Motherwell 0-0 Hearts: McInnes' men in need of a jolt after tame draw moves them five points clear

THE second half was better than the first from league leaders Hearts’ point of view. That’s not saying much, though.

In the end, they still needed a handful of saves from goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow to get them out of North Lanarkshire with something for their efforts. The solitary point that moves them five clear of Celtic having played two games more, however, cannot disguise the fact that the momentum built up during a storming start to the season is fading fast.

It’s too early to go the whole hog and say the bubble’s burst, but the gas is most definitely leaking out of their pretty balloon. At pace.

Motherwell were the best team here by a distance. They move the ball in such a lovely way under head coach Jens Berthel Askou and it’s easy to see why they have attracted so many kind words this term.

They were good without the ball here, too, though. Really good. They restricted Hearts with great success for the lion’s share of the action. The strike pairing of Lawrence Shankland and Claudio Braga, a partnership to be worked at rather than a natural fit, just didn’t function well at all.

Despite the work ethic clearly being there, there haven’t been many matches in which cult hero Braga, his song still booming out every week from wherever Hearts fans are sitting, has been quieter.

Alexandros Kyziridis, so often a talisman, never got motoring down the flank either. It just didn’t happen for the Tynecastle outfit with just one win in five proving a source of worry for the fabulous 5,000-strong away following that travelled west yesterday and stayed behind their team until the death.

Maybe their team is just being figured out by other sides now, though. Manager Derek McInnes and Jamestown Analytics brought in a lot of new players in the summer. The likes of Kyziridis and Braga were unknown quantities and really hit the ground running, taking everyone by surprise.

It might be time now, though, to switch things up. To see whether Pierre Landry Kabore might ask fresh questions in attack, for example. It is certainly a test of McInnes’ adaptability and problem-solving.

The attitude still looks right. The effort is still there. It’s just the things that were coming off even a month ago, when Celtic turned up in Gorgie and got skittled, aren’t working now.

There was a period at the start of the second 45 here in which McInnes’ men threatened to turn the screw, but it came and went. Kyziridis did see one shot deflected into the side netting and Shankland had a header hacked off the goal-line on 67 minutes from a Harry Milne corner.

That was the only time they properly threatened, mind you. It was Motherwell who made the big chances. Motherwell who had a couple of goals from Callum Hendry and Tawanda Maswanhise chalked off for offside. Motherwell who were denied by a visiting goalkeeper in inspired form when it really, really mattered.

Two of Schwolow’s saves came from home midfielder Elijah Just. It feels wrong being critical of Just, given the fact he pulled so many of the strings for Askou’s side. He is a classy player, a real danger, and will surely be a shoo-in for New Zealand’s World Cup squad in the summer.

However, he should have scored. He really should have. On 51 minutes, he moved onto a lovely cross from the left from Maswanhise and had a free header no more than eight yards out.

He put it straight at Schwolow, who parried his effort and then smothered it at the second attempt.

With 12 minutes to play, he did all the hard work in taking the ball on the turn midway inside the Hearts half, absolutely skinning Stuart Findlay and surging into the area. Glory beckoned, but he smacked his effort straight at the goalie again.

With Hearts’ big surge in the early part of the second half having disintegrated into an exercise in just digging in, Schwolow’s next two blocks were much more appealing to the eye.

Moments after Just’s second effort, a brilliant fingertip save to the left denied Lukas Fadinger. And then, eight minutes from time, Schwolow looked sharp again to tip a free-kick from Callum Slattery over the crossbar.

It says much that Motherwell and their fans — helping create the biggest crowd at Fir Park since Celtic famously came calling on Helicopter Sunday in 2005 — left this game with a sense of disappointment. The punters applauded their team off the park, for sure, but everyone knew the match could have delivered so much more.

There had been clear, early signs that Hearts just needed to sharpen up mentally in key areas. Seven minutes in, Findlay, the recipient of a recent injection in his ankle, was caught on the ball in his own area by Just and only pulled out of a hole by defensive partner Craig Halkett, who put in a crucial late tackle on Maswanhise as he prepared to strike the ball as it moved into his path.

Then, midway through the opening 45, it looked as if the home side had got themselves in front — only for the tightest of margins to go against them.

Elliot Watt played a well-weighted high pass into the area from the right and it looked as though Hendry had got the run on his man to get the slightest of touches on the ball and divert it into the far corner.

However, VAR Gavin Duncan took a look at the footage and concluded that the striker’s shoulder was just offside. No goal.

That kind of finishing from viable positions was all that was missing from Motherwell’s display, really. They could also have had a penalty on 42 minutes when Maswanhise looked to have been barged over in the box by Milne.

They do look to be going from strength to strength, all the same. That most definitely isn’t the case with Hearts. It’s not game over for their hopes of winning the title or at least splitting the Old Firm, but things are looking a bit wobbly.

Kilmarnock at home on Wednesday looks the perfect fixture in which to get back on the goal trail and rediscover confidence and ingenuity. It’s Parkhead after that and they really need to be heading there with a win under their belts.