Strong Hearts come up short in front of goal
THE thing about even the most tiresome and overused clichés is they tend to have a ring of truth about them.
Football is full of such utterances. Some of them silly, others spot on, such as the one which applied to this game and in particular Hearts.
“If you don’t score goals you don’t win games” is as obvious as revealing Christmas falls in the month of December this year; however, if you have a team that does so much right except when they get into the opposition’s penalty box then too many should-be-three-points results will end in just the one.
Hearts have failed to score in their last two games, and also drew a blank at Pittodrieearlier in the season. It’s not a huge problem, not yet, but neither is it one that can be ignored by manager Robbie Neilson, who did make the point that once his team clicked, the goals will flow, given they are doing everything else pretty well.
“We have had the same problem in the last two games,” admitted midfielder Arnaud Djoum. “We created a lot of chances but didn’t score. It’s very frustrating. It’s just about the little details. If we can turn them into more goals then everything will be fine.
“We should have had six points from these last two games. We only have one, which is disappointing, but we have to keep working hard and trying to score goals. We are playing well and creating chances. It is just about putting the ball in the net; in football you have to score if you are going to win games. That has been the only problem in these two games. We’ll work hard in training and try to really concentrate on finishing. Everything will be fine.”
And it probably will be for the men in Maroon. There is a lot to admire about this Hearts side. They are well organised, move the ball about quickly and well, they are not going to lose many physical battles and the squad is strong.
If we all accept that Celtic are unstoppable, then the Tynecastle club are as well set up as anyone to finish best of the rest. “When you look the league it is really frustrating not to have won these two games,” said Djoum. “It’s really hard to take that we just have one point but we have to deal with it. The team has a lot of confidence in the strikers we have. They are good players.
“But it is not just about the strikers. Other players can score – midfielders like me or a defender from a corner. Everyone has to focus towards scoring, you cannot put the fault solely on the strikers. As I said, they are small details but they make a big difference. “
To be fair to Hearts, they did come up against an inspired goalkeeper in Scott Fox who was a real hero for Ross County. He made four good saves in the first half, two of them easily coming into the excellent category, which followed up his fine performance at Ibrox on the previous weekend.
The Dingwall outfit are great at digging out results from games they are second best in. It was the same here. Andrew Davies hit the bar with a header but they never looked like scoring.
“We have drawn the last three games but that’s not the worst,” said County player Jonathan Franks.
“The first one was Motherwell at home when we went down to 10 men. So we took the positives from the point. Ibrox was a good point away from home. And Tynecastle is a tough place to go and play. They’re a good side but we managed to come away with a point with the 10 men. Last year, we might have gone out and lost a game like the Motherwell game at home. So it’s a step in the right direction that we’re grinding out the points.”
It helps that they have Fox who is small for a goalkeeper but one heck of a shot-stopper. He’s also good with his feet. County should do more going forward but their goalkeeper is giving everything he can.
“We need to tighten up at the back from what we did last year and we want to score a few more goals ourselves,” said Franks.
“Foxy has been brilliant. He is a good keeper. When he has been called upon, he has been there to keep us in the game.
“He gives the lads at the back confidence.
“We had to tighten up at the back from what we did last year and we have done so far. Hopefully we can start chipping in with a few more goals.”