WINNING at Tynecastle has become such a habit for Hearts this season that the reaction of players has passed into cliche almost inevitably.
A comfortable league victory over lowly Alloa Athletic delivered on Saturday marked the Edinburgh club's 10th triumph at home this term, but invited the question of whether or not Hearts can do it on a cold night in Cowdenbeath in December? The SPFL Championship leaders will give their answer tomorrow night during a rearranged match at Central Park. "It's going to be freezing cold, the wind will be blowing . . . but we're prepared for that," said Callum Paterson, the Hearts full-back.
Hearts can treat such challenges warmly as their confidence has been insulated by results; the win on Saturday was their 16th in all competitions this season. The match was also punctuated by Hearts' 14th goal from their last five fixtures at Tynecastle, as well as bringing an eighth clean sheet to maintain a 100 per cent winning record at home in the league.
Those numbers add up to a nine-point lead over Rangers - with tomorrow's fixture in Fife representing a game in hand over the Ibrox side - but a fuller picture of Hearts' campaign requires more than an account of black and white statistics. It has been coloured by bright performances from a side which has become formidable among its rivals and unyielding despite the absence of prominent players. Morgaro Gomis is free from suspension tomorrow night but cannot be certain of displacing the impressive Miguel Pallardo in midfield, while James Keatings has offered an attacking threat as top scorer Osman Sow recovers from injury. There is potency, too, in young players like Paterson whose development was uninhibited by a trying experience in the Premiership last term.
"In the past we were young and growing into the game but we are all experienced professionals now," added the full-back, who made 37 top-flight appearances as Hearts were relegated last season. "The more experience we have the more we can help the younger ones come on. Everyone is going to improve this season."
Such progress has not been the preserve of only those on the pitch either. Robbie Neilson is now in his seventh month as a head coach and embellished his growing reputation further against Alloa, acknowledging afterwards that he had assessed the part-time side's stubborn defensive approach against Hibernian a week earlier and instructed his side to play more patiently in front of their opponents. Neilson intended his side to coax Alloa further up the field, the result of which was two goals from swift counter-attacks early in the first half.
Both strikes holed Alloa below the water-line and caused the part-time side to sink into the relegation play-off place in the league table. The team have registered four consecutive defeats in the league, a faltering sequence of results interrupted only by a win over Rangers in the semi-finals of the Petrofac Training Cup, but that has still to puncture the belief which Barry Smith has in his squad.
"We are disappointed with the two goals we lost; we felt we could have done better there. But this team don't give in, they don't throw in the towel," said the Alloa manager. He was not the only one inside Tynecastle whose reaction to a Hearts win passed into cliche.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article