Hearts players rewarded with party and day off as they cruise past Dunfermline

Dec 19 2011 By Gary Ralston

Hearts 4 Dunfermline 0

HEARTS finally took strike action in the SPL and won praise from team boss Paulo Sergio that victories are not always secured for the benefit of Vladimir Romanov.

The SPL will convene a board meeting at Hampden today to discuss the grievance raised by the Jambos squad in light of salaries going unpaid by the club owner.

At this time of year it's tempting to portray Romanov as Ebenezer Scrooge yet to be confronted by the ghost of Christmas future.

Bah humbug?

No, this was more like an "up yours" from the players, who left Dunfermline also questioning their future participation in the SPL before Marius Zaliukas and Co headed to Glasgow for their Christmas night out.

Critics of Romanov, of whom there are plenty, would have looked at this result – the most emphatic of the season to date for Hearts – and concluded it was the worst thing possible to have happened.

Let's face it, on the evidence of the weekend, Hearts players could end up bankrupt at the end of the season and having to pawn their newly-won championship medals to haul themselves out of the financial grubber.

Sergio is a hard task master but even he relented on Saturday night and his post-match comments gave a hint of the team talk that surely preceded this fine win, admittedly aided by the worst defence at Tynecastle since Sergejus Fedotovas blamed George Foulkes and Gary Mackay for the club's cash crisis.

The manager said: "We must celebrate this win and I'm going to give the boys two days off because they have their Christmas party tonight. They're going to be together and have some fun.

"When they return to work hopefully it will be a positive mindset and they will realise they are fighting for Hearts and each other and not just one individual. It's Hearts that matter to me.

"The first half was terrific. Today we could have hit a record score, we had so many chances. We were superior and we were happy. Dunfermline started well but we scored early. The goal helped our confidence and made us comfortable."

Pars midfielder Martin Hardie admitted his team hoped to strike early and put Hearts under pressure from most of the 11,988 crowd. It's the time to celebrate the birth of Christ, not Robert Burns, but the best-laid schemes and all that.

Big Hardie speaks as bluntly as his play can be sharp, although he was well off the pace. He said: "Our criteria before the game was to score an early goal and get the crowd against them.

"But they scored, their tails went up and they carried the support with them. Credit to them because there has been a lot of s**** going on at Hearts outwith the football, although we gave them a helping hand. We made it easy for them."

After only two minutes Ian Black swung over a corner from the right, Ryan McGowan rose unchallenged at the back post and Stephen Elliott swooped in splendid isolation to drive the ball in from three yards.

Dunfermline's defence was porous at set-pieces and Jim McIntyre and Gerry McCabe must have watched with heads in hands as Hearts won ball after ball in the box from free-kicks and corners.

The only surprise was it took until the 28th minute for the Jambos to double their advantage when McGowan took out two markers on the left with a neat shimmy and played in Mehdi Taouil, who had far too much time to switch feet and fire a low shot past Paul Gallacher from 16 yards.

David Templeton, whose creative play needs to be boosted by more goals, scored his first in almost a year when he seized on a slack pass by Hardie and curled a delightful shot into the net on 70 minutes.

Rudi Skacel sealed a terrific display when he netted an injury-time fourth after a piledriver from fellow sub Ryan Stevenson wrenched Gallacher's shoulder out of its socket as he threw his hand up to block.

Dunfermline showed occasional flashes of flair going forward and perhaps the turning point came five minutes into the second half when Hardie nodded down in the box for Liam Buchanan but his hooked volley was pushed brilliantly to the side by Marian Kello.

The Pars have won only three times this season and, worryingly for McIntyre, two of their victories came back to back in August when promotion still had them bubbling. Now? It's not as if they look jaded but they appear to lack the quality to survive.

McIntyre said: "Until we learn to defend properly at set-pieces we are not going to win matches. We do video analysis and we educate players where they've gone wrong.

"You can have systems and coaching but you are also assigned responsibilities to pick up your man. It's up to you. That hasn't changed from day dot.

"We need to perform the basics better but we're all in this together. We have a good group and they're honest.

"You can't always go into the dressing room at half-time and read the riot act because they're the first to come in, hold their hands up and say sorry. Sometimes it's not good enough."

McIntyre drew comparisons between the strength in depth of his squad and Hearts and added in all innocence: "They have top, top players and they're paid handsomely."

As they dug into their pockets on Sauchiehall Street for a kitty on Saturday night, a few of those Jambos might just have taken him to task on that one.

Taken from the Daily Record