Tempers fray at Tynecastle

HEARTS 0
FALKIRK 0

PERHAPS it was the unusual status of Saturday's match as a top-of-the-table contest, or maybe the muggy, repressive air that enveloped the stadium all afternoon. But there is a definite intensity about Tynecastle that managers are finding difficult to contend with right now.

John Hughes, pictured below right, became the third coach inside a week to plough the lonely path from technical area to stand in Gorgie, referee John Underhill taking exception to the Falkirk manager confronting Michal Pospisil as the teams streamed towards the tunnel at half-time. On his way to the directors' box, Hughes may have seen imprints from the soles of John McGlynn's and Gordon Strachan's shoes on the stair carpet.

Hughes' dismissal exemplifies the high emotion that a visit to Hearts' home can trigger. Whilst Murrayfield, the club's European home, serves its purpose well in offering a spacious layout and all the facilities required of a Champions League side, there is nothing quite like the confined surroundings of Tynecastle for stirring the adrenalin of both hosts and visitors.

Much like last week's titanic victory over Celtic, there was more than a little combat on offer from both teams at the weekend. Falkirk, in their Livingston-esque away kit and orchestrated by the former Hibernian midfielder Russell Latapy, seemed to execute their manager's gameplan perfectly. Throughout the game they proved themselves worthy of equilibrium with opponents who would widely be considered more illustrious given their successes of last season. However in every contest there is a breaking point and minutes before the interval it arrived. Pedro Moutinho had just wasted the game's best chance by hitting Liam Craig's left-sided cross into the ground when unmarked, thereby failing to seriously test Craig Gordon. The dejection at Moutinho's profligacy was clear from the clenched fists hitting the perspex visiting dugout by Hughes and his staff.

As the booming noises dispersed into the stuffy Gorgie air, Kenny Milne refused to compose himself on the pitch and blatantly pushed Roman Bednar in the chest after the Czech caught him in a challenge. The former Hearts defender could quite conceivably have been instantly dismissed for raising his hands to an opponent, but on the say-so of standside assistant Neil Brand was merely cautioned.

Pospisil took up the story as Hughes failed to restrain himself come half-time. "I just asked the referee to explain a couple of decisions, which he was doing and told me why he had let play run because we had the advantage," said the forward. "Then the Falkirk manager, who I know is a very passionate man and wants good results all the time, came over and was very angry with me. I don't know why, I was surprised. He spoke very fast and I couldn't understand what he was saying."

Hughes, to his credit, was happy to explain his side of the argument. "My gripe was with them [Hearts] being constantly in the referee's ear. That's what I said to the referee, that he should be the one doing the refereeing. But he felt I was aggressive. I don't know if that is aggressive down in Leith. That's just normal behaviour." The last comments were made in jest, but Hughes was still adamant that his point was valid.

Referring back to the incident between Milne and Bednar, he continued: "I asked the assistant referee why both of them weren't booked but he said all Bednar did was square up to Kenny, but is that not aggressive too? I was sent off for coming on to the field of play aggressively, which is fair enough. I had to apologise to my players at full-time because that's no way to conduct yourself.

"Its all about perception," continued Yogi as he reflected on his decision to confront John Underhill at the interval. "The referee's perception was that of being approached by an angry man but I wasn't angry at him - I was angry at the Hearts players and the way they were trying to influence his decisions and I just wanted to get my point across."

And Hughes was anxious to stress that this particular issue should not cloud the fact that the 0-0 draw was an excellent result for Falkirk, extending their unbeaten run to three games as they retained second place in the SPL. "Hearts knew they were in a game," he said. "I think we maybe surprised them as we played some really nice football and, although we were hanging on a bit during the last 15 minutes, we probably had the best chance of the game when Pedro mistimed his shot. Tynecastle can be an intimidating arena but we coped with it well and once again our defence was outstanding.

I'm disappointed with my behaviour but I'm not going to let that overshadow my players' performance. We were every bit as good as Hearts. A lot of questions were asked of us and we answered them all."

To be fair, he was right. The jeering from the home support at full-time depicted their frustration after Falkirk's hustling approach provided Hughes with a priceless point and maintained his club's joint-top-of-the-table position. Bednar missed an early chance after dispossessing Karl Dodd before some indecision in the Hearts defence allowed Moutinho to exercise Gordon on a couple of occasions. Although Julien Brellier's reinstatement after injury served to calm the home midfield at times, Hughes had imbued his side with enough belief to equally contest the first half as they passed the ball comfortably around midfield.

Hearts ventured forward in the 19th minute for Saulius Mikoliunas to hit a dangerous effort with his left foot from the edge of the penalty area which was heading goalwards until Karl Dodd got in the way. Seconds later Pospisil met Robbie Neilson's long throw but glanced his header wide.

The rights to midfield supremacy were being ardently contested, both Hughes and Valdas Ivanauskas taking it in turns to vent their frustrations in the technical area as passing routines were fractured by an on-rushing opponent every few minutes. In that respect, Mikoliunas' errant distribution in particular could not have been ignored by his head coach.

Falkirk fashioned the best opening of the half on 31 minutes when Milne fed the ball down Neilson's outside whilst Craig ran through on the full-back's blind side. Craig's cross found Moutinho with no Hearts defender in attendance, but his first-time connection wasn't as clean as he would have liked and bounced up off the ground into Craig Gordon's palms. Mikoliunas, although often not in tune with his midfield colleagues, was willing to support strikers Pospisil and Bednar and it was his shot which rebounded to Pospisil inside the area before the legs of goalkeeper Scott Higgins came to Falkirk's rescue.

After the half-time fracas, Falkirk continued harrying, pressing and probing as Hughes demanded, displaying an ability to heed their manager's words even without his trackside presence. For Hearts, the resounding boos which greeted Brellier's withdrawal on the hour suggested that supporters were not entirely comfortable with the decision-making process as more than a few turned their heads towards the directors' box to aim accusing jibes at Vladimir Romanov. Except, he wasn't there. Only the impassive figure of sporting director Eduard Malofeev represented any kind of link to the otherwise-engaged majority shareholder.

Pospisil might have given Hearts the lead from Mikoliunas' left-sided cross, but the unrest amongst home supporters remained, with Falkirk gaining in confidence. Mikoliunas was a prime target for the ire as Hughes' side strove to turn the screw and capitalise on home jitters. Thomas Scobie had a chance after Barr nodded a corner back to him but Christophe Berra took the ball flush on the face.

Takis Fyssas went down in a penalty-box tussle with Barr in the 73rd minute as he took attacking matters into his own hands, a decision which had a rousing effect on the Hearts fans. Substitute Calum Elliot also took to the turf after knocking the ball through the same player's legs, but given the lack of contact Mr Underhill was justified in telling the teenager to rise as quickly as he'd fallen.

The game turned particularly niggly in the closing stages with tired legs and tired tackles leading to a succession of contentious decisions for the referee. In the final minute of regulation time, Jankauskas had a trundling left-footed effort cleared off the line by the outstanding Patrick Cregg from Bruno Aguiar's corner with three points there for the smelling. Then, as the referee held the whistle between his lips, Jankauskas lofted a speculative ball forward for Bednar to challenge Milne. The Czech won his battle to hit a fine acrobatic effort looping only inches over Higgins' crossbar, but the late rally did not prevent the home support making their dissatisfaction clear upon full-time.

"After last season maybe they are a little more confident and expect more from the team, so they think we can beat everybody at home," pondered Pospisil. "It's normal after a successful season that sometimes the supporters are angry, but I don't think we were that bad. It was a difficult afternoon. Falkirk kept their shape and their results have shown they are playing very well. We struggled to score but we had chances and sometimes that happens in football. It's been a hard week."

That much was not in question, but for Hearts right now every examining period is followed by another. On Sunday they visit Ibrox before heading to Athens next Tuesday. Perhaps being away from Tynecastle's frantic ambience will help compose everyone, for that carpeted stairway leading to the directors' box is showing serious signs of wear merely three games into the season.

Taken from the Scotsman