Hearts' dream snuffed out on two fronts

STUART BATHGATE AT MURRAYFIELD

Hearts 0-1 Ferencvaros Rosa (30)

Referee: L Paniashvili (Grg).
Attendance: 26,182

THERE were two parts to the equation if Hearts were to qualify for the last 32 of the UEFA Cup, but in the event neither worked out. A point behind Basel before last night’s final matches in Group A, the Edinburgh side effectively had to beat Ferencvaros and also rely on the Swiss side failing to do so against Feyenoord.

But a first-half goal from the Hungarians proved the difference at the home of Scottish rugby, while Basel refused to play their allotted part in the fairy story and won in the St Jakob Stadium.

Hearts thus finish bottom of the group, while Basel join Feyenoord and Schalke 04 in the knockout stages. The last Scottish team in European competition fought all the way against experienced and at times cynical opponents, but could not find a way through against a well-drilled defence.

John Robertson had pledged his team would go all out to win, but the starting line-up, a 4-4-2 formation, suggested that Hearts would not throw all caution to the wind immediately. Alan Maybury returned to the back four after serving a domestic suspension, Michael Stewart was in midfield, and Graham Weir was selected to play up front along Mark de Vries. Joe Hamill, Ramon Pereira and Dennis Wyness, all of whom had begun the draw with Inverness Caledonian Thistle five days earlier, dropped to the bench. Phil Stamp, whose training has been restricted this week by an ankle knock, was not included among the substitutes.

There was a surprise name among the Ferencvaros reserves, that of Szabolcs Huszti. The player who scored twice for his country against Scotland in the recent friendly has been a key player for the Hungarian league champions this season, but the coach, Csaba Laszlo, said on the eve of the match that Huszti has to learn to keep his feet on the ground. Part of this educational process, apparently, is not taking his place in the team for granted.

Laszlo’s team had even less of a chance of going through to the last 32 than Hearts, as they needed a win and required Basel to lose heavily. The Ferencvaros coach, however, was just as adamant as his Scottish counterpart that he would go for the win: there was, after all, no point in doing anything else.

The Hungarians played with three at the back and five in midfield, and in the opening minutes tried to seize control of the contest in the central areas. They also showed an irksome willingness to crumple to the ground after even minimal physical contact, a tendency which the Georgian referee was all too willing to reward. To be fair to Mr Paniashvili, he was even-handed in his disapproval of any robustness, but such an officious style was unlikely to work in Hearts’ favour.

After some tentative initial touches the game soon opened up, and in the tenth minute Paul Hartley had the first scoring chance of the match, a shot on the run which Lajos Szucs managed to knock round the post for a corner. Three minutes later the same Hearts player had the ball in the net after charging down an attempted clearance, but the referee ruled that Hartley had handled the ball before shooting.

Though pinned back in their own half for much of the time, Ferencvaros soon proved they were dangerous on the counter-attack when Aleksandar Bajevski broke up the left wing. The cutback found Gabor Gyepes in space a dozen yards out, but Gyepes stumbled in the act of shooting and directed the ball wide.

In the 30th minute, Hearts were not so fortunate. A through ball from Peter Lipesei broke to Rosa, who was either offside or had timed his run precisely. The referee favoured the latter explanation, and Rosa was lucky to get three stabs at shooting before he eventually scored. Craig Gordon stood up to block the first attempt, and from a virtually prone position managed to parry the second. When the ball broke to him yet again, though, Rosa was able to stroke it into the by-then-unguarded net. As the ball went in the little knot of around 30 travelling supporters celebrated exuberantly but without obvious menace, and it was hard to see why they were being closely attended by a roughly equal number of police and security guards.

Hearts were knocked off their stride for no more than a few minutes, and De Vries soon came close to equalising. A snapshot from the Dutch striker took a deflection off Gyepes, and Szucs was relieved to see the ball glance off his post for a corner.

A niggling hostility between the teams had been evident throughout, and eventually the referee felt obliged to do something other than merely award fouls. Lipesei was the first name to go into his book after repeated fouling, and then a minute later another Ferencvaros foul provoked a brief rammy involving at least seven or eight players. Zavadsky was shown the yellow card, and several others from both sides could have joined him.

Ferencvaros were not endearing themselves to the home crowd by playing for time, but they appeared willing to do most things possible to disrupt Hearts’ rhythm. In first-half stoppage time Andy Webster was booked for an impetuous challenge in the Hungarian team’s half, and the interval came at a welcome time as the match threatened to boil over.

Daniel Tozser was booked shortly after the resumption, and he was soon replaced by Huszti. The heat went out of the match for a while, and when news filtered through that Basel had scored the atmosphere became distinctly muted.

With half an hour to play Pereira came on for McAllister as Hearts continued to press for the equaliser, and an indication that Ferencvaros were not completely at ease came when Laszlo was stand to the stands for protesting too much. Ten minutes later Wyness was brought on to make it four Hearts strikers on the pitch, but chances were harder to come by for the Scots side than they had been in the first half.

Indeed, Ferencvaros looked as likely to score again - albeit against the run of play - as Hearts did to open their account. A raking drive from Leandro de Almeida was touched behind for a corner, from which Gordon did well to tip a header by Thomas Sowunmi over the bar.

Robertson’s last throw of the dice was to bring Kevin McKenna on for Weir, and the tall Canadian had a late chance with a header. It would have been no more than a minimal consolation had he scored, as a draw would have no more than keep Hearts above Ferencvaros.

Hearts: Gordon, Neilson, Pressley, Webster, Maybury, Stewart, Kisnorbo (Wyness 70), Hartley, McAllister (Pereira 61), Weir (McKenna 75), De Vries. Subs not used: Moilanen, Berra, MacFarlane, Hamill.

Ferencvaros: Szucs, Vukmir, Lipcsei, Gyepes, Rosa, Zavadsky, Balog, De Almeida, Tozser (Hustzi 48), Bajevski (Akos 87), Penska (Sowunmi 65). Subs not used: Udvaracz, Szkukalek, Somorjai, Bognar.

Taken from the Scotsman