Sergio Paulo dedicates Hearts victory to 'Mr Jefferies'

PAULO Sergio's reign as the tenth manager of Vladimir Romanov's Tynecastle regime got off to the smoothest of starts last night as Hearts eased to a 4-1 victory over Hungarian side Paksi to go into today's Europa League play-off along with Celtic and Rangers.

It has been yet another turbulent week at Tynecastle, following the shock departures of management duo Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown and the arrival of former Sporting Lisbon coach Sergio, but Hearts supporters left the ground in high spirits after a polished performance wrapped up a 5-2 aggregate win.

After the match, a satisfied Sergio - who had promised before the game to stick largely with the side and system his predecessor had picked - said: "I want to dedicate this win to Mr Jefferies."

Romanov was watching from the stands as Ryan Stevenson scored twice in 12 first-half minutes before Andrew Driver marked his return from injury with a third five minutes into the second half and Rudi Skacel celebrated his new contract with a fourth after 71 minutes.

Daniel Bode scored an 89th-minute consolation for Paks as Hearts ended an 11-match winless run and saw them progress through to this lunchtime's 76-team play-off draw.

Earlier, Romanov claims he had to take the "difficult" decision to remove Jim Jefferies as manager because the Scot refused to accept help from a European coach.

Speaking through an interpreter, Romanov told BBC Scotland: "Even at the end of last season we had this discussion. I told him we were playing typically Scottish football - long balls in front.

"Players are not creating, they are not playing good passes, we need to bring someone in who can help to change this for the better.

"We offered many times to find someone who can help him with the European game."