Hartley double helps give Hearts room at the top

Ewan Murray at Almondvale
Monday September 12, 2005
The Guardian

Paul Hartley completed a tremendous week with a double to seal a 4-1 Premierleague win for Hearts at Livingston yesterday.

The Scotland international had been commended for his displays in the World Cup qualifiers against Italy and Norway and he grabbed a brace at Almondvale to extend the Jambos' lead at the top of the table to five points.

Hearts' majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov had spent yesterday morning in Edinburgh, briefing the club's supporters on his plans to increase the capacity of Tynecastle Stadium, install a hotel at the ground and continue to bankroll signings which Hearts could never have dreamed of even a year ago. He then travelled to this easy win in West Lothian on a supporters' bus.

It was all routine fare for followers of Hearts these days and, if the Lithuanian banker was to tell them that Santa Claus really did exist, you get the feeling they would most likely believe it, perhaps with good reason.

These are not just heady times at Heart of Midlothian - they are verging on the incredible. George Burley's side have now won their opening six SPL matches, a feat not achieved by the Edinburgh club since rationing was in force. And at a time when Kofi Annan may be a necessary visitor to Burley's dressing room, it was heartening to see Scots to the fore in claiming three points after the Czech midfielder Rudi Skacel's early opening goal.

For it was Hartley and Andy Webster, two stars of their national team's 2-1 win in Oslo, who cemented this victory. Craig Gordon, who rightly earned praise not only for his display in Norway, but also for nullifying the threat of Italy at Hampden last Saturday, confirmed his worth again by producing an early candidate for save of the season late in the second half.

After Rangers dropped two points at Falkirk on Saturday, Hearts hold a five-point lead over Gordon Strachan's Celtic and are eight in front of the Ibrox club. And with an impressive goal difference - Burley's team have scored 19 goals and conceded only four in these opening matches - Hearts look in fine fettle before Alex McLeish takes his team to Tynecastle on Saturday week.

Skacel bundled home from two yards after a cute knockdown from Hartley during an opening period in which Hearts were utterly dominant against the league's bottom side. Webster, again the subject of English transfer speculation last week, had time and space to head a second goal past the despairing Roddy McKenzie as the game approached the half-hour point and the Edinburgh club were already on easy street.

Hartley's first goal of the afternoon, the culmination of the kind of fine, sweeping move which has been the hallmark of Hearts' season thus far, merely compounded Paul Lambert's side's agony.

Paul Dalglish had been a spectator at Parkhead for Celtic's comfortable 2-0 win over punchless Aberdeen on Saturday and he was reduced to the same role for his 57 minutes on the field yesterday. He was on hand, though, to score from two yards just seconds before half-time, after Gordon had only managed to block Graham Barrett's 18-yard free-kick.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the second period was a low-key affair. Graham Barrett's shirt-tug on Jamie McAllister handed Hartley the chance to score his second of the afternoon, and the former Celtic target made no mistake as he buried the ball low to McKenzie's left after 62 minutes. From then on, it was party time for the visiting fans who had all but filled three-quarters of Almondvale Stadium. Six games down, 30 to go - and more people are beginning to believe the impossible.

Man of the match: Rudi Skacel (Hearts)

Taken from the Guardian/Observer