IF YOU believe some of the doom-merchants, when Hearts lost Antti Niemi they replaced him with your Auntie Jessie.
They said that the Finnish goalkeeper was not just undervalued at £2million, he was worth his weight in goals.
They claimed he saved the Tynecastle side as many as 12 a season.
But to elevate the goalkeeper to super-hero status was not only e
mbarrassing for modest Niemi, it was a smack in the face to his former team-mates.
How fitting then, that Hearts posted their first shut-out of the season in a 2-0 defeat of on-form Dunfermline.
Steven Pressley and Kevin McKenna, and wing-backs Alan Maybury and young Paul McMullan absorbed everything Dunfermline threw at them. When they began to fade in the latter stages, goalkeeper Roddy McKenzie, for so long the understudy, showed why he was set be given an extended run in the team.
It was compelling evidence that Niemi was inspired by Pressley and Co as much as he was inspirational.
Of course, Hearts' attacking phalanx of Graham Weir and Mark de Vries, above, were also quietly efficient, grabbing a headed goal apiece in three second-half minutes. However, it was impossible not to admire the towering clearances of Pressley and McKenna, and the neat and confident passes from defence which set up Maybury and McMullan for attacking moves down the flanks.
On his way to collect his sponsor's man-of-the-match award, McKenna simply said that he and his team-mates had kept the ball on the ground and passed it out of trouble because it had been a nice day for it.
As Hearts extended their unbeaten start to the new Premierleague campaign to four games, the sun did shine, but they reflected it with a polished display.
In the early stages it was the visitors who were the most purposeful though. Craig Brewster did what he does best, protecting the ball on the edge of the area and setting up Stevie Crawford, who was closed down before he could shoot. A low shot by Gary Mason in the 19th minute brought McKenzie into action for the first time, then Crawford sent a glancing header across the face of the goal. The Pars were still on top when Scott Thomson headed just over in the 33rd minute from a Barry Nicholson free-kick.
However, just when it appeared Dunfermline would take the lead, Hearts had their first good chance of the game. From a long clearance by McKenna, De Vries for once lost marker Lee Bullen and charged into the area for a shot which was blocked by Thomson. With Jean-Louis Valois increasingly influential, further chances followed for De Vries and Scott Severin, whose stinging shot was only parried by Marco Ruitenbeek.
Jason Dair forced McKenzie into a save at the start of the second half but Hearts soon continued where they had left off. Young left-back McMullen created serious problems with his pace and it was little surprise when Weir broke the deadlock in the 54th minute.
Valois, seemingly looking for space to shoot from the edge of the area, set off to the left, jinked back to the right and played a delicate cross to the head of Weir, who found the top corner.
Within three minutes it was 2-0, with the increasingly impressive McMullan the creator. He beat Nicholson on the left – not for the first time – and sent in a cross to give De Vries an easy header for his sixth goal in three games and on his birthday too.
However, it was McKenzie who had the last word, going full length in injury-time to palm away Sean Kilgannon's curling free-kick.
Niemi, sitting in the directors' box, looked on impassively.
The full article contains 640 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
