Kilmarnock (0) 1 Heart of Midlothian (2) 3

With an ease that was quite ominous for those disenchanted Kilmarnock fans who left Rugby Park long before the end of last night's Tennents Scottish Cup fourth round replay, and those who jeered their team from the field at the final whistle, Heart of Midlothian completed the tournament's quarter-final line-up by reprising their comfortable league victory over the Ayrshire side.

Early goals from the two Lees, Wallace and Miller, came close to finishing the contest before it had properly begun and Kilmarnock's tame attempts to get back into the game were finally confounded 10 minutes into the second half when Deividas Cesnauskis – another of the Lithuanian arrivals imported under the new regime of Vladimir Romanov – banished any lingering doubt that Livingston would visit Tynecastle for the next instalment on Feb 26, despite Kris Boyd's last minute penalty conversion.

Hearts captain Steven Pressley will miss the quarter-final because of a first half caution but the Tynecastle fans, who have been on something of a roll since Romanov confirmed his takeover of their club last month, will not suppose that the last four of the competition is anything less of a likelihood.

For the third time in three successive meetings with the Tynecastle side, Kilmarnock found themselves on the back foot almost from the start. Wallace, who made his first team debut in the first encounter between the pair, was both the architect and the finisher of the move that put Hearts ahead, pushing down the left flank from full back for fully 60 yards to exchange passes with Dennis Wyness before striking an angled shot on the rise past Alan Combe for his first goal for the club.

This was bad enough for Jim Jefferies' players and their dismayed followers but within another seven minutes they were further behind, albeit with a touch of misfortune, after Paul Hartley's driven free kick from the right took a fierce deflection off Simon Ford. Miller, who netted in the first game at Tynecastle, reacted by meeting the diverted ball with a perfectly controlled header that looped over the stranded Combe to prompt raucous celebrations from the travelling contingent.

Kilmarnock looked nonplussed by these events and other than a speculative drive by Steven Naismith, whose late equaliser at Tynecastle took this tie to a replay, they had only a sliced effort by Boyd into the side netting and a Peter Leven shot from beyond the box to show for their play by half time. In such circumstances the next goal was likely to be decisive and again it fell to Hearts.

Appropriately, on Lithuanian independence day, it was brought about by a combination from the Baltic state. Saulius Mikolinius, already a favourite with the Tynecastle faithful, gathered possession inside the Killie box and switched a cutback swiftly into the path of his fellow countryman, Cesnauskas, who took a touch before shooting beyond Combe.

Kilmarnock could not say they hadn't been warned because, only a few minutes previously, Cesnauskas had troubled Combe with a drive which was blocked by the goalkeeper.

No Hearts game with John Robertson as manager and John Rowbotham as referee seems likely to pass without some sort of imbroglio and, sure enough, it arrived midway through the second half. Robertson was treated to a prolonged lecture and responded by producing his innocent cherub imitation, content not to disrupt his team's smooth progress towards the last eight.

As for Kilmarnock, they cut dispirited figures as they trudged from the field afterwards, despite scoring with the last kick of the evening as Boyd beat Craig Gordon from the spot after Wallace had tripped Allan Johnston inside the Hearts box.

Match details

Kilmarnock (4-4-2): Combe; Ford, Lilley, Fontaine, Hay; Johnston, Leven, McDonald, Invincibile; Naismith (Murray 70), Boyd. Subs (unused): Bell (g), Fowler, Dargo, Dodds. Booked: McDonald, Boyd.

Heart of Midlothian (4-4-2): Gordon; Neilson, Pressley, Webster, Wallace; Cesnauskis, Hartley, Simmons (MacFarlane 81), Mikoliunas; Wyness (Burchill 75), Miller (Thoraninsson 83). Subs (unused): Moilanen (g), MacFarlane, Berra. Booked: Pressley.

Referee: J Rowbotham.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk