Holders fall to last-gasp goal

DUNFERMLINE 1
Wilson 90

HEARTS 0

NOTHING seems built to last at Hearts. A title-challenging, Scottish Cup winning team has been dismantled inside a season. Yesterday, the Tynecastle club's defence of the trophy was brought to a fourth-round end in a fashion that demonstrated Vladimir Romanov's team do not have a divine right on the dramatic.

Dunfermline do not really do goals. Yesterday it took them until the third minute of time added on, with the very last moment of action, to produce one that had the home supporters going berserk, and, for different reasons, the away fans acting likewise. The Hearts faithful were up in arms after referee Mike McCurry adjudged that Lee Wallace had fouled substitute Jim Hamilton. Seconds later they were left holding their heads in their hands after Scott Wilson rose to met a cross from Adam Hamill and nod the ball in at the back post.

Stephen Kenny's side have flunked out in the SPL in becoming detached at the foot of the table, but somehow the cup has inspired them, yesterday's elimination of the holders following the 3-2 victory at home to Rangers in the previous round. They did not really beat the team that took the trophy though - Ibrahim Tall was the only Hearts player in action yesterday who also featured in the side that won the cup.

Yet, for all that the visitors were poor, it required Dorus de Vries to produce two excellent stops early in the second period to keep Hearts at bay, the Dutchman showing terrific placement and anticipation to block at close range from Saulius Mikoliunas and then seconds later somehow clawing out a downward header from Michal Pospisil that looked certain to cross the line.

These days, a Hearts team sheet is a thing of wonder. You wonder who the heck is going to figure on it. Last year, when the number of professionals in their ranks had swollen to nudge the 40 mark, John Robertson quipped that it would have been like the start of the Grand National when they set off on a run at training. Now, that scene must resemble the National and the Derby rolled into one - recent transfer activity has taken the number of players at the club to almost 70. No fewer than 14 of these are on loan from Vladimir Romanov's other club, Kaunas.

Valdas Ivanauskas, then, could name at least four entirely different line-ups, plus subs. He may well do so before Romanov faxes back the selection that is to his satisfaction. And after a week that saw the Tynecastle club sell Paul Hartley to Celtic for £1.1m, tie up Ghanian midfielder Laryga Kingston on a short-term deal and bring in four more Lithuanians on loan, there was genuine intrigue about just how changed Hearts' Scottish Cup line-up would be from the team that secured a creditable draw at Ibrox the previous Saturday.

The sole remaining member of the Riccarton Three and the most sellable asset not yet cashed in, Craig Gordon, succeeded in earning a promotion following his role last weekend. Left out of the squad for the Rangers encounter, the Scotland goalkeeper made it to the bench for the trip to East End Park.

A cup-tie that was all bluster and bother, and yet somehow criminally benign during the first half, both teams were desperately disjointed, and often just desperate. The Tynecastle club, missing Christophe Berra and Andrius Zelicka through injury, seemed bits and bobs of previous sides, except with cultured Kingston thrown in. For all the talk of Hearts of Midlithuania, though, their starting XI still featured four Scots. The Old Firm never mustered that many when they were collecting players.

Dunfermline, meanwhile, just seemed every inch a relegated SPL team-in-waiting that had lost all confidence in playing the expansive passes required to construct attacking moves. That was hardly unexpected though, on the back of a two-month period when the 3-2 win over Rangers in the previous round marked the only game in their past nine that Stephen Kenny's men had found the net.

At no point in the first 45 minutes did Dunfermline look like notching goal number four in over 800 minutes of competitive football. Mark Burchill and Stevie Crawford made runs, swapped flanks and looked eager. They just never had the opportunity to do so in possession. Not that Steve Banks was any less of a bystander than Dorus de Vries during that opening half. The constipated nature of the play meant neither keeper was required to produce anything approaching a save.

There must have been some flushing in the Hearts dressing room at the break because Ivanauskas' men found their flow immediately after the break. In a 15 minute flurry, they had a raft of chances but the goal did not arrive because De Vries was inspired. On the two occasions he was beaten, Phil McGuire was on the line to block, while a lob from substitute Roman Bednar late on dropped on to the top of his crossbar. Maybe we should have known then that Hearts were meant to be broken.

Taken from the Scotsman