Hartley at double to keep Killie at bay

STUART BATHGATE
AT TYNECASTLE

Hearts 2 Hartley (15, 52)
Kilmarnock 1 Leven (56)

AFTER taking a two-goal lead and looking firmly in control, Hearts in the end did just enough to book their place in the quarter-final of the CIS Insurance Cup.

Kilmarnock, off the pace for much of the first half, fought back quickly after Paul Hartley’s second goal for the home team, and might even have done enough to force the contest into extra time.

Given their dominance in the first 45 minutes Hearts just deserved to win. With the UEFA Cup return coming up against Braga next week, though, they will have to raise their game from this modest level to the heights they attained in their 3-1 win in the first leg of the European tie.

Mark de Vries, forced off at half-time last night after injuring a foot in a tackle, should be fit for the match in Portugal but may miss Saturday’s league game against Inverness.

Meanwhile, Hearts coach Craig Levein compared Hartley, who is having an outstanding season thus far, to a Tynecastle midfielder of the recent past. "Paul is getting better and better, and is a wonderful football player," Levein said of the match winner. "He reminds me of Colin Cameron at his best. That’s high praise for him but he deserves it."

Kilmarnock travelled east in confident mood, having maintained their high position in the SPL despite losing 1-0 to Aberdeen at the weekend. Jim Jefferies made three changes from the team which began that match, with one notable absentee being the former Hearts captain Gary Locke, who was carried off concussed at Rugby Park.

The present skipper at Tynecastle, Steven Pressley, was still out of Levein’s side with a virus, so Christophe Berra retained his place at centre-back alongside Andy Webster. Otherwise, the manager restored the first-team players who had not begun Sunday’s 1-0 league defeat by Dunfermline, having decided that those who deputised at East End Park had not done enough to merit a starting place.

One of those making his return, De Vries, should have opened the scoring in the fifth minute when a shot by Patrick Kisnorbo was deflected into his path, but the Dutch striker blasted over from inside the six-yard box. A few minutes later De Vries had another chance but again he was wide off target, albeit from further out and with the visiting defence closing down on him as he snaked his way into the box.

Undeterred, Hearts went back on the attack, and, after Kisnorbo was booked for a challenge which looked ill-timed rather than malicious, took the lead in the 15th minute. There was more than a touch of luck to the goal, which started with a corner on the right taken by Jamie McAllister.

The former Livingston player’s low pass was directed straight to Joe Hamill, but the latter lost his concentration and allowed the ball to pass underneath his foot. As the meagre home crowd groaned, Hartley stepped forward and fired in a first-time shot from around 20 yards.

It had been by no means one-way traffic, and Kilmarnock enjoyed a fair share of possession in the first 20 minutes. Doing anything with it, though, was proving more difficult, as Berra and Webster succeeded in snuffing out most incursions upfield before danger loomed. Hearts’ composure looked like being disrupted when De Vries was forced off after taking studs in a challenge, but the forward was able to return and complete the half.

For as long as it stayed 1-0 Kilmarnock were still in the game, and in first-half stoppage time Danny Invincibile almost snatched an equaliser when the ball broke to him on the right of the box. A touch from a Hearts defender was enough to deflect the shot behind for a corner, from which the home team cleared the danger.

Despite having that last chance of the half, Jefferies’ side were nonetheless relieved to go in at half-time without a bigger deficit to make up. Having begun the match in a reasonably competitive spirit, they had fallen out of the contest entirely, and needed the break to think of a way to get back into the match.

They started the second period brightly against a Hearts side in which Robert Sloan had replaced De Vries, but just as they began to develop thoughts about getting back on level terms, Hartley struck again. Picking up a through ball from Hamill close to the penalty spot, he dinked it past Alan Combe and into the unguarded net.

Moments later, after apparently being killed off, Kilmarnock got one back. Receiving a pass close to the byeline, Peter Leven cut inside and curled a shot round Craig Gordon to give his team a lifeline.

The play was by this time almost a mirror image of that in the first half with Hearts taking their turn to look listless and uninspired. But they burst into life in the latter stages, and although they failed to add to their lead the revival was enough to dampen Kilmarnock’s hopes of forcing the game into extra time.

• The quarter-final draw for the CIS Insurance Cup will take place on Saturday afternoon and will be broadcast live on BBC1.

Hearts: Gordon, Maybury, Webster, Berra, McAllister, Neilson, Kisnorbo, Hartley, Hamill, De Vries (Sloan 45), Wyness. Subs not used: Moilanen, MacFarlane, Stewart, Sives.

Kilmarnock: Combe, Fowler, Leven, Lilley, Greer, Dindeleux, McDonald (Dargo 26), Joly, Boyd, Johnston, Invincibile (Wales 80). Subs not used: Smith, Dodds, Dillon.

Referee: H Dallas. Attendance: 5,924

Taken from the Scotsman