Magnificent Makela fires three of a kind for reshuffled Hearts

ALLOA 0
HEARTS 4

HEARTS have generally avoided the straightforward and predictable over the past couple of years, but they bucked the trend last night with a professional, unfussy win over Alloa to go through to the last eight of the CIS Cup. The home team competed well throughout, but a goal by Juho Makela a minute into the second half to add to his opener before the break killed off their hopes of causing an upset.

Having failed to win a game since beating Ross County in the previous round of this tournament, Alloa were clearly not in the best of shape to deal with a side which, despite having had its own supposed crisis in form, is lying second in the SPL. Indeed, the home side's main hope had to be that Hearts would field a collection of individuals who were so unused to each other that they failed to function as a team. Valdas Ivanauskas's side certainly bore little resemblance to the usual first-choice 11, but, while never spectacular, they knitted together well enough to win through.

As he had said he would, the Edinburgh side's coach rested Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley, among other first-team regulars. Kestutis Ivaskevicius, a transfer-window signing, made his debut for Hearts in midfield, as one of 11 changes from the line-up which had begun the league win over Motherwell three days earlier.

Alloa manager Allan Maitland, who has a somewhat smaller squad to select from at the best of times, had to do without Ross Clark, Michael Stuart, Kieran McAnespie and Neil McCallum because of injury, and Stuart Malcolm through suspension. Michael Bolochoweckyj did pass a fitness test, however, while David McClune and Fraser Forrest were both back after a spell on the treatment table. Kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes because of severe traffic hold-ups, and when the match did begin Alloa made up for lost time by going straight on to the attack. They forced a corner after a couple of minutes when Christophe Berra had to clear behind, and from Steven McKeown's dead ball McClune shot just past Steve Banks' right post.

The heavy rain had quickened the surface rather than holding the ball up, and both teams were happy to play at a high tempo. Hearts' main ploy early on was to look for knockdowns from Roman Bednar for Makela to run on to, but the first chance the Finn received was blasted well wide of the mark, while a minute later he became the first man to have an effort on target, even though it was a weak back-heeler which barely reached Allan Creer in the home goal. Alloa raised their game against their more highly-rated opponents, and it was halfway through the half before Creer was forced into a serious save - a timely cut-out of a cross from Makela just before it got to Neil McCann.

Alloa were beginning to get pegged back in their own half, but after 30 minutes they almost scored. Robert Sloan, a former Hearts player, crossed to Graeme Brown, who headed wide with Banks beaten.

Having survived that scare, Hearts went up to the other end of the field and opened the scoring. Makela won a 50-50 and passed to McCann, who fed Takis Fyssas down the left. The Greek crossed deep into the box, and Makela, having paced his run, placed a header past Creer from six yards.

Christos Karipidis injured himself while avoiding a reckless tackle by Brian McColligan, and was replaced by Alan Lithgow. McColligan was lucky to escape a yellow card from Charlie Richmond for the offence, but Sloan was not so fortunate when he fouled Robbie Neilson.

Hearts made another change at the break, replacing Mirsad Beslija, who had taken a couple of knocks, with Eggert Jonsson, who, like Lithgow, was making his debut at 18. Beslija had not seen as much action on the right as McCann had down the left, and within a minute of the restart it was the former Scotland player who made Hearts' second goal. A nicely weighted pass allowed Makela to beat the offside trap, and after a steadying touch the blond striker placed the ball past Creer.

Five minutes later McCann should have made it 3-0 himself from a Bednar pass, but McKeown cleared off the line.

A spate of bookings ended with Chris Townsley being dismissed for a second yellow card just a minute after his team's last chance of staging a fightback - a header from Ross Hamilton which Lithgow cleared off the line. McCann then had the ball in the Alloa net but was flagged for offside, then with eight minutes left Makela deservedly completed his hat-trick when, at the second attempt, he beat Creer with a shot from just inside the 18-yard box. Finally, Bruno Aguiar made it four with a delightful chip after breaking through on his own.

Alloa Athletic: Creer, Townsley, Ovenstone, McKeown, Forrest (Bolochoweckyj 53), McColligan, Hamilton, Grant, Brown (Macaulay 78), McClune (Hazeldine 67), Sloan. Unused subs: Comrie, Hutton.

Hearts: Banks, Neilson, Karipidis (Lithgow 43), Berra, Fyssas, Beslija (Jonsson 45), Aguiar, Ivaskevicius, McCann, Bednar (Velicka 60), Makela. Unused subs: MacDonald, Thorarinsson.

Taken from the Scotsman