There was a moment just after the half-hour mark of Heart of Midlothian's 1-0 win over Livingston at Tynecastle Park which exemplified the tricky task the home side faced. The task? To break down a yellow wall.
Liam Boyce, in the Livi box, was trying to find some space, any space, to shoot but he was crowded out. The visitors had 10 of their players in their box at the time of the effort, only Joel Nouble was further up the field.
It was a common sight. Whether it was the first three minutes, after the interval or as the game progressed into the closing stages.
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Livi boss David Martindale spoke afterwards about how he was "disappointed with our distances in terms of how aggressive we were, our defensive distances. We were probably 20 yards deeper than we would have liked to have been in the game". He gave Hearts and Steven Naismith credit for such a situation.
A glance at the heat map is eye-opening. Livingston spent a lot of the time across the edge of the box or just outside.
The majority of their pressures came in their own defensive third.
That was the problem Livingston posed to Hearts. What was the answer?
Hearts had five: Patience, width, midfield runners, shrewd substitutions and Lawrence Shankland.
They attempted 734 passes, their highest in a league match this season by more than 100. Positively, the majority were in the opposition half as the defensive trio pushed high up the pitch. It involved plenty of probing, ensuring Livingston were moved around as the home side sought openings. Naismith has spoken previously about not needing to win the game in the opening 15 minutes, it can be done over 90 minutes. As it was here.
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"Teams are going to come here and sit and frustrate and try and counter, we continued to play with good pace and the structure was really good," he said. "We had nearly nine or 10 players in the final third half at times which is important to move the ball and make chances."
The structure was clear. Alex Cochrane and Alan Forrest played key roles in maintaining width. That can be seen in the average positions via the pass network. Both remained high and wide.
Cochrane and Forrest ensured there was always a switch of play on. When the ball was on one side they were always the player that had the most space. While Forrest may not have scored or assisted he remained direct and positive. Alex Lowry...
... and Kye Rowles, who used the ball really well and was strong when called upon defensively, both played sweeping balls out to him in the first half.
It was also important that Forrest and Cochrane were supported and not isolated when getting the ball. Lowry and Cammy Devlin played wide and in advance of Beni Baningime. Lowry linked better with Cochrane than Devlin did with Forrest. The Australian was hooked at half-time for the more forward-thinking Grant.
Maintaining width combined with these runs from midfield were important for stretching the opposition. It was something Martindale mentioned after the game. "Opened the park up well, they moved the ball well," he said.
While Hearts had to remain patient, it can be seen from the xG race chart that opportunities arrived at a steady rate throughout the game. They didn't go long spells without threatening. Compare and contrast to Livingston who offered no goal threat for upwards of 80 minutes. It states Hearts would win the game 88 per cent of the time. The most dominant performance using that metric of the league season, even more so than the opening day win over St Johnstone which would have seen Hearts win the game 83 per cent of the time
If there was a disappointing element it was the lack of clear cut chances. Hearts recorded an xG of 2.20 from 25 attempts but only two - Kenneth Vargas' winning goal and a Shankland effort - had an xG greater than 11. Again, a large part of that is down to Livingston's yellow wall and the number of bodies they had behind the ball which naturally makes it more difficult to score.
On another day Shankland could have had a hat-trick. He hit the bar, nearly converted a cross, had a stinging drive repelled by Jack Hamilton and saw a low effort roll agonisingly past the post. His nine shots made up 0.83 of Hearts' 2.20 xG. He was back to his best, offering just as much away from that goal threat. When looking at xG build-up contributions, which discounts actual shots, he contributed 1.73. His movement was superb, his awareness excellent and he was the perfect reference point for his team-mates with 26 touches in the box with the rest of the team combining for 39, including some instinctive and improvised flicks.
Therefore it was no surprise that the Hearts captain, and the excellent Rowles, were involved in the winning goal which saw key contributions from substitutes Jorge Grant and Vargas. The latter's central and high position and Grant's run behind Shankland pushed Livingston even deeper, effectively onto their own penalty spot. It allowed Shankland to drop into space to collect a pass from Rowles who was in the attacking third before finding Grant who provided the pinpoint pass for Vargas at the back post.
A final word on Grant. He was a shrewd substitute and suited what was required more than Devlin. In hindsight he perhaps should have started. Even prior to the winning goal he was getting into more advanced areas, combining with Forrest and then Yutaro Oda to get the ball in wider areas before playing forward. Despite only coming on at the interval he recorded the joint-most passes into the box with Cochrane and Lowry.
While the Hearts support had to be patient, which they were, for the deserved winning goal, they witnessed a wholly dominant and structured performance which could easily have produced a more emphatic scoreline.
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