Hearts showed their ruthless edge in their latest pre-season match by putting League Two side East Fife to the sword in a 7-0 thrashing.
In a testimonial match honouring East Fife hero Kevin Smith, left-back Stephen Kingsley scored a hat-trick with Alex Cochrane, Finlay Pollock, Alan Forrest and a trialist also on target during a fine evening at Methil. More importantly for manager Robbie Neilson, it was more minutes under their belts ahead of the new Premiership season that begins on July 30th against Ross County.
It took 14 minutes for Hearts to open the scoring through Cochrane after some good play between Gary Mackay-Steven and Liam Boyce. Six minutes later and Pollock had doubled the lead with a third netted before half-time via the trialist - believed to be former Doncaster Rovers defender Joe Wright - putting a diving header into the net. As a contest, the game was done.
