Jambos shoot themselves in the foot again

Kilmarnock 3 - Hearts 1

"Football's an emotive sport," stated Michael Stewart deep in the bowels of Rugby Park. He had just watched Hearts lose convincingly to Kilmarnock and couldn't have encapsulated the afternoon any better. Christian Nade's impetuous antics cost him a red card and jeopardised the efforts of his colleagues, whilst Stephen Frail's dismissal compounded the misery.

Tensions ran high in Ayrshire at the weekend and, whilst the home crowd experienced mostly exhilaration at their team's resounding victory, those from Edinburgh were accompanied by only dejection and frustration on the journey home. Much of it could be traced back to Nade's 45th-minute ordering off, but other factors were present and should not be ignored.

The Frenchman was guilty as sin for reacting to verbals from Kilmarnock's Frazer Wright and striking the defender in the face. His antics were simply indefensible and he knew it. However, Vladimir Romanov's penchant for creating intrigue where there needn't be any had some bearing on the afternoon, not for the first time.

The Russian businessman has for long allowed his own personal emotions to influence the Hearts team and Saturday was no different. Four alterations from the previous week's defeat by Dundee United - two enforced, two optional. Larry Kingston's knee ligament injury and Calum Elliot's suspension precluded two starters from the United match, but it was the two optional changes which ultimately had significant consequence in the overall context of the game.
SCANT CONSOLATION: Ibrahim Tall heads late goal

SCANT CONSOLATION: Ibrahim Tall heads late goal

Eggert Jonsson, one of this season's most consistent performers, was relegated to the bench while goalkeeper Steve Banks was "rested". Jonsson's calming influence and ability to put a foot on the ball was badly missed by Hearts. His midfield replacement, Marius Zaliukas, cut an anonymous figure when the Tynecastle side were crying out for authority, like many of his team-mates after they were reduced to ten men.

Anthony Basso, Banks' replacement, overall looks a shadow of the Englishman and was woefully out of position at Kilmarnock's third goal. Robbie Neilson slipped when receiving the ball from the goalkeeper and Willie Gibson intervened to nonchalantly roll it into the net past the stranded Basso. A poor team performance it was, but squad rotation does little for morale or motivation.

Romanov created the interference culture at Tynecastle, only he can sort it. Banks needed a rest, apparently, after playing only 11 times this season. Last time I checked, there weren't any Hearts supporters who buttoned up the back, and anyone who believes Frail would choose Basso over even a slightly-jaded Banks is kidding themselves on.

Banks has doubled as Hearts' goalkeeping coach since Jim Stewart departed, but it hasn't impacted on his first-team performances in the slightest and he was completely blameless for all three Dundee United goals. So why wasn't he playing? Only Romanov, or Anatoli Korobochka or Angel Chervenkov, could explain. But none of them feels compelled to do so.

Even Frail left Rugby Park without offering an insight, his protests at the penalty award prior to Kilmarnock's second goal having prompted referee Willie Collum to send him to the stand. Stewart was the only Hearts employee to address the media officially.

Of Banks' omission, he said: "I'm not privy to that information in terms of the thinking behind it. One or two discussions I heard were that, because Banksy's got the coaching role as well as playing, they felt he needed to have a rest. We'll see in the games coming up if he's coming back into the team. I'm led to believe it was just him being rested.

"From Shaggy's perspective I think it's understandable he didn't want to say too much. He was sent to the stand and therefore punished in that manner. Football's an emotive sport and emotions run high at times. After the game it would be difficult for him to keep that under wraps. I'm sure he's got personal grievances over that specific incident."

The incident in question was Neilson's second-half handling of the ball in his own penalty area, which Hearts argued was the result of a nudge in the air from Colin Nish, the Kilmarnock striker, who converted the resultant penalty-kick. Frail also argued that a home player had handled the ball near the halfway line without punishment just seconds before Neilson's offence. The assistant coach was then dismissed for kicking a kit bag and punching the dugout in a release of pent-up frustration.

"I was close to that incident," said Stewart, "and, while I think the referee made the right decision with Christian, I think he made the wrong decision there. It seemed to me that Robbie had been fouled. Whenever you get pushed or nudged, your initial reaction is your arms go up in the air. That's a normal reaction from any human being which then led to the ball hitting Robbie's hand.

"The referee would have been close enough to see that and you have to give the foul for the preceding incident, which was the shove on Robbie. That's my perspective on it but it clearly wasn't the referee's. He gave a penalty at a vital time and to go 2-0 down at that period in the game was a real killer blow."

Perhaps not as damaging as Nade's dismissal on the stroke of half-time when the scoreline was still blank. Stewart continued: "We started the game reasonably well and for one reason or another it degenerated after that. It came to a head when Christian got sent off. After that the performance definitely wasn't good enough. When there's a sending-off like that it inevitably draws people's attention to it and you can think it affected the result.

"I was quite close to it and the centre-half maybe just had a go at him for his challenge. He just shouted at Christian, I don't think there was anything untoward said. We can't have any grievances with the sending-off. I think everybody's fully aware that, if you raise your hands like that, whether it's minimal contact or not, if you touch somebody's face inevitably the referee is going to produce a red card.

"Even with the best will at times you do have to keep your emotions under wraps and it's disappointing that happened. Going down to ten men gave us a real uphill battle. But I'm not going to have too much of a go at Christian, he'll realise his mistake himself."

The numerical advantage saw Kilmarnock dominate after the interval. Gary Wales lashed their first goal before Nish and Gibson added their contributions, although perhaps tellingly the match statistics showed only three attempts on target in total from both teams. Manager Jim Jefferies was in jovial mood afterwards given his side had delivered their most clinical display of the season. "I felt we dominated the match. There was only one team in the second half that looked like they were going to win it," he said. "Getting the first goal was vital. Garry Hay came back in to our team and he was my man of the match but everybody contributed to a great performance that takes us into the top six."

Ibrahim Tall replied for Hearts in stoppage time but the Tynecastle club end the SPL's first quarter in eighth place with an Edinburgh derby to contest on Sunday and the small matter of a CIS Cup quarter-final at Parkhead before that. The league placing will be as unsatisfactory to Romanov as it will supporters and certainly doesn't justify a wage bill totalling £10million at the last count. Despite the best efforts of Frail, the club still appears to lack a stereotypical managerial figure with the required autonomy to run the team and dispense with the needless dropping of key players. That Saturday's game ended with Banks, the interim goalkeeping coach, issuing instructions from the dugout in Frail's absence about summed the situation up.

"Collectively, we need to be more difficult to beat," was Stewart's assertion. "We seem to be shipping goals a bit too easily, that's not just a defensive thing it's the whole team. After that first 20 minutes one or two individuals in our team who managed to maintain their performance, but the rest of us, myself included, are extremely disappointed with how the game panned out.

"There's no other way round it. We have to pick ourselves up. You either pick yourself up or you disappear into oblivion and I, for one, don't want that to happen. I'll try and make sure that the team, collectively, try to pull together and drag ourselves out of it. We've already done it once this season and looked like we were headed in the right direction so it's bitterly disappointing to see ourselves back in this position."

Taken from the Scotsman