Cathro understands Hearts fans' frustration after disappointing draw

New Hearts boss Ian Cathro has pleaded for patience after his Tynecatle debut ended amid a chorus of boos.

The 30-year-old rookie head coach was jeered at full-time after his team put on a limp display as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Partick Thistle.

But Cathro, who also copped flak from the tetchy Tynecastle support when he replaced goalscorer Bjorn Johnsen with 18 minutes left, reckons the Jambos fans were right to voice their frustration.

And he admits he would be more worried if the fans had stayed silent.

The former Valencia and Newcastle coach said: We all feel the same reaction. I can't boo because I've got to try and help find the solution.

But players, fans, staff - our reaction is the same because we feel the same thing. We just have to stay together - and we will.

Was I surprised by the booing at the end? No, because it's a natural human reaction - 'We didn't get what we wanted, we're not happy'.

But I'm not happy. The players didn't get what they wanted and they're not happy. So the booing is just the voicing of that and that's normal.

If we reach the point down the line where we draw at home and everyone is fine with it, I'd be more upset with that. But we're not fine with this.''

Johnsen headed home the opener after 17 minutes when he connected with Liam Smith's sublime cross.

But the hosts failed to build on their lead and, after Prince Buaben went off with a calf issue at half-time, they struggled to regain their grasp on the game.

That allowed a fired-up Jags side to roar back into the contest and level with Sean Welsh's header just two minutes after the restart.

And only a couple of breathtaking stops from goalkeeper Jack Hamilton against Thistle forwards Chris Erskine and Kris Doolan prevented the torrent of abuse reigning down from the home support growing even louder.

But Cathro tried to remain positive, saying: Some bits were good and I was really pleased that the players are completely focused and working really hard on taking the little steps we want them to take.

We managed to control bits of the play during the first half. The team started to grow in that moment. But when the game is swinging that we we needed to do a little bit more damage than we did.

But we were forced to change some things and that resulted in the game being very broken, mayhem, a little bit of Scottish chaos, some anxiety, some nervousness and some mistakes as well.

It becomes a really difficult cycle to break at that point.''

Thistle remain bottom of the league and boss Alan Archibald reckons his side missed the chance to climb up the table.

Credit to Hearts, first half they were good and we were poor, but second half we edged it and deserved the three points,'' he said.

It was night and day. First half we went back to front too much and lost a poor goal, but I was much happier with the second half.

Just now it feels like two points dropped because of the chances we had at the end.

We need to get the complete performance. We can't be slack at one end and not scoring at the other end. Something's getting us every time. Today we missed a few gilt-edged chances.''