Hearts 2 - 0 Dunfermline

Alan Campbell at Tynecastle

AS fate would have it, the nominated charity at Tynecastle yesterday was the Citizens Advice Bureau. But not even the selfless volunteers manning the yellow buckets could answer the question on the lips of every maroon-bedecked supporter.

An afternoon which should have been spent in celebration of Vladimir Romanov’s further commitment to Hearts, and later a facile two goal victory over hapless Dunfermline, turned instead into pre-match huddles of perplexed and anxious Hearts fans. There was a similar gathering inside the ground too, as the club’s board convened an emergency meeting.

With the statement that no explanation for George Burley’s morning departure would be forthcoming until 6pm, the atmosphere inside the ground as kick-off approached was, as might have been expected given the numbing news which had leaked out two hours earlier, muted. With Burley and his assistant, Simon Hunt, missing, all eyes were on Romanov. Defiantly, the new owner entered the directors’ box alone and earlier than necessary but, apart from a couple of attention-seekers in the enclosure below who gave the Lithuanian a preview of how obnoxious the worst kind of Scottish supporter can be, the reaction to his appearance was neither welcoming nor condemnatory.

Judgement, obviously, was being reserved until the full details of Burley’s resignation were made public. The manager’s place in the dugout was taken by first team coach John McGlynn, while standing alongside him, identifiable only by the initials on his jacket top, was goalkeeping coach Malcolm Webster.

The Dunfermline players, who in normal circumstances would have turned up as extras anyway, might have been anonymous for all the notice that was taken of them by the vast majority of another full Tynecastle house. Once the game started they went one better by becoming invisible.

Whatever their inner thoughts (and later Paul Hartley made his known by taking his shirt off when substituted two minutes from the end to reveal a white vest with the words “For the Gaffer” on it), Hearts started like a hurricane. The game could have been over in the first 10 minutes.

Rudi Skacel, the iconic Czech whose popularity in the Tynecastle stands surpasses that of Romanov and Burley combined, had a shot deflected over the bar before Dunfermline had adapted to the surreal surroundings. From the corner, Steven Pressley headed over.

Not for the first time, Skacel’s impudence and enthusiasm served to ignite the pensive hordes, and they roared again when he skinned Gary Mason on the left touchline before releasing Hartley on Allan McGregor, Dunfermline’s on-loan goalkeeper from Rangers. Hartley should have scored, but over-ran the ball.

By the time a clever Edgaras Jankauskas back-heel had released Samuel Camazzola to blast a shot high and wide of the target, Hearts could have been three up after eight minutes. Inevitably, though, the eye of the storm passed and the Pars had finally invented themselves as the opposition with a couple of half-chances of their own from the Young brothers when Hearts quickly scored the goals which extended their Premierleague lead to six points.

Skacel steadied the home nerves. The Czech was set up by his fellow countryman Michal Pospisil and fired a trademark low left-footed shot between McGregor and his right-hand post. Nine goals in eleven league games is an extraordinary return for a striker, never mind a wide midfielder.

Three minutes later it was all over, and this time Pospisil was the executioner. There had already been signs that the striker is returning quickly to match fitness, but that didn’t prepare the crowd for the exquisite manner of his finish. Turning sharply in the box, he curled a high shot past the helpless McGregor. With Burley still in the dug-out, Hearts might have been expected to use their lead as the platform for a rout. But on this strange afternoon, the players decided they had done a professional job and the crowd couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to urge them on for more. Dunfermline had a decent chance when Scott Thomson’s header went just wide, but at the other end Pospisil came even closer in hitting the bar.

The second half was played against a backdrop of near silence as Hearts went through the motions. Even so, the home side came close to extending their advantage on several occasions before, with the game having petered out some 30 minutes earlier, came the second serious blow of the day for Hearts.

Pressley was given his marching orders a minute from the end. The captain held back Darren Young and was perceived as last man by referee Calum Murray. He will now miss Wednesday night’s home game against Kilmarnock, but it is the consequences of Burley’s departure which were last night vexing the home supporters.

23 October 2005

Taken from the Sunday Herald