Cathro Remains Confident

Hearts manager Ian Cathro had mixed feelings as ten-man Hearts lost out 2-1 at Ibrox despite a spirited display. An early Joe Garner goal, followed by a red card for Prince Buaben made it look impossible for Hearts to get anything out of the game, however after a tactical reshuffle, the visitors levelled things up.  Isma Goncalves scored from a breakaway, but the hard work was undone almost immediately as Barrie McKay scored 90 seconds later. After the game, the Cathro praised his team’s strength in refusing to be blown aside, and in large spells, being the better side.

(c)Andrew Milligan/PA Wire/PA Images

He said: "We were strong and consistent today, and we didn’t let things rock us.  Our attitude and work rate was first class. They had counter attacks, yes, but so did we. We had to try and be bold.  For me, it’s a bag of mixed feelings today. I’m disappointed to lose, but there are a lot of positives within that.  Those of us on the inside know how and what we’re building. After today, I’m more convinced than ever that this is going to be a very good team.  This is the attitude that I have, and that the team has.  When we stop putting the gun in our own mouths, it’ll be easier. You have to manage parts of the game when you’ve scored. That’s twice in two games we’ve failed to do that, and it’s happened too many times in the last five months, so that’s something we’ll be working on, game management."

Cathro reassured supporters that missing out on European qualification would not affect the quality of players targeted to boost the squad.  He went on: "The main thing is we get value out of the next two matches for next season, like we did today.  Not qualifying for Europe, however, is not going to have any affect on the quality of players we’ll be signing in the summer, for who we’re aiming for. Not at all."