HIDE AND MEEK
Levein’s men get it in the neck from bassed-off Jambos fans after dire show
Craig Levein tells every player who ever signs for Hearts that Tynecastle is a great place to play.
When you play this badly, though? There’s no hiding place.
The Jambos were booed off the park in their first home game of the season after a display where they were so one- dimensional, you could barely see them side on.
Top- f light new boys Ross County left Gorgie rightly feeling like they’d tossed away two points rather than gained one.
Their game plan was better, their football was better, their players were better and but for Brian Graham’s missed penalty in the 83rd minute, they’d have been sitting right up alongside Celtic on six points.
As it is, they still look far more like a top five contender than a home side who should be and Levein admitted the only answer to quell the rebellion in the stands two games into the season is hard work.
They’ve had one league win at home in their last eight and he sighed: “You can’t just hand someone a bag of confidence.
“You just need to dig in when it gets like this, get a result next week, maybe not through brilliant football, but a result to give you the confidence to play better.
“I speak to all the players about this when they come. It’s great, but if things aren’t going well, you’ll know about it.
“It gets to everybody, of course it does. It was hard work. We didn’t get going at all and Ross County did very well. The longer we went without dominating the match, we just got more and more safe.
“It resulted in us continually playing the ball long, which for me isn’t going to help.
“I understand it. If you’re feeling like you’re not at your most confident, then you don’t want to make a mistake and the ball goes forward quicker.
“We just didn’t want to make mistakes so we ended up going long and Uche Ikpeazu was then constantly fighting for the ball. Him and Conor Washington didn’t get much good service and that’s a consequence of boys feeling under pressure.”
Aidy White’s appearance at left back was his f irst in two and half years and the reduction in energy levels from his suspended
16- year- old predecessor Aaron Hickey showed, as you’d expect.
Likewise Loic Damour’s debut. He showed some nice touches, but the 21 minutes of league action he played in the Prem last season leaves him a lot of catching up to do.
On a pitch that looked like they’d planted spuds last week rather than hosting a Festival gig, it was pretty grim viewing for the Hearts fans.
Washington could have made life easier for Hearts, getting in behind a couple of times only to be denied by some great goalkeeping from Ross Laidlaw, the second in particular a terrific reaction stop.
His partner Ikpeazu, was a frustrating watch, though. With Stevie Naismith wasted out on the left, the ball had as much chance of sticking to their spearhead striker as a
10-year-old has of sticking to a trampoline. Every first touch was a counter-attacking opportunity for County and the Staggies looked at their best taking them.
They moved the ball brilliantly, created the best chances, and would have regretted not going in at the break up.
Josh Mullin tested Bobby Zlamal with a sweet 20-yard volley and had him scrambling with a clever 40-yarder at the top corner, while the keeper needed two bites to smother a decent 25-yarder from Michael Gardyne.
Levein lost Naismith to a tight hamstring at half- time as wel l, bringing on Jake Mulraney in his place.
But little changed and the crowd’s patience snapped before the hour mark when Zlamal launched a kick from hand that took one bounce and fell straight into Laidlaw’s hands at the other end. The boos had barely died down when Gardyne almost made things worse, his inswinger from the left f lank cannoning off the back post to safety.
County should have buried the game when Marcus Fraser himself picked White’s pocket after a bizarre ball off the corner flag from Josh Mullin and was bundled over by the full-back as they stumbled into the box together.
Sub Graham’s spot kick sent the Czech keeper the wrong way but it bumbled off the post and Gardyne couldn’t get the rebound the right side of the post.
Levein admitted: “It would have been a real shame for Aidy for his mistake to have been the difference in the match.
“But he’ll be pleased he’s back after such a long time, so all credit to him.”