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On Saturday, in the 23rd round of the regular Scottish championship, the Lithuanian Edinburgh "Hearts" club suffered their fourth season failure, recognizing a minimal advantage of "Kilmarnock" in a rough match away. This stumble was taken advantage of by the teams from "Hibernian" and "Rangers", who won victories and reduced the gap from the second place.
"Hearts" started the match with a significantly reduced lineup - due to disqualification, the captain Steven Pressley, the top scorer Rudi Skacel, as well as the main attackers Edgaras Jankauskas and Roman Bednar, all could not help the team.
The first half of the match seemed to match the name of the "Rugby Park" stadium - there was a lot of tough, rough play, and neither team created very dangerous opportunities. In the middle of the half, due to injury, N.McCann made his debut in the "Hearts" team after a seven-year break.
During the break, the coach of the Edinburgh team unsuccessfully replaced Saulius Mikoliunas with his compatriot Nerijus Barasa, but in the first minute of the second half, "Kilmarnock" broke through when after Colin Nish's attempt to score, the ball bounced to Danny Invincible who defeated goalkeeper Craig Gordon from about 7 meters.
"Kilmarnock" withdrew to defense and "Hearts" had to once again engage in tough football and a lot of battles in the middle of the field. In the 59th minute, after a penalty shot from the edge, Calum Elliot almost equalized the score, but his attempt to head the ball was slightly inaccurate.
In the 72nd minute, Takis Fyssas, who replaced Deividas Cesnauskis on the field, broke out. The Lithuanian livened up his team's attacking game and shortly after his pass, the ball almost reached N.Barasa, who as always played very aggressively and was one of the most active in his team.
At the very end of the match, "Kilmarnock" almost doubled the score with a bizarre attack - the match referee somehow did not detect either a foul against the visitors' defender Robbie Neilson, nor the clear handball, and during the hosts' attack, C.Nish, alone against empty goal, managed to hit the crossbar from very close range. However, this did not affect the result of the match - "Kilmarnock" repelled "Hearts" attacks and added three points to their tally.
"Hearts" city neighbor "Hibernian", who is six points behind, defeated "Dunfermline" 3-1 at home, while the "Rangers" from Glasgow reduced the gap to seven points by winning 4-1 against the underdog "Livingston". Strikers Kris Boyd and Dado Prso scored two goals each in the Scottish champions' ranks.
"Inverness" also celebrated victory away with the same result against "Falkirk", while the match between the table neighbors "Dundee United" and "Aberdeen" ended in a 1-1 draw. On Sunday, the league leader Glasgow "Celtic" will play away against the "Motherwell" team.
Results of round 23:
1 - 0 46' [1 - 0] Danny Invincibile
3 - 1 17' [1 - 0] Derek Riordan 35' [1 - 1] Simon Donnelly 71' [2 - 1] Derek Riordan 89' [3 - 1] Steven Fletcher
4 - 1 8' [1 - 0] Kris Boyd 56' [2 - 0] Kris Boyd 52' [2 - 1] Gabor Vincze 89' [3 - 1] Dado Prso 90' [4 - 1] Dado Prso
1 - 4 3' [0 - 1] Barry Wilson 11' [1 - 1] Craig Ireland 18' [1 - 2] Dennis Wyness 38' [1 - 3] Craig Dargo (11m.) 56' [1 - 4] Ross Tokely
1 - 1 49' [0 - 1] Darren Mackie 53' [1 - 1] Alan Archibald
League table
