26/02/2025 – HEARTS (A)

Following Saints is rarely straightforward or boring, and our trip to Tynecastle last night was further proof of this.

A match in which Saints were the better side for probably about an hour of, was somehow lost 3-1, to hand the advantage to Hearts in the race for the top 6 as the two sides swapped places in the table at full time.

First of all though, we have to state that Saints played well. The midfield dominated their Hearts counterparts for most of the match, our wing backs caused all sorts of issues for the home side, especially in the first half, and up front, Mikael Mandron was simply fantastic.

It was the big striker who gave Saints the lead, when he drilled a left foot shot powerfully into the corner of the net following a Declan John volley being blocked, but it was the overall play of Mandron that really impressed.

All match Mika was pulling the ball down, linking play and winning headers. Unfortunately, we were unable to take any of the chances crafted by this, with the pick of them an Olusanya shot that was pushed out by Gordon and then the same player shot the rebound over.

This would have given Saints a 2 goal lead and followed Richard Taylor heading inches wide from a Declan John corner, all within the opening 10 minutes of the second half.

We seemed to have Hearts exactly where we wanted, and the home support were increasingly unhappy at Saints dominating on their own turf. It seemed only a matter of time before the lead was increased and the stands began to empty, similar to Saturday.

Just as we started glancing towards other results and the potential league table at full time, we pressed the self destruct button and from nowhere Hearts scored with their first shot of the match.

A harmless looking ball over from Hearts left hand side evaded Gogic but was going relatively harmlessly across the penalty box to probable safety, until big Richard Taylor had a moment of madness.

The centre back, who was having a splendid match up until that point, decided to try and make an interception, but mistimed the flight of the ball, and with his knee took all the pace off it, cushioning it perfectly for young James Wilson, who calmly dispatched the ball beyond Hemming.

This lifted Hearts and their support, and suddenly from total comfort Saints were up against it.

Within 7 minutes, Hearts had the lead. Possibly trying too hard to make up for his mistake, Taylor sloppily gave the ball away before diving in to try and win it back at the half way line, leaving a big gap behind.

Within seconds, Calem Nieuwenhof, he of the late Scottish Cup equaliser a few weeks earlier, curled home a fine effort from 20 yards to give the home side the lead.

Saints tried hard to get back into the match, but other than a Kiltie shot that was held by Craig Gordon, the only real chance fell to the same player with around 5 minutes remaining.

Following a late attack, the ball broke to the unmarked midfielder 10 yards out in the middle of the penalty box, but he couldn’t find his bearings and after attempting to control the ball with his head, was closed down and his effort snuffed out.

Deep into added on time, Hearts added a third as Saints pushed everyone up, eventually confirmed by VAR after a very long wait, giving the final score a quite laughably unrealistic look of comfort for the home side, when in reality Saints had handed the points to them.

However, we can take a lot from this match as we genuinely played well, and such are the fine margins in a very tight league, that the match and perhaps the destiny of both clubs season in terms of top 6 football, may have turned with that equalising goal.

Undoubtedly, Hearts are now favourites for that final top 6 slot, but we are far from out of it. If we play like that for the rest of the remaining fixtures before the split, we could easily pick up another 10 points and who knows what that could lead to due to how evenly matched the teams are this season.

It all starts again on Saturday against Celtic. We are of course, underdogs, just as we like it.

Can we do a 7 day old firm double…………..?

COYS!

Hearts Players of the Match:

5 points – Mikael Mandron

3 points – Mark O’Hara

1 point – Alex Gogic

Check our the Player of the Season race here –

PLAYER OF THE SEASON