Kilmarnock 0 Hearts 1

Alan Cochrane @ Rugby Park

A simple goal after four minutes proved to be the decider in this game, and it went to the visitors. We had hardly taken our seats when a straightforward overhead ball was knocked in by Ryan Stevenson. Doudou Sissoko was caught out as the ball sailed over him to Michael Ngoo, and the Englishman on loan from Liverpool had the easiest of jobs to roll a pass across the face of the goal for John Sutton to tap in from close range.

Sutton had another chance but blazed over, and Jamie Walker glanced a header wide, while for Killie, Tesselaar headed wide, Heffernan had a shot blocked, and Hay had one deflected for a corner. And that was about it for a thoroughly underwhelming first half.

Perez and Johnson came on for Tesselaar and Ibrahim after the break, and Killie changed to playing three at the back, consisting of O'Leary, O'Hara and Sissoko. That stabilised the defence, and Killie also posed more threat going forward, particularly through Chris Johnson on the left wing. As Killie seemed to be getting to grips with the game, it suddenly looked as if Hearts could kill the game off, when Walker went down under a challenge from Sissoko, and Calum Murray awarded a penalty. Ryan Stevenson hit it well but Bell dived to his right to block, saved a second shot, and then a third from Jason Holt.

That spurred the home side on, and the further the game went, the better Killie became, but they ran out of time. O'Hara had an overhead kick go wide, Boyd headed a Johnson cross down into the ground and over the bar, Clingan fired a free kick narrowly wide, Boyd had a decent shot well saved by MacDonald, and right on the whistle, O'Hara had a shot go the wrong side of the post.

Kilmarnock: Bell, Tesselaar (Johnson), Fowler, O'Leary (Gros), Clingan, Boyd, Heffernan, Ibrahim (Perez), Barbour, O'Hara, Sissoko

Hearts: MacDonald, Hamill, Webster, Wilson, McHattie, Holt, Barr (McGowan), Stevenson, Walker (Novikovas), Ngoo (Carrick), Sutton

Referee: Calum Murray