Hearts edged a five goal thriller to overcome Kilmarnock on a chilly afternoon in Gorgie. Aaron Fraser reports from Tynecastle Park:
Head coach Neil Critchley made two changes from the side that comfortably dispatched Brechin City in the Scottish Cup last Friday night. Kenneth Vargas and Yan Dhanda were replaced by James Wilson and Blair Spittal.
Elton Kabangu, the scorer of two goals at Glebe Park, made his first appearance at Tynecastle. New signings Sander Kartum and Michael Steinwender were not in the squad, although they had trained in the morning leading up to the game.
Meanwhile, Derek McInnes also made two changes to his starting eleven from Kilmarnock’s previous outing against Celtic. Out went Robbie McCrorie and Brad Lyons. In came Calvin Ramsay, recently signed on loan from Liverpool, and Kieran O’Hara. Former Jambo Gary Mackay-Steven was on the bench, as well as Danny Armstrong, who has held pre-contract talks with Hearts this month.
Hearts raced into the lead after eight minutes. Jorge Grant attempted an acrobatic volley, but inadvertently mishit his shot towards the onrushing James Wilson. The teenager kept his cool to calmly square the ball for Elton Kabangu who only had to apply the simplest of finishes to open his Tynecastle account.
Jorge Grant was looking lively in the opening stages, and launched a counter attack shortly after the opening goal. Grant’s pass found Kabangu but he slipped at the vital moment and was unable to get his shot away.
Unfortunately for the home side, an enforced change had to be made early in the first half. Craig Halkett was unable to continue and was replaced by Lewis Neilson. The Scotland U21 international had been on loan at St Johnstone for the first half of the season, and was warmly applauded as he returned to the Tynecastle pitch.
Just before the half hour mark, James Wilson got on the end of a Blair Spittal cut back and saw his effort blocked at the last second by Robbie Deas.
Hearts thought they had scored a second goal on thirty two minutes as Jamie McCart nodded home from a Spittal free kick. However, the goal was quickly ruled out for offside, and VAR confirmed the decision after a fairly lengthy delay. Video replays showed that all three Hearts players who were attacking the ball had ended up in an offside position, so Andrew Dallas had an easy call to make in the end.
After five minutes of stoppage time, John Beaton brought what had been a scrappy first half to a close. Kilmarnock made one change during the interval. Calvin Ramsay made way for Danny Armstrong.
Incredibly slack defending allowed Kilmarnock to score the equalising goal on fifty minutes. The ball was played out to the right hand side, and bizarrely no Hearts players made any effort to go after Marley Watkins, who had dashed out to the touchline. Watkins had all the time and space in the world to cross for Bobby Wales, and the young striker gobbled up the chance from close range.
Hearts had not looked in any real danger throughout the first half, but shot themselves in the foot allowing their visitors back into the game. However, the Kilmarnock celebrations would be short-lived, as Hearts re-took the lead on fifty seven minutes.
After the disappointment of having his first half header ruled out for offside, Jamie McCart made sure to time his run to perfection this time around. Hearts’ number 30 ghosted away from his man and powered a tremendous diving header beyond the reach of O’Hara.
A truly comical lapse in judgement from O’Hara gifted Jorge Grant his first goal of the season, and Hearts’ third of the afternoon. The ball was sliced skywards by a Kilmarnock defender, and while attempting to claim the ball O’Hara made a complete mess of things, allowing Grant to score from a matter of yards.
Kilmarnock refused to go down without a fight, and hit back again five minutes later. Fraser Murray headed home a Danny Armstrong cross to haul the Ayrshire side right back into the game. Neither team’s defence was covering themselves in glory, but it was making for a very interesting match.
Hearts responded to this setback by making an attacking triple substitution. Lawrence Shankland, Musa Drammeh, and Yan Dhanda came on for James Wilson, Blair Spittal and Jorge Grant.
Musa could have wrapped the game up with a quarter of an hour to go. The Spaniard was sent through on goal by Kabangu and rolled a low shot towards the bottom left corner, only to see it bounce agonisingly off the post and away to safety.
Craig Gordon pulled off a sensational stop to keep Kilmarnock at bay on eighty six minutes. David Watson’s long range effort looked destined to end up in the net, but Scotland’s number one rolled back the years and heroically tipped the ball away.
Despite some late pressure from Kilmarnock, Hearts held on to secure another huge three points at home. Next up for the Jambos is a trip to face Dundee at Dens Park, while Kilmarnock will host Dundee United at Rugby Park.
