McKenna labours in vain

By Nicholas Harling
Feyenoord (1) 3 Hearts (0) 0

Hearts successfully contained the Dutch League's latest sensation Salomon Kalou in the De Kuip Stadium here last night but still fell to a disappointing defeat in their opening Group A tie in the UEFA Cup.

The Scots never really recovered from the withdrawl of Dutch striker Mark de Vries and midfielder Phil Stamp.

The replacement, as usual, for De Vries was versatile Canadian l defender Kevin McKenna who, according to television replays, had a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside after 37 minutes following a decent move involving James McAllister and Joe Hamill.

Graham Weir could have forced a penalty eight minutes after the resumption when he was brutally shoved aside by Karim Saidi.

Feyenoord had, however, been in control from the opening seconds when Dirk Kuijit thundered a shot into the arms of Craig Gordon who was relieved to see the offside flag go up when Kalou beat him with a subsequent header.

But moments after Webster had cleared an angled shot from Bart Goor off the line, Feyenoord took the lead with Kuijit heading home from Paauwe's right wing cross.

Webster and Steven Pressley were booked for holding back opponents as Hearts struggled, even more so after falling further behind in the 57th minute. Goor scored calmly after running onto a through pass from Pascal Bosschaart and then provided the cross for Kuijit to score Feyenoord's third and his second with a neat cushioned volley.

Taken telegraph.co.uk/sport