazu made a difference as he muscled past two defenders before slipping in the penalty box as he attempted to pass a third. However Livingston came close again when a header from Ryan Hardie was well tipped over the bar by Colin Doyle. From the resulting corner Doyle clutched a Lithgow header down by the far post. Near the end Ikpeazu had a close range header straight in Kelly’s arms and Naismith claimed for a penalty after he was pushed to the ground going for a loose ball in the penalty box. The way things were going if Hearts had been awarded the penalty kicked I am sure they would have missed it. 

After the disappointing 0-0 draw and a poor Hearts performance I walked home to a glass of wine (non-alcoholic) and a sandwich for supper.

Teams

Hearts: Doyle, Smith, Shaughnessy, Souttar, Berra, Bozanic, Lee, Clare, Djoum, Naismith, Mulraney. 

Subs: Ikpeazu, Morrison, Mitchell

Livingston: Kelly, Lamie, Lithgow, Byrne, Pittman, Hardie, Odoffin, Lawless, Halkett, Gallagher, Lawson. 

Subs: Jacobs, Sibbald, Erskine