Rix and Skacel at the forefront for rampant Hearts

HEARTS 4
HIBERNIAN 1

IN YET another make-or-break match, Hearts produced their best performance under Graham Rix's guidance against Hibs and restored faith of playing Champions League football next season. Asked to jump through so many hoops of fire in recent months, the Tynecastle players, on this evidence, have inherited the genes of circus performers as well as the DNA of Conn, Bauld and Wardhaugh.

If the breathtaking showmanship of Rudi Skacel was the decisive factor in stripping Hibs of three points - after being involved in all four goals, the attacking midfield player dutifully threw his shorts as well as his shirt into the stands - the role filled by the head coach was less flamboyant but just as crucial.

Concerned if he stuck with a 4-4-2 formation that it would hand the initiative to Hibs in central midfield, Rix opted to leave his only fit, experienced striker, Michal Pospisil, on the bench. He included Lee Johnson in a five-man midfield with Skacel, Paul Hartley and Saulius Mikoliunas briefed to push forward in support of Calum Elliot.

At first, the theory didn't work so smoothly in practice. As Rix observed later, this was partly because the players were adjusting to something new. It was also due to the time it took Elliot to adjust to the challenge of holding the ball up and retaining possession. Significantly, the first time the teenager's control and movement was measured enough to enable him to peel away from his marker, the centre-forward precipitated the left-hook which Hearts would use to floor their oldest rivals.

A wonderfully balanced and intelligent left-back, it was Takis Fyssas' surging run down the left and link-up work with Skacel which prompted the best attacking midfield player in the SPL to provide the cut-back that Hartley swept past Simon Brown.

Tony Mowbray, the Hibs manager, would rue later how Hearts scored against the run of play and that his men held the upper hand for the best part of 30 minutes. That was true enough and, on a different day, or against a less formidable goalkeeper than Craig Gordon, the visitors might have expected to convert one of the three chances beaten away by the Scotland man.

After falling behind, Hibs' weaknesses in defence were fiercely exposed and by half-time the team had imploded. With Skacel in rampant form, the combination of Julien Brellier, Hartley and the diminutive Johnson was so effective that Hibs struggled to stem the tide. Kevin Thomson, who never shirked a tackle, did his best to plug the gaps. But the injury sustained by Scott Brown, the victim of a bruising challenge from Brellier which might have merited a red card, fatally damaged Hibs in this area.

Once they'd wounded the opposition, Hearts again produced the kind of sweeping football last seen at Tynecastle during the first half of the New Year's Day game against Celtic. Hibs were under so much pressure that mistakes and tension crept into their play. Michael Stewart carelessly gave the ball away and, after brushing aside Gary Smith, Elliot inexplicably contrived to screw the ball wide of the target from eight yards.

Any sense of frustration at that missed opportunity was relieved when Hartley's floated free kick, which resembled one of Phil Mickelson's greenside flop shots, hung in the air at the back post and allowed Christophe Berra to head the ball back across goal. Once it bounced, Skacel somehow manipulated his body to levitate his left boot above the ball and stabbed it goalwards with the violent impact of a dagger to the heart.

Before the sanctity of the half-time dressing-room beckoned, Hibs again contrived to lose possession. This time, exploiting a mix-up between Gary Caldwell and Steven Whittaker, Skacel tore at the centre of their defence and was about to pull the trigger when Caldwell clearly brought him down in the box. How this could be interpreted as anything other than denying a goalscoring opportunity was a mystery. But Mike McCurry felt the act of awarding a penalty was sufficient punishment and Hartley clipped the spot-kick into the net.

There was still time, though, for the referee to bring out a red card after Smith twice elbowed Mikoliunas. Little wonder, as Hibs gathered their thoughts, that Garry O'Connor admitted those in green-and-white shirts who knew their history feared a reversal of the 7-0 derby win in 1973.

And, when more intuitive play between Fyssas and Skacel down the left flank, six minutes into the second period, ripped this depleted Hibs' side apart to let Elliot side-foot a fourth goal, alarm bells in Gorgie rang out all the way to Leith. Even the unemotional Rix now felt his team would go on to win by five or six.

Whether it was a recurrence of the second-half sag which has cost Hearts dear on other occasions this season, or the resolve of a young Hibs' side determined to lose with some pride, O'Connor's consolation goal halted the collapse. In spite of the promptings of Hartley, Hearts' appetite for more goals was sated and those who buy the DVD of this encounter won't often view the last 30 minutes of a hitherto explosive game.

Rix, intriguingly, had shown his players video footage last week of the 4-0 win over Hibs in August as well as last week's 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock. "Beauty and the beast," reasoned the Englishman. There will be a few more ups and downs before the season is over. But, with Celtic's advantage trimmed to eight points, the Hearts players and their coach again answered a few questions about themselves on Saturday.

It was a show of moral fibre which would have touched a chord with the late Wallace Mercer, a man who knew a thing or two in his celebrated life about breathing new life into Tynecastle.

Taken from the Scotsman