Hearts: Fans, players and staff unite to soothe wounds on night to savour at Tynecastle

IT was all revelry and precious little rancour on a gloriously uplifting evening in Gorgie last night as everyone of a maroon persuasion cast aside potentially-divisive factors to rally to a collective cause at a time when unity was the commodity Hearts needed most.

As news first broke on Monday afternoon of Jim Jefferies' sacking, you'd have got long odds on Gorgie being a pleasant place to be when Paksi came to town.

With opinion very much divided among Jambos over whether owner Vladimir Romanov was right to take such action, there was always a danger things might have gotten rotten last night. Would the players down tools in protest? Would the dynamics of the technical area prove too awkward with the retained Gary Locke sitting among his new Portuguese colleagues as opposed to his ousted friends, Jefferies and Billy Brown? Would the fans turn on Vlad? Perhaps, more worryingly, would the delightfully-branded "Vlad sheep" and those firmly in the Jefferies camp turn on each other if Hearts were to toil against their Hungarian opponents?

In the end, however, nobody need have fretted as the evening passed off as perfectly as everyone involved could have hoped. The players did the business on the park; the fans were a credit to themselves, providing a host of jolly japes throughout the night after being brilliantly roused into action at the start by the peerless PA Scott Wilson; and, perhaps most importantly, the dapper Paulo Sergio and his new coaching staff were well-received by the support while ensuring Locke remained very much a part of things. The whole occasion provided a solid platform for Hearts to move on from the turbulent events of the past five days, with fans left bounding out of the old place with the type of spring in their step arguably not felt since they put Rangers to the sword back in January.

Yet, despite such collective merry-making, there was never the slightest hint of insensitivity towards Jefferies. The legendary former manager had his name heartily sung at various junctures. This was balanced, however, by a host of chants towards his successor, for whom there already seems to be no shortage of warmth. The Portuguese, looking suave in black shirt and grey suit as he prowled the technical area alone for the entire 90 minutes, clearly hasn't mastered Scottish slang yet as he failed to acknowledge calls of "Paulo, Paulo, gie's a wave".Locke, like a coiled spring as he sat in the dugout alongside coaches Sergio Cruz and Antonio Cabral, had no such trouble understanding the lingo, however, as the Bonnyrigg boy responded accordingly when his name was inserted into the same chant after Hearts had put the tie to bed in the second half. With doubt hanging over his own future just a few days ago, Locke will have been heartened to have been asked to put the players through their pre-match warm-up, while it was evident that he was very much involved in discussions with his new Portuguese colleagues throughout.

The fans eventually got a response from their remarkably-composed new manager in the dying embers of the match as "Paulo, Paulo Sergio", to the tune of Go West by the Pet Shop Boys, drew a wave and clap of appreciation. The only man involved in this week's dramatic events who didn't get a namecheck in song was Romanov. The little Russian took his seat in the main stand just behind the "media monkeys" about three minutes into the match and showed his satisfaction at the way things had panned out with an enthusiastic thumbs-up towards Rudi Skacel at full-time as the goal-scoring Czech waved up to the directors' box while making his way up the tunnel. It could have been a different story had Paksi, who had a mere 51 supporters housed in the Roseburn Stand, taken advantage of a few forays forward as Hearts momentarily lost their way before Stevenson's nerve-settling 34th-minute opener.

But in truth, the gulf between the two sides eventually proved so wide that it seemed the only real contest was the one being played out between the denizens of the Wheatfield Stand's Section G and their comrades in the Main Stand's Section N directly opposite.

With fans beginning to sense the tie was beyond Paksi as half-time loomed, those in Section G, who had been responsible for generating most of the evening's atmosphere, burst into a light-hearted "Section N, you're having a laugh" - a dig at the relative lack of acoustics coming from the Old Main Lower. "Section N will never die," was the defiant retort. From a neutral view, Section G looked to be the victors in this particular match-up, although a light-hearted chorus of "You're getting sacked in the morning" towards Sergio after Stevenson's second goal restored some pride for the likely lads of Section N.With Hearts' progress assured long before the end, the second half was merely an opportunity for their fans to let their hair down, serenade their new manager, pay tribute to their old one and savour the joys of seeing their team score exactly four goals in European competition for the first time since the famous 4-2 win over Slavia Prague in 1992, a game, ironically, chronicled in yesterday's Evening News.

Continual chants of "Kello, Kello, swing on the bar" summed up just how straightforward a night it was for Hearts, although it's probably just as well the Slovakian goalkeeper declined the fans' request as he was required to make a couple of excellent late saves to prevent a repeat scoreline from that night 19 years ago.

"We'll support you ever more" boomed out loud and proud from the Wheatfield towards the end, a clear sign that it will take more than a controversial managerial change to stop the Hearts fans following the club they love. Things may be done a bit differently down Tynecastle way, but, if last night's jovial atmosphere is anything to go by, it seems the bulk of the supporters are willing to keep faith with their eccentric owner and see where this unpredictable ride takes them.