10th February 2018 Hearts v St Johnstone 3-0

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 thrown-in just in his own half towards Murray Davidson in the centre circle rather than throw it up the line. Arnuad Djoum intercepted the ball and nodded it towards the forward running Kyle Lafferty. He took a touch to control the ball as he moved into the left hand side of the penalty box and shot past Alan Mannus into the right hand side of the net. Last week St Johnstone had dominated the first half of the game but this week Jon McLaughlin only had a weak shot from Chris Kane to save in the first half. St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright was clearly unhappy with his sides performance and after less than thirty minutes played  brought on striker Denny Johnstone for a clearly unhappy Chris Millar. Hearts were looking in control with the midfield trio of Jaoquim Adao, Djoum and Callachan looking good. Anthony McDonald was also causing problems to the Saints with his intelligent running and good ball control but a second goal did not arrive before halftime.

There was a curious incident in the first half when John Souttar took a corner for Hearts. He passed the ball short to McDonald who stopped the ball. John than ran towards Anthony to cross the ball into the penalty area from a better angle but was flagged offside by the assistant on the main stand side of the ground. A number of Hearts fans were unhappy with the decision but I think it was correct as Souttar had run from an offside position to gather the ball. I admit I was watching the ball and not watching the St Johnstone defenders in the box but I am assuming that any defenders on the posts had moved forward once they realised the ball was being played short.

Hearts came out for the second half clearly determined to finish off the match. Lafferty nodded down an Djoum cross to Callachan on the edge of the Saints penalty box. He swivelled and fired a good shot just past the post. After fifty-two minutes Adao fed a great pass to Djoum who sped up the right wing. Callachan was moving in support in the centre of the field and Demitri Mitchell was supporting on the left. Djoum's pass across the box missed out Callachan and came to Mitchell around twenty-five yards out. After taking a touch to bring the ball under control the Manchester United loanee then fired a left footed shot high into the net to put Hearts two up. His first goal since joining Hearts on loan.   Minutes later Lafferty broke from the Hearts half and fed the ball to Smith who was overlapping on the right. Smith fired a low cross in the box and Lafferty continued his run to fire home from six yards out.

At 3-0 the game was clearly beyond St Johnstone and Hearts almost had another when substitute Randall had a shot blocked on the Saints goal-line. Hearts brought on three substitutes in a bid to prevent injuries or a booking which may have meant suspension for the next round. Unfortunately Lafferty was on of those replaced, by Euan Henderson, before he could claim a hat-trick. St Johnstone were determined to go out fighting and bad fouls on both Callachan and Christophe Berra brought bookings for Saints players. Both were for dangerous tackles which I am sure if they had taken place south of the border would have meant red other than the yellow cards issued.

After the game I walked home smiling. it had been a good performance from Hearts with my man of the match being Djoum who was back in the form that brought him international recognition from Cameroon.When I got in I watched another Manchester City masterclass on Sky as they beat Leicester 5-1. It is now when rather than if City win the League in England. 

Teams

Hearts: McLaughlin, Smith, Souttar, Berra, Hughes, Mitchell, Adao, Djoum, Callachan, McDonald, Lafferty. 

Subs: Bauben, Randall, Henderson.

St Johnstone: Mannus, Tanser, Shaughnessy, Anderson, Millar, Davidson, Wotherspoon, Kerr, Foster, Kane, Willock. 

Subs: Johnstone, Alston.