Banishment of keeper overshadows unimpressive win over Inverness

HEARTS 1 Pospisil (82)
INVERNESS CT 0

THE fact that Hearts kept in touch with Aberdeen and Rangers in the quest for second place in the SPL thanks to a disjointed win over Inverness shouldn't disguise the problems which continue to prevent the Tynecastle club from punching their weight in the championship.

While the absence of Scotland's goalkeeper, Craig Gordon, was surely a question of politics which fuelled the conviction that Vladimir Romanov, the majority shareholder, is out of touch with the best interests of the player, the club and the country, there were other selections on Saturday which also beggared belief. Ironically, Romanov's unwillingness to forgive and forget Gordon's mute role in the Riccarton rebellion - Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley were off-loaded to Celtic for their part in challenging the club's modus operandi - has damaged Hearts less than might have been feared thanks to the excellent form of Steve Banks.

The 35-year-old Englishman has kept five clean sheets in six appearances this season and was rewarded for his consistency with a one-year addition to his contract over the weekend. If, as seems inevitable, Gordon is sold during the summer, Hearts already have a reliable replacement on their books. Along with Christophe Berra and Laryea Kingston, Banks was one of Hearts' best players against Inverness and made a thrilling save in the first minute from Graham Bayne's volley.

On footballing grounds, there could be a case for continuing with Banks. The dropping of Gordon, however, was never a football decision. After the match, Valdas Ivanauskas, the head coach, delivered a rambling, incoherent rationale for dropping the player based on the speculation surrounding his future during the transfer window. It fooled no-one about where the order to omit the player emanated.

As one of the best young goalkeepers in Europe with a transfer-market valuation of around £5million, Gordon's absence from the squad against Inverness simultaneously handed the opposition a boost before the kick-off and deflated the home support.

With St Mirren due to visit Tynecastle on Saturday, Ivanauskas conceded there would be talks with the goalkeeper about his situation this week. "He's an important player not just for Hearts but for Scottish football, and we will have a discussion with him this week," added the coach, who insisted Gordon would play for Hearts again.

For the first time in many moons, there were empty seats at Tynecastle. The atmosphere inside the ground was also muted. Numbed by so many decisions which appear either illogical, spiteful or self-defeating, the club's supporters have reached the point where stunned acquiescence seems the only appropriate reaction.

If Romanov's meddling in team affairs wasn't so well established, perhaps it would be time to question the competence of the club's coaching staff. Against Inverness, Hearts played a striker, Calum Elliot, wide right of midfield. The youngster suggested no aptitude for the role and, before being substituted, was unchallenged when he ran the ball out of play.

Hearts at present lack both real pace and a prolific finisher up front, and the introduction of Arkadiusz Klimek, a 31-year-old Pole, suggested the new arrival would remedy neither of those shortcomings. Since the player on loan from Kaunas admitted he lacked match sharpness, the partnership with another target man, Edgaras Jankauskas, made no sense when Roman Bednar was on the bench. Signed, apparently, as a defensive midfielder, Kingston spent most of this match in Hartley's old role while Julien Brellier returned for the first time since the win over Hibernian in December. A shrewd user of the ball, Kingston's influence waned when he, too, was dispatched to the right flank after Elliot was replaced by Eggert Jonsson, another member of the largest supporting cast in Scottish football history.

In the end, Hearts collected three points from an Inverness side which manager Charlie Christie reckoned delivered its worst performance in months thanks to the persistence of Andrew Driver and a moment of clever football from substitute Michal Pospisil. Just as he'd done in setting up Bednar for the only goal of another scrappy game against Falkirk, Driver demonstrated he's a two-footed footballer by switching the ball to his right boot and swinging over a cross to the back post.

Although there were four Inverness players in the box, Pospisil wrong-footed his marker by peeling off behind the defender and heading the winner into the corner with his first attempt on goal.

In what was a physical contest, Christie reckoned Inverness were out-muscled. The Inverness manager didn't think either side played much football and was disappointed his players were content to "lump it forward". Bearing in mind the disparity in resources between the clubs, it was even more frustrating to watch an admittedly hard-working Hearts side also rely on route one.

What's most alarming, of course, is the high cost of this low standard. With last week's accounts revealing debts of £28million and player wages of £10m a year, it defies all logic that Hearts should lack quality in so many positions. The news the club want to increase borrowings to £40m only adds to the sense of unease.

All of which turned this onlooker's thoughts to Mel Brooks's comic musical, The Producers. The conceit of the show is that a producer would make more money with a huge flop than a big hit. The way things are going at Tynecastle, Max Bialystock should be on the board.

Christophe Berra (Hearts)

This was another solid performance from the young centre-back who has followed in the footsteps of Steven Pressley and Andy Webster and suggested he's capable of emulating their high standards.

Taken from the Scotsman