Simmons and Fuller blunt the Ayrshire threat

Hearts 2 Kilmarnock 0 Watched by their lowest home crowd of the season, Hearts produced perhaps their most satisfying display to see off Kilmarnock in an entertaining game. Two first-half goals did the damage, but at a time of year not renowned for green shoots of recovery, there were enough of the maroon variety to make the home supporters happy.

Certainly manager Craig Levein saw enough to convince him that his side is on the right track. His team's performance was first class.

The crowd of just over 10,000 is not yet too low for Hearts to worry about, especially in the second last Saturday before Christmas. More will turn up for the next game after hearing about the display of Ricardo Fuller, but it will be a test of Hearts' ambition to keep the Jamaican for the rest of the season as his initial three-month contract is nearing an end.

Fuller, whose fledgling career has been plagued by injury, wants to stay with Hearts at least until May, but Levein admitted: "I'd like to sign him on a long-term contract, but financially it's not possible."

The praise for Fuller and Hearts aside, this was a game which could have gone either way - a rare occasions when both sides played near their best. The tempo didn't let up for a second and if Killie's attacking had been sharper, and Hearts' concentration less intense, a 3-3 or 4-4 draw might have transpired.

The game got off to a brisk start and there had already been a few helpings of excitement before Kenny Clark blew his whistle to award Hearts a penalty after Fuller clashed with Kevin McGowne in the seventh minute.

It was Hearts' second penalty claim after an earlier incident when Stephen Simmons found Gordon Marshall's gloves round his neck as the Killie goalkeeper cleared a through ball. But just seconds earlier Hearts' keeper Antti Niemi had to stoop to prevent Paul Di Giacomo shooting the visitors into the lead with a decent low effort.

That was quickly forgotten, though, as Simmons, who had scored from the spot in the last minute of the last home match against Dunfermline, stepped confidently forward to dispatch the ball behind Marshall for his fifth SPL goal of the season. Not bad for a midfielder, and Simmons has several other qualities which mark him out from the herd.

Still, many a youngster has been damned with lavish praise and one of them, Steven Boyack, knows the ladder to the top is littered with slippery rungs following short, and ultimately unhappy, spells with Rangers and Dundee.

At Tynecastle, though, he has shown a healthy appetite for his work, and his efforts caught the eye as a busy and bustling Hearts side sought to close Killie down at the earliest opportunity.

There was much need for the home side to be industrious in the face of an equally eager Kilmarnock team, but after Kevin McKenna had wasted a good chance to increase Hearts' lead at a corner, Levein's charges did just that mid-way through the half.

There was an element of fortune in the goal, but it was typical of the cup tie nature of this game. The visitors were attacking Niemi's goal when the keeper's scuffed clearance was swept downfield by McKenna. Gary Wales met it just inside the Kilmarnock half with a neat head flick, and Fuller's pace took him clear of the Killie defence to calmly slot the ball past Marshall for his second in nine games.

As such a ratio indicates, Fuller is not an out-and-out goalscorer, but his tricky, and sometimes dazzling, footwork has quickly endeared him to the home supporters.

He played well yesterday, despite a scare when he was stretchered off just before half-time after a collision with Marshall only to reappear at the start of the second, but his partnership up front with Wales is not likely to physically intimidate many defences.

Kilmarnock enjoyed a good spell after the second goal, forcing Hearts to concede a string of free kicks around their penalty box, but Bobby Williamson's side has scored fewer goals than most this season and it wasn't difficult to see why as their lacklustre efforts in front of Niemi drew down a curtain on the first half.

With Fuller restored, the two sides continued to go at each other hammer and tong after the break. Killie had the better of the chances, with McGowne, Alan Mahood and substitute Cristophe Cocard all testing Marshall, but the Hearts defence, with Steven Pressley inspirational and Stephane Mahe and Alan Maybury in control of their beats, held firm.

When the home side attacked the flourishes of Fuller, Thomas Flogal and Boyack gave the visitors plenty to think about. One Hearts player who didn't see the finish was Simmons, stretchered off after a crude challenge by Antonio Calderon, but although his ankle was damaged it is not broken.

Copyright 2001
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