Published on 15 Sep 2009

Andrew Driver showed Hearts fans just what they had been missing as his stunning goal gave them their first league win of the season.

Making his first start of the campaign following heel and ankle injuries, the winger netted a superb half-volley to lift the Tynecastle men up to eighth place in the table.

Kilmarnock had enjoyed the better of the match for the first half-hour, but were then caught out after committing too many players to attack.

Ruben Palazuelos, recalled to the Hearts side after missing the 2-2 draw with St Johnstone two weeks ago, broke forward and although the visitors initially looked to have survived, Driver pounced on a poor clearance to score a stunning half-volley on his weaker right foot.

Marian Kello started in goal for Hearts after Janos Balogh reported ill while Mark Brown, on loan from Celtic, made his debut for Kilmarnock at the other end, but neither were troubled in a slow start to a match rearranged after Saturday’s fixture was postponed due to a lorry fire which caused chaos on the M8 motorway and played under reduced lighting following a blaze in one of the floodlight towers at Tynecastle last month.

Under such circumstances, it is perhaps ironic that it took some time for the action to ignite, but Kilmarnock gradually began to take a grip on the midfield and they created a good chance in the 14th minute when an unmarked Gavin Skelton headed Mehdi Taouil’s cross over from 12 yards.

Despite their reputation as a big, physical side, Hearts were being overpowered. Conor Sammon sent an angled shot straight at Kello after a mistake in the home defence before Suso Santana almost caught out Brown with a swerving effort at the other end.

The visitors were playing some nice stuff at times, but Hearts took confidence from Driver’s goal and Gary Glen could have doubled the lead eight minutes before half-time but he could not direct his header from Lee Wallace’s whipped cross.

Thomson then tried his luck from long range before Driver had the ball in the net again only to be hauled back for a foul on Taouil.

Kilmarnock should have levelled on the stroke of half-time, but David Fernandez headed a long thrown-in over from six yards.

The Spaniard was at the heart of the action again soon after the restart when his delicious flick set up Craig Bryson for a first-time shot that hit the near post. Sammon then blazed over from the inside left channel before Suso missed a golden chance to make it 2-0 when he headed Thomson’s cross too close to Brown from six yards.

Jefferies waited only 10 minutes to introduce captain and star striker Kevin Kyle, who had recovered from the knee injury which forced him out of the Scotland squad to take a place on the bench before replacing Fernandez.

Suso was tormenting the Kilmarnock defence and he put the ball on a plate for Michael Stewart, only for the Hearts captain to blaze over.

Kyle demonstrated his threat with a header which drifted narrowly wide, before Suso followed up a couple of stepovers with a low shot just the wrong side of the far post.

Kello then hurt himself snatching Frazer Wright’s header from the top corner before David Obua continued the theme of missed headers when he powered Suso’s cross over the bar. Stewart’s first-time strike then cleared the woodwork and Suso was just wide with a low shot.

In between times, Kyle volleyed into the side-netting after the home defence failed to deal with a long clearance and then Kilmarnock substitute Danny Invincibile twice missed chances to steal a point, first fluffing his finish when he and Sammon got in each other’s way and then with a header which failed to find the target.

Csaba Laszlo, the Hearts manager, said: “We played attacking football. Andrew Driver was very active up front with Suso, David Obua and Gary Glen. It was a fantastic goal and a very important three points.”

His Kilmarnock counterpart Jefferies said: “As the game wore on, we got more and more at them and Kevin Kyle was a handful for them when he came on. We never gave in, we applied ourselves well, but we just never took our chances.”

Taken from the Herald