Woeful Hearts well beaten
DID you know that 12 publishers turned down JK Rowling before someone took a chance on her Mother wellsupporting wizard and his Hogwarts chums? Or that Decca Records had the chance to sign The Beatles but thought guitar bands were falling out of fashion? Some of the worst decisions of all time, no doubt about it.
Right up there, in fact, with Hearts manager Ian Cathro deciding to deploy Lennard Sowah at centre-half in yesterday’s defeat at Partick Thistle.
The former Hamilton left-back looked at times as if he was a fan who had won a competition to play in a testimonial, such was his ineptitude in the position, and the move took all of five minutes to blow up in Cathro’s face.
Ryan Edwards floated a ball into the area that should have been meat and drink to Sowah, but he skewed his header up into the air allowing Liam Lindsay to head back down to Doolan, who produced an instant turn and finish with his left foot past Jack Hamilton.
For Cathro, who now has just four wins from his 14 games in charge, the selection of the player there in place of the injured Aaron Hughes wasn’t the main issue though, as he challenged his players to start repaying the support of their clearly angry fans.
“It’s a difficult moment,” Cathro said. “We said on Wednesday night that we didn’t do enough in a game of that magnitude to give everybody what they needed to see from the team that they love.
“Today, we didn’t do it either. So, everything that was said on Wednesday, is the same situation. We have to progress.”
It was just so easy for Thistle as the disjointed Hearts side failed to get near them.
That was neatly exemplified as Edwards strolled through midfield before releasing Callum Booth on the left, who whipped a ball straight onto the head of Doolan free in the area, but Hamilton did brilliantly to parry away his effort on goal low to his right.
Hearts were woeful and Thistle really should have been out of sight, but any unlikely threat of a comeback was dismissed along with Isma Goncalves on the hour.
It was a sending-off wholly in-keeping with the shambolic nature of Hearts’ day, as the forward needlessly fouled Christie Elliott to pick up a second yellow from referee Nick Walsh. The stupidity of his actions was compounded by the fact he had picked up his first caution for dissent – after Hearts had been awarded a free-kick.
Thistle made the most of their man advantage with a little over a quarter an hour remaining as Abdul Osman chased what looked to be a lost cause on the right, kept the ball in and then hooked it back into the area.
Sowah missed his attempted clearance, allowing Lindsay to take a touch in the area before finishing like a seasoned centre-forward from 12 yards.
“I took one of the best touches I’ll ever take in my life,” said a still startled-looking Lindsay.
“Then I hit the best shot I’ll ever take as well.
“We felt comfortable throughout the game today and we never looked out of control.”
Ain’t that the truth.