Derek McInnes felt Hearts win over Falkirk was ‘thoroughly deserved’

Boss Derek McInnes praised his depleted Hearts side for overcoming an “anxious” first-half display to defeat Falkirk 1-0 and move five points clear at the top of the William Hill Premiership.

Islam Chesnokov settled the Jambos’ nerves with his first goal for the club in the 45th minute and they were able to see out the second period in relatively comfortable fashion despite being unable to add to their lead.

McInnes was particularly pleased given the win – which cranked up the heat on title rivals Rangers and Celtic ahead of their matches on Sunday – was achieved without a string of key players, including Beni Baningime, Ageu, Cammy Devlin, Oisin McEntee, Stephen Kingsley and Lawrence Shankland.

In addition, back-up goalkeeper Craig Gordon missed out with a shoulder issue and first-choice Alexander Schwolow played despite struggling with a sickness bug.

“Sometimes those 1-0 wins are the bedrock of any success a team can have,” said McInnes. “I think that’s been demonstrated in history.

“The first half, there was a 20-25 minute period where we looked really anxious. I thought our out-of-possession stuff was good the whole game, but our in-possession stuff needed to be better.

“I thought we were far better in the second half than we were first. We were the team that looked more likely to score a second goal in the second half.

“I watch Falkirk often enough and they normally pepper teams, they normally put endless crosses in the box, they normally create so many chances.

“Very rarely do they not score. But it wasn’t really like that. I thought the second half we were comfortable enough, we kept them away at arm’s length.

“I thought we thoroughly deserved the win.”

McInnes is confident midfielders Baningime and McEntee will return for next Saturday’s visit of Aberdeen, while he was hopeful defender Stuart Findlay – forced off in the second half – would also be fit.

McInnes said “of course” it would be nice to be able to sit back and watch Rangers and Celtic in their matches against Livingston and Hibernian on Sunday but added: “You can’t get too obsessed. If you depend on others, you normally get let down. I’m just concentrating on my own team.

“There were a lot of people tipping Falkirk to come here and win. Falkirk are a good side, you need to do a lot right to beat them, so we’re just glad we’ve won the game.

“We’ll just deal with our own business as we go along and next Saturday’s another chance to do it.”

Falkirk boss John McGlynn was disappointed with his team’s display.

“I was frustrated with our performance,” he said. “We didn’t really do enough to win the game.

“We got ourselves into some good positions in the final third but created very little from it.

“We’ve not got any real complaints with the result. Hearts deserved to win the game, absolutely.

“Scott Bain made two or three good saves in the second half that probably kept the score down.”