Rix's comments cut Hearts deep Motivated Killie take full revenge

GRAHAM RIX may have sown the seeds of his team's defeat during a television interview when he espoused the view that if both sides played to their full potential, Hearts would win easily.

Kilmarnock assistant Billy Brown used the comment to motivate his players, according to striker Gary Wales - himself a former Jambo - and judging by the way the home team set about their task, the Hearts manager was ill-advised to make such an utterance.

One could sense that the Kilmarnock players' tails were up the moment play commenced following the respectful observation of a minute's silence in memory of former Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer.

Hearts, who had a chance to narrow the points gap between themselves and Celtic to four by registering a fourth consecutive win over their rivals this season, missed the influence of suspended pair Rudi Skacel and captain Steven Pressley. There was a noticeable fragility about the visitors.

Simply put, Kilmarnock played Hearts at their own game. They were not intimidated by their opponents' reputation and gave as good as they got, in some instances even more so as in the case of Neil McCann, who lasted just 24 minutes of his debut before limping off with a damaged knee joint. Rix was quick to exonerate David Lilley of any blame, describing the defender's challenge as "hard but fair". But McCann's loss was keenly felt all the same.

Rix was unable to say exactly how long McCann will be absent. But the winger will certainly miss this weekend's derby at Tynecastle. Not that Rix chose to use McCann's misfortune as an excuse. He declared: "We never got going and, in the first half, we were not even at the races. But we are a big scalp for teams now. Others want to beat us because of where we are in the league.''

Defender Takis Fyssas agreed: "We did not show enough determination. It appeared to me that the other team wanted the win more."

Alluding to the fact that referee Steve Conroy felt a need to caution six players, Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies said: "Hearts set you a physical test and we stood up to that. We did not let them dominate the middle of the park and I thought we were excellent."

But there was much more to Kilmarnock's success than an ability to match their rivals' customary aggression. Jefferies' assertion that Kilmarnock might easily have won by a far greater margin than Danny Invincibile's 46th-minute goal was not simply an attempt to rub salt into the wound. Quite how Colin Nish contrived to perpetrate such an appalling miss two minutes from the end only the striker can explain. Nish escaped condemnation from his team-mates but he was the victim of post-match dressing room banter nevertheless. "Nishy got a bit of stick from the rest of the lads," explained Wales. "But I suppose it was just one of those things and we can laugh about it now. But we certainly had chances to kill them off and it would not have been so funny had Hearts scored. We knew we would have to battle hard for it, but we knew we were capable of beating them because we have a lot of quality in our side and the team has gelled through a mix of experience and young players."

Wales, who hopes to secure a new deal soon, and Nish appear to be responding to the challenge of attempting to replace former striker Kris Boyd in the affections of the Killie fans, although Jefferies was grateful that the latter's ''howler'' did not have costly consequences. "The only gripe I can have is that we did not win 3-0," said Jefferies. "It was a thoroughly deserved victory and a fantastic performance, one of our best of the season."

Meanwhile, there will more than a hint of irony if this defeat proves to be a mortal wound to Hearts' championship aspirations, given that Jefferies was the architect of the club's most recent trophy success, the Scottish Cup in 1998.

Taken from the Scotsman