4th March 2023. Hearts 3 St Johnstone 0

At last back at Tynecastle. Not seen a Hearts match since 3rd January and even missed the Scottish Cup win at Easter Road.I gave my ticket to Craig as he was unable to get one and he enjoyed the game. After lunch I left home around 13.50 and walked along the canal towards Ogilvie Terrace before wandering down towards Tynecastle, arriving around 14.25. I could have got there quicker on the direct route via Ardmillan but I thought I needed the exercise. I scanned my season ticket for entry and headed up to my seat in Section Q. I had a chat with a few people before the game kicked off and felt that it was great to be back.

Hearts last match was a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Motherwell and Robbie  Wilson made a few changes to the starting line. Kye Rowles replaced Toby Sibbick in central, Jorge Grant, a sub for Cammy Devlin at Motherwell, started while Josh Ginnelly returned from suspension to replace Steve Humphrys. Zander Clark continued in goals against his former club. St Johnstone struggled earlier in the season but have improved recently under manager Callum Davidson. With three games ex-Hibs players in the match day squad, David Wetherspoon, Jamie Murphy and Melker Hallberg, there would be plenty opportunities to bait the opposition. 

The game started slowly but Hearts made an early chance. Robert Snodgrass found Lawrence Shankland on the edge of the Saints penalty. He flick the ball on for Michael Smith to take on the run but the wing-backs shot was saved by Remi Matthews. Ginnelly then had a chance as he ran onto a through ball. He took the ball round Matthews ion the left hand side of the penalty area but was unable to make contact to turn it into the net. Hearts took the lead in twelve minutes when after a few passes on the edge of the penalty area Grant passed to Ginnelly on the right. He worked his way acrosss the edge of the penalty area before firing in a shot. The shot took a deflection of Saints Liam Gordon giving Matthews no chance of making a save. Saints came back into the match and Clark did well to stop an attempt from Drey Wright before pushing a shot from Cammy McPherson over the bar just before the halftime whistle. 

The second half started slowly but Hearts went two ahead after sixty-three minutes. Cochrane fed a through ball to Barrie Mckay in the penalty box. His low cross evaded Shankland at the near post but found Ginnelly in the centre of the six yard box who had an easy chance to put the ball into the net. Hearts added a third goal after seventy-three minutes. A corner from Great was not cleared well by the St Johnstone defence and came to McKay just outside the eighteen yard box on the right. McKay’s pass found Grant outside the penalty box on the right. I am not sure if he was attempting a low cross into the area but the ball found its way across goal and into the net on the far side with the aid of a slight deflection of a defender. Ginnelly had a chance for his hat-trick when he ran onto a Shankland pass but slipped his shot wide. Hearts then made their final substitutions with Ginnelly being one to those to leave the field. Hearts then had a shot by Zak Rudden blocked by Stephen Kingsley at the near post with Clark stranded out his his goal. after failing to reach a short pas-back. Substitute Garang Kuol almost opened his Hearts scoring account when his shot, in stoppage time, hit the bar before Grant fired the rebound at goal where Matthews made a good save. The referee blew the finally whistle to give Hearts another three points and maintain there five point gap over fourth place Hibs.

I walked home happy with the result and was pleased that Barrie NcKay was involved in two of the goals. He has been getting some unfair criticism lately as he has not been involved in making or creating chances. However he is now being marked by at least two players and this should leave gaps for other players to exploit. I still think he is the best footballer at Tynecastle with one turn and then squeezing between two opposition players today being evident of this. All in all another good performance from Hearts.

Teams

Hearts: Clark, Smith, Kingsley, Grant, Shankland, Rowles, McKay, Cochrane, Ginnelly, Hill, Snodgrass.

Subs: Kio, Devlin, Halliday, Forrest, Kuol, 

St. Johnstone: Matthews, Brown, Mitchell, Gordon, May, Wright, MacPherson, Montgomery,  Hallberg, Carey,McLennan. 

Subs: Gallacher, Wotherspoon, Rudden, Bair, Murphy.