BEAT GERS AND DERBY PAIN EASES
EDINBURGH DERBY AFTERMATH Lafferty in the clear over clash Benching teen wizard Harry spelled trouble
JOHN SOUTTAR knows nothing hurts more than a derby defeat but he reckons a response against Rangers would be the perfect painkiller.
Hearts fans are down in the dumps after watching their side get a chasing by Hibs at Easter Road on Tuesday night.
The Jambos never laid a glove on their fierce rivals as Neil Lennon’s men stretched their Edinburgh dominance to eight games.
Souttar’s been in maroon long enough to know what it means to the punters but insists Saturday’s clash at Murrayfield is a chance to immediately lift the gloom.
The defender said: “It’s a big week for us. You look at the fixture list and there’s three tough games in a week. We were away to our rivals then two difficult games at Murrayfield.
“We’ve got to go there on Saturday and get something against Rangers.
“I think it would help if we could win on Saturday. We have to go out and do ourselves justice. We need to go out and attack Rangers.”
Souttar admits the derby blow was galling as the Jambos never really turned up. He said: “It was a gutting defeat for us, especially to go down by a goal.
“There wasn’t much between us. It wasn’t a great game, it was a typical derby with a lot of fouls.
“We didn’t perform at all. We didn’t pass the ball well and didn’t create many CRAIG LEVEIN admits he should have started Hearts’ teenage sensation Harry Cochrane in the derby.
The 16-year-old teed up Kyle Lafferty’s weekend winner against St Johnstone only to sit on the bench for a second game running.
Rafal Grzelak was hooked for the kid halfway through Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat to Hibs and Levein said: “It’s easy looking back but I maybe should have started Harry.
“Harry’s quite a tough wee boy – he’ll compete. It’s just he hasn’t got anywhere near HEARTS star Kyle Lafferty is set to avoid punishment from the SFA after a clash with Hibs’ Efe Ambrose.
The Nigerian received treatment after being struck by Lafferty’s arm in the second half of the Hibees’ 1-0 win.
SFA compliance officer Tony McGlennan is aware of the incident but with the intent difficult to ascertain he’s unlikely to issue a notice of complaint. chances. We can’t say we were unlucky because we didn’t create enough.”
Souttar insists there were no complaints but some excuses. The Jambos are feeling the effects of being the Premiership vagabonds, playing all of their matches away from their Tynecastle home.
There are also a lot of new faces and the defender insists kids such as Euan Henderson and Harry Cochrane deserve a bit of slack.
He said: “This was an off day for us. It’s clear we are a team in transition.
“It’s not an excuse but it’s tough playing every game away from home especially when we’re still developing as a team.
“Hibs are a settled side while we are in transition.” the kind of strength of the players he’s playing against have – that’s the problem.
“I put Grzelak and Connor Randall into the midfield to give us a bit of bite but they just got lost. Again that’s partly my responsibility.”
Levein praised his players’ effort and added: “In the second half we were better and Harry made a difference to that – he recognised the right time to get on the ball. But we didn’t do well enough even once he got it and made some decent passes.”