TWO TEAMS, under- achievers for different reasons, contributed to an underwhelming game which only two late goals and the weather could enliven. Two strikes - and some threatened lightning ones - wrapped it up for Kilmarnock.

The visitors probably deserved to win for their second-half performance alone. Hearts were unable to break down their defensive resolve and a lapse and a fine goal on the break did for them. The home side departed to hoots of derision from the denuded support and in the same manner as they started the season, bewildered and unsure of their futures.

None more so than their interim head coach Stevie Frail, a solitary figure in the dugout and a beleaguered one out of it. His performance has been creditable since he took over in January but, as he said after, he doesn't know if his tenure is to be confirmed or if he will be able to strengthen a side over the close season which he concedes needs to be "freshened up in most areas". He hasn't, he said, "sought assurances from Mr Romanov." He should note that they might be worth much.

Off the field, the fiscal mysteries and disasters of the Romanov regime deny logic or prediction. There's a marvellous novel by the US writer Terry Southern called The Magic Christian where the central character, the multi-billionaire Guy Grand, sets out to bring disorder to the material world, buying over venerable institutions solely to humble and humiliate them. I wouldn't bet against it being on Vlad's bookcase.

Kilmarnock's season has also been wracked by crisis, principally through the ravages of injury. That aside, their performances have been desultory. Again in mitigation they have lost their two main strikers,Colin Nish and Stevie Naismith, so their goal tally has virtually flat-lined. That they scored here was a vital resuscitation.

As Jim Jefferies pointed out he had 10 players unavailable to him. He has stoically borne the budgetary cuts of the last two seasons but, without committing his chairman to deep pocket-dipping, he indicated that Michael Johnston was aware that more cash had to be spent on "one or two quality players'. The first of those will be striker Allan Russell from Airdrie, who passed a medical yesterday and will sign tomorrow.

Perhaps not surpisingly Kilmarnock started with just one man up front. Hearts had oodles of possession in the first half but most of it was played out in front of a massed defence in blue and white. Their best chance came near the end of it when the David Lilley misheaded into the path of Fernando Screpis on the right overlap but his shot, one-on-one with the goalkeeper, was fired straight at Alan Combe.

The half was also significant for three electrifying moments - the arcing of lightning overhead followed by ear-bursting explosions. And a fourth, the marvellous, last-ditch tackle by Simon Ford, who took the ball off the toe of Eggert Jonsson on the six-yard box as he swung to shoot.

Kilmarnock's frustration tactics were to lead, after the turnaround, to jubiliation for the small band of diehards who had travelled from Ayrshire.

Whether Hearts were tiring, or merely bemused, Jefferies' side began to dominate. Their first goal was rammed home from the head of Grant Murray, his first goal for his club against a former one, the second by Paul Di Giacomo's boot.

The first goal started the home fans' exodus; the second turned it into a stampede. The sound of seats clattering up resonated around the ground. Hearts' defence could be blamed for the opener, their pursuit of an equaliser perhaps for the second. Fernandez bent in a left-footed corner from the right and Murray climbed in front of the static and until then impregnable home defence to smack his header high into the netting.

The second was started and finished by Di Giacomo. The player has been plagued by injury and has spent months out on loan but here revisited the promise he showed when he first broke into the side.

He picked up the ball in the left midfield and sent a long, scorching crossfield to Paul Dalglish, who took it down and moved it on to Fernandez, who chipped across for the arriving creator to convert a close-in volley.

Hearts play Gretna at Fir Park next week, but it won't just be the host club who go into that game with doubts regarding their long-term survival.

Hearts substitutes: Ivaskevicius for Jonsson 58, Mole for Stewart 65 Not used: Ridger, Palazuelos, Goncalves, , Rapnik, McGowan Booked: None
Kilmarnock substitutes: Di Giacomo for Johnston 71, Cox for Fernandez 86, Locke for Taouil 86 Not used: Rascle, Locke, Flannigan, McInnes, Anson Booked: Fernandez 77
Referee: M Tumilty
Att: 10,512