Hearts Women 0-1 Troon Ladies

From Hearts News at Dalkeith Campus

After two tremendous results against teams in the top half the league Hearts suffered a major setback in their battle to beat the drop when going down to fellow-strugglers Troon Ladies.

A below-strength Maroons elected to have the strong wind in their favour as the match got underway and had the visitors on the back foot but a lack of quality when it came to the final ball was a source of frustration.

The Maroons dominated the opening half but failed to take advantage of the elements and this was to prove costly.

The second period was barely five minutes old when Hearts found themselves trailing when a corner on the left was knocked into the sixyard box and was knocked in at the near post.

Having gone ahead the visitors, who had posed very little threat, were happy to sit in and defend their slender lead and the hosts struggled to create any real chances despite the amount of possession they enjoyed.

The closest they came was when Rogers burst into the box and let fly from 16yds, her shot came crashing off the underside of the bar. Hearts had penalty claim when Borthwick was upended in the box but the referee waived away the appeals.

Hearts became more frantic as time ran out and this anxiety led to them making a lot of bad choices when on the ball. Troon, who had defended bravely, were able to see the game out and celebrated wildly as the referee blew the final whistle.

Coach Tam Milne said afterwards:: "We worked hard and had the bulk of possession but our lack of quality on the ball cost us, we could not find passes, our crossing was poor and we had very few attempts at goal.

"We definitely did not deserve to lose the match but I give credit to Troon who stuck to their game plan and got the result."

Hearts: Milby, Honjigawa, Paterson, Gill, Hurst, Anderson, Borthwick, Rogers, Buchanan, Piaskowski, McGovern (Ward) (Cuningham). Subs unused: Porteous (G/K).

On Hearts.TV today, don't miss Kevin Kyle and Stephen Elliott on latest edition of The Billy Brown Show, plus highlights from Pittodrie.