Levein's troops stuttering towards the finishing line

PAUL KIDDIE

IT is one thing being in front down the closing stretch but it is quite another to actually break the tape, as Hearts are discovering this season.

For weeks now the Jambos have been in pole position for a return to Europe but for one reason or another have failed to drive home their advantage over nearest rivals Dunfermline.

Earlier this month they found themselves two goals up against Celtic at Parkhead with just 120 seconds left on the clock, the Gorgie outfit having to settle for a point after a remarkable fightback by the Glasgow giants.

Four days later and they dominated the rearranged league meeting with Motherwell at Fir Park but again were forced to settle for a share of the spoils after a momentary lapse at the back proved costly.

Last weekend brought a visit to relegation-haunted Partick Thistle, a fixture which appeared, on paper at least, to offer a sure-fire away win only for Levein’s men to succumb to the SPL basement outfit, a defeat which saw an 11-game unbeaten league run come shuddering to a halt.

The players were given four days off in the aftermath of that unexpected setback, Levein maintaining the loss was a direct consequence of an intense period of action for his injury-hit squad.

The break was supposed to recharge the batteries and help prepare the Jambos for a final push during the campaign’s run-in, starting with Saturday’s visit of CIS Cup winners Livingston in the last game before the split.

Certainly, the first-half display seemed to suggest the rest had done the trick with the home side dominant throughout the opening 45 minutes.

Once again, though, Hearts were guilty of not making the most of their opportunities in front of goal, with just Kevin McKenna’s 18th-minute strike to show for their efforts when they should have been out of sight.

As against ’Well, they paid the penalty, Colin McMenamin levelling the game in the 73rd minute after latching on to another error by Steven Pressley - the skipper was at fault at Firhill last week for the Jags’ winner.

The disappointing draw was not the result which Levein or his players was looking for and there wasn’t much for the Tynecastle boss to smile about following another below-par display.

But if the Hearts boss was looking for any sort of pick-me-up on Saturday night, he need only have looked as far as Fife, and East End Park in particular.

While the Gorgie outfit was struggling to see off the Lions’ challenge, fourth-placed Dunfermline were also failing to make the most of home advantage against Dundee United with a 1-1 draw.

The Pars have now taken just two points from their last three matches, tomorrow’s Tennent’s Scottish Cup semi-final replay against Inverness Caley Thistle at Pittodrie clearly their No.1 priority with the winners facing Celtic in the final and an automatic place in Europe regardless of the outcome.

Dunfermline’s inability to capitalise on their games in hand - they could have drawn to within three points - means that despite recent hiccups Hearts remain well on course for a second successive UEFA Cup campaign.

"If there is a hard way to do it, we’ll do it. There’s no point in getting there and allowing me to relax, let’s try to keep me uptight up to the last minute if we can!" said Levein.

"As against Motherwell we should have had the game won but it just goes to show that a one-goal lead is never enough, especially if you are going to make silly mistakes.

"You could probably count on one hand the number of mistakes which Elvis has made since I’ve been here and he’s now made two in a week. These things happen but it’s a collective thing and we should have had the game won long before he made his mistake. We were so much on top. Livingston don’t have an awful lot to play for now this season and it looked like that for a while until they got the goal. They got a lift from that and, to be honest, they could have scored again and it would have been an even bigger travesty had we lost the match."

Levein made four changes from last week’s defeat at Partick. The suspended Paul Hartley was joined on the sidelines by Mark de Vries (throat infection), Dennis Wyness and Neil Janczyk with Patrick Kisnorbo, Christophe Berra, Andy Kirk and Steven Boyack - the midfielder playing his first game since September - all recalled to the starting line-up.

Despite all the changes in personnel, the hosts quickly found their rhythm and it was pretty much one-way traffic towards former Tynecastle keeper Roddy McKenzie.

Berra sent a header flying over the top and Alan Maybury shot narrowly wide inside the first ten minutes and it came as no surprise when Hearts broke the deadlock in the 18th minute.

Boyack’s corner from the left was flicked on by Berra, Marvin Andrews failed to intercept and McKenna smashed home the opener at the back post.

Kirk then curled a shot inches wide before McKenzie saved from McKenna seven yards out - a better connection would have tested the keeper. This had all happened before the half-hour mark when the fans staged another demonstration against Chris Robinson, this time a well-supported red card protest underlining the strength of feeling against the chief executive.

The match was George Foulkes’ first home game as chairman and he decided to watch the action unfold from his normal seat in the stand rather than the directors box, a gesture presumably aimed at the supporters with the message "I’m one of you."

If he in any way had underestimated the depth of animosity towards "The Pie Man" before Saturday, the new chairman will have been left in no doubt that the one thing his appointment hasn’t done is take the heat off the under-fire chief executive.

Once again, though, the Hearts players ignored the chants to concentrate on the football and Ibrox-bound Marvin Andrews prevented his side going two down with a goalline clearance from McKenna after McKenzie had pushed a Robbie Neilson cross into the path of the Canadian.

The second half was a disappointingly subdued affair with little to excite the 10,352 spectators until Pressley’s misjudgement of a long ball presented McMenamin with the 73rd-minute equaliser.

The skipper, though, would later redeem himself with a last-ditch tackle on Richard Brittain after David McNamee’s pass had given the youngster a sight of goal.

Shortly after the equaliser, David Fernandez had a golden chance to put Livingston ahead when he was through on Craig Gordon, the young keeper impressing the watching Scotland boss Berti Vogts with a fine stop, the only save he had to make in the game.

In an exciting finale, McKenzie saved from Kisnorbo and both Kirk and McKenna were just inches away from converting Maybury’s drilled ball across the face of goal.

Neilson was then a lucky man not be penalised for fouling Fernandez on the edge of the box as the Spaniard headed towards goal.

Kisnorbo had a shooting chance from 25 yards in the last minute but his effort which finished nearer to the corner flag perhaps best summed up his side’s ineffective second half.

As Hearts enter the post-split matches sitting comfortably in third place, Levein may well look back at the last few weeks and ponder "if only".

But an eight-point advantage over his nearest rivals with just five games left to play is an equation he’d have settled for back in August.

Taken from the Scotsman