Evidence points finger at unwise meddling

LITHUANIA is probably as good a destination as any for somebody seeking refuge from the recriminations of the events at Tynecastle at Tannadice on Tuesday.

And, while Vladimir Romanov's return to his own country is less likely to have been prompted by the clamour for answers from Hearts supporters and the media than it is to have been pre-planned, the Russian-born banker might have been expected to alter his schedule to suit rather bizarre circumstances.

Steven Pressley, the Hearts captain, confirmed yesterday that the players are to demand a meeting with the club's owner, a critical enough development in itself, anyone would think, to cause his take-off to be delayed.

But, whatever Romanov eventually tells them, or whatever line may be purveyed by the club's various spokespersons, there were sufficiently powerful hints in the team's performance in the 1-1 draw with Dundee United to mount at least a prima facie case against him.

Denials that the head coach, Graham Rix, has been stripped of his authority do not square with events on and off the field. The initial selection and the manner in which the team was orchestrated during a match from which Hearts were fortunate to take even one point did not carry the fingerprints of any coach worth the name.

Six changes to the side which had beaten Aberdeen 3-0 in the Tennent's Scottish Cup just three days earlier suggests the kind of contempt for received wisdom now associated with Romanov. More specifically, the decision to play the debutant, Martin Petras, at right-back, and the inexperienced Christophe Berra in central defence meant that Pressley was sandwiched between two strangers.

It is an immutable law in coaching circles that a defensive unit requires practice and mutual familiarity. The two missing from Hearts' usual back four, Robbie Neilson and Andy Webster, had played every league match before Tuesday.

Their effectiveness beside Pressley in the middle and Takis Fyssas on the left is reflected in the fact that Hearts have conceded fewer goals in the championship than any other team. If it is true that Webster was removed because negotiations over an extension to his present contract had irretrievably broken down, it smacks of self-harming spite.

The discomfort of Petras was obvious from an early stage, but it took 57 minutes for him to be replaced by Neilson. In an attempt to equalise Grant Brebner's first-half goal, Deividas Cesnauskis, not a forward, replaced the striker, Michal Pospisil. These changes did not impress as the work of a coach of Rix's reputation.

A general disdain for the way managers and coaches do their work is not uncommon among businessmen in football - Fergus McCann was similarly afflicted at Celtic - but actually taking their place is, as Hearts demonstrated at Tannadice, probably the short route to chaos.

Taken from the Scotsman