Smith all fired up to make amends for rout on darkest day

MICHAEL SMITH has described Hearts’ 5-0 humbling at the hands of Livingston as his darkest day in football.

The experienced defender believes the team owe it to themselves and the club’s supporters to make amends for that wretched showing when they return to West Lothian today.

Smith, 31, still shudders when he recalls the “collapse” last

December, insisting that a swathe of players “hid” as the hosts ran riot in a staggering final 20 minutes. It remains Livi’s biggest victory in the top flight.

Goals from Craig Halkett, now a Hearts player, Dolly Menga, Shaun Byrne and a Ryan Hardie brace did the damage, while Arnaud Djoum was dismissed on a disastrous, chastening evening. It is all the fuel Smith needs as they prepare for the short journey west.

“Does that still hurt? Yeah,” he nods. “It’s one of our darkest days as a team and I think it was my darkest day in football. It was a terrible night for us. We didn’t play well at all and just collapsed. I wouldn’t say we owe them one, but we owe it to ourselves to go there and compete a lot better, and we owe the fans a better performance than the last time.

“We’ll certainly be remembering that scoreline when we go there.

“We collapsed and we hid. Once they scored and Arnaud [Djoum] was sent off, from that point it was like The Alamo. We just couldn’t get out and couldn’t seem to do anything about it. Maybe we should have tried to keep the score down and get out of there with a 2-0.

“However, it happened and, although I wouldn’t say we are better for it, you remember results like that and it stands you in good stead for other performances.”

The defeat was so humbling that the team cancelled Christmas, immediately scrapping a planned weekend in Prague.

“We had a meeting on the bus straight after the game and said ‘there’s no way we can go after that’,” recalls Smith. “It would have looked bad and we wanted to get some extra training in. It was an easy decision to make. I wouldn’t have been in the right mood to go away and have a fun weekend after that.”

Even Hearts’ most experienced player, 90-times capped Ireland midfielder Glenn Whelan, has been served with advanced warning of what to expect.

Smith added: “I was saying to Whelo [Glenn Whelan] that this will be one of the toughest games he’s had in Scotland, if not the toughest.”

While Hearts are still toiling in 10th place in the Premiership following a wholly uninspiring start to the campaign, a hard-fought draw against Rangers last Sunday has fostered a sense of positivity this week. Craig Levein’s men have also produced positive performances in crunch fixtures against city rivals Hibernian and in their Betfred Cup quarter-final against Aberdeen. Smith now believes the challenge is to reach those levels in less high-profile outings.

“You don’t need to say much to get up for big games,” continued Smith. “That’s probably why we’ve performed in those. So, it’s now about getting the mentality to get that against all teams; the so-called lesser teams. You need to be just as – if not more – up for it. You know they will be aggressive and hungry to win the game. Your mentality needs to be even better for those games.”

Smith is likely to continue in the heart of defence this afternoon as he continues to display his priceless versatility.

“I just let the bigger boys head it and I’ll sweep in behind!” laughed Smith. “No, I enjoy it. I read the game well and feel like I’m more part of the game when I’m in the middle. I can talk to my team-mates more and keep them right. I feel like it’s a bigger role.”

Meanwhile, as Livingston’s Lee Miller prepares to cross swords with one of his 10 former clubs, he has revealed he would have loved to have stayed at Tynecastle long term.

Miller, who joined them on loan from Bristol City for the second half of the 2004/05 campaign, was a revelation, scoring 11 goals in 23 appearances under John Robertson and but for the managerial uncertainty brought about by Vladimir Romanov’s takeover he may never have left Gorgie.

“I loved my time at Hearts and it was one of the best spells of my career. It’s maybe the only period of my career where I knew I would score every time I played.

“When my loan came to an end, I never really got the opportunity to stay. A lot of fans don’t realise that and I was gutted at how it all ended.

“It was a strange time, with Romanov taking over, John Robertson had been sacked and there was a deal I couldn’t commit to as there was no manager. Under different circumstances, I would have definitely stayed there.”

KILMARNOCK midfielder Alan Power agrees with Angelo Alessio’s demand for more goals but admits his attributes perhaps lie elsewhere.

The 31-year-old Irishman has only scored once for Killie since he signed from Lincoln in 2017 and that was in a 2-1 win at St Mirren last season, with his normal work done in a holding midfield role alongside Gary Dicker.

Killie are sitting in fifth place in the Ladbrokes Premiership but have only scored eight times this season. It is a statistic that irks their Italian boss and ahead of today’s visit of St Mirren, Power conceded he would like to get back on the scoresheet again.

“That goal against St Mirren seems a long time ago now, and I think I’ll take any sort of goal at the minute and hopefully it comes this weekend but I would like to chip in.

“I think the manager is right. I don’t think we’ve ever been really free flowing. But I think we do need to score more goals and help to score more goals.

“I think if the manager knows anything about me and Gary we are probably not going to be scoring five, six, seven goals a season. It would be lovely but I think our job is pretty much for the team and then hopefully the rest can do the business up top.”

Another man with goals on his mind is St Mirren striker Danny Mullen. He has set his sights on hitting double figures after opening his Ladbrokes Premiership account last week in the Paisley outfit’s 2-0 win over St Johnstone.

“As a striker you want to score your first goal as quickly as you can and it’s taken me a few weeks to get my first one in. It’s come now, so hopefully we can kick on,” Mullen said. “My target is just to try to get as many as I can this season and hopefully get into double figures and if I get there push on from that.”

Mullen believes they can build on their win over St Johnstone.

He said: “To get the two goals and keep a clean sheet was another positive we can take from the game to take into the Kilmarnock game.”

HIBERNIAN goalkeeper Chris Maxwell admits conventional wisdom went out of the window when Wales legend Neville Southall once told him saving shots meant he was not doing his job properly.

Even though Hibs remain without a win in the last five games in which the on-loan Preston shotstopper has played, Maxwell can draw some comfort of having had little to do in those matches, except pick the ball out of the net.

The 29-year-old is adamant the team are heading in the right direction, partly backed up by the fact Paul Heckingbottom’s side have taken the lead in five of their last seven Premiership matches.

Maxwell, who is hoping to keep a clean sheet in today’s visit of Ross County, shares the frustration felt by the supporters but, taking into

account former Everton keeper Southall’s sage words, believes he must be doing something right.

Maxwell said: “I’m not having to make a lot of saves so something’s going right, something’s working. We’ve played Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and Kilmarnock and they’re all the best teams in the league, so I was told.

“Goalkeeping is about more than just saving shots. I am lucky enough to be from the same area of Wales Neville Southall is from. And he told me as a kid: ‘If you’re saving shots, then you’re not doing your job properly’, and I asked why?

“He said: ‘If you’re organising the boys in front of you, you’re taking crosses, you’re keeping the ball and you’re sweeping up behind…then you don’t have to save shots. And if you’re not saving shots they’re not scoring goals’.”

“If you think about it if you can stop it at source and you’re not being bombarded by shots every game, then you’re not going to concede as many goals. It’s as simple as that.”

Meanwhile, Hibs have announced that Graeme Mathie will become the club’s first sporting director. Mathie, who has been the head of player recruitment since August 2014, will take up the role from January 1 when George Craig steps down as head of football operations.

HAMILTON defender Scott McMann is pleased to be able to focus solely on his performances on the pitch after securing his longterm future this month. The 23-yearold academy graduate has played a key role in the club’s strong start to the season and was rewarded with a new contract which ties him to New Douglas Park until 2022.

“It’s sort of been in the pipeline for a little while but I’m happy to get it finalised so I can just focus on football now. It means I can focus on helping the club achieve what they want to achieve.

“When I saw the players we’ve brought in and the players we’ve managed to keep I was always confident we were going to have a decent season and we’ve started reasonably well so it’s going to plan.

“We’ve nearly played every team in the league and we seem to be competing with everyone. I think that will continue to be the case, I can’t see us at this moment having a dip.”

Hamilton sit eighth in the Premiership table, five points clear of today’s hosts St Johnstone, who occupy bottom spot after being unable to win any of their first nine league games.

McMann knows the Saints will be heading into the game with their eyes firmly fixed on ending that poor run.

“When you’re down there scrapping, you give it everything. They will be looking to get their first win so they’ll be targeting Saturday as a massive one.

“They’ve got good attacking players so we’ll need to defend properly if we want to get a result and go from there.”

CHIC CHARNLEY believes that the good times are set to roll at Firhill once more, because Ian McCall reminds him of his former manager and Partick Thistle legend, John Lambie.

Charnley briefly worked under McCall at Clydebank at the start of his managerial career, and he feels that the way the Jags boss has matured since then has made him a natural leader of men.

On top of that, he understands the club, and Charnley thinks that will be a key factor in bringing success back to Maryhill.

“It’s good to see them getting their identity back with Ian taking over,” Charnley said. “I know him and how he works. He reminds me of John Lambie a bit in the rapport that he has with his players. He doesn’t over-think things as a manager and I’m confident he will do well at Thistle.

“I don’t want to do down Gary Caldwell but some people just don’t fit in at places. And you look at Ian’s record at all the clubs he’s been at and he’s always done well. It’s so important to have that bond with your players and Ian seems to have that.

“He’s got such experience now and that helps. He’ll not be as intense now as he maybe was when he was younger and that comes with maturity. He’ll do really well here.

“I can see a difference in him from his younger years. And you saw how he did at Ayr in particular to see how much he’s improved as a manager. I worked with him briefly at Clydebank and you could tell even back then he knew the game inside out.

“He’s got to get the club stabilised again but I’m almost certain they’ll reach the play-offs this season.”

Thistle as a club still has an emotional pull on Charnley, with the madcap maverick still taking in games whenever he can. And he is sure that same pull was at work on McCall as he made the decision to leave high-flying Ayr United to return to his old stomping ground.

“It tells you a lot that Ian was willing to leave a team that was flying in Ayr to come back to Thistle,” he said. “And even the Ayr chairman praised him for the job that he did there.

“This is a Premiership club and that’s where they deserve to be. But they are where they are for a reason. Even under the gaffer they were in the second division for a spell and nearly went out the game completely. So they can’t take anything for granted. But I’d like to think they’ll get back into the top division soon as that’s where they belong.”

A Pizza, A Pint and A Legend featuring George Shaw, Chic Charnley and Martin Hardie takes place at Firhill on Friday 1 November. Tickets via ptfc.co.uk

ROBBIE Neilson will try to keep Dundee United on an even keel as they look to get their Ladbrokes Championship title quest back on track.

Defeats to Alloa and Queen of the South away from home in their last two matches have halted the Terrors’ fine start to the season.

However, ahead of the visit of Dunfermline today, Neilson insists that not getting carried away with the good times or dismayed by the bad is key.

He told ArabZONE: “We know that when we’re going through a good period and winning three, four or five on the bounce we have to remain calm in what we’re doing and not get over-excited. The same happens if we lose a couple of games.

“We have to make sure we remain calm and try to focus on some of the positives, but also work on the negatives and try not to make it happen again.”

Meanwhile, Dunfermline captain Paul Paton insists he would accept more war wounds this afternoon if it meant the Pars picking up another three points.

Paton finished last weekend’s 3-2 victory over Ayr United with blood streaming from a gash just above his eye following a nasty clash with former Fifers midfielder Andy Geggan.

After being hasilty bandaged at the time, the 32-year-old had to have stiches inserted in the cut in the dressing room immediately after the game.

But the midfielder reckons the pain was a small price to pay for a crucial win that extended Dunfermline’s unbeaten run to four matches with a first home league win in seven months.

He said: “I was aware of our home record, we hadn’t won a home game since March. For a club like this it is obviously not good enough.

“To finally get the win, we will take a lot of confidence out of that.

“Ryan Dow and I were in getting stitches at the same time after the game but it is always easier to take when you get the three points.”

WITH the exuberance of last-gasp winning goals that clinch precious European points, the mere mention of co-efficient tables and rankings leaves one open to accusations of trying to solve the insomnia issue after such heady evenings under the floodlights.

If Thursday night inside Celtic Park felt like a throwback as the stadium rocked and heaved following the win over Lazio, the echo of days gone was pressed further by the manner of the point that Rangers took from Porto.

Both teams flying the flag in Europe might conjure images of grainy black-and-white footage and yet it wasn’t too long ago that Scotland had two teams competing in the group stage of the Champions League – and Aberdeen in the old UEFA Cup at the same time.

This week gave rise to excited chatter about a return to such halcyon days. It is not just pertinent to point out that it is particularly premature but also that the ground beneath Scottish clubs has moved considerably while we have been toiling to tread water in European football.

It is right to applaud the harvesting of the most coefficient points for a decade but the problem is that the goalposts have shifted in that time. The introduction of a third-tier European tournament, dully christened the Europa Conference League, has largely gone unnoticed by those in Scottish circles, and yet its birth does not auger well.

The push to get to 15th in the co-efficient table is vital, but not only for the reasons that have caused much ado over the last few days.

Created under the guise of increasing the number of countries who are given access to European football, Europe’s third-tier tournament has the potential to become a graveyard for the aspirations of Scottish clubs. Its inception is anticipated in season 2021-22 and means that the points clocked up this season by Celtic and Rangers in the Europa League carry significantly more weight than simply opening the door to participation in the competition beyond Christmas.

While we are all rubbing our hands at the long-term ambition of having two teams competing in Champions League football or cutting down the amount of qualifying rounds to get there, the more pressing matter is whether there will be an invite at all.

Under UEFA’s proposals, only countries who are in the top-15 ranked nations will be allowed to compete in the Champions League and Europa League. Scotland are currently 18th. Leapfrogging Cyprus, Serbia and Greece on paper looks straightforward – just one group-stage win and one draw would do it – but what that view doesn’t allow for is that the other teams can also still pick up points along the way.

To make the picture clearer, consider this: had the new format been up and running this season Rangers would have started the season in the third-tier competition. So while the concept of nudging up the rankings has encouraged much merriment about the potential of two Champions League places, there really is more to it than just that.

Essentially, UEFA calculate the rankings and coefficients by aggregating the points accrued over a five-year period.

Right now, the biggest danger to Scottish clubs isn’t that they miss out on 15th and the chance of landing a second ticket to the biggest club tournament of all, but that the threat of UEFA making the Champions League even more elite than it is now should feature prominently in their thinking.

This season and next will be critical, then, when it comes to the amassing of points. The portents are encouraging so far but there is a significant distance still to travel.

It is understandable that given the drought of hope in Europe over recent seasons that there should be a rush to celebrate these small steps forward but there remains a sizeable job to do in terms of ensuring that the kind of nights Celtic Park witnessed on Thursday night remain a possibility.

That is not to cast a grey cloud over the progress that has been made this season.

The qualifying rounds, arduous and complicated, have actually helped in terms of bringing in points but with six games at least left between Celtic and Rangers in the Europa league there is scope to continue chipping away at it.

It’s a little twee to suggest that Rangers and Celtic can work together for the good of the coefficient since the parochial nature of Scottish football means the greater good is rarely a factor in cheering one way or the other. But having two teams qualify for the latter stages would be a massive shot in the arm for a country who need to continue their upward trajectory.

THE spectacle of hundreds of Lazio fans doing straight-arm, Fascist salutes as they marched through the streets of Glasgow on Thursday was repugnant, but hardly surprising.

In Italy, hardcore football fans are called ultras, and Lazio’s ultras are the most hardcore in the country: called the Irriducibili (the “irreducibles” or “die-hards”), they are infamous not just for their political extremism but also for bank-jobs, drug-dealing and unsolved murders. Far from being football fans, the Irriducibili are a criminal gang.

It was the city’s misfortune that the match between Celtic and Lazio was on October 24: the day before, the 23rd, marked the anniversary of the Budapest uprising of 1956, always celebrated by the Irriducibili as a symbol of underdogs rebelling against Communism.

As they goose-stepped through Glasgow, the Irriducibili were singing their anthem, Avanti Ragazzi di Buda (“come on kids of Buda”). The timing was also sensitive because, just last week, UEFA decided that Lazio’s Curva Nord (the “north terrace”, which is home to the Irriducibili) would be closed for Celtic’s away leg in Rome on November 7 because of previous Fascist salutes in their match against Rennes. So Thursday was the last chance for the defiant extremists to strut their stuff on the international stage.

But there are deeper sub-plots at work, too. In August, the Irriducibili’s leader, Fabrizio Piscitelli (nicknamed “Diabolik”) was murdered as he sat on a park bench in Rome. It was a professional hit (a bullet to his left ear from someone dressed as a jogger) and had all the hallmarks of an underworld reprisal. Piscitelli had previously been convicted of handling hundreds of kilos of narcotics, and had recently had assets of over 2m euro seized.

There is now a power-vacuum at the top, and because the Irriducibili are leaderless, various lieutenants are jostling to become top-dog. Each aspiring leader is trying to prove they’re more Fascist, more “ultra”, than their rivals. There’s also external pressure: the Irriducibili have bossed the Lazio terraces for almost three decades now, and in recent years various rival groups, like the “Hit Firm”, have attempted to take their crown. At this time of possible vulnerability – leaderless and under attack from football officialdom and the Italian police – the Irriducibili inevitably wanted a show of force, all the better if abroad.

Sadly, there’s nothing new in all this. In the early 1970s, at the birth of the ultra movement, many Laziali toyed with Fascist insignia – celtic crosses, doubleheaded axes, even swastikas. It was, as with the Hells Angels and punks, often just a way to spook straight society. But over the years, Lazio became a haven for true believers nostalgic for Benito Mussolini’s totalitaranism: they organised formal twinnings with other Fascist groups from Inter and Verona, and many black players – like Lillian Thuram – refused offers to join the club.

It would be easy to dismiss the Irriducibili as mindless thugs, but – unlike British hooligans of old – the Irriducibili are highly organised and calculating. It was noticeable on Thursday that they were almost all dressed identically, in blue jeans and black jackets. The group has always appeared hierarchical and paramilitary: it was the first in Italy to erect huge speakers in the terraces so that one leader, with one microphone, could dictate all the singing. The group set up a multi-million merchandising operation, under the “Original Fans” label. At one point they had 14 outlets. Their strength was such that, in 2005, they even provided the muscle, and threats, for a hostile takeover bid of Lazio using Mafia money and a club legend, Giorgio Chinaglia, as an unwitting front man.

Since then, the Irriducibili have constantly been in the news for their provocative stunts and anti-Semitism. But the most serious aspect of the ultras’ extremism is the fact that it is indulged and excused by so many within Italian society. It has become fashionable to express admiration for Mussolini here, and far-right political parties – the “League”, “Brothers of Italy” and all the others – are currently, combined, polling well over 30 per cent. Of course, millions of Italians and many ordinary Lazio fans are appalled by it all, but sadly what was shocking for Scottish citizens is a grim, weekly occurance in the Italian capital.