Hearts fired by rivals' passion

Ewan Murray at Falkirk Stadium
Monday March 27, 2006
The Guardian

Vladimir Romanov's ruthlessness during his short time as Hearts' owner has yet to trouble the Tynecastle trophy cabinet but, given the response of other teams, Romanov's grand aspirations for the club may not be as fanciful as many believe.

Like the Old Firm, Hearts have become a team every other club loves to beat. On Saturday, under Valdas Ivanauskas's management for the first time, with Romanov making a hastily arranged trip to see his expensively assembled team, Hearts battled past Falkirk in one of the most bad-tempered games of the season.

Referring to the passion with which their opponents now approach Hearts, the goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who yesterday signed a two-year contract extension to stay at the club until 2009, said: "It is a bit like that. But there is a great spirit in the camp and maybe thinking that everybody hates us is a way to get us going. It's a good thing that we are doing so well and people want to raise their game to beat us."

Jim Duffy, who was sacked as Hearts director of football last week alongside the head coach Graham Rix, yesterday used his column in a newspaper to claim "second isn't good enough for Vladimir Romanov", but surely even the Lithuanian will be satisfied with second in the Scottish Premierleague, which would offer his club an avenue into the Champions League for the first time.

Ivanauskas, Hearts' fourth manager of this campaign, has until the end of the season to prove he can implement Romanov's plans but he should be satisfied for the moment that one of his substitutions helped secure victory here.

The introduction of Calum Elliot for Rudi Skacel was vital as the young Scot supplied a perfect pass for Edgaras Jankauskas for the winner. The visitors had earlier gone in front by a close-range finish from Paul Hartley but Alan Gow levelled before half-time with a rebound from his own penalty after Gordon had saved.

"It was a fight but we won," said Ivanauskas. "The only thing I told the players before the game was that we needed these three points and that's what we got. The pressure is difficult to handle but our supporters were unbelievable."

Taken from the Guardian/Observer