Courageous Hearts not missing a beat
Levein’s battlers race five clear of the pack
IT may be too early to make a rounded judgment on this Hearts team, but on such days are credible title challenges built.
Five wins out of five marks the Tynecastle side’s strongest start to a league season since George Burley’s team raced out of the traps to win eight on the spin in 2005.
Assembled at far greater expense, Burley’s lot ran out of steam as winter set in, so Craig Levein will not be making any assumptions but what wonderful medicine this victory was for Levein, who is easing himself back into working life after a heart scare saw him hospitalised last month.
The Tynecastle manager opted to watch this one from Fir Park’s main stand, leaving the touchline work to assistants Austin MacPhee and Jon Daly.
Hearts were not always in control of this match, yet even in those moments of Motherwell pressure, positive signs abounded.
In goal, Zdenek Zlamal pulled off an early save that would have spread confidence throughout a young defence. The centre-back pairing of John Souttar and Jimmy Dunne may lack years, but is well balanced and stood up well to the bruising threat posed by Curtis Main and, later, Ryan Bowman.
And at the other end of the pitch, Uche Ikpeazu continues to take a wrecking ball to the SPFL, his physicality throwing defenders into a spin even before they comprehend how neat his link-up play can be.
Neither team would have especially welcomed the international break. Encouraged by a 3-3 draw against Rangers, Stephen Robinson’s team had kicked on with a convincing 3-1 win over Dundee that lifted them further away from the bottom of the table.
At the other end of the league, Hearts have been rampant, with a Steven Naismith hat-trick destroying St Mirren at Tynecastle before he took advantage of his late call-up to star and score for Scotland against Albania.
Levein tweaked his team to allow Naismith scope to drift off the left flank and into the space around Ikpeazu and the ploy reaped dividends. And yet it was the home side who started more powerfully. Danny Johnson’s knockdown gave Main a sight of goal and, on the bounce, he delivered a fullblooded shot that required agility and a strong arm from Zlamal. Peter Hartley also saw an opportunity from distance and caught his half-volleyed effort sweetly only for it to be taken over the bar via a deflection off the head of Dunne.
All that momentum was lost after a slack piece of play from Carl McHugh, who made a hash of a back pass and quite literally put Trevor Carson in trouble.
The mountainous size of Ikpeazu means that there never really is such a thing as a 50-50 challenge with the forward and Carson came off worse amid a thudding sound of a ball being pounded from both sides. The keeper attempted to reach the breaking ball but it was Naismith who gathered and steadied himself before clipping it into the empty net.
Evidently in some distress, Carson had to be replaced by Mark Gillespie.
Motherwell garnered a reputation for being the toughest kids on the Premiership block last term but the sight of Chris Cadden being effortlessly held off as the striker turned a full 360-degree circle with the ball at his feet summed up the mismatch. Allan Campbell’s attempt at retribution merely gave away a cheap foul.
Ikpeazu gives as good as he gets and was eventually cautioned by referee Bobby Madden for persistent fouling.
Motherwell were duty bound to push for an equaliser and McHugh forced another stop from Zlamal with a glancing header that might have made better use of Gael Bigirimana’s inviting delivery.
Inevitably, the game stretched and Hearts had scope to counter. Demetri Mitchell had been a subdued figure at left-back but, with space opening up to forage, he was soon galloping up and down the flank and forced Gillespie to earn his money with one angled shot.
Hearts shored things up by throwing on debutant Clevid Dikamona as an extra centre-back but paradoxically started creating more chances.
Olly Lee fired wide from distance and then Ikpeazu showed that his finishing does not quite match up to some of his other qualities when he twice skewed the ball wide.
‘I thought our base strength today was our defending,’ reflected Levein. ‘Our two young centre-backs were amazing.
‘And I thought out support was brilliant. You would have thought we were the home team at times. That does help the players, particularly in a situation where they are bombarding us with balls into the box and Jimmy Dunne and John Souttar are repelling them.
‘I sat there thinking: “I don’t feel stressed about this”.
‘I used to sit in the stand a lot with Dundee United and I always found it better for my half-time team talk because you don’t get involved in the emotions of what happens down on the touchline.
‘But I am itching to get back down there. I felt good today, maybe because we won.’