Hearts spurn grim predictions with gritty win at Easter Road

By STUART BATHGATE
AT EASTER ROAD
SOME old bloke with a crown on his head proved long ago that you cannot turn the tide, but Hearts proved something for themselves yesterday: that the contrasting fortunes of football teams are not akin to forces of nature, and that with diligence and desire it is possible to prevent what others may have regarded as inevitable.
Given that Hibernian won the CIS Cup a fortnight ago, a day after Hearts' abject home defeat by Dundee United, it was understandable that so much of the talk before yesterday's Edinburgh derby was of how one team was on the up, and the other apparently on the way down.

That talk may well sound valid at the end of the season, should John Collins's side win the Scottish Cup too while Hearts fail to win so much as a place in European competition; right now, however, at least in terms of the league race, the impetus is once more with the team from the west side of the capital.

Given the size of the wage bill at Tynecastle, keeping ahead of their city rivals in the SPL may be no more than a minimal return on Vladimir Romanov's investment, but Hearts would have struggled to do even that had they lost yesterday. Now, instead of risking being overtaken in fourth place should Hibs beat St Mirren in midweek, they have again closed the gap between themselves and Aberdeen to six points.

They deserve all the more credit for doing so given the absence for various reasons of several first-team regulars. The loss to suspension of Laryea Kingston and Saulius Mikoliunas, plus the unavailability of others such as Roman Bednar, Robbie Neilson and Neil McCann because of injury, meant it was a young and largely inexperienced side which Stephen Frail sent out yesterday - one which, many spectators might have suspected, was not wholly aware of the importance of this fixture.

Such a suspicion, however, was quickly dispelled as Hearts began the match strongly. By the time Andrew Driver got beyond the Hibs defence to have the first attempt on target in the sixth minute, it was clear that Hearts' game plan was about a lot more than merely stifling their opponents. Their 4-5-1 formation in which Driver had some licence to push up in support of Andrius Velicka was designed in part to squeeze the life out of the Hibs midfield, but that was not an end in itself: instead, Frail's aim was to take control, and then take the lead.

Hibs by no means laid down and made it easy for their opponents, and after a sluggish start in which they had struggled to get out of their own half, they pressed on well in search of an opening goal. Yet, for all the incisive passing Merouane Zemmama and Scott Brown displayed, the only decent opportunity in the first 45 minutes was a snap shot from the latter player which Craig Gordon parried away without too much trouble.

With home full-backs David Murphy and Steven Whittaker unable to get forward as much as they liked, Hibs were often reduced to attacking through the middle, where Julien Brellier, Marius Zaliukas and Christophe Berra were in no mood to let anything past. On one of the rare occasions when Murphy was able to get down the wing and send over an inviting cross, Guillaume Beuzelin spoiled the scoring opportunity by leaping in to head over when Rob Jones was far better placed to get a header on target.

With around half an hour to play, John Collins, having seen his team run out of steam, turned to the electric pace of Ivan Sproule and looked to unlock the Hearts defence out wide. The Northern Irishman was lively enough, but was well played by Jose Goncalves, and was unable to take the one real chance he did get - a low drive which Gordon saved just before the end of normal time.

By then, Hearts were in the lead. With Linas Pilibaitis and Kestitutis Ivaskevicius linking up well in
midfield, the visiting side had been on top for most of the second half, and they turned that pressure into a goal with ten minutes left to play.

The move began with a free-kick out on the right touchline, which Driver sent curling into the box. Andy McNeil in the Hibs goal had to make his way over or through a small mob of bodies to reach the ball, but he only palmed the ball straight to Zaliukas, who kept his cool to score with a low drive just inside the right post from a distance of 12 yards or so.

It is in the nature of Edinburgh derbies that such late goals provoke a frenzied counterblast, and Hibs did their best to spark a last-gasp revival. Apart from that one chance for Sproule, however, they created very little, and ended up looking jaded.

Hearts, on the other hand, had a spring in their step to the end, and celebrated wildly with their support at the final whistle.

Taken from the Scotsman