18th August 2018 Dunfermline v Hearts 0-1

I

 missed Hearts victory last week against Celtic due to illness, albeit I watched the game at home on BT Sport so this was my first live game for a fortnight. Press had stated Hearts had sold almost 5000 tickets for this game and as I was travelling by train I went to Edinburgh Waverley to board rather than my usual boarding point at Haymarket. Caught the 12.18 train at Waverley and was in Dunfermline around thirty minutes later. East End Park, Dunfermline's home ground, is about ten minutes walk from the station so I wandered up to the ground where the turnstiles were not yet open. I decided to go for a stroll round Dunfermline for around an hour which considerably increased my step count for the day. Returning to the ground at around two o'clock I met Pete and his two lads outside and had a quick chat with them. They headed for the turnstiles at the Hearts end while I waited to buy a programme before heading into the ground. Inside I met Pete again along with Colin and we had a quick chat before they headed for their seats and I headed to snack bar. Asked for a sausage roll and a diet coke but they don't sell Coke there so I had to make do with an Irn Bru. Then made my way to my seat which was in row BB, if I had been any higher up I could have placed my footprints beside Neil Armstrong's on the moon !

Hearts made two changes from the side that started against Celtic, Aaron Hughes replaced the injured Christophe Berra in defence and Steven McLean came in for last weeks goal scorer Kyle Lafferty up front. Berra is now likely to be out for around six months and Craig Levein is reputedly looking for a replacement as cover. In the case of Lafferty there is still press speculation on a move back to his former club Rangers. Interestingly Rangers reportedly turned down a bid of £3.75m for their centre forward Morales last week describing the bid as well outside the asking price. If that is the case why was there initial bid for Lafferty, a proven goal scorer for club and country only £200,000 ? A typical Glasgow trick to buy up good players from other Scottish clubs at knockdown prices.

Hearts started the game well and Jake Mulraney had a couple of good runs. His first cross found Uche Ikpeazu whose shot was saved and the ball cleared by the Dunfermline defence. For the second Mulraney's final ball was lacking. He was then clattered by a Dunfermline defender, who was not booked for what looked like dangerous play, and thereafter did not seem to want too try and take players on. Olly Lee was looking good in midfield being composed on the ball and willing to try and make good passes. However the front pairing of McLean and Ikpeazu despite working hard were unable to get any clear cut chances. Dunfermline had a good chance around the ten minute mark when Hearts lost the ball in midfield and after a couple of passes El Bakhtaoui hit the Hearts post with a shot from about sixteen yards out. Ikpeazu then tried to claim for a penalty after challenges from the Dunfermline defence but even from the other end of the ground I was convinced that there was no penalty. The first half moved on with few instances of good football from either side. Just before halftime Peter Haring was injured in a challenge on the halfway line. It look a bad one as he was slapping the turf in agony but he seemed to recover after treatment.

At halftime Hearts brought on Oliver Bozanic. At first I thought Haring would have had to go off but the player replaced was Hughes with what I later found out was a tight calf. I am not sure if it is an age thing but Hughes seems to have only one or two games before picking up an injury and being out again for a spell. Haring moved back to central defence and Bozanic came into midfield. It must be the first time, I think, I have seen Hearts play with two players called Oliver in the side. In fact I don't think I have seen someone called Oliver play for Hearts before unless you count 1970's fullback Peter Oliver. Hearts stepped up the tempo in the second half and Bozanic looked tidy in possession and generally found a man with his passes. However there was still a distinct lack of pace and penetration from Hearts. They almost paid for this when El Bakhtaoui had a shot turned over the bar by Zdenek Zamal in the Hearts goal. John Souttar was booked for his first foul of the game just after the hour mark for bringing down El Bakhtaoui. This was despite the referee, Bobby Madden, ignoring at least four bookable challenges by Dunfermline players. Hearts brought on Lafferty for Ikpeazu and finally scored after seventy-nine minutes. Lafferty laid the ball off to McLean. McLean passed to Lee on the edge of the box and he shot through a defenders legs into the far corner of the net with Dunfermline keeper, Lee Robinson, possibly unsighted by his own defender. 

I have to confess that I left five minutes after the goal. We were going out for dinner later at night and I did not want to chance having to struggle to get on the 17.30 or 18.09 trains as that would be cutting things fine on arrival back in Edinburgh. Caught the 17.04 train home and understand from press reports that I missed two excellent saves from Zamal at the end of the game. Not the best game I have seen this season but in a cup-tie a victory means more than the performance so we now wait to see who Hearts get in the next round.

Teams
Hearts: Zlamal, M. Smith, Souttar, Haring, Lee, Naismith, Hughes, Garuccio, MacLean, Ikpeazu , Mulraney.
Subs:Bozanic, Lafferty, Morrison
Dunfermline:Robinson, Craigen, J. Longridge, Devine, Durnan, Ashcroft, Williamson, Vincent, El Bakhtaoui, L. Longridge, Hippolyte.
Subs:Connolly, Ryan