Hearts Scrape Past Pars

It's probably fair to say that conditions were not exactly perfect for playing, or indeed watching football. It was incredibly warm and humid out there and understandably the players tired more quickly than normal.

Hearts made three changes from the side that beat Siroki on Wednesday: the suspended Jankauskas was replaced by Michal Pospisil (who always scores against Dunfermline!), while Ibrahim Tall and Davidas Cesnauskas made way for Julien Brellier and Saulius Mikoliunas. Squad rotation at it's best perhaps?!

The Pars ran out with a new-look attack of Freddie Daquin and Noel Whelan, who had just been signed in time to make his debut. However the game ended prematurely for journeyman Whelan, who limped out of the action after barely five minutes.

Dunfermline started the match brightly despite the setback of losing Whelan though and they forced a couple of early corners. Freddie Daquin buzzed around up front and generally looked pretty lively, despite the service to him being pretty poor. He hardly received any passes to feet to really show what he could do in the first half.

Hearts responded well and started to dominate possession, with Neil McCann in particular looking impressive on the left and linking well with Fyssas.

The first clear chance fell to Roman Bednar, who did well to get on the end of a sharp cross by Mikoliunas, only for 'keeper Roddy McKenzie to block his point-blank glancing header.

Mikoliunas was getting dog's abuse from the perennially moany home support for his inability to stay on his feet. I'm normally the first to criticise Miko for his diving but today I actually felt he was being genuinely fouled more often than not and took a fair few hefty challenges from some poor footballers.

Hearts took the lead after 15 minutes with a well-worked move. The increasingly influential McCann sent a nice pass down the left channel to Pospisil and his low cross was poked into the net by Roman Bednar to make it 1-0. It was probably no more than the visitors deserved at this stage.

As the match heated up, we were given a view of things to come when some bad challenges went completely unpunished by ref Winter. In particular Julien Brellier was lucky to avoid a booking after two bad tackles, but Winter then confounded everyone (as predicted by most of us!) by making his first booking that of Bruno Aguiar, for the most innocuous foul of the match to date! He then booked Andy Tod, Whelan's replacement, for an equally tame challenge. How we had missed this inconsistency over the summer!

Hearts continued to have the better of what football was being played and Aguiar tested McKenzie with a stinging shot from 20 yards, with the former Hearts and Livingston man doing well to beat it away.

Half-time Dunfermline 0-1 Hearts

As they had in the first half, Dunfermline started the second half at a high tempo and forced a couple of corners that caused the Hearts defence some concern.

However the visitors were still looking the more likely to score at this stage and came agonisingly close to doing so after 50 minutes. A fine flowing move down the right eventually saw Mikoliunas' cross being met on the half-volley by Neil McCann and his fierce shot cracked down off the underside of the bar and was booted to safety.

This seemed to spur the home side into action as the game suddenly changed in favour of the Pars. For the first time in the game they showed they could knock the ball around as well as lumping it forward and they really took a grip on the game, not allowing Hearts players to settle on the ball.

After another corner, former Hearts man Stephen Simmons (whom I didn't realise was playing until now!) bundled home the equaliser despite the attempts of Aguiar to clear. Half an hour to go and game on!

Hearts responded by forcing a corner that Bednar came close to converting with an angled header from Aguiar's accurate delivery that went just over.

The game was getting very frantic now and referee Winter was completely losing the plot, infuriating both sets of supporters with some bafflingly inconsistent (and sometimes just barmy) decisions. One of those saw a free-kick awarded against Pressley on the edge of the Hearts penalty area and Calum Woods' direct strike forced Gordon to uncharacteristically punch it away in true continental style.

As Hearts regained their composure slightly, the Pars created their best opening of the match when Daquin was sent clean through on Gordon, but the Hearts 'keeper did well to force the Frenchman wide and the chance was lost.

After the fading McCann wasted a free-kick in a good position, he was immediately substituted for Davidas Cesnauskas and he made an immediate impact with his pace and direct running.

After 75 minutes Cesnauskas was set free down the left and he beat a couple of defenders before cutting it back for Mikoliunas to have a shot. Just as he was about to shoot, Pars defender Bamba inexplicably dived into a challenge with two feet and completely wiped him out! Although he took some of the ball it was a very dangerous tackle and he was lucky to only see a yellow card, although he clearly felt it was a fair challenge for some reason!

From the resultant free-kick, Aguiar emulated his exploits of Wednesday night by hitting the bar with a beautifully flighted execution, but this time Hearts were able to convert the rebound, with an albeit completely mishit shot from Pospisil. He did his best to miss it seems, but they all count and the 4,000 or so Hearts fans went into raptures of relief.

Hearts had gotten out of jail and were able to play out the remainder of the game with minimal fuss. Dunfermline got more frustrated as the final whistle got closer and Andy Tod was eventually sent off after boiling over at Julien Brellier. Pars assistant manager Craig Robertson was also sent to the stand after remonstrating with the fourth official over Winter's performance and frankly I have the utmost sympathy for him. Winter was shocking.

So, three points for Hearts after a difficult 90 minutes that perhaps needn't have been quite so difficult. They really made heavy weather of this but managed to scrape through in the end, but in the weeks ahead they will really need to improve, starting next weekend when they face Celtic at Tynecastle.

Of course, that's after the second leg against Siroki on Wednesday, which no-one should be taking for granted....

Star Player
On a day when the Hearts back four were bombarded with aerial balls, young Christophe Berra put in another fine performance that belied his tender age. At this rate we'll forget about Webster pretty quickly.
Player Ratings
Gordon 6
Very little to do but he always looked in control when called upon. Did well to force Daquin wide when one on one. As a colleague of mine said, Gordon resembled a "tube of shower gel" in that new outfit!
Neilson 6
Defensively sound but some of his distribution could have been better at times.
Fyssas 7
Linked well with McCann in the first half down the left and was generally very solid throughout the match.
Pressley 6
Did pretty well in the air against bigger men and was pretty reliable. As ever the great organiser at the back, although the defence did look shaky for a spell in the second half.
Berra 7
Did all the simple defensive duties very well. Used his strength and deceptive pace well and always looked in control.
Brellier 5
Probably not fully fit yet and didn't look his normal composed self. Few hard tackles put in but timing sometimes slightly out.
Aguiar 6
A real mixed bag. Did some really nice things on the ball but for me he's too lightweight in the tackle and bottles out of a lot of challenges. Lovely free-kick that hit the bar again though.
Mikoliunas 5
Got a fair amount of stick from the fans and I can understand why a couple of times: he can be infuriating. However he kept battling on and always wanted to be involved, but nothing really came off after the first ten minutes or so.
McCann 7
Started the game really well and some of his football was very clever. Final ball could have been better but he looks like he can be a good player again for us, if perhaps not quite as dynamic as he once was.
Bednar 6
Didn't really get great service to be honest, but did well with what he did receive. Good poacher's goal and almost snatched a second from a corner later in the game.
Pospisil 4
Exemplified why he doesn't often play in matches away from home. Touch let him down too often when we needed him to hold it up and too lightweight. Still, in right place at right time to grab the vital winner.
Cesnauskas 4
Not on for long but made a huge difference to Hearts' tempo. Could be key player this season.
Cesnauskas 4
Not on for long but made a huge difference to Hearts' tempo. Could be key player this season.
Makela 2
No time to do anything.
Tall 1
Even less time that Makela.