Heart of Midlothian 1-1 Bolton Wanderers
From Hearts News at Tynecastle Stadium

On what had turned out to be a scorching summers day in Edinburgh, Hearts played their penultimate pre-season friendly, and first at Tynecastle, ahead of the new Clydesdale Bank Premier League season - and encouragingly for supporters, Csaba Laszlo's side produced an impressive performance.

For many Hearts fans this was the first look at the new team that Csaba Laszlo has been grooming over pre-season and a chance to see the talents debut boys David Witteveen, Suso Santana, Ismael Bouzid, Ian Black and Dawid Kucharski.

The game was played at a high tempo, with both teams keen to push on in their last friendly matches before their respective leagues beckoned.

Sean Davis came closest for Bolton with a fizzing free-kick that Janos Balogh ushered over the bar in the early stages - but it was as half of few chances, if any.

Christian Nade and Suso Santana both chased the ball down well with Nade in particular looking sharp and fast. Suso displayed an eagerness to be involved in everything in the midfield and as a result his enthusiasm displeased a number of the Bolton players.

Ismael Bouzid put in a composed performance in defence and also showed that he can offer an attacking option at set pieces. The defence as a whole looked as if they were comfortable and organised.

Hearts returned unchanged after the break but introduced Marius Zaliukas and Johnny Stewart within five minutes of the restart.

Bolton seemed a little quicker to the ball in the early stages and took advantage of that when Fabrice Muamba drilled a low shot past Janos Balogh to go in front.

The home side stepped it up a notch after going a goal down and began to press Bolton further up the field, with Zaliukas in particular pushing Hearts up. The reward came courtesy of Christian Nade who unleashed a screamer high into the net of Jaaskelainen who simply could not have stopped it, coming at the end of a fine moving involving Michael Stewart and Suso Santana.

The goals sprang the game into life and straight from kick off Bolton raced into the Hearts box and carved out the opportunity for Davies to shot, Balogh however was on hand to make the save.

Suso returned the favour with a sublime run from the half way line into the Bolton penalty area unfortunately the shot rebounded off Jaaskelainen and the chance was gone.

Bolton seemed content to sit back for large periods in the second half which gave the Jambos the opportunity to attack the ball. David Obua almost grabbed a surprise winner with a long range free kick which really troubled the big fin but he managed to regroup and keep the ball control to thwart Hearts goal efforts.

Arvydas Novikovas also made his Tynecastle debut after his competitive debut at Celtic Park in the final game of last season there are a lot of high hopes for the young Lithuanian. He did not disappoint his pace took him past defenders with ease and his deliveries from the left hand side were begging just to nodded home.

Hearts will be pleased with their performance against this Premier League opposition and look forward to attempting to go one better and sealing a final pre-season victory over Sunderland on Saturday.

Hearts: Balogh; Jonsson, Goncalves (Zaliukas 48), Bouzid (Kucharski 75), Wallace;Santana (Novikovas 67), Kingston (J Stewart 53), Stewart (Black 62), Obua (C Thomson 84) ; Nade (Glen 68), Witteveen. Subs not used: Kello.

Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Ricketts, Steinsson (Davies 45), O'Brien, Knight, Robinson, Muamba, Davis (Cohen 90), Taylor, Gardener, Elmander. Subs not used: Bogdan, Obadeyi, amuel, Riga.

Referee: Stephen Finnie