Victory was all that mattered to MacFarlane

Midfielder plays down his contribution after opening his account to help send Jambos into tie against Kilmarnock

PAUL KIDDIE
AT TYNECASTLE

HEARTS hero Neil MacFarlane today played down his first goal for the club in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup third-round replay win over Partick Thistle, insisting: "It was more important to get through the tie."

The midfielder opened his account on his 73rd appearance for the Jambos and his strike helped pave the way for last night’s 2-1 victory over their gutsy First Division opponents, Dennis Wyness popping up to stroke home the clincher just two minutes from time.

The 27-year-old’s first-half tap-in cancelled out a shock eighth-minute opener from Armand One and helped settle the hosts who had been rattled by the early setback.

Hearts now face Kilmarnock at Tynecastle next month for a place in the quarter-final and MacFarlane insisted that is all that matters.

"It was a tough cup tie over the two matches and we were just happy to be into the next round," said the player brought to Gorgie by former boss Craig Levein in 2001.

"Conditions were similar to the first match at Firhill and it was really just about getting through. If we can go on a run now I don’t think many people will remember that game.

"My first goal for the club has been a long time coming and I’m obviously delighted but it was more important that we got through.

"It was a flick-on from Robbie and I got in on the blind side to put it away. The goal came at a good time as the longer the game went without us scoring the more the pressure would have built up.

"It never really bothered me that I’d never scored before yesterday, the team winning is the important thing. That’s us through to the next round of the Scottish Cup, we’ve got a League Cup semi-final to look forward to as well and hopefully the league form can start to pick up after the weekend win over Dundee United."

As against the Tannadice outfit, the home side could not have endured a worse start with the Jags capitalising on an uncharacteristic error from Craig Gordon. The Scotland star appeared to lose Derek Fleming’s corner in the swirling wind and only succeeded in palming the ball onto his crossbar, One having the simplest of tasks to head home the rebound to stun the Gorgie faithful.

Poor decisions by officials seem to be following Hearts around this season and they were denied goals by two questionable calls before MacFarlane levelled the tie.

First to be left frustrated was Paul Hartley, who was flagged offside after latching on to Wyness’ flick and then on the half-hour mark, Wyness slotted home from Ramon Pereira’s cutback only to discover standside assistant Willie Dishington had deemed the Spaniard had failed to keep the ball in play on the bye line, much to the striker’s disgust.

As at Firhill, John Robertson’s side had the lion’s share of possession and while there was again a lack of quality in the final third of the park, at least last night saw some openings carved out.

Midfielder Hartley continues to be the heartbeat of this Hearts side and he had three or four decent efforts at goal which on another day may have brought better reward.

To his credit, Gordon didn’t let his earlier mistake unsettle him and he redeemed himself eight minutes into the second half with an agile tip-over from One’s venomous shot.

Opposite number Kenny Arthur also had to be on the top of his game to keep out Kevin McKenna’s near-post strike in the 69th minute and despite their strenuous efforts, Hearts appeared to be heading into the unwanted territory of extra time until Wyness intervened with 120 seconds left on the clock.

The mark of any good striker is timing and the former Inverness Caley Thistle star could not have hoped for a better moment to net his fifth goal of the season, although it was handed to him on a plate by woeful defending.

Robbie Neilson’s long throw found McKenna on the right and his low cross was missed by former Tynecastle stars Kenny Milne and Grant Murray to present Wyness with a sight of goal. Although he failed to control the ball first time, he kept his nerve to slot home into Arthur’s left-hand corner and secure a home tie against Jim Jefferies’ outfit.

Even at that stage Partick refused to give up and could have snatched an equaliser in stoppage time. Fleming’s deliveries from the left caused Hearts problems throughout the match and his last cross of the game from a free-kick saw One somehow manage to head the ball down and over the bar from two yards out after he’d nipped in front of Andy Webster.

"We said after the first game it wasn’t going to be easy and they got encouragement from their early goal," said Robertson.

"They defended in depth and made it hard for us and when you get to that stage in a match having missed as many chances as we had, you do begin to think the match would be heading for extra time. We created a string of chances in the second half but didn’t take them through a combination of bad luck, bad finishing and good goalkeeping. Dennis took his goal well, though, with an excellent finish.

"I thought we thoroughly deserved to win the game against a very good Partick side. Some people are saying we are having a poor season by Hearts’ standards but if we can win our game in hand in the league we’ll be within six points of Hibs, we’re in the semi-final of the CIS Cup, the next round of the Scottish Cup and have had six fantastic games in Europe. If that’s a bad season, we’ll take that every year."

Jim Jefferies, the man who famously brought the Scottish Cup back to Tynecastle in 1998, now lies in wait on Saturday, February 4 at Tynecastle and Robertson added: "We now face Jim and Billy (Brown) who are the standard bearers for all modern Hearts managers. They have shown cups can be won - that if you get it right on the day and get through to cup finals, you can bring trophies back."

While delighted to progress, Hearts made heavy going of reaching the fourth round - and much more work will be required if they are to advance much further.

Taken from the Scotsman