Kilmarnock 0 Heart of Midlothian 0

Kilmarnock and Hearts had to settle for a share of the spoils after an exciting encounter at Rugby Park.

The Jambos should have had a half-time lead thanks to some shoddy home goalkeeping. Graeme Smith allowed Paul Hartley's inswinging free-kick to go clean across goal, and the Killie keeper was fortunate to see the ball rebound from the upright for Gordon Greer to clear.

He then had Simon Ford to thank after he allowed another deep cross to drift over his head. Saulius Mikoliunas did well to cut the ball back into the danger area where Andrius Velicka looked sure to score until Ford flew in to block the ball.

The match livened up after the break, and Hearts shaved both of the Killie posts within two minutes of the restart as first Mikoliunas volleyed wide after a poor Garry Hay clearance before Takis Fyssas burst into the box and shot inches wide.

Killie broke out of their own half in the 55th minute and almost claimed the lead. Allan Johnston slipped the perfect pass to Steven Naismith who chipped over the advancing Craig Gordon but the ball hit the crossbar.

The dropping ball fell for the Killie man but, under pressure, he could not get enough purchase to beat the recovering keeper, who appeared to be behind his line when he made the save.

Christophe Berra looked certain to score for Hearts in the 70th minute when the ball fell to him in space eight yards out, but Greer slid in from nowhere to make a vital tackle.

Hearts kept piling the pressure on, and Smith redeemed himself with a great diving save from Roman Bednar's point-blank header. The Czech had an even better chance to win it a minute later from Paul Hartley's beautiful pass, but he blazed over.

Gary Wales then had the chance to steal it for Killie from Johnston s cute pass. He seemed to do everything right until his shot fizzed just past the post.