AFTER the exhilaration of Celtic Park last Wednesday, Hearts flitted to the opposite end of football's emotional spectrum in Lanarkshire.
Looking bereft of confidence and invention, they suffered a dispiriting defeat to Jim Gannon's Motherwell, after which the visiting manager Csaba Laszlo again bemoaned his squad's inexperience with Michael Stewart absent through an ankle injury.
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If we lose it's always disappointing," said Laszlo, after Ross Forbes' volley was compounded by Eggert Jonsson's second-half dismissal for a professional foul. "After the Celtic game, I thought there would be more confidence. I don't like to pick people out but, with some performances like that, you never win a game in the SPL. If you talk about a striker, what we have up front is not enough.
"The experienced players like Michael Stewart are not there and the team feels this. Experience is very important, even in defence. Craig Thomson is a very good talent but it is a learning process this season, learning simple things.
"I am not angry about this boy, if he has more experience maybe we can avoid the Motherwell goal. He can control the ball and put it in the corner.
"When we had ten men and we had a chance and we must use this. Motherwell showed us they can play effectively. They had one big chance in the first half, one in the second and scored. This is effective and this is what I wait for. The reality is this season will be very heavy for Hearts. If you have too many inexperienced players you definitely have a lot of painful games. The most important is for this team to win the home games."
On Jonsson's red card, issued for denying the outstanding Jim O'Brien a clear goalscoring opportunity after the Icelander misjudged a headed backpass, he continued: "Eggert had the ball on his head, if he heads back the keeper has the ball. You must not make the foul. It's a simple mistake and you are punished. Eggert is a good player but now he is out. Look what we have on the bench. We tried with 19-year-old players on the bench, at the moment this is the reality. Maybe in two years, or maybe next season we have the experience to win these games. But we cannot wait till then.
"With no Kingston, Stewart or Zaliukas in the team we have no orientation in the team. The young players need this. I am tired talking all the time. I am not a dreamer. We must try to win games, stabilise the team. I will put my face in front for the team but I wait for the team in games like this to maybe get a draw. That would have been a good result but for this you must bring more effort."
Laszlo's argument that many of his players have just begun their footballing education is undeniable. On Saturday, Craig Thomson (18), Andy Driver (21), Jonsson (21) and Lee Wallace (22) started the match before the introduction of teenage substitutes Gary Glen and Arvydas Novikovas. Hearts are without question one of the SPL's youngest teams, however the same could be said of Motherwell.
Their victory was secured with 18-year-olds Steven Saunders and Shaun Hutchinson marshalling the centre of a defence that has recorded six clean sheets in ten league games this term, while midfielders Forbes and Tom Hateley plus striker Lucas Jutkiewicz are all just 20. In this context, Laszlo's complaint of inexperience would appear to have little substance. In truth, his team's overall problem seemed to be more a basic lack of motivation.
"We are not dangerous away from home," he continued. "If we are we don't score goals. If you look back at the other games we have had more chances and did not score and we don't have the points. Maybe in the cup we have better concentration but we must accept our league position. We must not dream, we must look to stabilise the team in the middle of the table. In this league, if you win two or three games you can move. You must do the basics and you must fight."
Motherwell emerged with greater purpose than their opponents straight from kick-off. They appealed for a penalty on 13 minutes when O'Brien fell under Ismael Bouzid's penalty-box challenge before Janos Balogh's fingertips denied Hutchinson. The hosts' could not convert their superiority into goals until after the interval when Forbes met Yassin Moutaouakil's cross to dispatch a left-footed volley beyond Balogh. Twelve minutes later, and with Christian Nade having been stretchered off injured, Jonsson misjudged his attempted header back to Balogh and O'Brien sprinted on to the ball before being tugged back.
Referee David Somers instantly produced a red card for the Hearts midfielder, who now finds himself suspended for Saturday's Edinburgh derby. The dismissal seemed to rouse the visitors from their slumber and they went on the offensive. Driver's run and subsequent cutback produced an opportunity for Glen to score from six yards but his first-time shot was blocked by John Ruddy, the hitherto largely anonymous Motherwell goalkeeper.
"If you can move more simple and quicker with ten men in the last 15 minutes and you create two or three dangerous chances, you don't tell me that in the first 20 minutes you don't have concentration," Laszlo, pictured left, went on.
"If you play with ten and you play good powerful football, why don't you do it before? The experience is not there. In last five minutes I played with four strikers and we did not have a big problem behind.
"I asked the guys why they did not run before, what was the problem? This is not Celtic or Rangers, this is Motherwell."
David Obua was cheered off on 88 minutes after an inept performance but the travelling fans were perturbed by Thomson's earlier withdrawal, presumably because he was one of few in maroon who attained pass marks.
Gannon had no such problems.
"I could look at everybody's performance and say they all contributed significantly," he said. "We changed the gameplan a bit. The boys can play good football and they have to learn how and when to play and how to hurt people. We mixed it up better. The players looked a bit unsure what to do when Hearts went down to ten men. When a team loses a player they up their game and they livened their game up." Not enough to find the net, however. Hearts have not scored from open play in their last three matches, which must be Laszlo's main concern rather than the youthfulness of his squad.
