HEARTS ruthlessly exploited Hamilton’s defensive deficiencies to maintain the feelgood factor from Sunday’s derby Scottish Cup victory over Hibernian.
They made it eight games in a row without losing a goal and stretched their unbeaten run to 11 matches and it only exemplified their resilience.
It was a poor contest at the Superseal Stadium, but Hearts’ quality shone through and they won the game with two goals in a six-minute spell from Ross Callachan and David Milinkovic with Dario Zanatta’s late strike adding gloss.
Manager Craig Levein, who was reluctant to discuss Esma Goncalves’ potential move to Uzbekistan side Pakhtakor Tashkent but confirmed an interest in Copenhagen winger Danny Amankwaa, felt his side were worthy winners
He said: “I felt the first goal would be critical and I didn’t feel we were under much pressure.
“So I hoped we would get it and then I was confident we would get more. But that first goal was critical.
“We had to grind it out but we can do that – as you know. It wasn’t a night for great football. Once we got in front, yes, we were better.
“But this is not an easy place to come and win. We know that through experience.
“So to get the three points and get three goals without Esma and Kyle Lafferty, who have scored most of our goals, was quite pleasing for me.
“I said the cup game was great but it doesn’t help us in the
league.That’s maybe not 100 per cent true because I felt the confidence gained would help tonight.
“Hamilton were really difficult to break down and we contributed to that with our passing in the final third. But I come back to the first goal. That was critical and after that it was pretty good.”
Danny Redmond missed a decent chance shooting straight at Jon McLaughlin in 15 minutes while David Templeton shot wide in 34 minutes when he could have set up Darren Lyon in a better position.
Hamilton looked in a good place but they pressed the self-destruct button.
There seemed little danger as Alex Gogic went to clear 17-year-old debutant Andy Irving’s ball into the box in 67 minutes but he got caught out and Steven Naismith pounced.
The 31-year-old looked up and spotted Ross Callachan completely unmarked, and the Scotland internationalist rolled a simple pass and Callachan swept the ball into an unguarded net.
Hamilton were still trying to regroup when they lost a second goal six minutes later – and it was another defensive disaster.
They were completely caught out as Irving fired a cross field ball over for substitute Milinkovic who was completely unmarked.
The Frenchman raced through and buried a left-foot shot past the helpless Gary Woods.
Sub Zanatta rubbed salt into wounds when he scored a third two minutes from time, converting Milinkovic’s cutback.
It was a hammer blow for Hamilton manager Martin Canning, who has lost Greg Docherty to Rangers and most likely Mikey Devlin to Preston North End after Accies agreed a fee with the English Championship side for their club captain.
Canning said: “I thought we were the better team for an
hour but it was the same old, same old – crazy mistakes. It’s baffling the mistakes we have made in the last two games. It’s really
costing us.
“We were in control of the game and I felt we could go on and win it but it wasn’t to be. We just can’t afford to lose goals the way we are losing them.
“It’s a blow to lose Greg but this club never stands in the way of players we bring through and we wish him all the best.”
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