BROKEN HEARTS
Cathro’s men jeered by fans after a horror show makes it easy for Jags
Cathro’s men are stung by Thistle
WHAT a sorry, gutless mess this Hearts team have become. Rarely do you see the kind of disjointed rubbish served up in the first half of this encounter.
A gleeful Thistle side stomped all over them and should have led by more than Kris Doolan’s fifthminute goal at the interval.
The second half was not a whole lot better. Outwith a trundling effort from distance by Sam Nicholson, home goalkeeper Tomas Cerny had almost nothing to do over the 90 minutes.
Esmael Goncalves, who was already on a stupid yellow card, killed off any faint hope of salvation for Hearts when he was sent off on 61 minutes for a late challenge on Christie Elliott.
His dismissal paved the way for Liam Lindsay to wrap it up for Thistle with a second goal 12 minutes later.
If this was the best Hearts could offer as a reaction to that spineless collapse to arch-rivals Hibernian in the Scottish Cup, God help them.
God help their manager Ian Cathro, too. It is a good job he is quite happy with punters firing abuse his way because it will be coming by the bucketload for as long as this dismal run goes on.
Just four wins in his 14 fixtures so far, Cathro cut a forlorn figure at the end, standing in front of the technical area on his own as a furious visiting support jeered his team off the park and then waited behind to boo him all the way to the dressing room.
Not one of his players came near him. Never even looked his way. Make of that what you will.
‘Do I want the fans to be patient? No,’ stated Cathro. ‘I want them to come and expect us to be perfect from the start of the game.
‘I want them to be how they feel. That’s what makes playing for this club more difficult than others.
‘It matters so much and the fans are powerful. Make it difficult for us, make it a challenge, make there be pressure.
‘I need to tell the truth. I took the responsibility to say we had lost the trust of the fans, so I am comfortable with that.’
Did he see any of the fight he had asked for after that midweek humiliation at Easter Road.
‘Rather than wasting time, let’s just say no,’ he replied. ‘Were we entirely bad? No. That would be untrue, but this is a difficult moment.’
A big part of Hearts’ problems stemmed from the loss of Aaron Hughes before kick-off. The veteran centre-back was replaced by Faycal Rherras, who came in at left-back, with Lennard Sowah moving into the centre of defence — where he endured a dreadful afternoon.
Afterwards, Cathro felt that switch was not a talking point. It was. Make no mistake about that.
Hearts conceded from a set-piece against Inverness last week and the opening goal yesterday came the same way.
Ryan Edwards crossed from the left and the ball came off Sowah’s outstretched foot and spun high in the air. As it dropped, Lindsay won the header and knocked it on to Doolan with his back to goal.
Fair play to him for finding the space to turn and dunt the ball past Hamilton.
Doolan has now scored 98 goals for Thistle. He could easily have reached his century during the first 45, being denied twice by Hamilton.
First time round, Mustapha Dumbuya saw his cross take a deflection and land nicely for the onrushing Doolan inside the area, but Hamilton smothered the ball bravely at his feet.
Three minutes before the break, he sprung to the rescue again. Callum Booth took a diagonal pass from Edwards and fired in a cross. Doolan delivered a strong header, but Hamilton got down low to his right to parry.
Hearts had been an absolute shambles up to then and lost their captain for the day, Jamie Walker, through injury.
They were all over the place in defence and largely absent in midfield.
Thistle won their battles and focused on the opposition’s weaknesses. Every time the ball went close to Sowah, they harried him, put him under pressure. He did not handle it well.
Goncalves is not handling things well either and signed his team’s death warrant just after the hour.
Cautioned on 49 minutes for complaining about a free-kick given in his team’s favour, he was guilty of a late foul on Elliott and sent packing by referee Nick Clark for a second bookable offence.
Lindsay then secured the points for Thistle in the most emphatic way. He received a cross from the right from Abdul Osman inside the area — missed by Sowah — took a touch, then thrashed home a magnificent shot on the turn from 12 yards.
‘I took probably one of the best touches I have ever taken and the shot is the best shot I have ever taken,’ said the centre-back.
Partick manager Alan Archibald, whose side have now lost just six goals in 12 games, has the comfort of a seven-point gap between his side and the play-off place. He believes his players broke Hearts’ spirit early on.
‘We made it a little bit ugly in the first 10-15 minutes,’ he admitted.
‘We felt we had to get on their backs and get their noisy fans turned against them. The plan worked.’