Scottish Cup day and a home tie against last weeks opponents St Johnstone. Last weeks game had been a poor Hearts performance despite a victory and todays encounter had to be an improvement. After watching the Spurs v Arsenal derby on Sky I walked down to Tynecastle and was in my seat around twenty minutes from the kick-off. Due to the cold weather I bought a coffee from the pie stand to help keep me warm. Hearts have been using programme covers based on movies this season. Today's programme featured David Milinkovic, based on Spike Jonze's 1999 movie Being John Malkovich, and for me was the best cover yet. Craig Levein made four changes to last weeks side bringing in Michael Smith, Aaron Hughes, Ross Callachan and Anthony McDonald. Connor Randall, Danny Amankwaa and David Milinkovic dropped to the bench while Steven Naismith missed to game due to a slight hamstring problem. Hearts went ahead in seven minutes when St Johnstone's Joe Shaughnessy decided to take a th

I had sent a text to Alex earlier in the week to see if he was going to this game. He replied yes and that Jim was going along also. On the day of the match I had a text from Alex saying we must be mad as it was going to be a bitterly cold night. He was right ! Alex sends e-mails to Spartans after he has been to games as he likes to know the attendance. It turns out that the replies he had been getting were from Spartans chairman, Craig Graham. Craig had sent a text to Alex saying they should meet when he was next at a Spartans game and they arranged to meet tonight pre-match. I was going to walk to Ainslie Park but decided as it was not very warm I would walk part of the way then catch a bus. I met Alex in the carpark outside and once we got into the ground he disappeared to meet Craig while I went for a coffee. The cafe/bar was unavailable tonight due to a pre-booked private function so I had to go to the outside catering area. As I was drinking my coffee Jim arrived and we had a

Prior to the game I sent a message to my ex-boss and good friend Archie, a fanatical St Johnstone fan asking is he was going to Tynecastle today. He responded ' No, not had all my jabs'. A bit much given Hearts fans risk getting foot and mouth or rabies going to farming country in Perth. Left house after watching Burnley v Manchester City and walked down to Tynecastle arriving about 14.45. Hearts had an attacking side out with two wingers Danny Amankwaa and David Milinkovic in the side. New signing Joaquim Adao also made his debut as midfield enforcer. I was looking forward to a good attacking performance from Hearts with a few goals but was sadly disappointed.  Early on Christophe Berra was penalised for a push on Chris Kane, and David Wotherspoon’s curling shot from 25-yard was turned past the post by Jon McLaughlin. Shortly after McLaughlin rushed off his line after Kane had beaten the offside trap to made a smart block with his body at the edge of the box after