5th August 2023. St Johnstone. 0 Hearts 2

My first visit to McDiarmid Park since January 2002. That was the first year that 2nd January was no longer a Bank Holiday in Scotland. My boss Archie, a Saints fan, and I were both working although there was absolutely no calls from customers. After lunch we found we needed to visit a customer in Perth and headed off with another Jambo, Eddie, to McDiarmid Park  to watch Hearts win 2-0 in Perth. Today was slightly different as I left home just after 11.00 to go to Andrew Square to catch the 12.00 bus to Perth. Caught the M90 bus which goes to an Inverness but stops at the Broxden Park and Ride on the outskirts of Perth. I had checked with my old boss Archie and he said it was a short walk from there to McDiarmid Park. The bus left on time but on the last stages of the journey the traffic was horrendous and the intended arrival of 13.15 stretched to 13.30. As I got off the bus and was checking walking route to the ground I met Alan. I knew him from work and he is a St Johnstone fan. He suggested the best way to get to the ground was to take a bus into the centre of Perth and then another out to the ground. I bowed to his local knowledge and we caught a bus into the centre of Perth chatting about old work colleagues and of course football. From the city centre we walked to another bus stop where a 1 or a 2 would take us to the ground. A 1 arrived first and was soon packed with a mixture of Heearts and St. Johnstone fans. The rain was teeming down as the bus moved off and it took around thirty minutes to get to McDiarmid Park due to the traffic. We arrived around 14.30 and walked through the car park where we parted company as we were sitting in different stands. Hearts fans were accommodated in the North Stand and there were only four turnstiles open. I eventually got into the ground around 14.45 after my electronic ticket was scannned. Inside the ground programmes were available and I bought a copy for £2.50.  As I was looking for my seat I saw Craig, his son Harper and Harpers pal Jayden.  Craig had a spare seat in his car and offered me a lift back to Edinburgh which I gratefully accepted. I found seat around twelve rows up from the pitch and settled there to watch the game. 

Hearts made one change to the starting eleven from last weeks friendly against Leeds with Cammy Devlin replacing Jorge Grant who dropped to the bench. However the main excitement for Hearts fans was those on the substitutes bench. Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime returned after long term injuries while Kyosuke Tagawa and Alex Lowry were both on the bench after signing during the week. Tagawa, a centre forward, was signed from FC Tokyo was signed on Friday. He is a Japanese international and spent last season on loan to Santa Clara in Portugal. Lowry has been signed on a season long loan deal, with a recall option in January, from Rangers. He is a talented attacking midfield player who can also score goals. I have seen him play both in the SPL and the Lowland League and he looks a good player. I do not understand why Rangers spend obscene amounts of money to sign new players when they have talented youngsters in their B team. St Johnstone manager Steven McLean has had to completely rebuild his side with nine players moving on after last season. He has signed a number of new players but had a terrible League Cup qualifying group campaign. New signings include DimitarMitov (Cambridge United), Luke Jephcott (Plymouth Argyle), Sam McClelland (Chelsea), Luke Smith (MK Dons) and Oludare Olufunwa (Liverpool). The club failed to qualify from the group stages of the league Cup and were hammered 4-0 at home last week by League One Stirling Albion. The only players I recognised in their side was former Hearts fullback and Scottish Cup winner Ryan McGowan and another former Hearts youth team player in captain Liam Gordon. 

The kick-off was delayed as the VAR system was not working. After a ten minute delay referee Steven Mclean(no relation to the St Johnstone manager) decided to start the game without VAR. I understand that VAR came back online eight minutes into the match but I wondered what would have happened if there was a controversial incident in the match before VAR came back online. St Johnstone had the first chance of the match when captain Gordon sliced a cross from Graham Carey wide of the post from eight yards when it seemed easier to score. Hearts came more into the game and Peter Haring headed wide from a deflected cross from Calem Nieuwenhof after the midfielder broke down the left. Atkinson and Oda linked up well on the right with ODA setting the fullback free on the right hand side of the penalty area. Atkinson however hot across goal and wide of the far post. Lawrence Shankland then had a chance after a free-kick from Steven Kingsley but has shot was straight at Mitov in the Saints goal. 

The second began with Zander Clark in the Hearts goal to push away a shot from Carey. Clark then made another excellent save pushing away a header from Gordon with a one-handed save.  Hearts made two changes just before the hour mark with new boys Tagawa and Lowry replacing Nieuwenhof and Alan Forrest.I felt a bit sorry for Forrest who was playing in the loanee striker role filled by Josh Ginnelly last. Forrest tried hard but does not have the pace or power of Ginnelly and was unable to make his presence felt. Tagawa almost scored minutes after coming on when he was set free behind the defence from a through ball from Shankland. Mitov did well to get down and push away Tagawa's shot from around twenty-two yards for a corner. Lowry was also looking promising in an attacking midfield role showing a willingness to take opposition players all and all some astute passing. Hearts finally broke the deadlock in seventy-five minutesAtkinson sent a high cross into the penalty area and the ball broke to Oda just inside the penalty box on the right hand side. Oda took a touch and fired a low shot across Mitov into the bottom left hand corner of the net. Hearts brought on Boyce and Benigime to replace Devlin and Oda for the closing six minutes of the match. Boyce had a chance shortly after he came on but his shot from the edge of the box was stopped by Mitov. Hearts finally clinched the game six minutes into time added on. Lowry on the left sent an excellent pass across the field to Boyce who had timed his run well to get behind the Saints defence. As Mitov came out to challenge Boyce the striker passed the ball back across goal for Shankland to score in an empty net. The final whistle went shortly there-after and Hearts were happy with with three points from a venue where they do not have a good record. The strength of the Hearts squad has improved and this was shown by the performance of all four substitutes. 

I left my eat quickly after the final whistle and headed to the exit gate to meet up Craig, Harper and Jayden. We left the ground and headed for Craig's car which was park up a hill a short distance from the ground. We set-off back to Edinburgh just as Kilmarnock v Rangers was kicking off at five fifteen and Craig dropped me of in Fountainbridge just after six thirty. All in all a satisfying day out.

Teams

St. Johnstone: Mitov, Gallacher, McGowan, Gordon, May, Carey, Wright, Olufunwa, McClelland, Ballantyne, Phillips.

Subs: Kucheriavy, Jephvott, Smith, Steven. 

 

Hearts: Clark, Atkinson, Rowles, Kent, Kingsley, Haring, Devlin, Forrest, Nieuwenhof, Oda, Shankland.

Subs: Baningime, Boyce, Lowry, Tagawa.