Hearts grab points in baptism of fire with Pars

DUNFERMLINE 1 Aguiar (62og)
HEARTS 2 Bednar (15), Pospisil (78)

WHEREVER their European adventures take them, Hearts will have to travel some distance before they meet a team displaying half the determination of Dunfermline on Saturday. The East End Park side harried and hustled their opponents from the first minute until the last, an effort made more commendable given an injury list more suited to midwinter than a humid opening day of the league season.

In the circumstances, then, a three-point haul from the short trip across the Forth Road Bridge was to be celebrated, mirroring as it does the start Hearts made last season away at Kilmarnock. That 4-2 victory at Rugby Park was just as hard-fought, and prepared the way for seven more consecutive victories.

While no-one expects that feat to be repeated - not when dotted between upcoming SPL fixtures will hopefully be some Champions League engagements - any comparison with that team which began last season could deliver a review that favours the current side.

Although clearly the multi-goal contribution provided by Rudi Skacel will be missed, the emergence of Christophe Berra seems set to offset Andy Webster's imminent departure. Paul Hartley will also soon be back to reprise his match-winning midfield role. Added to this is the new signing of Mauricio Pinilla and the expected arrival of PAOK Salonika's Christos Karapidis. Last season's new boys seem a more settled lot too, with Roman Bednar and Michal Pospisil supplying evidence to suggest that Hearts' main problem might not be in attack.

A goal for each was the reward from their endeavours, and suggested that the suspended Edgaras Jankauskas might face a struggle to reclaim his place, particularly in light of Pinilla's arrival. Bednar showed particular awareness to poke home the opener which came as a result of a sweeping move up the left and involved Neil McCann and also Pospisil, who slung in the perfectly measured cross. Roddy McKenzie, newly recruited to the Dunfermline goal, will look upon the part he played with some regret, initially seeking to beat Pospisil to the ball and then frantically retracing his steps when he recognised his judgment had been flawed.

It summed up what had been a frustrating start to another season for Dunfermline. Already shorn of at least half-a-dozen injured first-team members, they saw another hobble off after just four minutes. Noel Whelan endured agony here in April when his then employers Livingston were relegated, and even though now a Dunfermline player he found little respite to the apparent curse that afflicts him in this setting. He twisted his ankle in a challenge and was replaced by Andy Tod.

The substitute striker began his shift late and clocked off early, having been booked twice in the 74 minutes he was on the pitch. The last of these yellow cards, shown after a late but hardly desperate challenge on Julien Brellier, came during a stage of the game where it proved difficult to keep up with the rapid succession of notable moments. Bruno Aguiar's rather odd own goal - he hooked Stephen Simmons' header over his own shoulder while standing on the goal-line - after 62 minutes had been a deserved leveller for Dunfermline, and was the signal for things to get fiery as well as frantic.

Amid the tussles and the tantrums Freddie Daquin managed to break free and looked set to give the home side a lead. Instead, he delayed his shot, and having allowed defenders to surround him attempted what was a rather feeble cross. It proved his last involvement, with manager Jim Leishman perhaps recognising the significance of the miss. Within minutes Hearts were ahead, and were then provided with the additional luxury of defending their lead against just ten men.

The strike which won the game was lent a degree of fortune when Berra, apparently in an offside position at the far post, just failed to connect with Pospisil's conversion of Aguiar's rebounded free-kick. That said, Greg Shields, the Dunfermline captain, was adamant that Berra had managed to get at least part of his boot to the ball. "I was the spare man at the free kick," said Shields."If anyone was playing him [Berra] on it was me. The ball came back off the bar and Pospisil has hit it into the ground. I didn't think it was going in, that it would hit the inside of the post and pop back out. But then I saw this big toe coming out, and spooning it in. 'Where on earth did he come from?' was my first thought. My first instinct was that he was offside."

Shields contradicted manager Jim Leishman when judging the free-kick that led to Hearts' controversial winner to have been validly awarded. The Ivory Coast defender Sol Bamba had recovered from a nervy start and felt assured enough to launch himself at the feet of Saulius Mikoliunas just outside the box. Bamba connected with the ball with one foot, but the other of his great rangy legs swept Mikoliunas from his feet.

After that things got crazier. Tod was sent off, as was the Dunfermline assistant manager Craig Robertson for his anguished claim, directed at the Hearts bench rather than the fourth official, that Brellier had conned the referee. A trip to face AEK in Athens may yet seem tame by comparison.

Taken from the Scotsman