6th November 2022. Hearts 3 Motherwell 2

 


With Hearts having played in Turkey on Thursday their league match against Motherwell was moved from Saturday to Sunday to give the squad an extra day of rest. With a three o’clock kickoff I had time to watch the end of St Johnstone defeating Rangers on Sky before heading to Tynecastle. I take great pleasure in seeing Rangers and Celtic getting defeated in league games given their huge financial power compared to other sides in the SPL. I arrived at Tynecastle around 14.25 and scanned my season ticket for entry. As I was earlier I thought about getting something to eat. Sausage rolls were £2.50 each and pies £3.50 with coffee from an urn £2.50 I soon changed my mind ! I headed to my seat in Section Q of the Main Stand and watched the sides warming up. 

Hearts have been playing twice a week for most of the season due to their European involvement and as a result have slipped out of the top half of the league. However a win today would bring them up to fourth and an opportunity to move further up the table as the season continues given their European involvement is now over. Hearts are still suffering severe injuries problems, in particular in defence. Today Alex Cochrane moved inside from left-back to central defence with Andy Halliday playing at left-back. Kye Rowles returned from injury but started off on the bench. Motherwell were also in Europe this year but did not last long being defeated by Sligo Rovers in the preliminary rounds. This defeat cost manager Graham Alexander his job and he was replaced by former player and coach Steven Hammell. Key players in the side are goalkeeper Liam Kelly, a Scotland squad member and striker Kevin van Veen. 

Hearts started the game well and Barrie McKay and Robert Sondgrass set up an early chance for Andy Halliday who sent his shot past Kelly’s post. Ginnelly than set up a chance for Shankland who took at touch but was unable to beat Kelly from the edge of the penalty area. Shankland that managed to bring down a poor clearance from Kelly and pass to Cammy Devlin Devlin first attempt was blocked by Kelly and the rebound was fired over the crossbar by Devlin. Hearts suffered a blow in thirty-seven minutes when Jorge Grant slid in to challenge Motherwell’s Callum Slattery. From where I was sitting the challenge did not look high or dangerous but referee Kevin Clancy disagreed after a VAR check and showed Grant a red card. Just before halftime hearts took the lead when a corner from Snodgrass found Halliday around eight yards from goal. His back header flew into the net as he was clattered from behind by a Motherwell defender. 

Two minutes after halftime Hearts scored a second and again it was Halliday who scored. Cochrane broke down the left and sent McKay free. His shot was blocked but the ball bounced back to Halliday just inside the penalty area on the left and he curled his shot into the far corner of the net.giving Kelly no chance of making a save. Motherwell equalised after sixty minutes with a controversial penalty. Louis Moult ran on to a through ball as Craig Gordon dived at  his feet. From where I was sitting it looked that Gordon had got the ball first but after a VAR check referee Kevin Clancy awarded a penalty. Moult took the penalty to pull a goal nack for  Motherwell. With ten minutes left Motherwell McKinstry who I thought looked a good player allgame broke down the right and sent a low cross into the penalty box. Blair Spittal side in and pushed the ball past Gordon for the equaliser. With about two minutes to go Hearts went ahead again.Cochrane broke down the left onto a McKay pass. His cross into the box hit the arm of a  Motherwell defender and referee Clancy awarded a penalty. To me it was one of those ball hits man rather than man hits ball. However Shankland srtepped up and fired home the penalty to put Hearts ahead. Despite five minutes of injury time Hearts held out for a win.

I walked home quite happy after what was a good game.  More like this after the World Cup  read should push Hearts up the league table.

Teams
Hearts: Gordon, M. Smith, Grant, Shankland, Devlin, Halliday, McKay, Cochrane, Sibbick, Ginnelly Snodgrass.
Subs: Neilson, Atkinson, Rowles
 
Motherwell: Kelly, Lamie, Spittal, Slattery, Van Veen, Solholm, McGinn, McKinstry, Penney, Goss, Shields.
Subs: O’Donnell, Moult

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