Hearts' healing hands

ANDREW SMITH
AT TYNECASTLE

ALL week Hearts have been presented as a club in crisis. Against an incredibly accommodating Dundee United, though, there was never a suggestion of them playing like one. In the Vladimir Romanov era, Tynecastle may have become an arena for bloodletting, as was this week evidenced with the departures of chief executive Phil Anderton and chairman George Foulkes. But it is also a place of precious points-getting for the Gorgie side. The three they snaffled yesterday returned them to the top of the Premierleague and made a mockery of views proffered by some that their title challenge could be derailed by off-field strife.

In the lead-up to yesterday, indeed, caretaker manager John McGlynn had said the player were hurt at suggestions events in the boardroom could drag them down on the field. His team certainly performed as if intent on proving they firmly remained in the frame and goals from the outstanding Paul Hartley, Rudi Skacel and Michael Pospisil did not make for a haul reflecting the home side's superiority.

The sacking of Anderton and the resignation of Foulkes meant in one sense it was just like old times at Tynecastle. The pre-match ritual of cameramen training their lenses on the directors' box and awaiting a reaction as their quarry took his place was restored. But if the snappers were expecting a crescendo of boos to greet the arrival of Romanov, as they used to whenever former chairman Chris Robinson showed his face, they had misjudged the mood.

As demonstrated with the chanting of his name in the second half, the Lithuanian retains both the support and confidence of the overwhelming majority of the Hearts faithful. With the odd caveat now, probably. But former chairman Leslie Deans' ringing endorsement of Romanov, while announcing yesterday he will sell his shareholding to him, proves the schisms that pulled the club apart under Robinson are not about to return.

There is no reason why they should if Hearts continue to push the right buttons on the park. The win over a dismal United was so efficient and uncomplicated it emphasised once more that, with or without a permanent manager, the squad of players Romanov's investment and George Burley's astuteness has delivered to Hearts can expect to win most weeks.

Of course, for the first time in 13 Premierleague games, they failed to avoid defeat last week. Accursedly for them, just when they happened to have travelled across the capital to Easter Road. Outrageously, some decreed that Hibernian's 2-0 derby victory was a sure sign that the wheels on the Tynecastle bogey were becoming shoogily. What rot, even if the result meant that they had triumphed in only two of their past five league games.

Hearts' recent run could hardly be considered a sticky patch and only might have seemed so because they had opened up the campaign with eight straight victories. Hartley and Skacel were pivotal figures in Hearts confirming their championship challenging credentials over the first three months of the season. They were also the players who revealed T-shirts emblazoned with the legend 'for the gaffer' during the win over Dunfermline that came only hours after Burley's departure a fortnight ago.

The form of both appeared to have shaded as McGlynn attempted to pick up the pieces but they were back to their potent best against embarrassingly impotent opponents. Rarely did Gordon Chisholm's men even succeed in creating the impression they could make a contest of the afternoon. From the moment Hartley opened the scoring in four minutes, indeed, the visitors, quite shamefully, seemed resigned to their fate.

The tone-setting strike would have pleased Romanov no end, not least because the architect of it was Saulius Mikoliunas. Burley didn't seem to much care for the little Lithuanian and this is understood to have been a sore point for Romanov. The result was Mikoliunas yesterday earning his first start in nine weeks. It was one he justified instantly, showing terrific poise and balance to slalom his way past several United players with a 20-yard run before threading through to Hartley. After the midfielder's run had taken him in behind the visitors' backline, he slotted the ball into the far corner for his fifth goal of the season.

Peter Canero receiving a booking after a dive in the penalty box six minutes later was notable for being one of the few occasions a United player actually enjoyed good position in their opponents' area. Otherwise, the Tannadice men just seemed to sit back and await the worst. Having earlier almost foxed Derek Stillie with a swerving effort that the goalkeeper saved messily, Skacel duly provided this in the 24th minute with a free-kick effort from 20 yards. An oddity of a goal, the Czech didn't seem to strike the ball particularly powerfully, but he put sufficient curl on it for Stillie to misjudge the flight and slap the ball into his own net.

In fairness to United, nothing went for them on the afternoon and that included a 50th minute penalty they won after Steven Pressley had brought down Barry Robson. Picking himself up, the midfielder blasted his spot-kick straight at Craig Gordon and headed the rebound straight into the keeper's arms.

The salt in the wound for United came seven minutes later when Hartley charged down an attempted clearance from Alan Archibald before galloping to the byline and cutting the ball back for Pospisil to roll into the net. By then, the bouyancy and bravado had returned to the warblings of the home faithful. In between barracking television and radio pundit Andy Walker - who once dared to say that he didn't think Hearts would win the league - they even found time to sing the odd song about their club.

Taken from the Scotsman