Hearts 4 Hibernian 1: Skacel sorcery destroys Hibs

Skacel had a hand in each of his side’s goals, scoring one, creating two and being brought down for the penalty that delivered the fourth. His irrepressibility could only be matched by his exuberance, the way he conducted the crowd throughout the game, constantly playing the showman, and he walked up the tunnel in his underwear after throwing his top and shorts into the crowd. Yet there was substance to his performance, too.

“You saw what we were capable of,” purred Graham Rix, the Hearts head coach. “It shows the players what they’ve got to do week in, week out, if they want to achieve something.”

Most of the Hibs supporters turned their backs to the pitch during the minute’s applause in memory of Wallace Mercer, the late former Hearts chairman, before kick-off. Mercer had once wanted to merge the two capital clubs, and the away fans had their own statement to make while the rest of the Tynecastle crowd shattered the air with a rising, piercing acclamation. The Hearts team and the match officials clapped, too, but the visiting players noticeably stood stiffly with their arms round each other. “We just wanted to show a bit of respect, that’s what a minute’s silence is,” explained Garry O’Connor.

The Hibs fans will wish they hadn’t turned back round again. There was an initial flurry of hope, the visitors being the first to unsheath their cutting edge, but it was only brief. First, Derek Riordan whipped in a free-kick that O’Connor brushed goalwards with a header that Craig Gordon held comfortably. The two Hibs strikers then reversed roles, with O’Connor crossing to Riordan, whose rifled shot demanded a diving save from the Hearts goalkeeper.

Inevitably, there was a rushed, angst-ridden flow to the match, the tightness of the ground and the earnest exaltations of the fans wrapping the players in urgency. Julien Brellier was a central character, the Frenchman’s positional discipline in front of the defence allowing his fellow midfielders to veer forward in support of Calum Elliot, the lone striker. “It took us a little while to bed in to the new formation,” admitted Rix.

It turned out to be a line-up of chilling, glistening effectiveness, as revealed when Takis Fyssas unleashed Skacel down the left and his cutback was stabbed home by Paul Hartley. The opening goal induced a harmful anxiety in the visitors and Michael Stewart inexplicably then passed the ball into Elliot’s path. Having walked through a timid Gary Smith tackle that was as robust as a paper sculpture, the young striker tugged his shot wide. It was a rare display of a Hearts player losing his nerve.

Four minutes before half-time, Christophe Berra headed a free-kick down to Skacel, who arched his body languidly to send a volley spearing past Simon Brown. It was a coherent and lucid expression of intent. As though energised, Skacel terrorised Hibs again two minutes later, when his piercing run prompted Gary Caldwell to fell him inside the box.

Mike McCurry, the referee, was not hindered by hesitation in pointing to the spot and Hartley lifted the penalty into the top corner. He then ran towards the Hibs fans, where he was met by a shower of detritus, scarves, pies and paper cups falling to earth in a rain of anger and frustration.

There was more torment for them to endure. When Smith was hustled by Saulius Mikoliunas, the defender rashly lashed out his arm, sending the Lithuanian to the ground like a felled tree and McCurry into his top pocket for the red card. “Gary said he was reacting to something,” said Tony Mowbray, the Hibs manager. “But if the referee saw him raise his hand, there’s nothing he can do.”

The visitors left the field at half-time stunned, an empty incomprehension in the players’ eyes, but the interval brought only momentary respite. The second half was six minutes old when Skacel wheeled away down the left, free and unbound like a dream, and his cross was steered home by Elliot. The game had become an unsettling nightmare for Hibs.

Their only redeeming moment came in the 58th minute, when O’Connor received the ball 20 yards out and drilled a low shot through the crowded box and past Gordon. It was a mere flicker of resistance. “We’re disappointed, but we get on with it and we’ve got another big game next week,” said Mowbray, whose side face Rangers in the fourth round Scottish Cup at Ibrox on Saturday.

As this game bustled to its conclusion, it was framed on three sides by a blurring twirl of maroon-and-white scarves, the air almost alive with unheeded joy. The fourth stand emptied disconsolately, the visitors bleeding away, hurt and numbed.

STAR MAN: Rudi Skacel (Hearts)

Player ratings. Hearts: Gordon 6, Neilson 6, Webster 7, Berra 6, Fyssas 6, Brellier 7, Mikoliunas 6 (Cesnauskis 46min, 6), Johnson 6 (McAllister 77min, 6), Hartley 8, Skacel 9, Elliot 7 (Pospisil 70min, 6)

Hibernian: Simon Brown 6, Whittaker 5, Caldwell 6, Smith 5, Murphy 5, Scott Brown 6 (Konde 39min, 6), Stewart 5, Thomson 6, Sproule 6, O’Connor 5 (Killen 80min, 6), Riordan 5 (Fletcher 46min 6)

Booked: Brellier 5, Murphy 12

Sent-off: Smith 44

Referee: M McCurry

Attendance: 17,371

Taken from timesonline.co.uk