ANOTHER Hearts game and another complaint about contentious decisions. However, this time it was Livingston manager David Martindale aiming his ire at the officials, and their ‘arrogance’, after Liam Boyce’s goal decided a raucous encounter in favour of the visitors.
With his side chasing an equaliser and the clock ticking down, Livi substitute Bruce Anderson was flagged offside when through on goal. Having felt aggrieved twice during Wednesday’s defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie, it was too much for Martindale.
The apparent post-match comments of assistant referee Frank Connor did nothing to calm the Lions boss, who claimed officials’ mistakes could even cost him his job.
“Hearts got done by an offside goal on Thursday [against Celtic] and that’s all you read about in the papers,” said Martindale. “We got done by an offside goal on Wednesday and a harsh yellow card. I have now been done with Bruce Anderson clean through on goal and he has been flagged offside.
"Who is it that loses their job? It is not the officials, it is me. It is not good enough, end of. When your striker is going through on goal in the 90th minute and they get it wrong you cannot defend that.
“I have told him [Connor] he is on by two yards and the linesman tells me that it is not his fault we got beat. I can see his point but that decision did play a part in the defeat. If he had said he would look back at it and say sorry if he got it wrong then that would be fine. But don’t be arrogant to me.”
In truth, the deciding factor in Livingston’s loss was Craig Gordon. The Scotland goalkeeper produced a sensational fingertip save to deny Jason Holt in the first-half and was a calming presence that was required at times by Hearts on an afternoon when they could have been sunk by half-time.
“We did deserve to take something from the game,” added Martindale. “Craig Gordon makes a triple save in the first-half and those also changed the game for us."
The first-half was entirely dominated by Livingston, who denied Hearts time and space, and were energetic and inventive in possession. Midway through the half, they were left scratching their heads wondering how they were not ahead.
The excellent Jack McMillan slipped a pass into the path of the marauding Andrew Shinnie but he his shot right at Gordon. Livi were relentless, however, and Craig Sibbald was denied by the upright from the follow-up. Again, the home side were first to the rebound but, when Jason Holt then drilled in from 25 yards out, Gordon pulled off a stunning save to his top right to tip the ball onto the post and away before gathering the resulting effort from Shinnie.
The evergreen 38-year-old has been in sensational form of late and he celebrated the twin saves as if Hearts had scored a goal at the other end.
Neilson had seen enough and, having already had to replace the injured Michael Smith, hauled off the ineffectual Ben Woodburn in favour of the more defensive presence of Peter Haring in a midfield being swamped by the men in black. It was a bold move that paid off in the second-half.
The half-time whistled elicited jeers from the Hearts supporters but just three minutes after the break they were replaced by cheers. John Souttar stepped out from defence and picked out Barrie McKay, who in turn slipped a magnificent first-time pass into the path of Boyce. He was clinical with his finish.
His team-mates were less so as time dragged on. Aaron McEneff and substitute Armand Gnanduillet should have put the match beyond doubt, but in the end the Jambos required just Boyce’s 11th goal of the season to register a first away victory since August.
“I thought both goalkeepers today had some really good saves,” said Neilson. “It was two teams that were trying to win the game, which was good to see, which at times means you are open at the back. Craig pulled off some top-class saves, but that's par for him.
“We had a couple of chances to put it to bed and didn't manage to do it, and at 1-0 it was a wee bit edgy towards the end of the game. To see out a 1-0 was great."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel