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| <-Page | <-Team | Sat 28 Oct 2006 Hearts 1 Dunfermline Athletic 1 | Team-> | Page-> |
| <-Srce | <-Type | Herald ------ Report | Type-> | Srce-> |
| Eduard Malofeev | <-auth | Rob Robertson | auth-> | Brian Winter |
| [J Hamilton 48] | ||||
| 10 | of 014 | Andrius Velicka 11 | L SPL | H |
Hearts 1 - Dunfermline 1ROB ROBERTSON at Tynecastle October 30 2006 Paul Hartley has called on Vladimir Romanov to bring stability to Hearts for the good of the club and its supporters. Last week, Hartley sat alongside his fellow Scotland internationalists, Craig Gordon and Steven Pressley, as the club captain delivered a statement voicing their concerns about the way the club was being run. In his first public comments since, the midfielder admitted that he was uncertain whether he had a future at Tynecastle. "I am not sure what will happen now," said Hartley. "I would like to stay at Hearts but at the end of the day it may not be up to me." He said the players had been preparing the statement for a while and it was not a spur of the moment decision after Romanov came into the dressing room on Friday and told players they would be sold if they lost to Dunfermline. "I felt it was very serious that he was making these statements," said Hartley. "We had decided, though, long before he came into the dressing room that we were going to deliver our statement. It was always going to happen. We had discussed certain things and felt we had to get our points across and we put a lot of thought into what we were going to say. "There has been a frustration for me as a player for a long time. I was fully behind the contents of the statement. We want stability at this club. I don't think it is a good thing changing managers all the time. We need a group of players all pulling in the right direction." Hearts did pull together against Dunfermline but came up against opposition with fire in their bellies. Inspired by Stephen Simmons, the former Hearts player, the East End Park team deserved their point. Hartley set up the opener for Hearts when his clever backheel allowed Andrius Velicka to score after a bad mistake by Dunfermline keeper Roddy McKenzie. Jim Hamilton bundled home a controversial equaliser, Gordon insisting the striker had handled before scoring. Dunfermline, managed by caretaker manager Craig Robertson, left Tynecastle with their heads held high and could have stolen the game near the end when Mark Burchill missed a golden opportunity. Burchill said that Romanov's comments that the Hearts players would be sold to "clubs like Dunfermline and Kilmarnock" fired his team up. "It is not nice to hear such things said about you," he said. "Maybe there was a touch of arrogance. I hope the situation at Hearts can be sorted out for the sake of Scottish football as they are a great club." It remains up to Romanov to realise the damage he is doing to one of Scotland's most famous footballing names. It is not by accident that their manager Valdas Ivanauskas is off sick or that his players are in open revolt. Romanov sat in the front row of the main stand, going to his seat half an hour early like a Roman emperor on his balcony. There was no direct criticism of him from the Hearts fans although they did keep chanting the name of substitute Julien Brellier, a player who is not rated by Romanov. Until his tinkering in team affairs stops the situation at Hearts will not improve and hopefully the brave stand made by Hartley, Gordon and Pressley will be a wake-up call. Caretaker manager Eduard Malofeev said he could not understand why the press were asking him who had picked the team and the fact the Hearts side played an unfamiliar 3-4-3 system suggests Romanov did not interfere. That will surely not remain the norm. Pressley has called for a clear-the-air meeting with the club owner and it is hoped he will try to build bridges rather than blow them up.  Taken from the Herald |
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| <-Page | <-Team | Sat 28 Oct 2006 Hearts 1 Dunfermline Athletic 1 | Team-> | Page-> |
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