Hearts blowing hot and cold

MIKE AITKEN
AT EAST END PARK

Dunfermline 1 Wilson (32)
Hearts 1 Hartley (pen 62)

Referee: C Richmond. Attendance: 5,934

THE evolution of Hearts from a security conscious side under Craig Levein’s management to a more expressive outfit under John Robertson has inevitably led to a transition period. Still searching for the right mix of players which will enable them to score more goals, Hearts are much less consistent than in recent seasons and blow hot and cold. Sometimes, as happened at Dunfermline, they even exude the chill from the deep freeze and the furnace’s searing blast in the same match.

When Hearts are good, as they were against Rangers in the SPL at Tynecastle last week, and in the Scottish Cup replay at Kilmarnock, they’re very good. But when they’re bad, as they were against Motherwell at Fir Park, they’re awful.

In the first-half of what would become an enjoyably open match at East End Park, Hearts forgot to perform with anything like the same desire which had characterised their performance against the league leaders. Consequently, Dunfermline seized the lead from a set-piece when Scott Wilson scored with a near-post header after Ian Campbell delivered a tempting corner kick. In truth, David Hay’s men, who pressurised teenage full-back Lee Wallace and troubled the left side of Hearts’ defence throughout the first-half, might have built a more emphatic lead. Only another outstanding display from Craig Gordon, who made three crucial saves, kept Hearts in the hunt.

Outnumbered in the middle of the park until the arrival of Neil MacFarlane and unproductive on the flanks, it took an explosive half-time team talk from Robertson to wake Hearts’ outfield players from their lethargy and play with the urgency in the second-half that drives any committed display.

"We were poor in the first-half," Robertson recalled, "so we told the players at half-time that we needed the commitment and passion we’d shown against Rangers. That’s what we’d wanted from the start of the game but we didn’t get it.

"It was similar to how we’d played at Motherwell. The Jekyll and Hyde aspect came out.That’s why we ripped into them. The players were told that it wasn’t acceptable.

"One or two of the boys were reminded that contracts were on the line and deals which had been previously agreed or offered would be taken off the table unless they showed what the game is all about. I won’t accept the way we played in the first-half again.

"You have to do the basics in football right and that means showing work-rate and a bit of passion. If you do that, then your ability will come through. In fairness to them, that’s what we got in the second-half.

"After the equaliser, we missed three or four chances to win the game in the last 20 minutes."

Fielding a back four and a goalkeeper who range in age from 17 to 23, perhaps it’s not so surprising Hearts have experienced a few ups and downs lately. While the head coach is well aware of the perils of fielding so many inexperienced footballers, he’s not about to preach one sermon to the senior men and another to the youngsters. "That’s our problem - but the young boys have got to stand and up and be counted as well," added Robertson. "What we’re asking them to do are the basics. These lads matched Rangers toe-to-toe. There was no excuse for them not to go toe-to-toe with Dunfermline."

It was a deep irony, of course, after the hectic events of Wednesday night and the wildly controversial aftermath of Lee Miller’s challenge on Sotirios Kyrgiakos, that the turning point in this game should also hinge on a penalty award with Miller again a key figure. Only on this occasion, in a clash with Wilson, the centre-forward was the player, allegedly, nudged off the ball rather than the one, allegedly, doing the nudging.

Although this penalty was granite-hard compared to the marshmallow award flagged by assistant referee Andy Davis at Tynecastle, it wasn’t exactly of the stonewall variety either. Wilson claimed Miller told him "it was never a penalty" while Robertson mused afterwards: "Who knows what a penalty is these days?"

Perhaps David Hay, the seasoned Dunfermline manager, summed up the brouhaha better than anyone when he noted: "You either accept the referee’s decision, as I will, or you can complain to people, make a song and dance, and maybe get the decision in the next game."

If the aftermath of ‘Penaltygate’ did Hearts no favours for 45 minutes, Paul Hartley, who dispatched the spot-kick (his third against Dunfermline this season) with his usual efficiency, was adamant the Tynecastle players know they have to move on and look forward not back.

"What happened last Wednesday is over now," said the captain. "Rangers got the penalty and won the game. They might not have got the penalty another night, but that’s just the way it goes. We have more important games coming up and are not really interested in all the other stuff."

Taken from the Scotsman