Sparkling Hearts brush aside Jags to lead the chase
IF Aberdeen have fumbled and ultimately dropped the baton of being Celtic’s title-rivals-in-chief, which recent form suggests they surely have, then Hearts certainly don’t need a second invitation to pick it up and run with it.
While the wheels continue to come off the Pittodrie bandwagon at a ruinous pace, the challenge of Hearts continues to gather steady momentum. Quiet and unassuming, much like in the image of their head coach Robbie Neilson, they continue to scale new heights.
This comprehensive victory over Partick Thistle moves them up to second place in the Premiership table, one point ahead of Aberdeen and six behind Celtic. It would be naive to expect a newly-promoted team to sustain such a challenge, but the style of football Neilson has his team playing means that they are unlikely to die wondering.
Setting his team out in a throwback to a classic 4-4-2 formation, he gives his men every opportunity to play with verve and swagger.
That this victory was secured by two goals apiece from a genuine two-man strikeforce of Osman Sow and Juanma Delgado spoke volumes about Hearts’ attacking intent.
The pair dovetailed to devastating effect time and again and it was the unconventional style of Sow, in particular, which proved such a menace to the Thistle defence.
The big Swede’s gangly frame would look more at ease shooting hoops for the Harlem Globetrotters than on a football pitch, but there can be no doubting his importance to his team.
Yet, after watching his two strikers share four goals between them at Firhill, Neilson responded by saying that he still expects more from them.
‘The strikers scored two good goals each, but I don’t think they played very well overall,’ said the Hearts boss. ‘The rest of their game could — and should — be better.
‘Sow and Juanma could be the top goalscorers in Scotland, no bother, but they need to do it all the time.
‘They need to hold the ball up better, link it better, make better runs in behind. Their ability is great, but they need to show it more often.
‘Our first-half performance wasn’t good enough. We were lucky to come in 1-0 ahead because Partick were the better team.
‘If we’d played like that in the first half against Celtic last Wednesday night, we’d have been 4-0 down. We must do it all the time.’
Neilson is an immensely tough taskmaster, clearly, but how Thistle must have wished they had a striker anywhere near the ability of either of the two which the Hearts boss had at his disposal.
After last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Hamilton, Firhill front man Mathias Pogba demanded that his team-mates pass the ball to him more often. They duly obliged yesterday, but the Thistle striker showed all the adhesive qualities of a brick wall in his lone-striker role, failing to hold the ball up and being far too ponderous in possession to lead any counter-attacks.
Yet, there is so much more to Hearts’ attacking armoury than just their strikers. They defend with all the anger and intensity of an Alanis Morissette love song, while attacking with all the guile and poise of an 11-man symphony orchestra in perfect harmony. It is a thing of beauty as much as devastation.
No player epitomises that all-action style more so than Callum Paterson, the 21-year-old marauding right-back made captain for the afternoon by Neilson, and a player who must surely rank as one of the more rapidly improving footballers in the country.
‘It was a huge privilege and honour for me to be captain for the afternoon,’ said Paterson. ‘It was unusual because I’ve never ever been captain of anyone — not even my boys’ club when I was younger.
‘But it shows the faith the manager has in me and that’s something that I’m really proud of because I like to get stuck in at both ends of the pitch and lead by example.’
Sow carved out the opening goal after 38 minutes. Static Thistle defending afforded the big Swede an embarrassment of time and space inside the penalty area. He centred the ball for Juanma to slide in and divert the ball past Thistle keeper Ryan Scully.
The same combination linked shortly after half-time to make it 2-0. Sow received a pass from Juanma with his back to goal. The Thistle defence failed to get tight enough and allowed the Hearts striker to use his beanpole frame to turn and wriggle free before calmly sliding the ball past Scully.
The impressive figure of Arnaud Djoum then danced and jinked his way through some non-existent Thistle challenges before Liam Lindsay hauled him down for a penalty kick. Juanma stepped up calmly to slot the ball home from the spot, doubling his tally for the afternoon and moving on to seven league goals for the season.
Thistle’s misery was compounded just before full-time. Billy King slid Sow through on goal with a majestic slide-rule pass. The striker was upended by Scully, who was given his marching orders by referee Steven McLean.
Having used all of their substitutes for the afternoon, it was left to former Hearts man Ryan Stevenson to don the goalkeeper’s jersey for the resulting penalty kick and, despite getting a hand to it, he couldn’t prevent Sow from doubling his tally and making it 4-0 to Hearts.