OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB TO WEAVE AT HEARTS

MAYBE the conspiracy theorists have a point.

The ones you always thought were a Lithuanian short of a full boardroom and who reckoned old Vlad the Impatient didn't want Hearts to succeed.

The ones who thought he was derailing the Jambos by bulletting bosses and causing havoc just when they needed it least, at all the crucial points in the season.

Typical crackpots.

But then you have to ask yourself - why else would a perfectly fit Andy Webster (right) be sitting in the press box for a game of this magnitude? Especially when an unfit Steven Pressley was sitting beside him.

Why else would a perfectly fit Rudi Skacel be sitting on the bench and Edgaras Jankauskas not even stripped?

Why in God's name would you avoid picking your best available team when your entire season was on the line? Because no matter what ANYONE tells you, Hearts committed Champions League suicide. Or at least made a damn good attempt.

They've put their fate back in Rangers' hands. If their rivals win their last four games they're second and Hearts third.

And they'll have no-one to blame but themselves.

Vlad might have been sitting in Lithuania with a cold beer watching on the box.

But it was clear as day from the moment the team sheets were handed in that his remote control stretched a lot further than just working the TV. Valdas Ivanuaskas had told everyone who'd listen Webster was available and he HADN'T been told not to pick him.

Yet in a derby with so much at stake he hands a first start to Ibrahim Tall alongside 21-year-old Christophe Berra.

He puts one defender out of eight on the bench and leaves arguably Scotland's most consistent centre-half in the stand.

I vanuaskas claims he's not getting worked from the back. He must think we zip up the back.

Sorry, Valdas, but your team, such as it was, got what they deserved yesterday - although you did have to sympathise a bit when the Hibs first went in.

It came from a colossal challenge from wee Jay Shields, freeing Ivan Sproule.

And when Derek Riordan pinged the ball home there wasn't an eye in the house not drawn to Steven Fletcher trying to snake out a leg on the six-yard line and get a nick.

Even a skiff off his laces and the flag would have gone up. The fact he hit fresh air? Nothing.

Never mind that Craig Gordon's whole shape changed anticipating it. Matters not a jot. The Scotland No.1 ran 40 yards to berate Charlie Richmond - but he should have just kept going a few thousand extra miles to FIFA's HQ in Switzerland.

That's who his beef should be with for the idiotic changes to the offside law, not the referee.

Still, Hibs were worth their opener and you couldn't see a Hearts goal coming unless they were handed it on a plate - and that's exactly what happened.

Gary Caldwell's fatal hesitation at Robbie Neilson's long ball, Zibi Malkowksi's criminal spill and Roman Bednar rolled it home. After the break it was a belter, all guts, all end to end - everything you'd want from a derby.

But when Benji nicked in to slot home the winner? Mmmm. Couldn't help but wonder what might have been if Jambos' best defender had been there...

Despite all that, Hearts may yet do it. And any end to the Old Firm duopoly of the past 11 years can only be a good thing.

But if it hadn't been for their penchant for self-harm they'd have managed it long before the last week sweat they've just given themselves

Taken from the Sunday Mail