My Dad and I turned up just before kick off to a sparsely populated Tynecastle (attendance, 4922). Both ends of the stadium had been kept closed along with the lower tier of the old main stand, the majority of the Hearts fans therefore were tightly packed into the middle sections of the Wheatfield stand. It made a pleasant change to view the action from this angle, you certainly get a better, unobstructed view, but there's something about the grotty, crumbling old main stand and my seat with it's close proximity to the benches that I find hard to beat. It undoubtedly gives a feeling of being unbelievably close to the action and this provides an added element to the normal match day experience. Given a straight choice I'd still choose my shitty old bucket seat every time.
View from the posh seats, padded no less!
Elgin had brought a reasonable amount of fans considering the distance most of them would have had to travel, the fact it was being played on a Tuesday night and the small matter of them being arguably the worst league team in Scottish football. Fair play to them though, they made plenty of noise for the duration of the game and they appeared intent of enjoying the evening regardless of the final score.
Elgin fans in the upper main stand
The first few minutes of any game against a lower league side are always nervy. Thoughts of an embarrassing cup upset, however small, would be present in the players minds and these thoughts would become more prevalent the longer the games continued to be goalless. As soon as Hearts settled after about five minutes though it became clear that they were going to win comfortably. Once Eggert Jonsson opened the scoring with a looping effort over Elgin's Steve Dunn on 11 minutes it was more a question of how many they'd score.
Hearts remained in control and doubled their lead after half an hour through a Kevin Kyle header stemming from an inch perfect Craig Thomson cross. Indeed, Elgin had their keeper to thank for keeping the score at 2-0 come the interval. Whilst Steve Dunn was possible at fault for the first goal, he certainly made amends by making three last ditch saves before Kyle struck with his header.
Kevin Kyle is congratulated on his goal
Two more goals were chalked up after the break, the pick of which came from Arvydas Novikovas. The goal itself was a beautifully struck left foot shot which was the culmination of a classy passing move and an audacious back heel from Ryan Stevenson.
Elgin themselves had a chance to bag a goal which would have been a nice reward for their travelling fans. Craig Gunn went close for the Highlanders, firing in a shot only for it to be saved by Janos Balogh before rebounding back over the cross bar off Eggert Jonsson.
Scott Robinson topped the night off for Hearts by bagging the fourth after he came on as a substitute on 70 minutes. The young forward rounded the Elgin keeper and slotted the ball into the net nicely after being played in by Suso.
Hearts restart after the half time break
So, all in all, a very comprehensive victory for Hearts and more of a fine tuning exercise than anything else. The cynics will quite rightly point out that it was only Elgin, but scoring four goals for the second game in succession has to be good for morale and, for the moment, things appear to be ticking over quite nicely.
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