Dunfermline 0 - 1 Hearts

Making forecasts is a business best left to bookmakers and meteorologists. However, it scarcely takes the foresight of Nostradamus to predict that it will be a turbulent 2007 for Dunfermline.

Denied the traditional rejuvenation usually brought about by the appointment of a new manager, the Fife side have instead lurched from one poor result to another.

They were undone here by a first-half strike by Michal Pospisil, only his second goal of the season, to remain nine points adrift at the bottom of the table and with a negative goal difference virtually worth another point to their relegation rivals.

Fifteen matches now remain for Stephen Kenny, the recently appointed manager, to steer his team out of trouble. "I'm not going to say everything is brilliant when it's not," he admitted. "It's not the best feeling to hear your rivals are picking up points.

"The league split, though, could work in our favour as eight of our last nine games could be against teams in the bottom six. We need to try to close the gap by three or four points in the interim, though."

Predicting Hearts' future is an imprudent pastime, regardless of the time of year. They were thoroughly deserving of their victory yesterday but look a pale imitation of the side that was genuinely competing with Celtic for the league title this time last year.

Valdas Ivanauskas, the head coach, expressed his satisfaction with the victory and insisted all was well behind the scenes following the recent departure of former captain, Steven Pressley from the club.

"Team spirit is much better and the confidence is coming back," he said. "We are in a good situation now. Our target today was three points and we did that."

Pospisil's only other goal this season had come at East End Park back in July, while the Czech had also scored twice at this ground last year. It was almost inevitable, therefore, when he extended that sequence after 15 minutes, diverting Bruno Aguiar's corner through a porous Dunfermline defence.

The Fife side have yet to score first in an SPL game this season and not at all since Stephen Simmons' late consolation strike against Celtic on December 10.

Sol Bamba saw his thrash on goal diverted around a post by Craig Gordon prior to Hearts' opener, and Steve Crawford and Simmons came close with long-range efforts after the break, but those were rare incidents from a team shorn of confidence and short of ideas.

Dunfermline were fortunate not to concede a second near half-time. McKenzie denied his former team on both occasions, the goalkeeper blocking Paul Hartley's shot after the midfielder had sped clear of a dozing Dunfermline defence before adroitly tipping Pospisil's header on to the bar.

With little to lose, Kenny redrew his plans at half-time. Darren Young – a midfielder to trade – was shifted from the left to the right side of defence, Crawford was hauled into right midfield, while Jim Hamilton and Owen Morrison were introduced in place of Greg Shields and Gary Mason.

The changes made little difference to an ineffective attack but seemed at least to infuse the team with a jolt of fighting spirit. Within 15 minutes Hamilton had barged Gordon to the ground, Phil McGuire was jabbing an accusatory finger in Takis Fyssas' face and Crawford felled Christophe Berra with a late tackle for which he was perhaps fortunate not to be sent off.

Hamilton could have nicked a point for Dunfermline but failed to pack sufficient power into his late shot on goal. The groan that crept around East End Park said it all.



Dunfermline (4-4-2) McKenzie; Shields (O Morrison 46), Wilson, McGuire, Young; Simmons, Mason (Hamilton 46), Bamba (Ross 71), S Morrison; Crawford, Burchill. Subs: Murdoch, Tod, Woods, Williamson Booked Young, Crawford

Hearts (4-4-2) Gordon, Neilson (McCann 81), Zaliukas, Berra, Wallace (Fyssas 31); Mikoliunas (Barasa 63), Aguiar, Hartley, Driver; Elliot, Pospisil. Subs: Banks, Bednar, Armstrong, Karipidis

Referee C Thomson

Taken from the Herald