Heavy Hearts are not undone

HEARTS 2 - Jankauskas 6; Cesnauskis 65
PARTICK THISTLE 1 - Roberts 78

TWO quality goals and a top class save but there was very little other than that for Hearts to dwell on. By their own admission they made heavy weather of the task but will be content in the knowledge that, having made it through to the Scottish Cup semi-finals, few people of a Hearts persuasion will recall or even care how they managed it.

They won't really care that Roman Bednar was sent packing for a dive, leaving his team-mates at a numerical advantage for almost 20 minutes as Thistle threw a five-man attack at them. They may even forget that Mark Roberts' stunning goal in the 78th minute made for a far nervier final 12 minutes than they would have wished.

It was in the same competition last year that the Maryhill club had caused Hearts a bit of distress. It took the Tynecastle men two attempts to dump them out at the third round stage and there were times when it seemed they may require the same again. Especially when Bednar earned his second yellow card minutes after joining the fray and Thistle proceeded to pile on the pressure.

Given the upturn in the capital side's fortunes in the year since these two last met, such dallying had been virtually unthinkable prior to the match. Add to that the fact that with only three Premierleague sides left at the quarter-final stage, none of them the Old Firm, the tournament represents one of Hearts' best chances of recapturing the silverware they last paraded around Edinburgh in 1998 and, never mind unthinkable, a fall at this hurdle would have been unforgivable.

In the end the tournament favourites did make it through to the semi-finals, courtesy of the sixth-minute opener from Edgaras Jankauskas and the 65th-minute effort from Deividas Cesnauskis which meant that when Thistle staged their comeback bid, the two goals would be too much to equal.

The first goal came from an exquisite Paul Hartley cross, which the Lithuanian striker met to send a loping header over Kenny Arthur. It was his third in two games. But having started the match in a manner that suggested the stuffing would either be knocked out of Partick or that Hearts would at least settle down and let the gulf in class prevail, the gusto with which the visitors set about the more acclaimed opponents distilled the game down to a battle of wills.

Maybe it was the early kick-off time but Hearts just never really got going, lacking the sharpness and guile needed to convincingly out-play a team languishing a couple of divisions below them. And there was good reason for the home players being sent out for a half-time warm up. The hope was obviously to loosen the legs and shift them out of neutral.

"After Graham had given one or two a kick up the backside they were sent out because we wanted them to refocus," said Jim Duffy, Hearts' director of football. "We knew it would be more of the same from Thistle and we couldn't afford to be lethargic. And in the second half we did start pretty well but then we dropped it again."

Even the second goal, this time a cracker from Cesnauskis, cutting in from the right, beating a couple of men before curling a lovely left-foot shot into the top corner, couldn't stir them, simply provoking Thistle into action instead. Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon described that strike as a contender for goal of the season but his opposite number was much more interested in praising the save that Gordon had pulled off minutes earlier.

"It's the best save I've seen in any game I have played in," said Arthur. "That's very high praise," said Gordon, who joked that he would need to see it again before he could judge if it was the best of his career. It came in the 58th minute when Jimmy Gibson rolled a freekick to Billy Gibson and he drove the ball against the wall. The deflection diverted it and Gordon had to switch direction to get a hand to it and palm it away.

"It was a good save," said Gordon, "and it was an important time because we scored really quickly after that and that was a big turning point." What it did was give them the two-goal cushion they ultimately required.

Hearts had tried to push for another, sending on Bednar for young Calum Elliot but having first stopped a quick free kick being taken and then earned his second booking after being adjudged to have dived in the box, Thistle made the most of their extra man and really drove at their hosts.

They got a goal back when the impressive Roberts graced the game with another cracker in the 76th minute and then dummied an Adam Strachan cross to gift substitute Darren Brady what seemed the easiest of chances but he ballooned over from close range.

Dick Campbell proclaimed himself "pig sick" when the final whistle sounded and no parity had been gained, despite their best efforts, and insisted that a draw was the very least his men were entitled to. He said there was nothing glorious in defeat, even if it was to a team sitting second top of the Premierleague. And definitely when they had been so close to earning replay they must have been able to actually taste it.But that's the reason Hearts are sitting where they are in the league and still contending this competition. This game was not the platform for their pretty passing, it was a game for getting the sleeves up and digging in. Two divisions split these sides and while there were spells when that was evident, the fact Graham Rix's side came through it suggests the greater calibre. Those used to winning sometimes want it more and they held the nerve when it was looking fraught and the pressure was building. It's a commodity they will need for the remainder of the season if they want to earn anything other than plaudits laced with sympathy from a season that has long-since promised so much.

Taken from the Scotsman