No hiding for Hearts Harry
Wednesday, 11th Dec 2019“The one thing he never did, he never hid from anything that was thrown at him.”
On loan Jambo Harry Cochrane has now started six matches for Dunfermline and has come off the bench another five times. His manager Stevie Crawford is delighted with his contribution after replacing the injured Paul Paton in the recent home win over Partick Thistle. He explained:-
“Harry came on at half time against Partick Thistle recently. Probably the game was won in the first half but he came on, got himself on the ball and made plenty of touches. Then when we went down to Ayr in midweek and I thought his performance was excellent on the night. He kept Moffat quiet, he kept Stephen Kelly quiet and also contributed in terms of starting our attacks.
“At the weekend against Morton I felt the boys were excellent in the first half. Second half he probably found it tough, did he get on the ball so much? There were reasons for that as well with personnel changes and tactical changes from Morton. The one thing he never did, he never hid from anything that was thrown at him.”
The 18 year old midfielder has been capped for Scotland at every age group from U14 up to U19 and was given his Hearts first-team debut at the age of 16. Stevie has known Harry since his days as coach with the Edinburgh club and discussions with Harry this week have focused on the reactions of Morton who appeared to start with three centre backs but then changed their shape in response to the home side’s play. SC continued:-
“Was it a 3-4-3 sort of formation that they started with? I know they changed that within the first half which again shows that the opposition is having to change because of the way the game was going.
“Harry felt that he was getting on the ball and being allowed to dictate play. He said that he found the second half a lot tougher but the game did change. They matched up our three in the middle of the park then.
“Again with the personnel that was on the pitch on Saturday and with what we had available and on the bench, we felt that it was right to keep three in the middle of the park.
“They were playing long diagonals on to our full backs asking questions of the distances our centre backs had to be between the full backs and then you have to match runners. It is a different way again. That is why I say that there are ways of winning games of football.
“You can prepare, train and do whatever you want but at times a long ball played on top of a full back, how do you prepare a player for that?
“It is something that we have spoken about as a staff. Greg Shields is saying that is something that we can bring into training. It is sometimes running without the ball in situations like that where you just have to make sure that you are matching men.”
Stevie felt that not just Harry Cochrane will have learned from the game concluding:-
“Boys will have gained experience from that at the weekend, it is something that will again add another string to their bow in terms of their development as a football player.”
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