Hearts face test of their resolve to stay in the title chase

At the head of the queue will be the Celtic supporters who want to savour the feat of escapology in which Stephen McManus’s dramatic pair of late goals turned a probable costly defeat into a 3-2 success. Then there will be the Scottish Football Association, who may want to look closer at off-the-ball incidents involving a number of players, notably Paul Hartley, Robbie Neilson and Neil Lennon.

Hearts could also face a punishment from the SFA over the behaviour of their fans seated behind the opposition dugout, where one was arrested as he tried to climb over it to reach Gordon Strachan and his players as they walked down the tunnel. Hearts will also want to review the dismissal of Takis Fyssas, which Graham Rix, the manager, claimed turned the match as the Greece defender paid the penalty for bringing down Shaun Maloney 13 minutes from the end.

Hearts have hinted that they may consider an appeal against Fyssas’s red card. Perhaps, though, the more beneficial avenue of scrutiny for Hearts may be to pour over the 94 minutes of red-hot action and wonder why they are not the same team in the second period as they are in the first.

Not for the first time this season, they came out flying. Early goals from Edgaras Jankauskas and Steven Pressley seemed to have killed off Celtic but the vital third goal never arrived. That replicated games at home to Dunfermline Athletic and Livingston, in which Hearts had to hang on to their lead.

Against Celtic, they ran out of time and luck. Strachan admitted as much when he said that the decision to send off Fyssas was in contrast to the leniency show to Bobo Balde, who escaped with a yellow card for bring down Deveidas Cesnauskis on the edge of the box before the interval.

However, rather than wasting their energy on appeals, the Edinburgh side would do better to focus on the task ahead. Do Hearts have it in them to come back from a damaging blow to their morale? With just a few minutes to go, Rix and his side appeared to have closed the gap on Celtic to one point. McManus intervened and suddenly the deficit is now seven in Celtic’s favour.

“I am not writing Hearts off,” Strachan said. That is not a sop to his title rivals: any club that allowed a similar lead to evaporate last season before the championship itself was spirited away by Rangers in the final seconds, knows that the impossible does happen.

However, Rix now faces a huge decision. The Hearts manager must decide whether to augment his squad during the transfer window to try to keep his team’s title ambitions alive.

Bruno Augias, a midfield player from Benfica, might not be coming to Tynecastle now after a move to keep him in Portugal. Hearts hope to conclude the signing of Darren Potter for £750,000 from Liverpool and the Ireland Under-21 midfield player would certainly provide a fresh impact in an area that ran out of legs against Celtic.

Hearts, in some ways, are victims of their own industry. It is difficult to keep up the pace produced by Hartley and Co for 90 minutes. It is notable that the two free-kicks that led to McManus’s goals were the result of tired fouls from Hartley and Rudi Skacel.

The match must have been a godsend to Setanta. The satellite channel will sell plenty of subscriptions for the Premierleague on the back of that remarkable game and with Roy Keane about the enter the Celtic equation, the Irish viewing market is likely to grow.

Sadly, too much of the frame-by-frame inspection by the interested parties will detract from what was a captivating occasion. While Hearts may appeal on behalf of Fyssas, there is little doubt that Maloney was in a goalscoring opportunity — how else can you define a one-against-one with Craig Gordon if Fyssas does not make his slide tackle that does not get the ball? Given Hartley’s senseless kick on Ross Wallace when the ball was not even in the vicinity, or Neilson’s first-half retaliation on Stilian Petrov, going down the road of appeal could backfire as Hearts have found to their cost before with the SFA. Hearts fans have complained that referees are against their team, yet television also showed that Iain Brines, the referee, missed a chance to award Celtic a penalty when Pressley clipped Maloney’s leg and the striker also had a goal ruled off for a d ebatable offside decision.

Hearts now need to dig deep into their personal resources to retain the spirit that will enable them to hold on to the coveted Champions League place available to the side that finishes second in the Premierleague. If they lose their focus, then not only will Celtic go off into the horizon, then they could also be caught by either Hibernian or Rangers.

Celtic, in contrast, have climbed a mountain. They lifted themselves off the floor at Tynecastle and showed the character that any successful side needs.

They also have Keane coming into the picture now to compensate for Petrov’s hamstring injury, which may keep the Bulgaria midfield player out for a month. Strachan also rediscovered in that area Stephen Pearson, who came off the bench to provide the goal that gave Celtic a lifeline and ended any chance of the player moving to England on loan.

Whether the same applies to Chris Sutton or Alan Thompson is debatable. Both are now being tracked by clubs in the Barclays Premiership and if Everton offer enough money for Sutton, or Sunderland for Thompson, then both high earners may be moved on to free up their £30,000-plus-a-week wages for younger, hungrier players.

As events at Tynecastle proved, the Premierleague is one environment where you can never stand still for a moment — if you do, the risk of change is immense.

BRING BACK EDINBURGH NEW YEAR MATCH, MSP SAYS

THE traditional New Year derby match between Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian, their Edinburgh rivals, should be reinstated, Mike Pringle, the MSP for Edinburgh South, said yesterday.

Pringle, a lifelong Hearts supporter, said that the Scottish Premier League’s (SPL) decision to scrap the game was “inexplicable” and that the clubs and fans want it to return. In response, the SPL said that it was looking at fixtures ideas and that a return to the traditional New Year match was possible.

Pringle said that the derby was a tradition for more than 100 years until the SPL ended it in the late 1990s. “It is inexplicable why the SPL refuse to continue this tradition. The clubs and the fans want it,” he said.

“There are thousands of visitors in Edinburgh for Hogmanay who would want the opportunity to see such an event. There are hundreds of fans back from all over the world seeing friends and family and wanting to see their football team in action.

“I hope the SPL will see sense and change their mind for next season.”

Greig Mailer, SPL marketing and communications manager, said that a working group is looking at a range of options to try to improve the fixture system. “No decisions have been made yet,” he said.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk