Hearts' Europa League place in jeopardy after draw at Kilmarnock
With only one victory harvested from their last nine fixtures in the Scottish Premier, Hearts have picked the wrong time to go off the boil.
On target: Ryan Stevenson put Hearts ahead at Kilmarnock but they could not hold on for victory Photo: PA
By Ewing Grahame 4:16PM BST 01 May 2011
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Their 2-1 win over dundee united at Tynecastle on Feb 19 meant that the Tayside club lagged 25 points behind them in seventh while Saturday’s opponents, Kilmarnock, were 18 adrift in fourth place.
At that stage the idea that United could overtake Jim Jefferies’ side and claim a Europa League slot at their expense would not have been entertained. Now, while still a long shot, it’s entirely possible.
Their 2-2 draw at Kilmarnock's Rugby Park showed just why Hearts have dropped 18 points in those nine games. Sloppy defending cost them goals and a lack of guile in midfield was thrown into sharp relief by the improvisation and imagination exhibited by the home side’s Alexei Eremenko.
It was his audacious back-heeled cross which helped create Killie’s equaliser for Kieran Agard four minutes from time (Marius Zaliukas could also claim an assist due to his weak clearing header) and his sublime range of passing consistently exposed the visitors’ rearguard.
Eremenko also struck the crossbar with a free-kick, the highlight of a bad-tempered first half which saw six of the afternoon’s yellow cards handed out.
Fortunately, the second 45 minutes was more about the football. James Fowler opened the scoring with a ferocious drive from 20 yards following over-casual defending by Zaliukas.
It was the holding midfielder’s first senior goal at Rugby Park in 14 years with Kilmarnock and it put the home side in the driving seat.
A goalkeeping error from Cammy Bell allowed Rudi Skacel to score an opportunist equaliser and Ryan Stevenson headed the visitors in front from a Craig Thomson corner.
They failed to close out the 90 minutes, though, and it could have been worse if James Dayton and Agard had converted gilt-edged openings carved out for them by the vision of Eremenko.
It left Stevenson, a midfielder converted into a makeshift forward, deflated and desperate to avoid a final-day showdown with United at Tannadice to decide third place.
“Never mind the last game, we don’t want to go into the last two games with this still a live issue,” said the 28 year-old. “We want to get this finished as soon as possible.
“We’re definitely making it difficult for ourselves and we have a very hard run-in now. With the Old Firm and Dundee United away it couldn’t really be much harder.
“It could be that we’re looking for other teams to do us a favour. We go to Ibrox on Saturday and maybe we can get the result there that takes us over the finishing line.
“Of course, we’re kicking ourselves because we’ve been in winning positions and then let it slip. It’s not as though we’re losing 2-0 or 3-0 every week.
“We’ve been playing well but we gave away a sloppy goal at 2-1. Last weekend against Motherwell was the best we’ve played since the turn of the year when we went three up but we still ended up drawing.
“It was disappointing to go a goal down and a huge relief to get back into the game. After I put us 2-1 ahead you’re thinking: ‘Right, let’s just get this done’ but we shot ourselves in the foot again.
“We have to stay positive, though: it’s another point and another game chalked off.”
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