Jefferies with work to do as Hearts are humbled in Fife

The First Division side, who played their first competitive game last Saturday, are well ahead of the Edinburgh outfit in their preparations for the new campaign, but, nevertheless, the nature of Hearts' capitulation after the interval will have provided Jim Jefferies with food for thought, coming as it did just over a fortnight ahead of their SPL opener against St Johnstone.

There are still four pre-season games left for the Hearts manager to spark some sort of improvement, and it must be acknowledged that injured trio Lee Wallace, Andrew Driver and Kevin Kyle weren't involved.

But this certainly wasn't the tonic the decent-sized travelling support were looking for just a day after learning that Paul Hartley's proposed return to Tynecastle had hit the rocks.

The Edinburgh side fielded two trialists in the form of Adrian Mrowiec, who played for the club two seasons ago, and Finnish midfielder Kari Arkivuo, while Darren Barr made his first appearance for the club since his move from Falkirk.

Hearts almost fashioned an opener after just two minutes, when David Templeton, easily the Tynecastle side's most dangerous player of the evening, bent a shot just over from 20 yards out after David Obua had dummied a cutback from Calum Elliot.

At the other end, Hearts goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald had to act smartly to deny Steven McDougall after the Dunfermline striker collected possession following a loose defensive header and cut inside before unleashing a low strike from 12 yards out.

While Hearts enjoyed the bulk of the early possession, it was McDougall who had something of a monopoly on the game's clear-cut first-half chances, with the Dunfermline player driving a low angled shot beyond the far post from around ten yards out after the Hearts defence had allowed him to ghost in behind completely untracked. Dunfermline made the perfect start to the second half when Nick Phinn drilled a low angled shot past MacDonald from around eight yards out after being teed up by Paul Willis.

Hearts fell further behind five minutes later when Joe Cardle tapped in a McDougall cross from close range.

And the same player heaped more misery on Hearts after 68 minutes when he was allowed time to plant a low 12-yard shot beyond MacDonald.

A degree of respectability was brought to the scoreline with six minutes left when Elliot nodded in a Templeton cross, but it wasn't enough to prevent the boos raining down from the away end at full-time.

Dunfermline: Allison, Woods (Dowie 46), McCann (Keddie 46), Thomson, McGregor, Higgins, Willis, Phinn, McDougall, Clarke, Cardle. Subs: Smith, Mason, Kirk.

Hearts: MacDonald, Thomson (McGowan 46), Jonsson, Mrowiec (Black 46), Barr, Zaliukas, Arkivuo (Novikovas 57), Stevenson (Bouzid 71), Elliot, Obua (Suso 41), Templeton. Subs: Kello, Kucharski, Bouzid.

Taken from the Scotsman