Levein has the final word

NO doubt Craig Levein had a wry smile on his face when he heard the result from Tynecastle. While he watched his new club in Cardiff, Hearts equalled their best scoreline of the season in taking advantage of a 10-man Dundee.
With John Robertson expected to be installed as Hearts manager, the transition from one Gorgie legend to another should be almost seamless. There was no detectable anger directed against Levein yesterday, and rarely, if ever, has a manager walked away from a club on such good terms with the famously fickle beast that is the football supporter.

With assistant manager Peter Houston in charge yesterday, Levein’s former players were up for the job, although their task was made easier when Dundee left-back Jonay Hernandez was sent off in the 25th minute for bringing Kevin McKenna down from behind in the penalty box. The match, despite serving up much entertainment, was always going to be totally overshadowed by Levein’s dramatic move to Leicester.

There were front page stories in the morning tabloids about his personal life, while the move south was so sudden that his usual column appeared in the match programme.

In it, Levein railed against the referee and his linesmen in the Uefa Cup tie against Feyenoord.

“In my eyes, the most incompetent performance by a team of officials in recent footballing history,” he wrote. Hardly, one would have thought, the words of a man with one eye on England, but the former manager had been in an angry mood all week if his rant against Hibs manager Tony Mowbray was any yardstick.

“Enjoy today’s match and get right behind the team,” Levein signed off in his programme notes. The passion of the sizeable home support suggested his words had been taken to heart.

It took only a minute to demonstrate that the Hearts players were fired up too. Fouls which are committed before the referee has had time to get his bearings are rarely punished with more than a word, but Craig Thomson had, correctly, no hesitation in bringing out his yellow card when Robbie Neilson crudely brought down Steven Robb from behind.

A contentious first half was barely at the midway stage before Thomson had issued three more yellows and, to the demented annoyance of the Dundee supporters who had a bird’s-eye view of it behind Derek Soutar’s goal, sent off Jonay Hernandez.

Fabian Caballero, in his second stint at Dundee, was booked for an off-the-ball challenge, and was later joined by team-mate Bobby Mann and Hearts’ Alan Maybury following a penalty box incident which raised the temperature further.

Andy Webster seemed to swing an arm at Mann in the ugly aftermath, but despite the Dundee defender dropping to the ground no action was taken against the Scotland international.

Hernandez wasn’t to be so fortunate in the 25th minute. With other Dundee defenders in the box the left-back wasn’t necessarily the last man, but when he lunged at McKenna from behind in the penalty box he denied the Hearts striker a clear goal-scoring opportunity. Thomson, a decisive official, wasted no time in brandishing the red.

Prior to the sending off, Caballero had missed a couple of chances for Dundee and Ramon Pereira an equally good one for Hearts, but now from the spot kick Steven Pressley was awarded the best opportunity of the lot.

The Hearts captain has missed three penalties out of four this season, and he tried to stare out Soutar as he walked slowly forward to take the kick. To no avail; the ball hit the bar.

Despite the miss, the sending off galvanised Hearts even further and they set about the 10 men with relish.

Soutar felt the bar above him juddering again seconds later when McKenna met Paul Hartley’s cross with a powerful header, but the goal Hearts craved wasn’t delayed much later. Soutar will not look back at the replays with much fondness.

Pereira released McKenna at what looked like a hopeless angle near a Dundee post, but although it seemed Soutar only had to stand firm to block any possible goal attempt, he weakly flapped at McKenna’s effort and the home side went ahead.

A feature of the game was the eagerness of Pereira, but it seemed that fate was determined to rob him of the goal his hard work deserved, otherwise Dundee would certainly have gone into the interval further behind.

The second half was pretty much more of the same, with McKenna yet again being denied a goal when another header hit the bar. Dundee, while creating few chances themselves, were working very hard to give themselves the chance of a point, and a great saving tackle by Callum McDonald on the luckless Pereira kept their hopes alive until 10 minutes from time.

The second Hearts goal was a beauty. Substitute Graham Weir sent a lovely through ball to Hartley, but as he raced into the box for the return the midfielder instead dispatched a marvellously accurate low shot past Souter from 20 yards out on the right.

Game Hearts, and the third goal came in the second minute of injury time, when Neil Janczyk set up Dennis Wyness, which was the icing on the cake for the home fans at the end of a desperately difficult week.


Taken from the Sunday Herald