Dreaded drop not an option for Clark or Burns

RAY HEPBURN

24 Jan 1994

THERE was bad news at Tynecastle for St Johnstone, Raith Rovers and Dundee, the three teams currently occupying the bottom three places which will ultimately lead to the first division.

Hearts and Kilmarnock, two of the teams they may consider as candidates to be dragged into the myre, served conclusive notice that they are not for moving.

Hearts, in spells, produced the fluency and movement off the ball that ripped Partick Thistle apart in the same stadium seven days earlier.

That it was not so successful was down to Kilmarnock's determination not to succumb in the same meek manner as John Lambie's side.

Killie had to cope with losing a calamitous early goal that in itself started a new competition for the Tynecastle crowd -- Spot The Scorer.

Gary Locke crossed from the right in seven minutes and, under pressure from Mo Johnston, Bobby Geddes dropped the ball close to the line.

In attempting a rescue he simply succeeded in helping it on.

Andy Millen and Craig Paterson frantically scrambled the ball out and yet another contender for the goal, John Robertson, drilled in the rebound.

Referee Jim McCluskey's report is believed to have identified the muddle as an own goal, insisting that he had made his decision before Robertson's shot.

Hearts had the appearance of a team prepared to sprint clear of its opposition, but the ill-luck that has followed Robertson throughout the season, halted momentum.

Colquhoun, Johnston, and Mackay combined in the game's best move after 32 minutes, but from Mackay's smart cutback, Robertson headed against the bar.

Ten minutes later Gus McPherson punished an unseemly scramble in the Hearts penalty area, as they attempted to deal with a Mark Reilly corner, by lashing the ball behind Henry Smith from 18 yards.

Hearts had the better of the few second half chances with Geddes fingering a Johnston header over in the fifty-second minute just before he almost repeated his first-half error when dropping a corner.

Tommy Burns remarked afterwards that after flirting with some intricate tendencies in 3-0 defeats by Hibernian and Rangers, he told his players to return to the earlier fundamentals that had made them so difficult to beat.

John Major and his ministers may be encountering all sorts of difficulties with "back to basics." For Burns and his premier division rookies it is the perfect formula for survival.

Taken from the Herald