Kilmarnock 2 - 4 Hearts

Stewart Fisher at Rugby Park

THE rise and rise of the Romanov empire continues. Two goals from a couple of Czech mates, Rudolf Skacel and Roman Bednar, one sublime second-half strike from Saulius Mikoliunas, and even a last-minute penalty from a Scot, Paul Hartley, means that for one day, at least, the league table has a truly Lithuanian look to it.

The good news for the 3,200 foot soldiers who managed to shoehorn themselves into their allocation at Rugby Park – despite the usual traffic problems on the M77 – and witness a gritty Kilmarnock side being brutally bludgeoned into submission, is that there is more to come.

The team’s physical, impressive twin strikers Edgaras Jankauskas and Bednar are only at “80%” of their effectiveness, and three other signings – likely to include former Slavia Prague striker Michal Pospisil – are set to arrive in the next seven days. Moreover, Hartley gave the strongest indication yet that he could be prepared to extend his stay at Tynecastle. “I’ve met the manager within the past couple of weeks and had a good cosy chat,” he said. “And I’m going to have another chat with Phil Anderton within the next week and take it from there.” It was not all that Hartley was giving away yesterday.

Ever since Jim Jefferies alighted in Ayrshire, matches between these two teams have had a bit of an edge, and the long memories down here were proved when the first mention of George Burley’s name during a niggly, petty game was greeted with derision from the home fans for his time at Ayr United. The first half alone produced five bookings, and Hartley ended up giving a Kilmarnock fan in the front row of the main stand his signed shirt after the Hearts man petulantly soaked him with a water bottle.

“It was just one of those things,” Hartley said. “I was getting a bit of stick and reacted to it a little bit by spraying him with water. I gave him my signed strip after the game, we shook hands and I apologised. He was fine and there is nothing in it. No problems there.”

Burley insisted afterwards that it “means nothing to be top of the table just now”, but his club’s fans – savouring next Sunday’s derby meeting with Hibs – may have a different opinion. Their front five – with Jankauskas and Bednar getting joy up front, and attacking midfielders Skacel, Mikoliunas and Hartley making hay behind – could be the revelation of the SPL. “All three new lads, who were not truly fit, were tremendous,” Burley said.

For Skacel, who featured alongside such luminaries as Petr Cech and Milan Baros in the Czech team which won the 2002 European Under-21 Championship, there are also legitimate hopes of being included in Karel Bruckner’s national team at the World Cup in Germany next year.

Yet the expectation which had been building in the away end thanks to, in part, the new signings was punctured within 12 minutes of kick-off. A long throw from Peter Leven was poorly misjudged by Hearts’ much-vaunted Scotland centre-halves, and wee Steven Naismith cushioned the ball in the pit of his stomach, before spiriting the ball behind Craig Gordon from a narrowing angle. It was only the third goal of the 18-year-old’s senior career, his first coming in the Scottish Cup replay against the Tynecastle club in a match which signalled the start of the club’s Lithuanian experiment.

Fortunately for the visitors, the discord was not allowed to fester. Within seconds, Jankauskas, a Uefa Cup and Champions League winner with Porto, had manoeuvred himself wide on the left and whipped the ball into a good area. Alan Combe defied Bednar’s first effort, but Skacel had gambled inside and knocked an emphatic left-foot volley into the roof of his net.

Much to Jefferies chagrin, the Hearts’ new boys sense of timing was apparent again seconds into the second period. Skacel swung over a deep cross, Jankauskas nodded it back into the danger area, and with the central defence sleeping, Bednar stooped to head off a post and over the line.

Then Mikoliunas, the Lithuanian international who had such a combustible first half-season at Tynecastle, curled a sweet 25-yarder beyond Combe.

Although the Gorgie side’s fallibility with crosses helped Gordon Greer’s thumping header from Gary Locke’s free-kick beat Gordon from six yards, the last laugh was to be in Lithuanian. Locke lunged in on Jankauskas, and Hartley lashed the penalty into the goalkeeper’s right-hand side. It was an altogether more productive display of his bottle.

31 July 2005

Taken from the Sunday Herald