Hearts 2 Dunfermline 1

Mark de Vries bagged a brace as Hearts came back from behind to confirm they would finish third in the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

The Dutchman's 14th and 15th goals of the season consigned Dunfermline to a 2-1 Tynecastle defeat.

The fourth-placed Pars had kicked off as the only team able to catch Craig Levein's side but this result means that is now a mathematical impossibility.

Jimmy Calderwood's side had perhaps deserved a point and will at least be able to use this match as a competitive warm-up for the Tennent's Scottish Cup final with Celtic, a fixture that means they will take part in next season's UEFA Cup competition along with Hearts, albeit in the qualifiers to begin with.

The game was less than seven minutes old when Hearts found themselves down to 10 men and within another four it had cost them a goal.

Captain Steven Pressley came off worse in a clash of heads with Noel Hunt and while the dazed Pars striker was soon able to continue it was clear the Scotland defender would need a gushing head wound to be stitched up in the dressing room.

In the end Pressley was off the pitch for 11 minutes by which time Andy Tod had headed Dunfermline in front from a Gary Dempsey free-kick in the 11th minute.

It was exactly the sort of delivery into a crowded area that Pressley would have expected to head away but no team-mate was able to beat the huge frame of Tod to the ball and Craig Gordon was soon picking the ball out of the net.

Kevin McKenna, playing up front in a now familiar role, had seen an early header hacked off the line by Gary Mason and a back-post attempt at an equaliser bounced just wide of the target.

Lee Bullen almost made it 2-0 at the other end however with a header from a Richie Byrne cross which landed just the wrong side of Gordon's right-hand post.

The Hearts equaliser, which arrived in the 42nd minute, was in a similar vein as Alan Maybury fired in a cross from a deep position on the left flank that de Vries met with an emphatic header that gave Pars keeper Derek Stillie no chance.

Two minutes earlier Hunt received the game's first booking after he had lost his rag with a linesman for penalising his touchline challenge on Maybury.

Within five minutes of the restart Mason had again saved his side from falling behind and this time the goal he prevented would have been a classic.

Maybury began the move with a long ball out of defence that was perhaps fortunate to reach McKenna but a quick switch to de Vries saw the striker play Paul Hartley in behind the Pars defence.

The St Johnstone man took the ball round the advancing Stillie but Mason was able to slide in and divert the resulting shot round the near post before it crossed the line.

In keeping with the game's other theme, Pars defender Andrius Skerla was briefly forced off the field to receive stitches on a wound above an eye.

Not long after, Pressley was forced off again for more treatment and Hearts were relieved that Dunfermline did not take the lead again, with Dempsey forcing Gordon into a save from a long-range shot.

Skerla was replaced by Aaron Labonte in the 67th minute as Hearts sent on Graham Weir for Joe Hamill at the same time.

Dempsey was fast becoming the game's most influential performer and was denied a fine goal only by the crossbar when he fired a half-cleared corner past Gordon.

Greg Shields had to follow Mason's example at the other end to make two goal-line blocks in the space of a few seconds as Hearts tried to capitalise on a penalty box scramble following a corner.

But de Vries was not to be denied and duly wrapped up the three points in the 81st minute with a low snap-shot from more than 20 yards out which deceived Stillie, who perhaps should have at least got a touch.

De Vries passed up a late hat-trick chance however when Stillie parried a fierce shot from Weir and the big forward blazed the rebound over.

The decision earlier in the week that Hearts would continue to play at Tynecastle next season mean this was no longer the penultimate fixture at this historic ground.

But there were still protests from the fans with a section chanting 'Sack the Board' and holding up 'Robinson Must Go' banners in the direction of under-fire chief executive Chris Robinson.

Teams

Hearts Gordon, Pressley, McKenna, Webster, Neilson, Maybury, Hartley, Severin (Kisnorbo 69), Janczyk (Boyack 73), de Vries, Hamill (Weir 67).

Subs Not Used: Moilanen, Wyness.

Goals: de Vries 42, 81.

Dunfermline Stillie, Shields, Tod, Skerla (Labonte 67), Bullen, Dempsey, Nicholson, Mason, Derek Young, Hunt (Kilgannon 87), Byrne.

Subs Not Used: Grondin, Craig Wilson, Scott Y Thomson.

Booked: Hunt.

Goals: Tod 11.

Att: 10,846

Ref: K Toner (Scotland).

Taken from sportinglife.com