ELVIS IS FIRSTY FOR GOALS

ELVIS has left the building -and SPL defenders and cash-strapped bookies can breathe easy for a fortnight.

Hearts skipper Steven Pressley celebrated his 300th appearance for Hearts with his third goal in successive games to take his tally for the season to six.

You can put your house on Scotland defender Pressley producing the goods week after week to the benefit of a club where he is revered after almost eight years of sterling service.

Increasingly, it's plain to see you can also lay your mortgage on him becoming first goalscorer in a game at odds of up to 20-1 as he followed up his opener against Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup with the first in the rout at East End Park.

Suspended Pressley will watch the next two SPL fixtures against Killie and Hibs from the stand and he'll hope to enjoy with the rest of us the devastating form his team are beginning to show under Graham Rix.

But when he returns to action against Aberdeen in the cup next month he'll come in for even closer attention from Russell Anderson and Co while the bookies fix the odds on him finding the net even tighter than the skin on Pete Burns' forehead.

He said: "We know there's a seven-point gap between ourselves and Celtic but if we continue to put results and performances together like that I wouldn't rule us out.

"We've had a number of draws recently away from home and after a hard-fought victory in the cup last week it was imperative we won against Dunf ermline.

"No disrespect to them but this is a place we must come and win and I was delighted with our performance.

"All the players are really enjoying their football and that is being reflected in our displays.

"We were disappointed to concede a goal but we played well.

"It'll be sad to sit out the next couple of games but Christophe Berra is a very able deputy who's going to become a smashing player.

"He's had to bide his time but has acquitted himself well in the past and I know he'll do it again.

"It was also good to go out with another goal - that's six in total and three on the bounce. I'm after Rudi's eight-in-a-row record!"

Ah, Mr Skacel - possibly the most naturally gifted player in the SPL, but one who must find a dose of humility soon or run the risk of being carried from the field before the end of the season on a stretcher.

There is a very thin line between playing football with a smile on your face and a cocky smirk.

It's understood Dunf ermline players were furious at his showboating antics towards the end of the game, believing it to show a lack of professional respect.

Skacel, who also sits out the Killie game, was giving it large with flicks and feints, bowing and scraping to Hearts fans, backchatting to Dunfermline supporters and players and generally drawing attention to himself with exaggerated gestures likely to incur the wrath of even the most mild-mannered opponent.

If he is looking for lessons in model behaviour, he would do well to study his skipper - or, better still, Julien Brellier.

Vladimir Romanov once infamously ordered George Burley to write a memo detailing why the French midfielder should be part of the Hearts team.

He point-blank refused to follow the instructions but if he had agreed, the next eastern European to arrive at Riccarton would have been Leonid Tolstoy offering a writer's advice as Burley's paean of praise would have run to the length of War and Peace.

Brellier plays an unfashionable role in front of the back four but it's a crucial defensive presence and also frees Paul Hartley, watched by Wolves boss Glenn Hoddle, to menace with intent further up the field.

Brellier covered every inch of grass at East End Park and his run and sliderule assist on for the fourth goal, converted expertly by Skacel, summed up all that has been good about Hearts this season.

By then, the game had long gone for Dunfermline, who held their own for the first half-hour and threatened a revival briefly when the ever-lively Mark Burchill hauled them back into the game on the hour with a close-range effort.

Hearts were two goals to the good by then as Pressley's first-half opener from an Calum Elliot cross and Michal Pospisil's instinctive shot at the front post from a Robbie Neilson pass gave them a lead they thoroughly deserved.

Pospisil put the game beyond the Pars midway through the second half when he was allowed to leap unchallenged and send a looping header from a Hartley free-kick high into the net.

Hearts were untouchable after that and Skacel even came close to adding a fifth with an outrageous chipped shot from wide on the left that managed to hit the underside of the bar and the inside of the post before it was booted clear.

Rix also handed debuts from the subs bench to Nerijus Barasa and Lee Johnston in midfield and with more additions to the squad expected this week, including Neil McCann, Romanov is declaring his championship intentions loud and clear to leaders Celtic.

McCann is nicknamed 'Terry' after the character from Minder but Hearts could still use a penalty-box spiv in the Arfur Daley mould if they are to lift their first title in 46 years.

It sounds churlish with the club scoring so freely but less than a third of their 45 goals scored in the SPL so far thisseason have come from their strikers and a John Robertson-style frontman would wreak havoc in this adventurous line-up.

It was probably best for poor Dunfermline they left it at four - the Pars may run out to the sounds of Into The Valley, but they will be staring into a frightful football abyss if they put in many more performances like this.

To be fair, Hearts were joyful to watch for well over an hour but Jim Leishman's squad has also been stretched further than George Galloway's credibility and now Derek Young is off for six weeks to undergo a hernia op.

In fact, the operating differences between the two clubs were summed up when Leishman confirmed he had also made a cheeky enquiry about bringing McCann to East End Park.

He said: "We were two digits out on the salary Neil could command - and that's per week.

"I was disappointed with the result but Hearts were the better team so we take it on the chin."

Rix added: "I was delighted with the boys, the performance and the 4500 fans who travelled to watch us play.

"We played really well, worked very hard and scored some great goals."

MAN OF THE MATCH: Julien Brellier (Hearts)

Taken from the Daily Record