NEVER LET A DIEGO BY

Roddy Mackenzie, 22/11/2008

Scorers: HEARTS: Aguiar, Driver FALKIRK: Lovell

ANDREW DRIVER belatedly celebrated his 21st birthday with a world-class strike — but insisted he is no Maradona.

Driver, 21 last Thursday, admitted he was embarrassed at his winning goal being compared to the Argentinian’s strike against England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final.

The winger waltzed past three players before rounding goalkeeper Scott Flinders and slotting the ball into the empty net after 59 minutes.

But he said: “It was fluke! I got a bit of luck at the start of it. I spoke to Lee Bullen after the game and he said he should have pulled me down and I’m just glad he didn’t.

“The manager’s told me for a while to go at players in that situation but I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do it earlier in the season.

“I was scared when the ball eventually landed on my right foot and it was bobbling — that could have been horrific.

“But I’m embarrassed about it being compared to Maradona’s. There’s a big difference between the goals.”

Boss Csaba Laszlo said: “A lot of people have told me it’s like Maradona’s. I’m not a blind man, I saw it myself but if people are making parallels with Maradona then so be it.

“I’ve said that if you don’t bring your quality to the team you cannot be a star, you only go round in circles.

“Driver has worked hard over the summer and it is starting to pay off and that can be seen also with Bruno Aguiar’s free-kick goal as he stays behind after training to practise them.”

Hearts’ fourth successive win is their best spell since the heady days of George Burley three years ago when they topped the league.

Christian Nade set up an early shooting chance for Aguiar but he sent his 20-yard effort well wide.

It was a positive start from Hearts and Aguiar was just a foot too high with an 18-yard volley after Nade had headed on a throw-in from Robbie Neilson.

Falkirk were hemmed in their own half for the opening 15 minutes but broke with devastating effect to take the lead after 16 minutes.

Michael Higdon slipped the ball through to Steve Lovell and he toe-poked past the out-rushing Janos Balogh to find the corner of the net.

But the lead lasted just two minutes. Darren Barr was penalised for climbing all over Nade to give Hearts a free-kick 25 yards out.

Aguiar stepped up to curl a right-foot shot over the wall and, although Scott Flinders managed to get his hands to it, he could not prevent it finding the top corner of the net. Chris Mitchell then had Balogh scrambling across his goal with a low free-kick but the ball slipped just inches wide of the goalkeeper’s right-hand post.

Hearts almost went in front ten minutes after half-time after Falkirk were guilty of dallying in possession in midfield.

Driver smuggled the ball off Patrick Cregg and picked out Christos Karipidis in the area but the Greek midfielder’s shot drifted just wide with Flinders beaten.

Falkirk did not heed the warning. Four minutes later, Arnau Riera was short with a pass and Driver pounced. He skipped past three defenders before rounding Flinders and slipping the ball into the vacant net.

It lifted the whole stadium and Hearts’ confidence was visibly raised as they swarmed forward in search of a third.

Nade sent a header straight at Flinders but, for all Hearts’ pressure, Falkirk defended stubbornly.

It was Falkirk who had the chances in the closing stages. Balogh had to back-pedal to flick an ambitious effort from Mitchell over his crossbar. From the resultant corner, Aguiar made a goal-line clearance to keep out a Bullen header just as Falkirk thought they had levelled.

But the best chance fell to Higdon in injury-time when Mitchell sent over a perfect cross but he somehow steered his header wide from eight yards.

Skipper Barr insisted there was no finger-pointing in the dressing-room afterwards: “He came in and said sorry but he didn’t need to. We all know there’s goals in him.”

Boss John Hughes was unhappy at the free-kick which led to Hearts’ equaliser but said: “We’re not going to win matches if we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

“We gave away the second goal. Having said that, I couldn’t ask for any more from the players in terms of commitment.

“The one disappointing thing for me is that I’ve seen us pass the ball better through the midfield.”

HEARTS: Balogh, Neilson, Berra, Zaliukas, Lee Wallace, Jonsson (Obua 60), Aguiar, Karipidis, Palazuelos, Driver, Nade (Makela 90). Subs not used: MacDonald, Thomson, Mole, Templeton, Brown.

FALKIRK: Flinders, McCaffrey, Barr, Bullen, Mitchell, Riera (Mark Stewart 85), McBride, Cregg (Barrett 67), O'Brien, Higdon, Lovell. Subs not used: Olejnik, Lynch, John Stewart, Moffat, Staunton.