Hearts 2 - 1 Kilmarnock

Patrick Glenn
Sunday January 8, 2006
The Observer

Hearts' championship aspirations having been seriously undermined by the home defeat by Celtic on their previous outing, everyone connected with the Edinburgh club would be relieved at retaining their interest in the Scottish Cup.

On a day when little fluent football was delivered, a collective satisfaction would settle on Tynecastle after Colin Nish's late goal for Kilmarnock had brought a tremulous finale that had seemed unlikely after the goals from Steven Pressley and Jamie McAllister. That goal from Pressley, conceded as cheaply as the one with which Hearts allowed Celtic to equalise six days earlier, resulted from a combination of inattentiveness from the match officials and lethargic defending by Kilmarnock.

When Robbie Neilson took a long throw from the right, one foot was clearly inside the touchline by the time he released the ball. The distance he achieved, however, seemed to take the visiting team's defenders by surprise. Pressley was unchallenged as he met the ball and nonchalantly glanced a header low to the right of Alan Combe from six yards.

It could not, at the time, have been considered a deserved advantage. Kilmarnock had looked the livelier team, even if they had been fortunate not to have fallen behind in the fifth minute.

Edgaras Jankauskas, the Lithuania striker, had hit a ferocious left-foot drive from about 30 yards that passed the diving Combe on his right, came off a post, struck the goalkeeper and bounced straight to Rudi Skacel. The Czech Republic midfielder's opportunity was only momentary, however, as a referee's assistant raised his flag for offside.

From then until Pressley's goal, however, Kilmarnock, with the quick and ambitious Steven Naismith an elusive nuisance to the Tynecastle defence, generally exploited their numerical superiority in midfield, their manager, Jim Jefferies, having deployed his team in an unfamiliar 3-5-2 formation.

Naismith was especially threatening when he received a throw from Combe in his own half and burst clear of Paul Hartley. He was unfortunate to have his attempted cross blocked, but he managed to screw the loose ball towards Allan Johnston, who miscued a right-foot shot wide of Craig Gordon's right-hand post.

Kilmarnock were unfortunate to lose striker Gary Wales to injury after only 37 minutes - to be followed by the departure of the limping Jankauskas from the Hearts team soon after - as he had seemed a likelier threat than his partner, the taller and less mobile Nish.

But the supporters who had travelled from Ayrshire would have been shocked that it should be Naismith, the most dangerous player of all, who would squander the first golden opportunity to equalise.

Johnston's low cross from the right ran to the right foot of Nish, who quickly laid the ball off to Naismith. Unchallenged 10 yards from the target, Naismith rushed the shot over the bar. Given the scarcity of such openings in a match that was fiercely competitive but uninspired, it was a miss the visiting team could ill afford.

And the cost of the profligacy doubled soon after, when McAllister, who had replaced Saulius Mikoliunas only five minutes earlier, extended Hearts' advantage beyond retrieval. This was almost as big a surprise as Naismith's miss, as McAllister is essentially a full-back with only one previous goal to his credit.

He was well served for this second by Calum Elliot, who worked hard to keep possession on the right and to reach the dead-ball line before cutting the ball back to McAllister. The substitute was required merely to steer the ball into the net, Combe having been drawn towards the near post. The Hearts player drove it high and hard over the line.

Cup competitions are, however, not designed to accommodate presumptuousness. The home team's supporters had to endure harrowing uncertainty in the closing stages after Nish's goal. Another substitute, Stevie Murray, delivered a free-kick from the right that was headed across the area by Simon Ford and hooked right-footed into the net by Nish near the far post.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer