Listening to Austin MacPhee, Hearts’ assistant head coach, eulogise about the 20-year-old who had just returned to their line up was to realise just how big a role John Souttar had been set to play in the club’s controversial Cathro project when he ruptured his Achilles tendon in January, too late in the transfer window for the club to find anything approaching a comparable replacement.
Those of us who felt the young manager’s appointment demonstrated an understanding of the need to start seeking innovative solutions to the plight of Scottish football that has once more been demonstrated in international competition this summer were frustrated as Ian Cathro struggled to make the desired impact in his first half a season in charge at Tynecastle. By contrast, the critics who rubbished his recruitment and felt vindicated in their views by Hearts’ performance in the second half of last season will doubtless also tell us that it is ridiculous to place too much onus on such a youngster. However as MacPhee outlined just what Souttar’s composure and creativity in developing play from the defensive third brings to the team it was easy to understand just why ex-Dundee United academy boss Ian Cathro had placed so much faith in a player he has known since before Souttar broke into the Tannadice club’s first team as a 16-year-old.
That he has returned much earlier than was initially expected suggests, then, that the next few months will tell us much more about how effective his manager’s methods can be in the context of the domestic game and Souttar is grateful for the support offered by Cathro and the rest of the club’s backroom staff.
“I think that also helped me when I was injured, the fact that Hearts, not just him but everyone believed in me coming back,” he said.
“They paid money for me when not many teams were going to so I’ve got a lot to pay back. Hopefully I paid it back last season and can keep doing the same.”
The hope is that he returns better physically equipped to cope with the rigours of a sport played outdoors in the sort of sapping conditions that were already, in mid-July, blighting us on Saturday, floodlights on an hour before a 3pm kick-off and a downpour of tropical proportions sending spectators scurrying for cover during the match.
“I was in the gym every day for five months, I’ve worked my balls off,” said Souttar.
“I just looked on it as a positive to get stronger and more powerful. I’ve worked as hard as I possibly can both medically and physically to get back. It helps on the pitch. That was one of the positives when I was injured.”
There will be much tougher examinations of his capabilities than Saturday’s, his involvement lasting the length of a first half in which East Fife showed no interest in testing Hearts defensively. His side in complete command, having already spurned umpteen chances, Souttar initiated the moment of quality which separated the teams at the interval, his early cross from midway inside the East Fife half met assuredly by Kyle Lafferty who used his head in every sense in assessing exactly the right angle that would take the ball back across Ryan Goodfellow and just inside the goalkeeper’s left post.
The home side might have been three or four up by the interval and while, to their visitors’ credit, East Fife roused themselves to generate a couple of chances of their own in the early part of the second half, the final result properly reflected the gulf between the sides.
There was something almost telescopic about the way Christophe Berra stretched his neck to make the connection with a corner from second half sub Malaury Martin to extend the lead, before Lafferty completed the job by knocking home a penalty as he continued to make the sort of start to his Hearts career that bodes well for strikers, bringing his tally to three goals in two matches.
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