Derek McInnes praised Claudio Braga for recovering from his Premier Sports Cup penalty torment to help Hearts dig themselves out of “a hopeless situation” in a dramatic 3-3 William Hill Premiership draw at home to Motherwell.
The Jambos were three down and “on the floor” – according to their manager – after being outclassed in the first hour by a Well side who struck through Callum Slattery, Tawanda Maswanhise and Emmanuel Longelo.
But Hearts, who started the day top of the table after winning their opening two league matches, hit back through Harry Milne before substitute Braga – who missed the decisive kick in last weekend’s shootout defeat at St Mirren – netted twice to salvage a barely-deserved point for the hosts.
“Claudio had last weekend from hell, he feels that responsibility and now he feels much better about himself,” said McInnes. “And he can be that talisman for us when he’s playing in that sort of free-flowing vein with confidence oozing from him.
“When we got the first goal, all of a sudden you thought ‘maybe there’s just something here for us’.
“We got the second one and you’re thinking, ‘just don’t run out of time’. And we get the third one, then we hit the post and we had a few things fizzing about. I think we ran out of time to win the game.
“It’s that third (Motherwell) goal that was an absolute killer for us. We were on the floor, there was no doubt about it.
“We need to clearly discuss that and work out why we they had three shots on target and scored the three goals and why they played through us too often.
“But the players deserve so much credit. I love being their manager already.
“That sort of thing, coming back from that, it’s a test of them and it’s credit to them that they turned a hopeless situation round into something positive at the end of it.”
Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou rued the fact his side – who impressed with their persistence in playing out from the back – were held to a third-consecutive Premiership draw this season but said “it’s very clear that we are getting better every week”.
“It was an incredible game, what a football game for everyone to watch and for the players to be part of,” he said.
“Unfortunately we didn’t get the three points that were there for us to take, because we invested a lot into this game, a lot of bravery and a lot of quality.
“But we know that Hearts will put us under pressure when they have to chase something and they showed their quality as well.”
