Spirited Hearts triumph without manager

MIKE AITKEN
AT TYNECASTLE

Hearts 2 Skacel 21, Popisil 23
Dunfermline 0

CONSIDERING the baffling circumstances, in which the club lost a manager as the first quarter of the Scottish Premierleague programme was completed but didn't lose a game, this convincing performance said much about the sense of resolve in the dressing-room and the quality and commitment of the Hearts players.

Jim Leishman, the manager of Dunfermline, was as perplexed as anyone travelling to Tynecastle on Saturday when the news broke that Hearts had parted company with George Burley and subsequently thrown an ill-judged cloak of secrecy over the reasons for the split.

Leishman knew the loss of such a well-respected manager would affect the Hearts players in one of two ways. They might be devastated by the news and lose their way. Or they would rally together and make a point of reminding everyone of the standard set by their former manager which had propelled Hearts to the top of the table.

As it turned out, at least for 45 minutes, Hearts produced a rousing display of fluent, aggressive football which nurtured the most telling individual contribution yet seen from Rudi Skacel. As well as contributing his customary goal, Skacel's passing, movement and ebullient delivery from the left flank caused Dunfermline a variety of insoluble problems.

Bearing in mind the sense of bewilderment which hung like a heavy cloud over the stadium beforehand, it took a splendid effort on the part of the players to turn polite applause into something approaching the kind of feverish reception which has turned Tynecastle into such a fortress this season.

Fortunate to have a captain on the pitch of the calibre of Steven Pressley, Skacel was also determined to lead by example. His first contribution was a ferocious shot in the third minute which took a deflection off a defender and skidded off the bar.

Turning to the near 17,000 crowd, the little Czech midfielder raised his arms in exhortation and was rewarded with a bellowing yell of approval. The supporters might not have understood why the manager who had overseen the club's best start to a league campaign in nearly a century had been removed at short notice, but they appreciated the enduring legacy of his players.

Just when Dunfermline seemed to have weathered the maroon-and-white storm which rolled inexorably forward and brought out solid resistance from Allan McGregor, Skacel created the illusion of normal service being maintained at Tynecastle when his stinging, low shot from 20 yards blurred past the impressive goalkeeper.

With ten players behind the ball whenever Hearts had possession, Dunfermline's tactics were hardly cavalier. Keen to deny Hearts the oxygen of space, the game was over as a contest by the 22nd minute when Michal Pospisil came up for air and scored a wonderfully composed individual goal. Taking control of the ball on his chest, the striker made room in the box and turned to chip a precise left-foot shot into the corner of the net.

Though there were one or two moments thereafter which offered a reminder that Dunfermline hadn't thrown in the towel, Hearts only offered glimpses of their best form in the second half. There was a shrewdly taken reverse free-kick from Paul Hartley which Skacel sliced wide and a breathtaking counter-attack up the left flank involving a handful of passes between Fyssas, Skacel and Pospisil that transferred play from one penalty box to another.

Otherwise, as the enormity of what happened before the game began to weigh down on the players, Hearts went into a shell and the match petered out.

The closing minutes, mark you, could yet prove costly. In chasing a ball out of play on the right flank midway through the second half, Hartley clearly strained a hamstring. Rather than coming off straight away, the influential midfield player insisted he would carry on. Only when he over-stretched near the end did the Scotland player put his hand up, remove his shirt to bear the legend "For the Gaffer", and leave the pitch.

Later coach John McGlynn revealed Hartley had not pulled a hamstring but the strain must pose a question mark against whether the midfielder can be risked for 90 minutes against both Kilmarnock and Hibs this week.

As if that setback wasn't enough to take the edge off what had been, hitherto, a thoroughly professional display by the league leaders, Pressley hauled down Darren Young on the edge of the box two minutes before the final whistle blew. Since the centre-half was the last defender, referee Calum Murray had no option but to dismiss the Hearts' captain, who automatically misses Wednesday's match against Kilmarnock.

It was a measure of how more pressing matters were in everyone's thoughts that when Pressley came in to talk to the press after the match he wasn't asked a single question about the incident which led to the red card. "I thought we showed great professionalism considering the circumstances," he said.

"I'm sure the manager would have been proud of us. As players all we can do is get results. In the eight years I've been with Hearts, this is the first opportunity we've had to sustain a challenge. We have a level of responsibility to our supporters and we'll not give that up lightly."

Taken from the Scotsman