Hearts' position on Rogers Mato and Islam Chesnokov as McInnes pinpoints what went wrong at St Mirren
Scottish Premiership leaders lost 1-0 in Paisley
Hearts head coach Derek McInnes outlined the club’s expectations for recent signings Rogers Mato and Islam Chesnokov ahead of next week’s Edinburgh derby against Hibs. Speaking after St Mirren’s 1-0 win over Hearts in Paisley, McInnes gave an honest assessment of the 90 minutes and also addressed the situation with Mato, Chesnokov and Wilson.
Miguel Freckleton’s 88th-minute header settled the match after Hearts played more than an hour with 10 men following Craig Halkett’s red card. He was sent off on 29 minutes for taking down Saints debutant Jacob Devaney, denying the on-loan Manchester United midfielder a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Hearts’ next match is against Hibs at Tynecastle next Tuesday. Mato and Chesnokov are working on fitness ahead of that fixture and the hope is that one or both could be involved. “Islam is getting closer, he's doing great in terms of his work,” said McInnes. “He's got a brilliant appetite to get there. He understands himself, he's got a bit to go, but with another week's work - he's in tomorrow and we'll go again with him - and hopefully he'll be more ready for that one.
“That was the plan. I said that I wanted to get my players ready so that I can have them to start games, not just come on and give us little cameos. The conversation I had with Rodgers as well was something similar. He accepts that he's got a wee bit to go. Such is the way when you sign players who haven't been playing when there are winter breaks in their leagues. I know Rodgers was at the AFCON [with Uganda], but he's not had a lot of football in a long period of time, so we're just trying to get him up to speed.
“We've seen that through the training. We've got to help these boys because there's a lot expected of them. Hopefully we can still have that big impact between now and the end of the season.”
McInnes was frustrated seeing Hearts lose for only the third time in the league this season. They battled hard with 10 men for more than an hour before succumbing to a late header from a corner-kick. “It was tough, particularly from a set-play, we put so much into the game, it was tough,” said McInnes. “After we had 10 men, I thought the lads were everything I expected them to be. You could say we are getting used to playing with 10 men, which obviously we don't want, there's an extra stress on everything.
“We all have to work harder when you've got 10 men, us and the dugout, the lads have to put in that extra shift. I thought we restricted St Mirren to very little, to be honest. I thought the organisation, the spirit of the team was brilliant. The irony is, the ball was going for a goal kick, I think, and we pushed it by for a corner. We’ve just got to win a header there in the dying embers of the game, and we get our point, which it would be hard to deny we didn't deserve based on the spirit and everything else.
“We've seen before in recent weeks about when we go down to 10 men, I think there's a belief there that we can go and get results, obviously against St Mirren last time and against Dundee, and I think that showed in the performance when we went down to 10 men. But we've got to own the fact that we can’t keep getting away with it. You can’t keep playing with fire.
“It's a red card, there's no complaint about that, but we caused it, we got ourselves into a fine hole. We've got to play forward, we had two opportunities to play forward, and we get ourselves in a bit of a state, and it culminates in a last-gasp challenge, and we've paid for it. From that point on, it probably takes away the chance - although it's a slight chance still because we've done it before - of winning the game. At that point, it was just making sure we keep it at zero for as long as we can and then hold for a moment.
“As I say, from that point we were good, we were good after that. But ultimately we don't pick up properly, we don't attack the ball properly, it's in the back of the net and we end up with nothing for our efforts. It’s so disappointing. We were guilty of trying to overplay in the first half, and I said that to the players. When we first came in, every team has got to be something, and we wanted to make sure we were a team this season that ran forward, played forward.
“We understood that St Mirren, being at home, would try and come after us a wee bit. When we broke the press it was nice and it looked good on the eye, and a few times we settled it in their half, but there were a lot of times where the distance between our last centre-half and their centre-half was about 30 yards. Our point-blank refusal to run in behind and play forward caused us some problems.
“We had two chances to play forward, we'd dilly-dally on it, and we get ourselves in a position where we were having to play the rest of the game with 10 men.”
Halkett is now suspended for the Hibs game as a result of his red card. “Yeah, there is a consequence of that,” acknowledged McInnes. “We've spoken about that. It's not only to put extra stress on the lads that are playing, but there's a consequence of that when you're without key players for games. We've already spoken about injuries and suspensions and getting through that, and our coping mechanisms have been brilliant so far.
“Listen, it's hard to criticise. There's no criticising my players once we've got 10 men. We were terrific in terms of what I expect from them and what we've shown over a period now. But we got top of the league by being something, and teams need to know that if they want to come after us, we're going to put it in behind you. We're going to run, we're going to test you, try to put stress on the back line. And then you just might earn the right to play a wee bit more.”