PREMIERSHIP LIVE
Hearts fans lap up shiny new stand ... but there’s plenty work to do on toiling team
HEARTS fans took a playful pop at the critics who reckon their new main stand resembles an out-of-town supermarket.
How fitting then for Esma Goncalves to pop up from nowhere early in the second half to prove every little helps.
Five minutes in and Jambos supporters housed in the Wheatfield Stand took a look across the pitch at the magnificent £12million structure and sang, “Oh this is some f ****** Tesco”.
Their favourites then went on to operate a buy one and get one free policy as sub Kris Doolan struck five minutes from time to grab a point for Thistle with his first league goal in almost three months.
Hearts will cling to the positives on the pitch on an occasion in which they savoured the benefits off it as they arrested a run of three defeats in a row. But they should really have seen the game out to their advantage.
Architecturally – outside at least – the new Tynecastle Park may be more Wernham Hogg than Wembley, more Slough than San Siro.
But when the finishing touches are completed over the coming weeks Scottish football will have another fine stadium of which it can be proud. True, for much of yesterday’s game it looked as if the new structure had revealed a catastrophic design flaw – all those seats controversially ordered late from China faced the pitch. The game was an absolute stinker.
In the years to come there will be occasions the new main stand will be rocked to its foundations.
But yesterday, unlike Craig Levein’s team, it just about got the job done. HATS off to Jags boss Alan Archibald who recognised Miles Storey had run his race after an hour and replaced him with Kris Doolan. The Firhill talisman popped up late on with his first league goal in three month to justify his gaffer’s faith. Partick Thistle were furious – and not without justification – at being forced to play a waiting game before the authorities decided at the last minute the stadium could be granted the safety certificate necessary to allow its audience entry.
The delay to kick-off by 15 minutes to allow fans more time to enter the ground only added to their frustration after they called for an SPFL probe into the handling of the entire event.
In truth they are over-egging the pudding by claiming the delays in the days leading to the match had damaged the reputation of Scottish football as it bids to attract a new audience, forgetting the Tynecastle facility will help achieve such a goal for many generations to come.
The great and good of the Hearts fan base were out