Motherwell 3 - 0 Hearts: Too early to talk of Motherwell finishing second insists Tom Hateley

By MOIRA GORDON
Published on Monday 20 February 2012 02:23

TOM Hateley has sampled Champions League nights before. As a youngster he used to watch his dad, Mark, take on the Continent’s best at Ibrox. But before long, the Motherwell full-back could be getting a taste of the big-time himself.

If Rangers’ administration problems prohibit them from securing a licence to enter European competition, the side finishing third in the SPL would take their place in next season’s Champions League qualifiers. At the moment that is Motherwell, but the Fir Park team could yet render that charitable scenario an insignificance by finishing ahead of the under-seige Old Firm side.

An emphatic victory over nearest chasers Hearts on Saturday was a strong signal of intent. Two goals within three first-half minutes and a third, despite being down to 10 men in the second half, set them apart from their guests. Not only did it see Stuart McCall’s men stretch their advantage over the Tynecastle side to nine points, but it moved them just six points behind Rangers and they still have a game in hand. Three points against Hibs in their rearranged fixture on Wednesday and it could all get very interesting.

“Obviously everybody would love to play in the Champions League, but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves,” said Hateley. “It’s a boring cliche, but we’ll take each game at a time and come the end of the season we’ll see where we are. If it’s getting close near the end, it would be a great feat for everyone, but it is not something we are particularly looking at right now. We were talking about how the Hearts result was great for us but now we go on to Wednesday and it is massive for us to make the gap between ourselves and fourth spot a little bit bigger, then push on from there.

“You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself and start chasing things like that. It’s a hard time for everyone at Rangers and nobody likes to see a team going through what they are going through. But all we can do is concentrate on ourselves, and if we keep winning at home and getting results away, we’ll see where we end up. I’m sure there will be a lot of ups and downs between now and the end of the season.”

But this Motherwell team are not kid-on pretenders. The events of Saturday proved that. While Rangers had their own pressure to deal with, at Fir Park it was a key head-to-head. Aware that Hearts were keen to close the gap, instead of allowing them to do just that, Motherwell produced a performance as diligent and direct as it was fluent and focused to distance themselves.

“We knew how big a game it was going to be,” said the full-back. “It was always going to be massive and we did well. We covered each other all over the park and when we went down to 10 men, I don’t think anybody was particularly worried, to be honest. We had the bit between our teeth and knew what we had to do to get the result.”

It means that, while Motherwell manager McCall refuses to publicly admit to a switch in ambitions for the remainder of the season, they can now turn their attentions to catching those above them instead of trying to simply fend off those below.

“It’s better to be looking up and chasing the teams above you than looking down,” said Hateley. “It’s a good position to be in at the moment and we are enjoying it. Maybe a couple of months ago results weren’t going our way, but now we are creating chances and taking them again. Thankfully we are getting the results that I think we deserve.

“I think we are a young group of lads who have a lot of match-winners out there. You look at Henrik [Ojamaa] in the second-half – it’s impossible to get the ball off him sometimes.

“We’ve got players like him and Nicky Law, who will score you goals, and it is hard for people to play against us and we are keeping lots of clean sheets. We have a belief in our ability and it is great to be a part of it.”

Ojamaa has been a massive inspiration since he arrived at the club and at times he was unplayable. But he wasn’t the only player to shine in Motherwell colours. Hearts manager Paulo Sergio blamed the cluttered fixture list for a lack of energy in his own team’s performance, while also claiming it would be unfair to expect his side to finish third given the club’s off-field demons and the fact that they lost first team regulars in January. But all over the park Motherwell outplayed them.

The first goal came in the 38th minute when Hateley’s corner wasn’t cleared and Keith Lasley fired a pacy ball into the six-yard box. Andy Webster couldn’t get out the way and deflected it into his own net. Three minutes later Lasley chipped a delightful pass for Jamie Murphy, whose looping header tucked just under Jamie MacDonald’s bar.

In the second-half things could have unravelled for the home team when Lasley picked up his second yellow card for his second rash challenge on Ian Black, but Hearts couldn’t make the most of their extra man advantage as Motherwell kept up the pressure, eventually adding a third in the 65th minute. Not for the first time Ojamaa’s foray forward left a few Hearts players in his wake and when he picked out Jamie Murphy, he played in Nicky Law. The midfielder had earlier been denied by the post, but this time his angled drive from the right found the net.

It was no more than Motherwell deserved as Hearts’ poor form away from home continued.

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35

Atholl Brigade

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:49 PM

#28 To reiterate, Hearts football club was unique in that all the first team volunteered for active service in the first world war well before subscription came in. If you can't understand why that is special then you obviously operate to different moral codes.

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34

Uncle Tam

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 05:46 PM

#28 What you have to bear in mind about 'McCae's Battallion' is that the Hearts players, like all other professional footballers, were contracted to the club. Most other clubs used this as an excuse to keep their players at home and safe. The Hearts board was first to release any player who wanted to join up. In doing so, they sacrificed an almost certain league championship because the team had an overwhelming lead at the top in 1914. As the weeks went by, military training and then postings to the front, took its toll and Celtic, who had relatively few players joining up for whatever reason (and I'm not saying their reasons were wrong) overtook them and clinched the flag on the final day of the season. 'Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose'. So you will readily appreciate that Hearts' sacrifice was a double one and that marks it out as rather special.

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33

View From The Shed

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 12:48 PM

#28 They were unique because they were the first football team to volunteer to join up. The entire team. Nobody,s denying that every man (and woman) who volunteered was equal in their sacrifice no matter what walk of life they came from but the fact it was an entire football team made it unique and is why it is football history books to this day.

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32

disenchanted

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 12:43 PM

For some time Hearts fans have been told to lift their heads out of the sand - well let's encourage Rangers fans to do the same. Nobody NEEDS Rangers, we don't NEED a club that brings the game into disrepute at home and abroad, nobody NEEDS a club built on hatred, bile and bigotry. Scottish Football will do quite well without you. Yes, Celtic will be the dominant force but no Rangers means more European football and the potential for more monet for other teams in the SpL leading to stronger competition. More Cup successes for other teams to enjoy etc. Lets be clear too about this 9 Million - it's not debt, it's 9 million pounds of money STOLEN by Rangers. Jail sentences must follow.

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31

media4one

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:35 AM

Atholl Brigade: I absolutely agree that Celtic will be fine without Rangers; but it will mean amateur football or at best Semi-Professional football in an SPL league that will be 50% less interesting to buyers than it currently is; -------------------------------------------the only reason the league has any television audience is due to the OF games as well as the fact that you can always show an OF team game against other sides, take that away it is far worse off financially and it's already dire......So yes they will all be fine but as amateur clubs

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30

Hen Broon

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:33 AM

#25 BEMUSED...with all due respect you are not understanding my point. I am asking for a level playing field re all Companies. IE Rangers are not the only Company that the arguments you put forward apply to . If u put HEARTS out of business you waste TAX payers money ,make people unemployed & negatively effect the income of other SPL clubs. Just because RANGERS are bigger is no justification. You fail to highlight why you feel RANGERS FC are a special case. there are far bigger Companies than Rangers who have been wound up by the HMRC where the arguments yu highlight would be stronger.

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29

media4one

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:27 AM

Deansy #21 - Sadly yes; because what happens in the boardroom is done by businessmen - What happens on the park is done between players and Hearts have always fallen short of the mark.

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28

Tightfisted

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:15 AM

#20 ATHOLL BRIGADE I agree that the HMFC lads were almost certainly 9as far as I can ascertain) the "first". Your point is therefore what exactly??????? ....and can you just talk me through how any one man's sacrifice (worthy though it is) is any greater than any others merely because of his employment...........that idea is patently ridiculous...which is of course why you immediately sprung to mind......Eh Moochacho???

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27

Hen Broon

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:13 AM

#16 Why sadly? When CSABA went it was time for him to go. Ditto JJ. If SERGIO .....and at the moment it is an 'if'.....does not do as well as can reasonably be expected (EG I think McCall at Well is a reasonable yard stick to out perform) and: or is not an equitable option (IE remember it is SERGIO plus two ). Hibs turn around of managersis worse than HEARTS but NO DOUBT CC should have been emptied earlier....the last thing I want HEARTS to do is carry on with a manager that is not fit for purpose.

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26

Tightfisted

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:10 AM

HMFC were comprehensively dissected at the weekend (according to the BBC Sportsound guys it should have been "seven, Eight, or Nine" such was the difference on the day. ................and it has to be remembered that Motherwell have had their own problems just a few years ag, but have clearly shown that there CAN be life after AdMURRAYstration.......and they sit 3rd in the league (by some way), with good footie on view, no debts,just reported a £500K operating profit, and well on the way to compiling a £1.5M "rainy day" fund...............and in addition they are close to having fans automatically getting places on the board....all being achieved despite living in the shadow of the Gruesome Twosome and gates less than half that that HMFC seem intent on squandering. I'm sure that 'Well fans will confirm that they have a L-O-N-G way still to go, but mustn't it feel great to be with a club that continues to find a way through the financial mire that engulfs every club. No-one is saying that they have a panacea for the ills of today.....but there MUST be lessons to be learned from their experience. Are you listening Vlad??? Silly me....of course you're not !!!!

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25

The Administrator

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:10 AM

#18 If you drive RFC out of business, not only are you "wasting" taxpayers money by putting many people into the ranks of the unemployed, you are also negatively affecting the potential income of other SPL clubs which could lead to further downsizing and redundancies. Perhaps even more significantly, a properly run, thriving RFC equates to a lot of money going into the HMRC coffers, so they'd be cutting off their own noses by sinking the ship. It is completely in their interests to reclaim as much of the owed money as possible, but beyond that it would clearly be beneficial to them to have a strong RFC.

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24

disenchanted

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:10 AM

#22 - You're correct about one thing - it wasn't worth reading once, let alone twice.

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23

bring them on

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:04 AM

I think that Tuesday afternoon matches could catch on.

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22

The Administrator

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:02 AM

#17 Firstly, my apologies that my previous long post went up twice. Some would argue that even posting it once was excessive! I've asked The Scotsman to remove one of them. Onto your point. I think that it is self-evident nonsense to claim that Celtic's turnover wouldn't suffer from the absence of Rangers. Less TV money to go around. Less sponsorship money to go around. Two full-house gates at CP every league season removed. A league that would inevitably be won year after year by the same club - and quite often won with a lot of games still to play. What would the crowds be like in those closing weeks with nothing to play for? The result of all that? Reduced CFC spending in the transfer market and on wages, meaning a lower quality of player and a consequently less attractive product. And stemming from that, a weakened team in European terms, so probably less European income. Of course, they run a tight financial ship over at CP, and well done to them for that, so they could certainly still stay in the black. But they would be diminished - of that I have no doubt.

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21

Deansy

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:01 AM

# 7 media4one - 'Rangers have out performed Hearts in every department for well over 110 years' - Would that be the case if HMRC did a back-ground check on their taxes, say, the last 110 years ?

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