THIS was the sort of game that Hearts really needed to win if they are to have any chance of avoiding relegation but there were few home fans complaining as they trooped out of Tynecastle last night.
Gary Locke's young side have found the going difficult in recent times but they showed great powers of perseverance to twice recover from falling behind to salvage a draw with an equaliser three minutes from time.
Not satisfied with that, only the width of the crossbar in injury time denied them a first home league win since August. The draw carries them to within 12 points of Kilmarnock and, if salvation seems a remote prospect, this gutsy performance will at least bolster confidence levels.
"We're a young side so to come back twice shows they are fighting for the cause," said Locke. "We thoroughly deserved the equaliser and were unlucky not to get the winner."
For a second consecutive match, Ross County's poor discipline let them down. They were 2-1 ahead when captain Richard Brittain was sent off after 63 minutes, their defence holding out for a further 24 minutes before being denied what would have been a first away victory since February. Manager Derek Adams, though, was more annoyed at his team's wastefulness in attack than their third red card in the space of a week.
"Over the 90 minutes we should have won the game with the chances we had," he said. County were the better side in the first half, although they were helped at the first goal by some dreadful Hearts defending.
In attempting to pass to his goalkeeper, Callum Tapping could only pick out Graham Carey who raced in before finishing past Jamie MacDonald. Hearts were not behind for long and there was a dose of good fortune about the equaliser too. Scott Robinson fluffed his corner kick but, after the visitors failed to clear, the ball fell to Callum Paterson whose shot sped into the net. It was frenetic fare, with the visitors unfortunate not to be back in front before half-time. Rocco Quinn had a shot from the edge of the box that thundered against the crossbar, while Jamie Hamill made the same mistake as Tapping by passing straight to a County player in a dangerous position. This time, though, Kevin Luckassen was unable to capitalise.
Respite for Hearts would be brief and within five minutes of the re-start they were behind again, Melvin de Leeuw thudding a shot past MacDonald from just inside the box.
Brittain's red card for a second booking sparked a sustained period of Hearts pressure and it finally told when Danny Wilson's header squeezed over the line three minutes from time.
Hearts, in fact, could have won it late on but Paterson could only head against the crossbar when he perhaps ought to have scored.
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