PESTS FROM THE WEST
Battling Killie storm Fortress Tynecastle and escape with a well-deserved point
FORTRESS Tynecastle survived the Beast from the East but not even Steven Naismith’s first Hearts goal could prevent the Pests from the West taking a point back home.
Kilmarnock also had Kyle Lafferty’s stoppage-time spot-kick miss to thank for a share of the spoils on a night when keeping warm became the biggest priority.
It’s now 12 games without defeat for the Jambos since moving back to their revamped base.
But it required Scotland striker Naismith’s header to cancel out Eamonn Brophy’s opener in snow storm conditions.
The wind chill hit minus seven in Edinburgh but both sides managed to serve up a result that keeps the home side frozen in fifth with Stevie Clarke’s men sixth.
This was an evening either for the diehards or those with a death wish as the perishing weather had Police Scotland issuing advice of essential travel only.
The battle to clear snow from a seat in the press box in preparation for proceedings highlighted the problematic working as well as playing conditions.
It was a night when records as well as the temperature threatened to fall.
An 11–game unbeaten home record for Hearts went on the line as boss Craig Levein tinkered with the starting line-up that lost to Rangers at Ibrox three days earlier.
Naismith was recalled with Connor Randall, Don Cowie and David Milinkovic also coming in.
Kilmarnock’s pre-match blow was the news top scorer Kris Boyd had failed to recover from a hamstring strain. Brophy took his place as Gordon Greer and Aaron Tshibola were handed starts in a shake-up from the team that fought back to claim a 2-2 draw with Hearts’ Edinburgh rivals.
A run of only one defeat in Killie’s last 11 games on the road offered a glimpse of the remarkable revival under Clarke’s guidance.
Throw in the fact they’ve kept three clean sheets and conceded just one in six other games during that away run and the evidence of their transformation becomes all the more remarkable.
New Scotland boss Alex McLeish was in Gorgie to run the rule over the likes of Naismith and Christophe Berra but he’d have been disappointed to learn of cap hopeful John Souttar’s absence due to a tight hamstring. Hearts were caught cold and found themselves behind in the third minute.
Brophy latched on to Berra’s weak header from Youssouf Mulumbu’s clearance back to Jon McLaughlin before sliding a shot under the Jambos keeper from 18 yards.
It was as cheap an opener as you get but clinically despatched by a player making the most of his role as Boyd’s stand-in with his third goal in five outings.
The home side fired into life in the 15th minute as Lafferty’s jinking run was ended by Greer’s lunge at the edge of the box.
But the Northern Irishman opted to take the free-kick himself only to send it high into the stands.
Killie always looked liable to grab another and Rory McKenzie’s header from a Jordan Jones cross slid just wide, serving as another warning sign for Levein who cut an increasingly infuriated figure