Countdown solves the conundrum

FOUR goals, three points, two debutants and one milestone all culminated in an engaging day for anyone of a Hearts persuasion on Saturday at a venue which has proved hazardous in the recent past.

Failure to record a league victory at East End Park last season pointed to this game as being potentially problematical for Hearts and their head coach Graham Rix, however the hurdle was negotiated with the minimum of fuss.

Victory was achieved against the backdrop of captain Steven Pressley's 300th game for the club, and he marked the occasion with the opening goal, his third in three consecutive outings, before relaying his honour at both statistics.

"I'm absolutely delighted to have played 300 games at this club. It's been a privilege. I've scored in my last three games too so I'd like to have a go at Rudi Skacel's record, but that won't be possible because I miss the next two games now."

Shifting in a seat in the stand at Rugby Park next week and then at Tynecastle during the Edinburgh derby the following weekend are the only options for Pressley, who has incurred a two-match suspension, but perhaps by then Neil McCann will be around to assume some of the goalscoring mantle.

"Signing Neil would be a great piece of business by us," said Pressley. "He has a lot to offer and was a fantastic player in his first spell here." There were also debuts for recent signings Lee Johnson and Nerijus Barasa against Dunfermline, with the latter displaying a noticeable aptitude for the task in his 16-minute appearance wide on the Hearts right. With Mirsad Beslija also ready to enter the fray, one can only speculate on the future of Saulius Mikoliunas and Deividas Cesnauskis.

But for now everything in the maroon garden is rosy, if you can fathom that out.

New signings being completed by the day whilst victories like Saturday's lend their weight to a title challenge that is still being maintained, albeit from seven points adrift.

Rix was certainly impressed. "I thought we played really well and I'm delighted with the performance. I'm also pleased for the 4000 Hearts fans who were here. It's a good win for us.

"We were disappointed to give a goal away because we were looking for a clean sheet, but overall, and especially in the second half, we played some great stuff and scored some great goals.

"Barasa did well when he went on, didn't he? We told you what he was like. Strong, determined, knows the game. He did well in his first game. Michal Pospisil also had a very good game and I'm delighted for him."

After a foul-ridden opening to the game in which fluidity was totally absent, Hearts were lucky not to fall behind when Craig Gordon slid out to the edge of his penalty area to collect a through ball but was forced to release it from his grasp as his momentum took him out of the box.

Mark Burchill, the former Hearts striker, collected and spun to strike a goal-bound shot which Gordon managed to block, and Burchill's second effort from the rebound was headed to safety by Pressley.

Before the uncertainty from that moment could have any damaging effect on the visitors' morale, Hearts surged forward and Calum Elliot crossed from the right for Skacel to hit a blistering left-footed volley off Pars goalkeeper Alan McGregor.

Then came the opener just moments later, when Paul Hartley's free-kick on the Hearts left dropped at the back post and ricocheted off the thigh of Andy Tod before rolling along the six-yard line. Elliot was there with a rash effort that was going well wide until Pressley converted it from three yards.

As is often the case, the opening goal calmed the side who scored it. Hearts tried to initiate some more fluent passing, but Hartley in particular was strangely prone to ceding possession despite no lack of work rate from the Scotland midfielder. Dunfermline survived a penalty claim and howls for a free-kick on the 18-yard line in the early minutes of the second half, and a critical intervention by the suspension-free Takis Fyssas on 53 minutes was the only thing to preserve Hearts' lead as Bartosz Tarachulski wound his gangly leg back from eight yards.

The second goal arrived just a minute later, though, when Robbie Neilson cut the ball inside to Pospisil on the right side of the penalty area, and the potent Czech soon had it raging low past McGregor at his near post. From that moment on, Hearts seemed to be transformed.

Yes, Dunfermline hauled themselves back into the match when Greg Ross flicked Iain Campbell's long free-kick on for Burchill to finish high into Gordon's net, and they even had a second disallowed for offside after an impressive long-range finish by Ross.

That spell prompted a momentary wobble from Hearts, but for the majority of the remainder they camped defiantly in the half of their hosts.

Pospisil added the comfort of a third with a looping header from Hartley's free-kick, exposing shocking positioning by McGregor in the process. Skacel's fourth owed much to the initiation of a man who, on any other day, would have been the undisputed man of the match. Julien Brellier cantered into the Dunfermline half, past a couple of opponents, before taking a further three out with one of the most incisive passes you will see for the adored Czech to place past McGregor.

Hearts' play by this point was bordering on nonchalance, and as the visiting support greeted every pass with a chant of "Olé" Skacel fired the most audacious chip from virtually the left touchline which again sailed over McGregor's head only to clip the underside of bar and post and fall to a Dunfermline defender.

Johnson still had time for a shot from distance during his two-minute cameo appearance, but despite his reputation as a long-range "pinger" he could only watch as the ball sailed into the delirious Hearts support in stoppage-time.

Come the end, there was no escaping the feelings of an exemplary day at the office for Rix and his players. Celtic remain seven points clear at the top of the SPL, but portions of that feel-good ambience which supporters revelled in during the season's early weeks have unquestionably returned to Gorgie.

And with the likes of McCann, Beslija, Barasa and Johnson, plus others we are led to believe, there's a fair chance of the positive disposition being maintained in the coming weeks.

Taken from the Scotsman