Caldwell urges Thistle to switch on and deal with set-piece specialists

PARTICK THISTLE manager Gary Caldwell insists his side must limit Hearts’ opportunities to go through their repertoire of creative set-piece routines in Tuesday’s Scottish Cup replay.

The Tynecastle side took the lead from a well-worked corner that led to Christophe Berra heading home before Christie Elliott levelled in last Monday’s 1-1 quarter-final draw at Firhill.

Hearts have become renowned for trying to catch out opposition teams with inventive dead-ball deliveries and former Scotland — and Celtic defender Caldwell admits the Jags must try and avoid inviting pressure on themselves.

Caldwell said: ‘They are a physical team and giving them as many corners as we did in the first half is something we have to improve on.

‘We gave them far too many set-pieces because we gave the ball away too often but, as we grew in belief, we took a lot of their assets and strengths away from them with the way we played.

‘I thought, set-piecewise, we were very good apart from the goal, because they have a lot of variation in their set-pieces — that was the one time we switched off.’

Berra’s header in last Monday’s draw at Firhill made it a dozen setpiece successes for the Tynecastle men this season and Hearts assistant Austin MacPhee is the man responsible for cooking up the imaginative moves.

When a free-kick is awarded in a potentially rewarding area, MacPhee can be seen on the touchline calling out the instruction — or nickname of the routine — to the Hearts players.

For Levein, the extensive work undertaken by his No2 to create a set-piece playbook in the style of an NFL offensive coordinator is an essential part of the club’s armoury.

‘Teams get to know each other pretty well in this league and the games tend to be tight because of that,’ said Levein.

‘You need something different, it’s something you can surprise the opposition with — and there’s not many ways we can do that.

‘We play each other that many times the only other way you can surprise people is when signing new players before the season or in January.

‘So Austin does most of the set-piece work. He has quite a varied range to use so defenders don’t always know what is coming. Some are quite straightforward and it’s about getting the ball in. Others are quite inventive.

‘Austin has done well, has been given the time to run with it, he discusses it a lot with the players about what routines they want to use in certain games. They have a little playbook.’