A brutal night at Tynecastle

Heart of Midlothian 0 Livingston 0

Ladbrokes Premiership – Wednesday 6^th
February 2019 – Tynecastle Park

Football has been described
on many occasions as being ‘the beautiful game’. Sadly, it was anything but beautiful
at Tynecastle on Wednesday evening as Hearts and Livingston slugged it out like
two heavyweight fighters trying to batter each other into submission. The
result was another word beginning with ‘b’ springing to mind – brutality.

Following on from Hearts 2-1
defeat from Dundee a fortnight ago perhaps the club should seek to ban midweek
games at Tynecastle. If you’re expecting a detailed match report on tonight’s
events, the truth is there isn’t much to report on.

Hearts manager Craig Levein
made one change to the team that defeated Kilmarnock last Friday evening – Olly
Lee replacing Callumn Morrison. There was also the welcome sight of striker
Uche Ikpeazu on the substitute’s bench, having been out injured since
September.

As was the case at the Dundee
game the atmosphere inside Tynecastle was muted. Perhaps understandably so as
the football on offer was hardly likely to have one on the edge of their seat –
unless you were intending to head for the exits.

Livingston came with a game
plan to frustrate their hosts and it worked to perfection. Long ball after long
ball was punted downfield with neither keeper seriously tested. Steven Naismith
did have the ball in the net early in the first half, but his headed effort was
deemed offside.

In the second half Livingston did force home keeper Colin Doyle into a save when he tipped a header from Hardie over the crossbar. Hearts brought on Ikpeazu for the final half an hour and the big man made his considerable presence felt. But Hearts could have played all night without scoring and the boos from the home support at the end of the game told its own story.

Livvy resorted to launching
the ball skywards at every opportunity and their overly physical approach and
timewasting tactics made one wonder if this is deemed as being successful in
Scottish football. If it is then the game is in trouble. There has been much
talk in the news recently about the disruption drones are causing Britain’s airports.
If there was any disruption to Edinburgh airport tonight it wasn’t caused by a
drone – it was most probably by a clearance from a Livingston defender.  It certainly isn’t attractive but their joy at
securing a point was illustrated when their players went to take the applause of
the handful of Livvy fans in the Roseburn Stand at the end of the game.

Hearts again looked utterly clueless
in the final third of the field and their inability to carve out any real threat
meant they missed the chance to close the gap on those clubs ahead of them in
the Ladbrokes Premiership – Kilmarnock and Aberdeen who both dropped points
tonight.

Craig
Levein told BBC Sport Scotland after the game: “We’re kicking ourselves
because Aberdeen lost, and Kilmarnock drew. We had an opportunity to close up
on the teams round about us. That’s a bit frustrating.

“The
good thing for me is that Uche Ikpeazu came back into the side and looked like
he had never been away. He was a real threat when he came on. I thought the
team played better when he went on.”

Hearts: Doyle, Smith, Shaughnessy
(Morrison, 75′), Souttar, Berra, Bozanic (Ikpeazu, 65′), Lee, Clare, Djoum,
Naismith, Mulraney (Mitchell, 82′)

Livingston: Kelly, Lamie, Lithgow, Byrne,
Pittman, Hardie (Erksine, 82′), Odoffin (Jacobs, 70′), Lawless, Halkett,
Gallagher, Lawson (Sibbald, 78′)

Referee: Alan Muir

Attendance: 15,147

Top Man: Are you kidding?