Hearts 2 - 0 Kilmarnock

ROB ROBERTSON at Tynecastle April 17 2006

Scorers: Hartley (70), Berra (87)

Important Edinburgh derby matches, like the capital's buses, don't come along for ages, then two arrive at once.

The Scottish Cup semi-final victory two weeks ago was a walk in the park for Hearts and when the sides meet at Easter Road next Saturday Tony Mowbray's side will be hell bent on revenge.

A win for Hearts, bearing in mind the Old Firm derby at Parkhead takes place on the Sunday, will crank up the pressure on Rangers in the race to finish second in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague.

The Tynecastle outfit have a glut of players to chose from, but whether they secure a Champions League qualifying spot next season rests with how they are deployed.

For instance, against Kilmarnock Hearts played a dangerous selection game which nearly backfired. Steven Pressley, the club captain, was out injured with a bad back, a fact that interim head coach Valdas Ivanauskas knew long before match day.

Despite realising his most influential player would be missing he left Andy Webster, the Scotland internationalist, out of the side and brought in Christophe Berra to play alongside Jose Goncalves.

When Goncalves had to be substituted after just 24 minutes Hearts were left with no real centre-back replacement on the bench and were forced to bring on the mythical figure of Ibrahim Tall for his debut.

The Senagalese internationalist is neither tall nor very fast. He was signed when George Burley was manager and has failed to impress in spectacular fashion since then.

He never played under Burley, stand-in coach John McGlynn or Graham Rix and was a figure lost in the wilderness until Saturday. To be fair to the former Sochaux player he didn't put a foot wrong against Kilmarnock despite the fact he looked absolutely terrified when he first came on.

The question, though, that has to be asked is whether Ivanauskas and the Hearts board are correct to change the team around at such a vital stage of the season? Dropping Webster can be construed as a public showing-up of the player who has refused to sign a contract extension, so it could be argued he was dropped for all the wrong reasons.

Ivanauskas claimed that Webster had been "rested" which would make some sort of sense if Pressley had been fit. He denied it was anything to do with the fact he had refused to sign a new deal.

Sending Webster to the Tynecastle equivalent of the gulag may make sense when the club has nothing to play for, but taking such action at such a crucial stage of the season is folly. It will be interesting to see if Webster is reinstated for the match against Hibs.

Hearts deserved to beat Kilmarnock, although their win didn't come without controversy. Berra looked to have tripped Danny Invinicibile on the edge of the area and, as he was the last man, he should have been sent off.

Referee Eddie Smith saw it differently and felt it was an accidental collision, an argument that cut no ice with Kilmarnock coach Jim Jefferies.

"Danny is an honest lad and he says he got in front of the last defender and had his heels clipped," said Jefferies. "If the ref gives the foul he has to send the defender off, because it was a goal-scoring opportunity.

"It's the same as last week when Steven Naismith got a goal chalked off against Celtic in the 43rd minute. Now against Hearts something happens in the 43rd minute. I certainly won't be taking number 43 in the lottery."

Hearts missed lots of chances early on, the main culprit being Roman Bednar, and had to rely once again on the sheer class of Paul Hartley to lead them to victory.

Gordon Greer fouled Rudi Skacel on the edge of the area and Hartley stepped up to curl the most exquisite free-kick into the net with 20 minutes left.

With three minutes to go Berra bundled the ball home to secure all three points for Hearts and set off scenes of real jubilation at Tynecastle, especially after the fans realised Rangers had drawn with Aberdeen at Ibrox.

After Hibernian, Hearts face Celtic and Aberdeen at home before Rangers at Ibrox on the final day of the season.

It is vital Ivanauskas picks what he considers his strongest team in these four games. They have managed to keep winning despite having played under four managers in one season and finishing second would be just reward for all their efforts.

Scorers: Hartley (70), Berra (87)

Taken from the Herald