Hearts want Musemic to alter his style of play

RAY HEPBURN

7 Aug 1989

Hearts 1, Sunderland 0

HEARTS' match-winner in his home debut, Husref Musemic, embarks on a crash course this morning which Alex MacDonald hopes will see him graduate as a front-line leader in the premier division.

The tall Yugoslav, who has scored in all three of his outings for Hearts, needs to alter his style if the Edinburgh club are to use him successfully, and Sandy Clark, the man up front who needs replacing, will play a part in tutoring the 27-year-old to become more involved in the team's build-up.

"With his former club Husref was encouraged to peel off to the far post when an attack started to develop," explained assistant manager Walter Borthwick.

"With the type of players we have we need him to stay more central and make himself available for passes on the ground.

We'll start on that first thing this morning, but I was pleased with the way he took his chance and a couple of other efforts."

Like others from his country, Musemic, top scorer in Yugoslavia two seasons ago, has many difficulties to overcome in the early part of his stay and settling will take time.

Some others, including Hearts' most recent recruit, Dave Kirkwood, were predictably more at home.

Gary Mackay, Iain Ferguson, and John Colquhoun looked particularly keen to get started.

But it was as a unit that Hearts needed to impress most and, on the day, they failed.

The trick, of course, is to get it right on Saturday, and they still have tomorrow's friendly against Dynamo Tblisi to work with.

HEARTS -- Smith, McLaren, Kirkwood, Levein, Berry, McPherson, Colquhoun, Mackay, Musemic, Ferguson, Bannon.

Substitutes -- Crabb, Whittaker, Kidd.

Sunderland -- Norman, Kay, Hardyman, Bennett, MacPhail, Owers, Cullen, Armstrong, Gates, M Gabbiadini, Pascoe.

Substitutes -- Brady, R Gabbiadini.

Referee -- J Renton (Cowdenbeath).