Milestone outing not Walker’s finest hour
Spot-kick miss makes 150th game one to forget as Tynecastle men drop points against the bottom side. By Stewart Fisher
JAMIE Walker’s 150th appearance for Hearts will not be one he looks back on fondly in years to come. The 23-year-old, kept in reserve at first in an apparent nod to Wednesday night’s Scottish Cup replay against Hibernian, was brought off the bench in a bid to salvage a win against basement side Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
However, he had a 75th-minute penalty saved by Owain Fon Williams as the Highlanders claimed a draw on an awkward, bobbly Tynecastle pitch, a result which could yet breathe new life into their survival hopes.
While Hearts head coach Ian Cathro said afterwards that he felt his side had dominated the game, this was a rather uncharitable interpretation of the efforts of a Caley Thistle side who were less demoralised than you might expect of a team who have gone 14 league matches without a win.
Anyone who expected them to go quietly into the Championship clearly forgot that they have the feisty Richie Foran as manager. Next up for them is an intriguing home match with Rangers.
“That was the old fighting Inverness,” Foran said. “All season, we’ve looked good going forward and a goal threat but we were lazy going back. But what a battling performance.”
There were heroes throughout his team. Fon Williams did brilliantly all day, including guessing correctly as he threw himself to his left to keep out Walker’s spotkick after Ross Draper had gone in clumsily on Arnaud Djoum.
The inexperienced defensive duo of recently-signed Louis Laing and on-loan Celtic youngster Jamie McCart deputised like veterans in the absence of the unavailable Gary Warren, Josh Meekings and Brad McKay. Lone striker Billy McKay held the ball up all day, wingers Larnell Cole and Jake Mulraney were lively, and Draper won most things in both boxes.
And Foran said he was as surprised as anyone when defender Carl Tremarco scored his seventh goal of the season from a pinpoint Greg Tansey free-kick to put Inverness ahead after 24 minutes.
Foran said: “I told Carlo yesterday he won’t score again this season and told him I didn’t want to see him in the opposition box. Once again he’s showed me up. It is getting closer to me losing a few quid when he gets to 10.”
A frustrated Cathro went off into the night thinking that all his canny January recruitment could be fatally undermined by a soft, cloying surface on which it is currently well nigh impossible to play his favoured passing game.
While Hearts equaliser finally came when Djoum converted a Perry Kitchen cross from close range, goalkeeper Jack Hamilton often only succeeded in playing his defenders into difficulty and young substitute Rory Currie was rather embarrassed when a bobble caused him to fresh air swipe with virtually the last chance of the game.
While the pitch is due to be relaid in the summer, that may be too late to stop Hearts squandering further ground in the race for the European spots.
“It [the pitch] doesn’t make things easier,” said Cathro, who also lost Bjorn Johnsen to injury. “Of course it is a factor. It is something we need to look at collectively. We need to try to manage these things and have the guys doing as much work as they can to help us.
On the penalty miss, Cathro added: “Normally he [Walker] would put that away. But we created other chances too. There was lots of effort and quality to dominate the game the way that we did.”
I told Carlo he won’t score again this season and I didn’t want to see him in the opposition box