Oh brother! Harry’s debut to forget
THE Souttar siblings may be united by family ties and a shared status as professional footballers, but their experiences could hardly have been more different on Wednesday night. While John, 21, was part of a resolute Hearts defence securing their eighth clean sheet in a row, 19-year-old Harry was scoring an own goal on his debut for Ross County in a 2-0 defeat at Motherwell. A whirlwind few hours had seen the teenager complete a loan move from Stoke City earlier in the day before being plunged straight into action when he replaced injured skipper Andrew Davies after just seven minutes. An otherwise solid first outing for Owen Coyle’s side was marred by an unstoppable bullet header into the top corner of his own net. Souttar’s gaffe ensured it was to be a baptism of fire... and that he would be the butt of the jokes — including a few digs from brother John. Just as well that 6ft 6in tall Harry has shoulders to handle the ensuing ridicule on social media. ‘I wanted to make an impact on my debut — just not that kind of impact,’ he admitted. ‘That’s part and parcel of modern football with all the social media — you’ll be mocked for scoring an own goal on your debut. ‘You need to take it on the chin and move on. I tried to head it out for a corner and just got it wrong. ‘It’ll be a bit of both from John — he’ll probably take the p*** to start with, then be more understanding because he knows these things can happen. ‘He texted me after the game and said: “Phone me when you get a chance”. ‘I didn’t think I’d be involved because everything had happened so quickly and I hadn’t even trained with the squad. ‘As big a mistake as it was, you can’t dwell on it because you’ll just make it worse.’ Meanwhile, County star Tim Chow’s red card has been overturned after referee Bobby Madden wrongly adjudged him to have hauled down Rory McKenzie during Saturday’s William Hill Scottish Cup loss at Kilmarnock.