Sammon warning as stuttering Hearts draw another blank
CONOR SAMMON warned Hearts they must rapidly rediscover a ruthless streak in order to remain relevant at the right end of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.
Failures in front of goal made it two Saturdays in a row without scoring for a team that previously had few problems in that department when brushing Hamilton and Inverness Caley aside at home.
However, against the road-trip spoilers of Ross County — who earned a goalless draw at Ibrox last week — there was no way through thanks to the excellence of goalkeeper Scott Fox.
‘We’re aware we’re going to come up against teams frustrating us a lot, so we will have to learn and learn quickly,’ said Sammon.
‘The Inverness name was a classic example of us scoring early on and confidence flowed. We need to be more like that, more ruthless.
‘Their goalkeeper pulled off some really good saves but we feel he shouldn’t have much of a chance if we were doing our job right.
‘We’re creating chances — we need to start taking them.’
Fox was a busy man at Ibrox last week, earning praise from Rangers captain Lee Wallace when speaking on Friday of the County star’s performance.
At another daunting away venue, Fox carried on that form. Four times in the first half, he denied Hearts.
The pick of the saves was probably the first, a stunning reaction to tip Tony Watt’s dig over the bar.
Sammon fared no better when twice confronted by Fox, who stood strong.
From a Don Cowie corner, an unmarked Igor Rossi header flashed straight into the well-positioned keeper’s grasp.
Hearts were by far the more dangerous team, yet County came closest to scoring. An Andrew Davies header crashed off the underside of the crossbar behind Callum Paterson and down but not over the line.
Stripped of the Hearts captaincy because of his lack of game action and replaced as skipper by United States midfielder Perry Kitchen, Alim Ozturk was thrust back into the centre of defence within half an hour yesterday because of injury to John Souttar.
But it wasn’t in defence where Hearts struggled. Creative players were not finding an edge, a problem highlighted by Sam Nicholson when firing wastefully wide.
While the first half had been entertaining for a scoreless game, the action after the break was increasingly tousy.
That increased the frustration of the home crowd, several of whom traded insults with Davies as the groggy County defender prepared to return to the pitch following treatment for a head knock.
‘Some of them were saying some unpleasant things to me,’ explained Davies. ‘I had just been knocked out, so let them know I was disappointed with some comments.’
Hearts attempts to build moves were smothered by diligent tackling, with Ian McShane prominent until his combative endeavours went over the top.
Two quick bookings — with a late lunge on Faycal Rherras in front of the Hearts dugout the second offence — brought a red card from Alan Muir six minutes from time.