Moody Hearts undone

KILMARNOCK 1
Invincibile 46

HEARTS 0

THERE was nothing unlucky about Hearts yesterday as they lost out for the first time in 13 meetings with Kilmarnock. Plenty unsavoury and unedifying from the Edinburgh men as they were undone by a 46th-minute strike from Danny Invincibile, mind you. And in conceding three points to a vibrant Rugby Park side they must surely concede that the title will be well and truly out of their grasp should Celtic extend their Premierleague lead over them to ten points with a win at Motherwell today.

The Gorgie men growled and groaned through an afternoon in which Jim Jefferies' side retained their discipline in the face of some unnecessary provocation. Why Hearts were so huffy was impossible to fathom, but they only succeeded in making life more difficult for themselves on a day when the fundamental importance to their cause of suspended pair Rudi Skacel and Steven Pressley was brought into sharp focus.

On a day of little light relief, only the Kilmarnock programme provided any amusement. The good burghers of the Ayrshire town fancy themselves as an erudite bunch and in the club's round-up page in their matchday magazine showed this is no idle boast. Where else would a team's pursuit of a top-six place prove the inspiration to quote William Pitt the Elder's rallying call: "If we must fail, let us fall like men". The late, and often grandiloquent, Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer, remembered beforehand in an impeccably observed minute's silence, would surely have approved.

In an encounter that had zing in spades, more than a few men found themselves falling early on as the fight to avoid failure tended towards the physical. The home supporters purred over the measured burrowing by their team deep into their opponents defences, and the Tynecastle side often struggled to know how to handle Steven Naismith's piercing runs from the left flank. But the Kilmarnock faithful were strangely quiet over the heavy-handed tactics David Lilley employed to stop Neil McCann.

The winger's much trumpeted return to his former club quickly went flat as the Kilmarnock right back sent the Scotland internationalist sprawling barely 22 minutes in. The glum expression McCann wore as he made his way towards the touchline shortly afterwards was matched by the grim countenance sported by his manager. Rolling eyes skywards, Rix seemed to be asking the man upstairs whether it wasn't enough to have lost Skacel and captain Pressley to bans after being deprived of injured strikers Roman Brednar and Edgaras Jankauskas for the jaunt to Rugby Park.

In the roughhouse, rather than rough, stakes, Rix's men were more sinners than sinned against as they found themselves forced ever deeper as a compelling confrontation moved towards the interval. They seemed to lose their way after Michal Pospisil had scuffed a shot from a McCann cross that asked to be put away before the same striker saw a low effort blocked comfortably by Alan Combe. A ding-dong battle then ensued between Naismith and Robbie Neilson that brought bookings for both players, with the tally evened by the Hearts man's caution.

The narkiness that simmered away between the two sets of players may have been the result of grudges carried over from Hearts' Scottish Cup win at Tynecastle a fortnight ago. Whatever drove some pretty petty feuding, Kilmarnock succeeded in detaching themselves from the more unsavoury elements that Hearts became mired in. Yet, though Jefferies' side shuttled the ball around with intent, only a Garry Hay curling free-kick forced Craig Gordon to extend himself.

As news filtered through from Ibrox at half-time that dear departed Kilmarnock striker Kris Boyd had netted his first league goal for his new club, some home fans began to ruminate on the difference Boyd would have made on first-half events here. Within 30 seconds of the restart, however, Danny Invincibile made them grateful for what they still had.

More luck than judgement was involved in the big Australian's strike after he laid the ball off to Colin Nish and darted into the box to accept a return. It never came. Instead, Nish elected to have a pop on goal, Christophe Berra blocked his effort but it fell into the path of Invincibile who, from eight yards, did the rest.

Thereafter, it was the visitors who did most of the pressing -and the pushing, to say nothing of pleading to the referee Steve Conroy over imagined injustices. In reality, the official showed leniency in allowing them to keep 11 men on the park. Calum Elliot should have walked for an aggressive shove only moments before his chance to head an equaliser, while it was crackers that Neilson escaped punishment for deliberate handling in the lead-up to a last-minute Nish effort that he inexplicably fired straight at Gordon.

It was frantic, fragmented and frothy as Kilmarnock clung on by their fingertips at the end, but the home side would not have deserved to lose their grip on victory.

Taken from the Scotsman