Hearts 3

Kilmarnock 0

Scorers: Flogel (72min), Juanjo (77), Severin (90).

Hearts moved to within three points of Kilmarnock as a six dramatic minutes brought an otherwise dour Premier League match to life last night.

In a game in which Killie keeper Gordon Marshall was red-carded after having been adjudged to have handled outside the box, a goal from nothing from Austrian internationalist Thomas Flogel provided the Tynecastle side with the impetus to press forward, and the three points were virtually secured when Juanjo claimed the second with a curling free kick.

Then, just to compound Kilmarnock's misery, Scott Severin popped up in the final minute to ensure victory for the home club.

While Craig Levein, the Hearts head coach, had sympathy with Marshall, he was delighted by the way in which his side capitalised on the situation.

''It was important to press home the advantage, especially with the 10 men, and going two up with Juanjo's free-kick knocked the stuffing out of Killie.

''It was a huge game for us and so is Sunday now after Dundee's win against Rangers. That keeps them hot on our tail and we've just got to keep trying to press ahead and get into the top-six and then look further up.''

All the talk before the game centred on which of these teams would take fourth place come the end of the season and whether that would be good enough to win them a European place.

The Scottish Cup semi-finals will be crucial in deciding the UEFA Cup question, but both clubs went into this game smarting at their inability to find their way to that stage of the competition.

Bobby Williamson's men had every right to be downbeat after the loss of that injury-time goal to Hibs on Saturday, but they simply could not afford to allow Hearts to gain ground on them in the SPL with a win.

The Rugby Park manager attempted to freshen up his side by making three changes, with Andy McLaren back to add extra attacking spice, but also appeared to have half an eye on Sunday's CIS Cup final as he stuck by the 3-5-2 formation which will match up to Celtic.

Craig Levein, the Hearts head coach, made three changes of his own, with Robbie Neilson, Kieran McAnespie, and Grant Murray coming in for Steven Boyack, who dropped to the bench, the injured Lee Makel, and the suspended captain Colin Cameron.

It was the visitors who carved out the first chance of the match with 10 minutes gone. Gary Hay rose highest to meet a cross-field pass from Gary Holt, but when Paul Wright returned his header, Hearts keeper Antti Niemi got a hand to his effort at the expense of a fruitless corner.

From then on, Hearts enjoyed the bulk of the possession but could not turn that into clear-cut chances and a strangely subdued home support became more and more frustrated as the half wore on.

It was the visiting fans who almost had something to cheer five minutes before half-time as Niemi again came to Hearts' rescue. There appeared nothing on as Wright challenged untidily on the edge of the box, but as the ball broke back to him from Andy McLaren, the Finnish keeper had to look smart to prevent his snap-shot sneaking in at his left-hand post.

The half finished with Flogel flashing a header across the Kilmarnock goalmouth but the game was crying out for a goal to enliven a fairly turgid affair.

Peter Canero provided the night's first piece of real skill as he nutmegged Austin McCann shortly after the break to get free along the byeline, but nobody could get on the end of his driven ball across the six-yard box.

Then, just as the game looked certain to remain goalless, Hearts carved out two goals from nothing.

With 71 minutes gone, Flogel received a Juanjo pass on the edge of the box and despatched the ball past Marshall's despairing dive with a little help from a deflection.

The goal gave the home side confidence and they dramatically added second five minutes later. Substitute Gary McSwegan beat the offside trap to race through on Marshall and as the keeper dived at the striker's feet, he skidded out of the box and was rightly red-carded by referee Mitchell.

Reserve keeper Colin Meldrum hardly had time to pull on his gloves before he was forced to pick the ball out of the net as Juanjo curled a magnificent free-kick round the wall and into the top corner.

In the final minute, Severin acrobatically volleyed home a Juanjo cut-back to complete seal Kilmarnock's fate.

HEARTS - Niemi, Pressley, McCann, Murray, Flogel, Severin, Juanjo, Tomaschek, Kirk, McAnespie, Neilson. Substitutes - McKenzie, McSwegan, Kaczan, Boyack, Goldie.

KILMARNOCK - Marshall, Reilly, Holt, Wright, Mahood, Baker, Dindeleux, McLaren, Innes, Hay, Canero. Substitutes - Meldrum, MacPherson, Cocard, Davidson, Di Giacomo.

Referee - G Mitchell.