Pinilla sparks Hearts

Until you try to ask Valdas Ivanauskas anything, that is. The uncommunicative Lithuanian was at his worst in the aftermath. The Hearts manager did express his relief at the margin of victory after a hard week, but declined to answer a straightforward question as to whether Julien Brellier was dropped. “Some players you didn’t see were injured and some were rested,” he said cryptically. The question was twice repeated. And so was the answer, though the real one was pretty obvious. Nobody really needed to ask whose decision it had been to leave Brellier out, either. Even on their good days all does not seem well at Hearts.

Although they cited a refereeing injustice or two and some ill luck with injuries, what Hearts were reluctant to do after the 5-1 aggregate loss to AEK Athens that deprived them of Champions League football was blame themselves in any way. However justified their complaints of midweek, they still looked ill-prepared for Europe. Since the departure of George Burley as manager, the club’s signings policy has been erratic, an influx of quantity rather than quality that has undermined the development of the team. Hearts claimed to have no fit forwards during the week, but left out an alleged £1.3m of attacking talent in Juho Makela and Mirsad Beslija. And if Edgaras Jankauskas was free enough of injury to be a substitute, why didn’t he start and see how long he would last? And why was Mauricio Pinilla, only match fit enough for a minute’s use in Greece, suddenly able to start the game and score yesterday? The Hearts side increasingly feels like it is picked at random.

When the Hearts players were shaking hands prior to the game you wondered if it was by way of introducing themselves to one another with five players making their first Premierleague start. On loan from Sporting Lisbon, Pinilla had needed to be instructed to join the Hearts pre-match huddle by Steven Pressley as he lingered aimlessly near the centre-circle. The Hearts captain had complained in the programme of the home supporters having a “responsibility to fully support the team regardless of performance”, a clear reference to the audible grumbling last time round at this ground during the goalless draw with Falkirk.

The way Hearts started yesterday avoided this call for unity being tested. They could have moved ahead in the tenth minute, Tiago Costa’s accurate crossfield pass finding Neil McCann whose cross saw Jamie Mole dig out a diving header that Mark Brown did well to save. In the 20th minute, they were deservedly ahead, however, with McCann again supplying ammunition from the left and Pinilla firing in with a low sidefoot volley. After scoring the Chilean striker was seen to cross himself, a goal celebration he might need to modify on any forthcoming trips to Ibrox.

Inverness are usually a decent team away from home, presumably taking the approach that if it takes them so long to travel anywhere they might as well do something worthwhile on arrival. On 29 minutes, they pulled level, Barry Wilson’s looping cross from the right met with a firm close range header from an unmarked Graham Bayne. Twice thereafter the visitors could have led, Wilson first shooting into the side-netting with an angled drive, then a Roy McBain backheel allowing Richard Hastings to cross for Dennis Wyness to direct the ball just wide. Unfortunately for the former Hearts striker he dislocated his shoulder in the process.

It was while Inverness were down to 10 men, Wyness having departed for treatment, that Hearts went back ahead in the game. Paul Hartley’s free-kick saw Mole get his team out of a potential hole with a header that crashed into the net via the underside of the bar to lead 2-1 at the interval.

After Bayne fluffed an early second-half chance for Inverness, dragging his shot wide when through on goal, Hearts seemed to have the game under control again and would have improved their lead had McCann’s snap shot after Darren Dod’s miskick not come back off the bar. Inverness were still creating chances, though, and none better than in the 75th minute when Ross Tokely curled the ball in from the right only for Wilson to misplace a free header badly off target.

Hearts needed a third goal and Andrew Driver, the substitute, was to provide it in the 80th minute with his first meaningful touch, punishing Tokely’s woeful failure to clear with a spectacular finish. It made him the third player of the afternoon to score his first ever goal for Hearts. “It was just good to be on the park, never mind score,” said the 21-year-old midfielder. “If I’d had time to think about it, it would’ve gone in row Z.”

If Inverness already thought that scoreline a mite harsh, their misery was compounded in the final minute. Makela proved he does exist with a chipped pass towards Mole who found an onrushing Bruno Aguiar, another substitute, and he calmly knocked the ball wide of a stranded Brown. Another coat of gloss over Hearts’ internal troubles. It will all peel away in the end.

Star Man: Neil McCann (Hearts)

Player Ratings: Hearts: Gordon 7, Costa 6, Pressley 5, Karipidis 6, Wallace 6, Mikoliunas 6, Zaliukas 4, Hartley 6 (Aguiar 79min, 7), McCann 7 (Driver 75min, 7), Pinilla 7 (Makela 86mins, 6), Mole 6

Inverness: Brown 7, Tokely 4 (Duncan 82min, 6), Dods 5, Munro 6, Hastings 6, Wilson 6, Rankin 6, Black 7, McBain 5 (Keogh 82min, 6), Bayne 6, Wyness 5 (McAllister 43min, 5)

Scorers: Hearts: Pinilla 20, Mole 42, Driver 80, Aguiar 90

Inverness: Bayne 29

Referee: S Conroy

Attendance: 15,912

Taken from timesonline.co.uk