TWO IN A CATHRO
Jambos gaffer grabs another win and insists new-look side is starting to gel
Ian Cathro celebrated his second thumping win in four days – and praised his new- look Jambos for gelling so quickly.
Hot on the heels of their thrashing of Rangers in midweek, Hearts added the scalp of Motherwell but only after whistler Andrew Dallas controversially sent off Fir Park star Carl McHugh for a tackle on Don Cowie in the 53rd minute.
Hearts took full advantage with a deflected opener from Alexandrios Tziolis and Esmael Goncalves’ brace sending the 900- strong away support home happy as they look forward to next week’s Scottish Cup clash with bitter rivals Hibs.
Cathro said: “The red card changed things but the game had the same sort of flow. We’d have the ball, try to break them down and they’d attack quickly and were a threat. They remained a threat, so credit to them. But in the end we managed to keep attacking and get the result in the end.
“The most pleasing thing is the togetherness of the players, We recognise we’ve brought a lot of new people into the room and they have all taken to it with open minds and open arms. Everybody is together.
“I never got depressed at the start and I’m not going to get over-elated now. I’m just a guy trying to do my job. But today’s great because we’ve done what we set out to do. We controlled the majority of the game. We’ll rest, recover and next week will take care of itself.”
It was a bitter, raw afternoon in Lanarkshire – not exactly the weather Tziolis and Anastasios Avlonitis would’ve been used to as the Greeks made their first starts for Hearts, who had two survivors – Jack Hamilton and Jamie Walker – from the side that last came to Motherwell in September.
Sweeping changes have been made by Cathro and he was looking to build on Wednesday’s sensational show against Rangers. Well, too, were bouncing off the back of a good
win in Dingwall but were without banned Scott McDonald, which meant Lionel Ainsworth was paired with Louis Moult up front.
Both teams made a spirited start with Goncalves going close from 18 yards in the fourth minute before Moult responded with a superb header off the underside of the bar from Richard Tait’s cross, although the striker was flagged offside.
Walker went close for the Jambos in the 14th minute, doing well to rob Zak Jules in midfield before driving forward to thrash a 20-yard effort just over the bar.
It was Well, though, who almost netted five minutes from the break when Hamilton flapped at a Stevie Hammell corner, the ball falling for Ainsworth to fire through a forest of legs only for Avlonitis to clear the ball off the line.
The second half had begun evenly balanced before Dallas’ decision to red card McHugh changed the
course of the match. His challenge on Cowie was hard alright but he appeared to win the ball – the ref, though, thought otherwise and sent the Motherwell man packing.
McGhee withdrew Hammell and Ainsworth for Lee Lucas and Stephen Pearson, beginning a third Fir Park stint and just when the home boss thought his luck couldn’t get any worse, Well lost a hugely unfortunately goal before the hour.
Tziolos strode forward and unleashed a drive that spun off Keith Lasley before looping up and over Craig Samson and into the net.
It was now a huge ask for Well but Lasley’s 64th-minute shot from the edge of the box shaved Hamilton’s right hand post and they made a decent fight of it.
Hearts killed the game in the 77th minute, breaking away to add a second though
star Goncalves, who was set up by sub Moha Choulay to run in on Samson and calmly slot the ball past the keeper’s left hand.
Samson halted Goncalves from adding a third but the Portuguese hero still got on the goal sheet two minutes from time.
He drilled home after another cross from Chou lay, who’d robbed rookie Jules to set him up.
Three points, three goals and another threegoal winning margin. Suddenly Cathro is making this management lark look easy.