Pride salvaged for Scotland
Tottenham 0 Hearts 0 (Tottenham win 5-0 on agg)

By Jonathan Liew, at White Hart Lane

10:35PM BST 25 Aug 2011

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On a miserable night for Scottish football, this was the side we were supposed to see. Football with hunger, with tenacity, with pride. And it was pride that Hearts managed to salvage last night, even if the tie had always been well beyond them.

It takes resolve to visit the home of a foe that has just vanquished you 5-0 and meet them blow for blow. Not only did Hearts do that, but for large parts of the game they were the better team, and deservedly emerged with a clean sheet.

Tottenham, truth be told, played like a team with a five-goal head-start, although they too will take succour from the performances of their three young academy debutants: Harry Kane, Ryan Fredericks and Thomas Carroll. It was 18-year-old forward Kane who missed the penalty, but he had also won it, and he injected sharp bursts of pace into a largely pedestrian game. Right-winger Fredericks, meanwhile, looks to be a player with a decent bag of tricks.

Hearts immediately looked more fluent this time round. Their best chance came when Gordon Smith collected Rudolf Skacel's pass, etched out a yard of space in front of Michael Dawson and rattled the crossbar.

Defensively, they were more organised too. Even so, they would have feared the worst when Kane latched onto Carroll's pass into the left channel, ran into the area and was caught by goalkeeper Jamie Macdonald. But Macdonald guessed to his right, guessed right, and saved, Kane unable to mark his debut with a goal.

Tottenham turned up the heat late on, bringing on Niko Kranjcar and laying siege to the Hearts goal. The one Croatian who still does want to play for Tottenham had a low shot saved, but Hearts held firm for a heartwarming no-score draw.

The last word should go to Hearts's travelling support, who never stopped singing all night. They were magnificent.

Tottenham (4-4-2): Cudicini; Corluka, Dawson (Kaboul, h-t), Bassong, Townsend; Fredericks (Kranjcar 61), Livermore (Nicholson 76), Huddlestone, Carroll; Kane, Pavlyuchenko. Subs: Friedel (g), Assou-Ekotto, Van der Vaart, Defoe. Booked: Pavlyuchenko, Townsend.

Hearts (4-5-1): Macdonald; McGowan, Webster, Zaliukas, Grainger; Templeton, Robinson (Taouil 79), Jonsson, Skacel (Mrowiec 72), Novikovas; Smith (Santana 83). Subs: Kello (g), Driver, Obua, Stevenson. Booked: MacDonald.

Referee: A Kakos (Greece).

Taken from telegraph.co.uk