Kilmarnock 1 Hearts 2: Elliott double for tenacious Hearts

19 Jan 2011

Perseverance turned out to be enough for Hearts.

The slicker football might have belonged to the home side, but they only played it in patches while being ground down. Even if it was two late goals that scuppered Kilmarnock, they were obliged to be defensive for such long periods of the second half that lapses were inevitable.

Hearts might have felt their equaliser was merited, given the way they were hoarding possession, but danger was not always evident in their play. There was a lack of purpose about some of their attacking, although the equaliser turned out to arrive by stealth. From Ismael Bouzid’s hopeful cross, Stephen Elliott’s scissor-kick volley steered the ball beyond Cameron Bell.

The Kilmarnock goalkeeper must have felt exasperated, and he seemed addled when Elliott added a second three minutes from time. There was misfortune, too, in the way the ball broke from Frazer Wright’s challenge on Gary Glen straight to Elliott, but the forward was rewarded for being bold enough to strike a low, hard shot from 20 yards. Bell allowed the ball to squirm through him and into the corner of the net.

Relief would have been the immediate reaction for Hearts, as they had been toiling in their efforts to break Kilmarnock down. Tenacity turned out to be their greatest quality.

“We asked questions of the players during the break and they answered them,” said Jim Jefferies, the Hearts manager. “Now we’ve got a chance to show if we’ve got what it takes to put in a title challenge. But we’ve shown we’re made of stern stuff.”

Mixu Paatelainen, the Kilmarnock manager, named Conor Sammon among his substitutes – the striker rejected a move to Scunthorpe after visiting the Championship side yesterday – and so kept faith in the forward’s replacement, Rui Miguel.

Sprightly, as if conscious of a rare opportunity to impress, Miguel skirted among the Hearts defenders, all tall, physically imposing figures, and he was alert to the first chance of the game. Alexei Eremenko was the creator, robbing Ian Black of the ball as the Hearts midfielder dawdled in possession then sliding a pass forward to Miguel on the edge of the penalty area. The striker turned and placed a soft but measured shot beyond Marian Kello in goal

Black, already being castigated by Jefferies, held his head in his hands. The visitors had been subdued, though; outplayed in midfield, they were unable to feed the ball to David Templeton and Arvydas Novikovas, the two wingers. Even the brawn of Marius Zaliukas, Bouzid and Ruben Palazuelos seemed inadequate as Kilmarnock’s midfield trio of Manuel Pascali, Liam Kelly and Jamie Fowler were hard, gritty and uncompromising.

The home side were taking advantage of Hearts’ misfortunes. The visitors arrived at Rugby Park with their own predicament about strikers, with Kevin Kyle suffering a groin injury, Calum Elliot also injured, and Elliott fit enough only to take a place on the bench. So David Obua, an attacking midfielder, took the sole striker’s role either side of the two wingers.

If the gameplan seemed clear, it wasn’t enough to suppress Kilmarnock. The home side restricted the space for Hearts’ wingers to run into, and trusted that the guile of Eremenko and Mehdi Taouil would be enough to carry an attacking threat to Miguel. Apart from a Bouzid header from Black’s corner, Hearts’ efforts on goal were all from distance.

We expected the visitors to be forthright, a grindingly effective unit, but they were far from intrepid.

Kilmarnock assumed, perhaps, that Hearts would be accomplished and their second-half display became tentative. Jefferies’ side dominated possession and Kilmarnock were entrenched, even though the visitors were unable to break them down.

Hearts could not afford to be reckless, as Kilmarnock were still capable of being devilish. After Eremenko carried the ball effortlessly beyond three challenges, a crisp passing move ended with Kelly driving just over from 20 yards out. The effort might have stirred the home side, but they remained suppressed in their own half.

Even after Hearts equalised, twice Kilmarnock sliced through them on the counter- attack, only for Wright to shoot wide from eight yards out on one occasion, and then for Zaliukas to divert Eremenko’s cross on to his own bar. Elliott’s subsequent goal must have felt like a callous blow.

“One or two players started to chase the game, lost their patience and positions and if you do that you get punished,” said Paatelainen. “But I thought we were unfortunate to lose the game.”

Taken from the Herald