Dunfermline 1 Hearts 4: Electric Pospisil sparks Hearts

His celebratory mood was shared by Michal Pospisil whose brace of goals demonstrated the improvement in relations between him and Rix.

Pospisil’s future has been much debated since he was substituted at half-time in Rix’s first match in charge against Aberdeen and left out of his second at Motherwell despite being one of only two fit forwards at the club. “Big things were made about a rift between Michal and myself, but that has never been further from the truth,” claimed Rix. Pospisil, albeit in limited English, seemed to concur. “The manager told me, ‘I smell a goal for you today ’, before the game,” he said. Whatever caused the previous stink has gone.

This was Hearts’ first Premierleague away win since mid-September, but they never seemed burdened by that statistic here and perhaps the number should soon be up for Jim Leishman. He has never really convinced as being the right man to lead Dunfermline longer-term and under his management their direction looks increasingly obvious: down. But for Livingston being as bad as they are, his position would surely have been reviewed already; this emphatic defeat following last week’s Scottish Cup embarrassment at home to Airdrie United. His post-match emphasis was on how well Hearts played, a neat deflection of how poor his own team had been.

A midfield five outnumbered the visitors but, sensibly, Hearts stuck to what they knew and retained their customary 4-4-2 formation. Watched by the Wolves manager, Glenn Hoddle, Paul Hartley’s form is such that even with two Dunfermline players detailing him they were unable to follow his every attacking intention.

Dunfermline had no such player and it needed some Craig Gordon mishandling to create them a chance. The Scotland goalkeeper fumbled under pressure from Mark Burchill but recovered to charge down the forward’s shot. When Burchill tried yet again he did have the beating of Gordon, but Steven Pressley calmly headed a chipped effort away from goal. Pressley has his flaws, but Hearts would be nothing like the same without him, as he was about to demonstrate at the other end.

Four minutes later and as close to the Dunfermline net as he had been his own in the last meaningful action, Pressley, via a knee, diverted in a Calum Elliot cross-shot. It was his sixth goal of the season, some contribution for a centre-half in his 300th Hearts game. Elliot marked the occasion with a card, booked for over-celebrating in front of the home fans.

Once ahead, Hearts controlled the game before the interval and should probably have gone into it two up. Pressley, demonstrating that right winger is just one of his many turns, crossed for Andy Webster to head narrowly wide.

Dunfermline replaced Lee Makel with Bartosz Tarachulski, but apart from making the radio commentators’ jobs harder, that didn’t change much. Nine minutes after the restart and Hearts had doubled their advantage. Robbie Neilson surged down the right flank then picked out the charging Pospisil, blue of boot but no longer of mood, who shocked Allan McGregor by shooting first time and beating him at his near post: electric stuff.

Pressley’s desire to be everywhere saw him all over Noel Hunt on the near touchline and he was booked for tangling with the forward. There was greater punishment to come, from the resulting Iain Campbell free-kick, the ball broke kindly for Burchill who controlled it on his chest on the edge of the six-yard box before tucking it neatly past Gordon on 58 minutes. It should have given Dunfermline hope, but they are a team with increasingly low expectations. All it led to was Hearts reasserting themselves to become utterly dominant.

Hartley whips his free-kicks in as expertly as leading chefs do eggs, and the cracking delivery made Pospisil’s task easy for 3-1, using the pace of the ball to guide a looping header over a stranded McGregor. It was 4-1 when Julien Brellier played in Rudi Skacel to saunter through the middle with his customary arrogant brilliance before slipping the ball under McGregor. The same player almost made it five with a drive that crashed against the underside of the bar from an extraordinary angle before bouncing away to safety.

Dunfermline were just willing the end to come by now. The conclusion of each match they play is only a temporary reprieve, though.

STAR MAN: Steven Pressley (Hearts)

Player ratings. Dunfermline: McGregor 6, Wilson 6, Shields 6, Tod 5, Ross 6, McCunnie 5, Mason 5, Makel 5 (Tarachulski h-t, 5), Campbell 5, Burchill 7, Hunt 4

Hearts: Gordon 5, Neilson 6, Pressley 8, Webster 7, Fyssas 8, Mikoliunas 5 (Barasa 73min, 6), Brellier 7 (Johnson 90min, 6), Hartley 8, Skacel 8, Pospisil 7, Elliot 6 (Thorarinsson 79min, 5) Booked: Elliot 28, Pressley 58,Tarachulski 78

Referee: C Mackay

Attendance: 8,277

Taken from timesonline.co.uk