This was little more than a training exercise for the home side as they sought ways ways of a resolute opposition whose ambition level early on might best be characterised as somewhere between limited and non-existent. From pretty much the outset, too, it was evident that the most straightforward way of doing so would be through Kyle Lafferty and while he spurned a couple of the many first half chances his side created in an opening half that they wholly controlled, he also, midway through it, met a John Souttar cross and steered his header home with perfect precision.
To their credit and the satisfaction of their manager Darren Young, East Fife showed more enterprise after the break and Paul Willis had two decent efforts that could have changed the nature of the game. Hearts weathered that and the very worst of the depressingly fierce downpour and when Christophe Berra strained his neck backwards to get his head to a corner from second half sub Malaury Martin with sufficient force to put it over Dunsmore, the result was secure. Lafferty then brought his tally to three in two matches for his new club in wrapping things up with an 85th minute penalty, the concession of which, in hauling down Isma Goncalves, also ended the involvement of Ben Gordon as he was shown a second yellow card.
“Darren’s team had a real go at us in the 15 minutes after half-time and I think one of the most important things in these games is that you defend properly,” Austin MacPhee, the Hearts assistant boss, noted afterwards.
“You can be so focused on attacking that sometimes the defensive side of it gets neglected and I thought Jordan (McGhee) was fantastic, as was Jack Hamilton when we had to keep it at one nil.”
He expressed particular pleasure with the reintroduction of Souttar, the youngster returning to action much sooner than it had been thought possible when he snapped his Achilles tendon back in January, while he also tipped Lafferty to become a favourite with the Tynecastle crowd.
“There was a lot said about Kyle of course, some of it by Kyle, but Kyle backs his own horse, he’s got his own personality,” he said, with a wry laugh. “Tynecastle can be a tough place to play for a striker. Isma's the same, they can miss, they can take that and they can go back and try again and I think the fans will really warm to the two of them."
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