SPFL,
Saturday 8 March 2014 – Rugby Park
It says much about this
season that Hearts supporters travelled to Ayrshire on Saturday hoping their
team would collect three points not so they could avoid demotion but more that
the final nail in the relegation coffin wouldn’t be administered by bitter
rivals Hibernian at Tynecastle at the end of this month. They left Rugby Park
inevitably disappointed as Gary Locke’s side shipped four goals to Allan
Johnston’s side for the second time this season and suffered a third straight loss
to a team that had proved to be something of a bogey to Hearts in recent years.
Yet, as at Motherwell last
Saturday, Hearts began the game brightly with Ryan Stevenson shooting wide and
the Maroons looking lively on the counter-attack. However, it was the same old
story of missed chances and defensive frailties for the Edinburgh side. After
keeper Jamie MacDonald denied Ashcroft, the home side took the lead after 27
minutes when the always dangerous McKenzie sped down the right wing before
firing in a cross which Hearts skipper Danny Wilson could only divert past his
own goalkeeper.
Hearts, though, again
demonstrated their battling qualities and equalised just three minutes later.
Ashcroft’s attempts to usher the ball back to his goalkeeper failed miserably
for the home side when Dale Carrick nipped in to send ball beyond Samson to
level the score. At least the Hearts supporters had something to cheer at
half-time with the score at 1-1.
Sadly, within six minutes of
the re-start, Hearts were 3-1 down. First, ex-Killie defender Jamie Hamill was
dispossessed by Boyd on the edge of the penalty box and the former Rangers and
Scotland striker showed his experience to slip the ball past MacDonald.
Two minutes later, a mistake
from Hearts Dylan McGowan proved costly and Boyd made the Australian suffer by
shooting high into the net. It looked all over for Hearts at this stage but
they were thrown a lifeline with 20 minutes to go when substitute Billy King
passed to Sam Nicholson who despatched the ball beyond Samson to make it 3-2
and give some hope to the visiting support.
This hope lasted all of
three minutes. Gardyne’s shot struck the Hearts crossbar but the Gorgie
defenders could not clear their lines and when Tesselaar returned the ball to
Gardyne this time the Killie player didn’t miss. 4-2 to the home side and while
substitute Paul McCallum had the ball in the net in the dying stages his effort
was ruled out for offside. Yet again Hearts returned to the capital city with
nothing.
If Hearts were to win
every one of their remaining nine games this would yield 27 points. Currently,
the Maroons are 20 points adrift. The last rites on Hearts Premiership status
will soon, if you’ll excuse the phrase, be administered…
Kilmarnock: Samson, Tesselaar,
Boyd, Karlsson, Clohessy, McKenzie, Gardyne, O'Hara, Slater, Pascali,
Ashcroft.
Hearts: MacDonald; McGhee, McGowan,
Wilson, McHattie; Stevenson, Hamill, Robinson, Nicholson; Carrick, Paterson
Referee: Euan Norris
Att: 3,510
Top man: Sam Nicholson
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