Hearts' Jason Thomson reflects on not faring Well enough

HEARTS' incoherence during the first 15 minutes at Fir Park on Saturday could be partly attributed to a change in formation. Manager Jim Jefferies deviated from his favoured 4-4-2 to start with a 4-3-1-2 system which included Larry Kingston in the attacking midfield berth.

This may have had an unsettling effect on the visitors, who were frequently overwhelmed in midfield during the opening period.

When John Sutton struck Motherwell's second goal on 13 minutes, Hearts instantly reverted back to 4-4-2 and appeared more at ease. But, by then, they faced the gargantuan task of overhauling a two-goal deficit.

Despite working on the new formation last week at Riccarton and encouraging full-backs Jason Thomson and Lee Wallace to gallop forward down both flanks, the desired effect did not materialise. The three central midfielders, Eggert Jonsson, Ryan Stevenson and Paul Mulrooney, could not overpower Motherwell's four-man hub and consequently Thomson and Wallace were left exposed to attack.

"We changed the formation around but when we lost those two early goals the manager went back to 4-4-2," said Thomson. "Going forward it is easier to get on the ball as a full-back if there is no wide man in front of you, but it never happened as much as we wanted. We worked on it in training and it went okay, but it simply didn't work on the day.

"We aren't going to use the changes as an excuse. The defence was changed but the boys who came in are all defenders. Dawid Kucharski came back in and he's a centre-back. Jose Goncalves and Lee were both in their regular positions and I was at right-back. Three out of four of us who played at Tannadice in our last game were still there. We can't use the changes as any sort of excuse.

"We touched on the poor start in the changing room at full-time. You can't start games like that. You give yourself a mountain to climb if you kick-off that way. We really need to pick ourselves up because we can't go into the Hibs game with the same kind of start as we did at the weekend."

Thomson was criticised by Jefferies at full-time for his part in Motherwell's third goal. He failed to stop Jamie Murphy arrowing the ball across the face of Janos Balogh's goal for Jim O'Brien to finish. Both first-half counters seemed to be down purely to lack of awareness by the visiting defence on the whole.

"The corner was taken short at the first goal and nobody went with their player," explained Thomson. "He dinked the ball into the back post for the header (by Mark Reynolds]. At the second, everyone was dragged over and the boy (Sutton] was left on his own.

"I hold my hands up for the third because I shouldn't have let the cross in. Two minutes later the same player tried it again and I stopped him. The gaffer let me know about it in the dressing-room. If you stop the cross coming in then you stop goals.

"At half-time the manager told us to forget about the first half and just get on with the second. We had to work much harder because he didn't feel we did that in the first half. Even though we were losing there was no reason to stop working. At the end of the game he said the second half was an improvement from the point of view that we couldn't really have played any worse. David Templeton scored right after they got their third goal, but I think, if we had scored at 2-0, it would have made a real difference."

What stood out from Motherwell's performance was their ability to string passes around on the sand-patched Fir Park surface. The cutting up underfoot rarely deterred Craig Brown's side but Thomson opined that they benefit from playing regularly on the much-maligned pitch.

"They are probably used to playing on that, it does take some getting used to," he said. "In the first half they won every second ball and every 50-50. They were passing the ball around well. It's hard on a surface like that because it takes it out of you but I'm not going to use that as an excuse.

"It's more difficult when the ground cuts up but that's the case for both teams. You just have to get on with it."

For Hearts, getting on with it involves righting some wrongs against Hibernian this weekend. The teams have played out two draws so far this season but both have their respective reasons for pursuing outright victory this time around. For the hosts, a top-six berth has yet to be secured. The visitors, meanwhile, are chasing Europe.

"Even if we weren't in the top six it would still be a massive game," said Thomson. "It's the Edinburgh derby and you always want to win it for bragging rights. It's a bigger game because of the top six, especially given that St Johnstone won on Saturday and closed the gap on us.

"We have to improve against Hibs. They have been doing well in the league but we are at home and it's a derby, so we need to get ourselves up for it. If we perform like we did on Saturday we'll get beaten, simple as.

"We need to get back to playing like we have done over the previous couple of weeks, that's the only way we can get the result we need. We need to work hard and fight for every single ball. We have to be winning our individual battles."