Robbo the ace of Hearts

RAY HEPBURN

20 Sep 1990

Dnepr 1, Hearts 1

UKRAINE, Wednesday.

JOHN Robertson gave Hearts high hopes of securing a place in the second round of the UEFA Cup with a valuable away goal in the Meteor Stadium here in the Ukraine tonight.

Hearts had to resist intense second-half pressure from a competent Soviet side, who reached the last eight of the European Champions Cup last season, but were well worth the draw for the workload put in by their players.

The Edinburgh side suffered a setback before kick-off when Gary Mackay failed a fitness test and there were more problems for Hearts early in the game when Neil Berry had to go off to be replaced by Dave Kirkwood.

But Hearts reshuffled quickly and scored the opening goal to stun the 25,000 crowd after 22 minutes.

George Wright picked out Wayne Foster with a perfect cross and the former England youth cap headed the ball across the face of goal.

With the Soviet defence static Robertson dived in to beat Gorodov with a superb header from 10 yards.

Dnepr immediately tried to hit back and a header from Kudritsky slipped narrowly past before Sonn came close to converting a cross at the near post.

Kudritsky then tried his luck with a 20-yard free kick which flashed past Smith's left hand post.

It was a similar story in the second half with one-way traffic directed towards the Hearts goal and Dnepr equalised after 55 minutes.

Tosh McKinlay lost possession in the opposing half and the Soviets moved upfield slickly to level the score.

Only three passes were exchanged before striker Yuri Gudimenko lashed a volley past Smith.

Three minutes later Sandy Clark sought to consolidate by sending on experienced defender Walter Kidd for McCreery and Kidd plugged the gap in midfield.

Hearts nevertheless had some close calls and Smith produced an acrobatic save to deny Sidelnikov after 63 minutes.

But such was the Hearts defending -- with skipper Alan McLaren outstanding -- that Dnepr rarely had another chance in front of the Hearts keeper.

The only blemish for Hearts was the first-half booking of Foster for a late challenge.

DNEPR -- Gorodov, Yudin, Beshenar, Sidelnikov, Guerachenko, Kudritsky, Bagmut, Benko, Sonn, Gudimenko, Shakhov.

Substitutes -- Zhidkov, Edwardson, Deriavko, Mantur, Yarovenko.

HEARTS -- Smith, McLaren, McKinlay, Levein, Berry, Wright, Robertson, McCreery, Foster, Sandison, Colquhoun.

Substitutes -- Walker, I Ferguson, Kidd, Bannon, Kirkwood.

Referee -- W Foeckler (West Germany).