20th January 2019 Hearts v Livingston 1-0

At last the SPL winter break is over. The season restarts with the fourth round of the Scottish Cup and Hearts have a tough tie against SPL rivals Livingston. Hearts lost 5-0 at Livingston just before the break and will be looking for revenge today. The match is live on BBC and will kick-off at 14.30 having been switched to Sunday afternoon for the live coverage. Left home at 13.35 and walked down to Tynecastle arriving around 13.50. As i was early I had a wander round the Hearts shop in it’s new position underneath the main stand. The range of items is impressive and I was tempted by the 1998 Cup Final replica shirt but decided to keep my payment card in my pocket. Today's match programme was a tribute to Freddie Glidden, Hearts captain in the 1956 Cup Final, who died recently aged 92. A minutes silence was held in his memory prior to kick-off.

Hearts made three changes from their last competitive match against Hibs. Calumn Morrison replaced the injured Marcus Godinho and new signings David Vanecek (from Teplice after expiry of his contract) and Conor Shaughnessy (on loan from Leeds) replaced Peter Haring and Clevid Dikamona. Haring has now had his hernia operation and expected back within the next few weeks while Dikamona was carrying an injury against Hibs and is having a rest from the starting line-up today.

The game started slowly with most of the action being in midfield and neither goalkeeper was brought into action. Livingston went close just after the twenty minute mark when Alan Lithgow shot across the face of the goal but past the far post. From my angle it looked like Colin Doyle should have gone to collect the ball before it reached the byeline. Livingston’s new signing Gregg Wylde had the first shot on target after thirty-five minutes but his thirty yard effort was easily gathered by Doyle. Hearts then had their first attempt on target when Olly Lee’s long range effort from a Michael Smith pass was saved by Liam Kelly in the Livinston goal. Before half-time Hearts had the ball in the net after a run down the right by Morrison. His cross to Steven Naismith was hit first time by the striker and pushed away by Kelly. Naismith followed up to knock the rebound into the net but was flagged offside for his first effort.

Three minutes into the second half Hearts took the lead when Naismith won the ball in midfield and passed to Vanecek on the edge of the box. With his back to goal Vanecek flicked the ball onto Sean Clare just inside the penalty box on the left hand side. Clare hit the pass first time and curled the ball across the keeper into the far corner of the net for his first Hearts goal. Minutes later Kelly fumbled a cross and the ball fell to Morrison around fifteen yards out. His shot was cleared off the line by Craig Halkett. I just feel that if Morrison could get one goal he would go on to score regularly as he scored a lot of goals while out on loan in the past two seasons. Livingston had a chance around the hour mark when Ryan Hardie, whose loan from Rangers has been extended to the end of the season, beat two defenders before his shot was saved by Doyle. Livingston continued to press by Hearts were dangerous on the break and should have gone further ahead when Olly Lee broke from midfield. He delayed to his pass to Morrison whose shot was saved by Kelly. The game continued with Livingston pressing for an equaliser. At one stage keeper Kelly collected a clearance on the halfway line and fired the ball back into the Hearts box. Hearts however defended well with Christophe Berra and Shaughnessy dealing with crosses into the box well and held on to go through to the next round.

After the game I was walking along Gorgie Road when I met Craig and his son, and my grandson, Harper. Harper thought Naismith was Hearts man of the match and Hearts should not have substituted Morrison, albeit he was taken off with minutes to go to waste time. I said to Craig that I wanted Hearts to get Auchinleck Talbot in the next round and when I got home found my prediction had come true. As Hearts had beaten the junior side when the won the cup in 2012 hopefully this will be a good omen for this years tournament.

Teams

Hearts: Doyle, Smith, Shaughnessy, Berra, Lee, Clare, Djoum, Naismith, Garuccio, Vanecek, Morrison. 

Subs: Bozanic, Mulraney.

Livingston: Kelly, Lithgow, Byrne, Jacobs, Pittman, Hardie, Lawless, Halkett, Gallagher, Wylde, Menga. 

Subs: Lamie, Erskine, Hamilton.