With the Kilmarnock squad littered with individuals who count Hearts among their past employers, it was almost inevitable member of the Tynecastle alumni would take centre stage on their return to Gorgie.
Conrad Balatoni, however, seemed the least likely to do so.
All but the most attentive of supporters could be forgiven for being ignorant of Balatoni's Jambos pedigree, given the big defender failed to make a single senior appearance for the club.
Nevertheless, he spent his formative years in the capital, turning out for Hearts at every youth level during four years at the club prior to ultimately striking out in search of first-team football with Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock.
For better or worse, Balatoni was a man determined to make the most of his chance to shine at Tynecastle. An overzealous challenge on Osman Sow saw the home side awarded a 39th-minute penalty.
On the day the legendary John Robertson, scorer of 55 penalties among his 271 goals for Hearts, celebrated his 51st bitchday, Jamie Walker did him proud by slamming the resulting spot-kick into the roof of the net.
However, Balatoni made amends after the break by restoring parity with a fine low drive from 18 yards after the Hearts defence had rather meekly dealt with a hopeful punt into the box.
Kilmarnock, who rode their luck at times, were happy to scamper away from the capital with a precious point. However, there was time for further drama when when Hearts' Gavin Reilly was shown a straight red card by referee John Beaton for kicking out at Steven Smith.
"I thought the penalty was soft but if Conrad hadn’t made the challenge then the referee doesn’t have a decision to make," said the Kilmarnock manager.
"But Conrad got the equaliser for us when it could have been easy for him to let his head go down after the penalty incident.
"He made an error by diving in but I thought he was immense after that. We brought him to the club to defend but if he can chip in with a few goals as well then that’s great."
Locke, dismissed in favour of Robbie Neilson last summer, will take particular satisfaction with a hard-earned point, albeit he is far from the only one.
Allied with Locke and Balatoni, Jamie Hamill and Kevin McHattie were both back at their former parish, while former Hearts youngster Mark Ridgers was on the bench.
Predictably, MacDonald - Hearts' player of the year in 2013/14 - was excellent on his return to the capital. He made sharp saves to deny Sam Nicholson and Juanma from inside the box, while Nicholson was again thwarted by Stuart Findlay on the line when he did finally beat his former teammate.
Osman Sow also saw a shot of his own blocked by the excellent Findlay after he surged into the penalty area and rounded MacDonald.
"Jamie’s done well," continued Locke. "When you come to places like Tynecastle, Ibrox or Celtic Park, you’re always going to rely on your goalkeeper making a couple of saves.
"Coming here, you expect Hearts to have a period of pressure but we held firm."
It would be wrong to claim complete monopoly on opportunities for the home side, given Hearts had Blazej Augustyn to thank when experienced goalkeeper Neil Alexander rushed from his box in the first half to serve as impromptu sweeper - only to skew his clearance straight to Greg Kiltie. Augustyn's intervention on the goal-line was a timely one to save his colleague's blushes.
Nevertheless, head coach Neilson was forthright in his assessment of his side's profligacy.
"I thought we should have been 4-0 or 5-0 up at half-time," rued Neilson. "We had clear chances and if you don’t score them then you’re always going to be under pressure. The lesson is we need to be more ruthless when we get these chances."
Reilly's late red card was a rare correct decision by Mr Beaton - albeit it required the advice of his assistant - during a display which was officious, yet inconsistent, and often ruined the flow of a stodgy fixture.
However Neilson added: "The referee did not miss six chances, we did."
Hearts: Alexander; Paterson, Augustyn, Rossi, Oshaniwa; Walker (Reilly 85), Gomis, Buaben, Nicholson; Delgado, Sow (Swanson 74). Subs not used: Hamilton, Pallardo, Djoum, McGhee, L Smith.
Kilmarnock: MacDonald; O'Hara, Balatoni, Findlay, McHattie; Hamill (Boyd 70), Kiltie; Slater, Obadeyi (McKenzie 59), Higginbotham (S Smith 83); Magennis. Subs not used:Ridgers, Splane, Syme, Frizzel.
Ref: John Beaton
Att: 16461
MAN OF THE MATCH: Osman Sow (Hearts): Tormented Kilmarnock with his direct running and won his side's penalty. His substitution seemed to prompt Hearts' late decline.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel