Hearts debrief: Excellent Ellis Simms, Robbie Neilson's tactical tweak, Andy Halliday silencing critics

A look back at Hearts’ 2-0 victory over Motherwell on Saturday.

Player of the match

Quite a few contenders for this. Cammy Devlin was involved in each of the goals and brought some real impetus going forward, while Nathaniel Atkinson and Stephen Kingsley excelled in both their defensive and attacking duties. But we’re going to go for Ellis Simms. Making his full debut, the on-loan Everton striker looked very much worth the hype. His running and link-up play were so influential to the attack, while he also managed to get himself into position to fire in his first goal in a maroon shirt.

Defining moment

Ellis Simms celebrates after scoring to make it 2-0 to Hearts in their victory over Motherwell. Picture: SNS

Kevin van Veen had a good opportunity for Motherwell to open the scoring in the first half at a time when Hearts looked far from comfortable. Having made six changes and not started well, going 1-0 down could really have shaken this unit. Instead, the striker slid his effort past the far post, the hosts were soon able to find their feet and dominated the rest of the game. It’s now three games without a goal in 90 minutes since the Steelmen sold former Hearts player Tony Watt to Dundee United.

Ref watch

Craig Napier angered the Motherwell players early in the game when Liam Kelly was whistled for handling the ball after an alleged pass back. Other than that there weren’t many big decisions to judge and he let the game flow reasonably well.

Tactical tweaks

With both Simms and Boyce in the starting XI, Neilson opted for an unorthodox approach. When Hearts were in possession, Boyce looked to play close to Simms through the centre, but when Motherwell had the ball he dropped back into the right side of midfield. It had its issues early when away left-back Nathan McGinley playing very wide to force Boyce further away from the action, but Hearts soon got to grips with things and were the more dominating proposition from that point forward.

Moment you may have missed

When Andy Halliday celebrated his opening goal he roared in delight at the Roseburn end but did appear to give a little ear-cupping towards the Wheatfield Stand, perhaps in response to some prior criticism levelled his way.

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