Jim Jefferies counts cost of fine start as stars pick up knocks

Published Date: 24 July 2011
By Moira Gordon
JIM Jefferies saw his side kick-start their SPL season with a point against the reigning league champions but will only find out today if it has come at a cost, as attacker David Templeton, midfielder Mehdi Taouil and Andy Webster all pickpicked up knocks.
With the European campaign about to start on Thursday against Hungarian side Paksi, the Hearts manager will be hoping all three can recover in time. Centre-back Webster was an early casualty with a groin niggle, but his manager was not too perturbed given the job Eggert Jonsson did in deputising at the heart of the defence.

However, he will be anxious to have the attacking influences of both Templeton and summer signing Taouil at his disposal as his team attempt to build on their good start to the new term.

"I said to the players at half time that I once came here with Hearts and won 3-0 and that was as good a performance. It could have been even better but (Allan] McGregor made a couple of great saves today but what was pleasing was the way we were playing. The shape was good and we passed the ball well and wee Temps was on fire again. It was a blow to lose him with the head knock but he was suffering from double vision. I felt that they had a couple of chances before they scored but not too many afterwards so that's another pleasing part of the game, when we lost a goal we didn't start to feel sorry for ourselves or collapse, we kept plugging away."

Jefferies is hopeful that Templeton's issue can be overcome in time for the Europa Cup qualifier and was heartened by the way his team reacted to their first competitive game after a pre-season he categorised as "difficult" due to the early start to the campaign.

"Maybe we needed a few tougher games. So this game was always a concern but the team played well. There were good performances from us but you don't really know how you're going to do in the league until after about eight or ten games but at this stage you are looking for a wee bit of encouragement to go into the upcoming games and this was not just a good point - the performance was good for us.

"Now the expectation level will be there to do as well as we did last year. But Jamie Hammill wasn't available through suspension today and we still have Kevin Kyle and Andrew Driver to get back so we have good competition for places."

Taken from the Scotsman