Thrills and spills fend off the chill

HEARTS 2

Cesnauskis 10, Velicka 52

MOTHERWELL 2
Porter 64, 78

AN ASTONISHING afternoon that warmed every part of your being despite a chill at Tynecastle that should have frozen us to the spot. The glow of the football, though, kept the cold out, the Motherwell comeback from 2-0 down, on this day of all days, ensuring that this cup tie will take a hell of a lot of beating for the game of the season.

Given they've not won a game since November 11, it was a shock in itself to see Hearts move effortlessly into a two-goal lead. In the 63rd minute the home team missed a chance for 3-0 which Stevie Frail would rue later on. For almost immediately Motherwell pulled one back, Chris Porter scoring. Now things really sizzled. Ross McCormack, rumoured to be of interest to Middlesbrough among others, had been playing beautifully all day but he went into overdrive towards the end. McCormack popped up everywhere and Motherwell scored again, Porter once more.

All square now. But there was more. Hearts responded. Paul Quinn made a fantastic block from Andrius Velicka, who had earlier scored Hearts' apparently match-clinching second goal. Just after that, Jose Goncalves denied Porter a certain hat-trick with a critical intervention. Within minutes it was Hearts again. A Velicka shot was charged down by Jim Paterson, the ball went spinning into the air off his body and down on to the Motherwell crossbar and away. It was gripping and immensely enjoyable.

McGhee was a proud and relieved man afterwards. "We were determined that everybody should enjoy it and make it a good football occasion," he said of their approach. "Even at 2-0 I said to Scott Leitch (his assistant] that there is something in this game for us. The players showed their ability. It wasn't about battering it or launching it. I keep mentioning Arsenal and Manchester United. They believe in what they do and they stick at it. For me, to get a result from 2-0 down means our players believe in themselves."

The Motherwell men had a quiet little moment just before kick-off, a brief huddle in front of their own supporters against a backdrop of a giant Phil O'Donnell shirt held aloft with the legend Brave As A Lion written beneath his No.10. As far as sentiment went, though, that was it. The Hearts team stood respectfully together while this was going on and in a few seconds it was over and the business of football took hold.

If there was an uncertainty how clear Motherwell's heads would be yesterday we got an idea pretty early on, for it was the visitors who carved out the first opening and they took barely three minutes to do it. It had an old familiar ring to it as well, created as it was by that little devil, McCormack. He got free up the left side and put in a ball to David Clarkson.

The centre forward would have fancied his chances from such an advantageous position in the box and especially with one as iffy as Eduardis Kurskis blocking his path. He got his shot away and no sooner had he done so than Christophe Berra threw himself in front of it and blocked it down. It was textbook scrambling defence from Berra.

In fairness to Hearts, they soon tapped into the spirit that got them through a difficult afternoon last Saturday against Kilmarnock. In the ninth minute Andrew Driver was involved in a move that saw a Velicka snapshot flash past Graeme Smith's goal; in the 10th, Driver was present again and this time Hearts found the target.

It was Driver's perceptive pass to Andrius Ksanavicius that started things. Ksanavicius then swung in a cross that found Cesnauskis unmarked in the box. The Lithuanian side-footed it through a ruck of bodies and into the corner of Smith's goal. Still, at half-time McGhee was able to remind his players that the last time they were here they were behind by a goal at the break and went on to win 2-1. Seven minutes into the new half, though, McGhee's words of encouragement were compromised.

Hearts doubled their lead thanks to a big punt downfield from a Kurskis free-kick, a flick-on from Michael Stewart and a smart finish from Velicka, the striker going around the goalkeeper to score. The Motherwell fans had issues with the referee in the preamble when Stuart Dougal awarded a drop-ball after Berra took a blow in the unmentionables. Goncalves then won a free-kick that Kurskis launched to Stewart and which Velicka eventually scored from. To be fair to McGhee, he didn't see the referee as the problem. "It was the way we defended it," he said.

Bad luck one moment, huge good fortune the next. Ksanavicius had a point-blank header from a few yards out for number three and failed to close the deal. That was the turning point. A minute later Stephen Hughes played a ball up to the edge of the Hearts penalty area and kick-started the revival. Keith Lasley gathered it and flicked it into McCormack who drilled it across goal for Porter to put it away.

Hearts retreated under a barrage of attacks from the visitors. Where before they looked comfortable, now they looked shaken. Two months without a win tends to make a team this way.

The same three men involved in getting Motherwell's first were involved again in the second, the damage being done down the right this time. McCormack played Lasley in and he provided the cross for Porter to bury the equaliser in front of his own euphoric fans. Dramatic stuff. We have a replay now on January 22. Bring it on.