Driver has been troubled by heel and hamstring problems this season and how much these ailments have hampered the efforts of Csaba Laszlo's side was blinding illustrated when the English Under-21 internationalist smeared an 18-yard drive into the top corner of the net after half an hour. All other efforts from both sides, Kilmarnock having too many for Hearts liking, lacked the finesse of Driver's drive, but at least the fixture is now out of the way.

It has seemed bedevilled since it became a late postponement on Saturday after the Kilmarnock team bus struggled to negotiate the M8 following an accident. Following that, concerns were then expressed over the midweek re-arrangement because only three Tynecastle floodlights were operational following a fire.

The encounter at least came at a good time for the two keepers deployed. Injury to Alan Combe allowed recent loan signing Mark Brown to make his debut for Kilmarnock. At the other end of the pitch Marian Kello was the beneficiary of an illness that deprived the home side of Janos Balogh. Brown was the one of the pair who had to pace and prowl his area in preparation of activity. That came in just about the first meaningful forward push from either side when Brown confidently grasped a Gary Glen cross from the left.

Hearts, predictably, did most of the probing in the early stages. But this didn't amount to much more than the backline of Jim Jefferies' side being kept on alert by the movement and trickery of Suso Santana, David Obua and Driver. And it was Kilmarnock who threatened first.

A burrowing run from Craig Bryson on 21 minutes supplied Conor Sammon with the confrontation's first real shooting opportunity. The Irishman got enough on his hit from 14 yards out to give Kello kittens, but the Slovakian avoided mishap by beating the ball away as if pawing at a buzzing fly. In that instant, it was impossible not to wonder if the outcome would have been different were Kevin Kyle the striker putting his foot through the ball. The Ayrshire club's renaissance man was listed among the substitutes despite suggestions he could be missing for a month after sustaining the knee injury that robbed him of a return to the Scotland set-up.

But even with Kilmarnock's only three points of a three-game season being those secured by Kyle's opening day hat-trick, the night-trippers were still better placed than their winless hosts. Until, that is, Driver struck, the excellence of the execution enhanced by nifty footwork that allowed him to nick the ball away from Jamie Hamill before letting fly.

Kilmarnock's response was to produce an emphatic one. They should have ended the first period on level terms and only David Fernandez will know why they didn't. It seemed harder for the forward to do anything else but nod the ball past Kello after a Sammon flick-on from a Tim Clancy throw-in had provided him with a glorious opening seconds before the interval. But he eschewed the easy by heading over.

Jefferies' men didn't let that miss go to their minds and hardly let Hearts out of their own half for the quarter of an hour that followed the restart. In that spell – by the end of which Kyle had replaced Fernandez – Bryson deserved better than to see a clever backheel bump the post. Gradually, though, Laszlo's men began to find space in their opponents' final third. Suso should have made more of the acres of it that had him stooping to pick his spot with a header yet only succeeding to put it close enough to Brown to block. Michael Stewart then hoofed over wildly before Hearts, inevitably, survived a couple of scrapes they were fortunate was all that resulted from their desperately scrappy play.

Hearts: Kello, C Thomson, Bouzid, Goncalves, Wallace, Suso, Obua, M Stewart, Palazuelos, Driver (Kucharski 90), Glen (Nade 75). Subs not used: MacDonald, Black, Jason Thomson, Novikovas, J Stewart.

Kilmarnock: M Brown, Clancy, Wright, Ford, Hay (Owens 85), Bryson, Hamill, Taouil, Skelton (Invincibile 62), Fernandez (Kyle 56), Sammon. Subs not used: Bell, O'Leary, Flannigan, Kelly. Booked: Clancy.

Match-winner surprised by right-foot wonder goal

HEARTS winger Andrew Driver savoured his match-winning strike against Kilmarnock last night as the perfect way to make a mark on his return after injury. The Englishman started his first game of the season following a series of niggles and agreed he had "got off to a flier" in helping his team to their first league win with a superb hit.

"It is what you miss about football; moments like that," Driver said of his 30th-minute strike. Notable, he accepted, for being scored with his lesser-used right foot. "I don't know where that came from," he said of the limb that did the damage. "It was one of those ones, you didn't have time to think about it. It just dropped, I hit it, and hoped for the best."

His manager Csba Laszlo was equally shocked about the nature of goal that brought a three-point haul that pushes Hearts up the SPL table they were previously languishing in following one draw and two defeats. "With his head, he is okay," the Hearts manager said of his winger. "But I thought his right leg was only for walking on. Now he can score more with it."

Laszlo said that his team should have scored more on an evening in which chances were squandered by both sides. In not doing so, he drew a parallel with their performances of last season. "It is okay to win 1-0 and if you do that you are successful". His team proved that with last season's third place but last night the Hungarian opted for boldness by fielding four attackers. "We have had a problem with strikers but we played with a different shape and haven't ever played with so many attackers before," he said. "It worked okay and the defence was okay, we didn't lose a goal."

Laszlo is hopeful he can have more players in his "young team" available before the visit to Celtic Park on Sunday and sent out mixed messages in projecting about what the season can bring beyond that. "Maybe it is my destiny to work and build a new team every year," he said. "We lost 12 players and you can't replace all of them immediately."

Kilmarnock counterpart Jim Jefferies was hacked off with no returns from a game in which his team had almost as many decent opportunities as their opponents. "I have never come to Tynecastle and created as many chances, and we should have come away with something," said Jefferies. He derived comfort from a 35-minute run-out from Kevin Kyle that puts the striker in line to start against Rangers on Saturday but cursed the ball-striking prowess of Driver. "He is not renowned for 20-yard strikes with his right foot but hit it sweet as a nut and we found ourselves 1-0 down without them causing us any problems."

Taken from the Scotsman