Smooth night for Hearts as Elgin are swatted aside

THE programme notes detailed a previous meeting between these sides. That was way back in 1939, in the Scottish Cup, and Hearts ran out 14-1 winners. A different competition and a different era but while there was little danger of a scoreline repeat, Hearts did, once again, progress to the next round with consummate ease.

Making a few changes from the team which ran out comfortable winners against Hamilton at the weekend, Jim Jefferies gave a first start to Kevin Kyle, the summer signing who had been restricted to appearances from the bench in the opening league games. There were also places in the side for Eggert Jonsson and Ryan Stevenson, who had been kicking their heels due to SPL suspensions.

Hearts started with intent, with Lee Wallace and Arvydas Novikovas involved early on and it was the left-back who progressed on a mazy run before laying off to the Lithuanian to whip it into the box. Elgin, though were back in numbers and plugging the gaps in their area well, and Mark Nicholson was the man who cleared for the corner that time. Goals were inevitable, even at that stage. The ball bobbed in and out the area as City tried in vain to stave off another wave of attack but eventually it came to Jonsson and his effort caught keeper Steven Dunn wrong-footed and although he tried to get back and claw the ball out the net, the Icelandic centre-back was already peeling away in celebration.

The Elgin City support made themselves heard throughout the early exchanges but on the field their heroes never looked capable of noising up a far superior side plying their trade several divisions above them. Novikovas was proving too tricky, while down the right both Craig Thomson and David Templeton took it in turns to give Elgin's Alan Dempsie a torrid time. The bookies will not have had many bets on a repeat of that 1939 scoreline but as the likes of Novikovas danced past two and three players at a time and Thomson laid one fine delivery after another, it was clear there would be a few more goals.

The fact it took so long for the next to materialise was partly down to Dunn in the Highlanders goal. He was a combination of fine reactions and good fortune. The keeper was rarely allowed a quiet moment to enjoy his own space but reacted well on a number of occasions to deny a greater goal glut. He pulled off superb point-blank stops from Kyle, Ian Black and Stevenson as the Gorgie team cranked up the pressure, while captain Paul Kaczan was also a decent proposition in the air, keeping Kyle at bay. Until the 33rd minute. A product of another Thomson ball, this time Kyle got above his marker to head past the helpless Dunn.

The goal actually came after Elgin had enjoyed their best spell. They had their first shot at goal, which was lashed wide by Jason Crooks as his team-mates struggled to get up the pitch in support, and a couple of minutes later they were bearing dow n on Janos Balogh's penalty box again but when the ball was slung into a central area, the final shot was blocked, Hearts broke and that's when Kyle capitalised.

Dunn then pulled off a double save to deny Jonsson and Ismael Bouzid before the visitors were offered the respite of half-time. Following that breather they succeeded in keeping Hearts at bay for a mere 13 minutes of the second period and the goal, when it came, further illustrated the gulf between the sides. A free-flowing move from the full-back position, through the middle of the team and out wide before Novikovas eventually finished with a lovely shot, albeit one which was slightly deflected.

Ross Jack's team kept battling and maintained their shape better than the statistic of 13 goals conceded in their last three league games may have suggested and they even mustered a decent attempt at goal but the angle was just too narrow as Craig Gunn was denied by Balogh. They threw on the towering Paul Millar but even he couldn't take them to new heights.

The chances kept coming at the other end, though, and substitute Scott Robinson rounded off the rout in the 84th minute, when he neatly slotted home an angled shot from the right.

Hearts: Balogh, Craig Thomson, Bouzid, Jonsson, Wallace, Templeton, Black, Palazuelos, Novikovas, Kyle, Stevenson. Subs: Kello, Santana, Jason Thomson, Robinson, Mrowiec.

Elgin: Steven Dunn, Dempsie, Edwards, Kaczan, MacDonald, O'Donoghue, Nicolson, Jake Inglis, Barry Wilson, Crooks, Gunn. Subs: Robertson, Frizzel, Cameron, Millar, Duff

Taken from the Scotsman