Laszlo bemoans inadequacies

Csaba Laszlo was talking tactics. A jerky blur of elbows and index fingers sliced through the air, painting a picture of defensive incompetence, as the Hearts manager bemoaned the failure of his side to prevent the only goal of this engrossing Edinburgh engagement.

The root of his dismay was that Steven Fletcher split the two Tynecastle centre-backs when an Alan O'Brien cross speared its way towards him in the visitors' penalty area. The striker's execution was questionable but the ball took a meaty thud off his left shoulder and looped over Janos Balogh into the net, instigating a touchline inquiry from Laszlo.

His hollering at Christos Karipidis was met with a "it wisnae me, gaffer" gesture -one which was replicated after the final whistle as the Greek trudged towards his manager at the perimeter of the pitch. The defender's stance did not shift in the subsequent 45 minutes. "You watch the video and you'll see what happened,"

he insisted. "I had my player - Colin Nish - but okay, if the manager says so . . ."

In itself, the disagreement was a triviality; somebody made a mistake and Hearts were behind. More pertinently, though, it exposed an uncomfortable truth for Laszlo - score first against his team and you are unlikely to lose. Only twice this term have they overcome a deficit to take the points and, indeed, on only two other occasions have they even drawn after conceding the opener.

The impotence of the Tynecastle forwards is the root cause, encapsulated by the utter haplessness of Christian Nade on Saturday. Employed, as usual, as a lone striker, his detail was to hold the ball up to allow his midfielders to join the attacks. They never had the chance as time and again balls spun, sliced and shanked off his ample frame, be they short passes, headers or long dunts. His finishing was just as bad. Laszlo admitted Nade must be "more of a killer" when presented with chances as good as the one he was offered by a short Sol Bamba pass back to Grezgorz Szamotulski.

How the Hearts manager must wish he had an attacker like Fletcher. The Scotland internationalist has toiled of late amid speculation over his future but he will surely have impressed the watching George Burley with a fine shift. He fulfilled a similar brief as the one issued to Nade, his run causing the confusion for the goal and his pace drawing the first of two sendings off just before the break.

Bursting on to a delightful reverse pass by Colin Nish from the halfway line, Fletcher reached the ball before the outrushing Balogh, jabbed it past the custodian 45 yards from his goal and awaited the inevitable contact. Charlie Richmond, correctly according to most, brandished red at the Hungarian for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

So why, then, were those same observers critical of the referee seconds later when he dismissed Bamba for a similar crime? The Ivorian allowed Nade to amble in on his blind- side in pursuit of a Michael Stewart through ball and clumsily collided with the striker with no other green-shirted player between them and the home goal. To wit, a clear goalscoring opportunity.

Those who demand nothing more than consistency from the officials complained when it was employed.

At least Richmond, who permitted the first half to stretch into a 53rd minute, had one advocate. "The first red card was a red and the second was, I think, the same," said Denes Rosa, the Hibernian midfielder, who had released O'Brien to cross for the goal with a magnificent cross-field half volley and dominated the central area in tandem with the tenacious John Rankin. "It made it better for both teams because it was 10 versus 10 in the second half."

As a consequence, the two teams adopted 4-4-1 shapes, with Hibernian happy to soak up the relatively insignificant pressure Hearts exerted and earn Mixu Paatelainen a first win in his five derbies. While easing the pressure on the Finn, it also revives the European hopes of the Easter Road side.

"Can we catch Hearts?" asked Rosa, pondering a nine-point gap. "I don't know, but we will work hard and I hope we will be in a good position at the end of the season."

Taken from the Herald