Hartley hat-trick propels Hearts into dreamland

HIBERNIAN 0
HEARTS 4

AN HOUR-AND-A-HALF session in the Iron Maiden may have been less painful than the torture Hibernian had to endure in a Tennent's Scottish Cup semi-final that extended their century-long battle with their bogey tournament by at least another year.
7 Wonders

Paul Hartley's hat-trick and his exceptional demonstration of offensive midfield play were the main features of what would ultimately become a grotesquely imbalanced Edinburgh derby, re-located temporarily to Hampden Park. But even the Hearts and Scotland player's remarkable performance was at times challenged for prominence by the merciless misfortunes that befell the wretched Easter Road side.

Of course, no team on the end of a wide-margin whipping from their fiercest rivals - and which has two players sent off in the process - is ever likely to be free of culpability. Hibs at times made telling contributions to their own misery, not least the bizarre decision by striker Ivan Sproule to stand on the back of the prone Saulius Mikoliunas that brought the Irishman the first of the red cards.

But, already three goals and one man down, they had to put up with the decision of referee Stuart Dougal to award a penalty kick for Gary Smith's tug on the shirt of substitute Michal Pospisil. The offence occurred a yard outside the area and the referee may have allowed the advantage to accrue to the Hearts striker, which it did when he finally came down inside the area. But on another, less dreadful day, the far-side linesman, better placed on the referee, would have flagged for a free kick the moment the offence was committed.

This would probably not have saved Smith from becoming the second Hibs player to be sent off - for denying his opponent a feasible scoring opportunity - but it might have made the scoreline a trifle less embarrassing, which had begun to become so with the goal from Edgaras Jankauskas seven minutes earlier.

Nothing, however, was likely to prevent Hearts' powerful march into the cup final on 13 May. Even without the suspended striker, Roman Bednar, and defensive midfielder, Julien Brellier, they had adequate deputies in Calum Elliot and Bruno Aguiar as well as too much of everything else - pace, strength and incisiveness - for their rivals.

The apprehension that must have seeped through every Hibs fan the instant they heard the make-up of their team would be utterly vindicated by a Tynecastle side who exhibited a fearsome ruthlessness in exploiting advantages that appeared insurmountable even before a ball was kicked.

Hibs' pre-match setbacks were so pronounced and appeared to be so serious that they gave birth to a rumour that bookmakers had stopped accepting bets on the outcome. In the circumstances, this was gossip that sounded perfectly plausible. By the finish, it appeared to have been extremely sound judgment.

Scott Brown had failed to make even the place on the bench from which Tony Mowbray had hoped the influential young midfielder could be sprung at some point with a view to presenting Hearts with an insoluble problem. Even more surprisingly, Chris Killen, the New Zealand striker who had made an impact in recent outings, had also not recovered from the ankle damage he sustained in the Premierleague match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle the week before, leaving the Easter Road manager with an exercise in improvisation he would surely prefer to have been spared.

This involved the selection of the 21-year-old Moroccan, Abdessalam Benjelloun, as a partner for Ivan Sproule in attack. A derby match in a semi-final is not exactly a gentle introduction to the rigours of Scottish football. It would be quite unreasonable to judge his potential from a single appearance - he was replaced by Oumar Konde after 70 tough minutes - in an impossible situation.

Mowbray elected to bring some muscle to his midfield by moving Steven Whitaker forward from right-back, his place taken by Gary Caldwell, with Chris Hogg reinstated to central defence beside Gary Smith.

It would do Benjelloun's self-belief no good whatsoever to have been the original material from which Hearts would source the goal that started the rout. In truth, the Tynecastle side had much to do after Benjelloun carelessly lost possession deep in his opponents' territory, and they accomplished their mission with genuine verve.

It was Rudi Skacel who took the ball from Benjelloun and quickly played it forward to Hartley, starting a move that swept forward, like an irresistible wave, towards Zibi Malkowski in the Hibs goal.

Hartley carried the ball through the middle before supplying Jankauskas on the left. The Lithuanian striker held it until releasing at the perfect moment, his low, sliding pass allowing Hartley to continue his run and glance the ball with his right foot past Malkowski from about eight yards' range.

From start to finish, it was a piece of work from Hartley that illustrated, in one fluent move, the reasons behind his emergence as an effective international in the past couple of years.

It was also one of which Hibs seemed, for the most part, incapable. The Easter Road side had withstood the expected early thrusts from Hearts and contrived, largely by effort and attitude, to bring a semblance of balance between these great rivals. But, with Sproule and Benjelloun unfamiliar with each other, their capacity for offering alarm to the Hearts defence was strictly rationed.

Hibs' most threatening moment of the entire match, in fact, came from Whittaker, the makeshift midfielder. Sproule worked hard to win possession in midfield and slipped the ball to the converted full-back, who moved forward and, from around 23 yards. hit a ferocious left-foot drive which forced Craig Gordon to leap and fingertip the ball over.

Fairly impressive as Gordon's action was, it was eclipsed by the extraordinary efforts of Malkowski from wicked free kicks by Hartley. The first, from 25 yards, moved several feet in the air, both laterally and downwards, and would have found Malkowski's top right-hand corner but for the goalkeeper getting airborne and making the deflection with his outstretched right hand.

Malkowski gave a virtual reprise soon after the interval, except that this time there was a complication, Hartley's free kick, from a similar distance, having been deflected high to the right of the big Pole.

Given what had gone before, there was no missing the irony when Malkowski appeared to be bamboozled by the free kick from which Hartley doubled Hearts' advantage. From the inside left position and delivering right-footed, Hartley clearly persuaded the goalkeeper that he was about to cross the ball. Instead he drove it waist-high straight into Malkowski's right-hand corner, the latter making contact with his hands only after the ball had crossed the line.

By the time Jankauskas scored the third it seemed obvious that the Hibs goalkeeper was as demoralised as his teammates. He showed all the liveliness of a sloth as he moved to clear a harmless ball at the edge of the box, allowing the striker to arrive in time to knock it past him and slip it into the unprotected net from close range.

Hearts now look as close to a certainty as it is possible to get to win the trophy. As for Hibs, this second successive defeat at this stage suggests that, if they are to end the Hundred Years War with the tournament, they will probably have to find a way of not having to take part in semi-finals.

Taken from the Scotsman