Hearts earned some consolation for October`s 3-0 defeat at Tynecastle by beating an in-form Kilmarnock by 2-1 at Rugby Park, after being a goal down at half-time.
With Connor Sammon rejecting a move to Scunthorpe, Mixu Paatelainen had the big Irish striker on the bench. Meanwhile, injury prevented Rudi Skacel and Kevin Kyle from appearing for Hearts, so David Obua was the stand-in centre-forward. It was good to see Lee Wallace earn his left-back place back, with Palazuelos playing a midfield role.
It seems Hearts had been a bit pedestrian in the first half, and fell behind to a Rui Miguel goal after 20 minutes. The half-time talk had it`s effect, with Hearts much more lively and attack-minded. Stephen Elliott replaced Novikovas and it was the Irishman who equalised after 72 minutes. With Glen and Stevenosn also on (replacing Obua and Black), Hearts had the upper hand – and some sloppy goalkeeping by Cammy Bell allowed Elliott`s shot to clinch it for the visitors with 3 minutes remaining.
No doubt our management team will have thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd half turnaround, ensuring that their former chairman Michael Johnston wouldn`t be enjoying any smug satisfaction at seeing JJ on the end of a defeat.
This great result keeps Hearts within 7 points of top place – with a home match against Rangers coming up on Saturday. Let`s hope Skacel is available, and although it would be great to have Kyle also, that seems unlikely. Well done, Hearts !!
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fingers crossed for Kyle and Skacel this weekend. Great comeback in this game, excellent to see Elliott getting into the goals and I hope he keeps that up. If we can just keep the injuries to key men to a minimum, thats a big gap to 4th now, Kenny miller looks on the way to Turkey and Celtic are ropey to say the least…I know we are unlikely to win the league but it is at least looking interesting!
Fantastic result with all things considered. Saturday is massive now…..massive!