Hearts picked up a huge three points to take into Boxing Day’s Edinburgh derby as they defeated St Johnstone 2-1 at Tynecastle Park on Sunday.
Head coach Neil Critchley made four changes from the side that faced Petrocub on Thursday night as Blair Spittal, Malachi Boateng, Adam Forrester and Musa Drammeh all came into the side.
The Jambos were looking for a response following a disappointing evening on Thursday night and they were unfortunate not to be ahead inside three minutes.
Firstly, Adam Forrester delivered a teasing cross, which just evaded both Musa and James Wilson, before the latter latched on to a through ball and after rounding Josh Rae, couldn’t fire home from a tight angle.
The men in maroon got the goal their start deserved on 15 minutes. Cammy Devlin picked out Adam Forrester, who was in acres of space down the right, he brought the ball down and crossed for birthday boy James Penrice who came steaming in from the back post to head home the opening goal.
It was almost 2-0 five minutes later as another cross from the right boot of Forrester was sliced towards his own goal by Bozo Mikulic, but somehow, Rae raised an arm to divert the ball over the bar.
The Jambos continued to dominate and besides a St Johnstone counter attack which saw Daniel Oyegoke well positioned to clear a dangerous cross, it was largely one-way traffic.
Shankland almost doubled the lead on 24 minutes when stooping to meet Penrice’s cross, but his header was clutched by Rae.
Wilson thought he’d provided Hearts with some breathing space on 38 minutes, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside, following a VAR review. It was great running from Malachi Boateng down the right wing, he skipped away from Andre Raymond and when his cross was flicked into the path of Wilson by Shankland, he showed great technique to fire low into the bottom corner, but it was disallowed due to the young striker being offside earlier in the move.
Half-time: Hearts 1-0 St Johnstone
Saints had offered little in the first 45, but they were given the perfect opportunity to respond five minutes after the interval as Penrice was penalised for a handball in the box. Half-time substitute Graham Carey stepped up and found the bottom corner to restore parity.
The scores weren’t level for long however as on 56 minutes, Penrice’s corner was only cleared as far as Spittal on the edge of the box, he waited for the ball to drop and lashed the ball low past Rae to restore Hearts’ advantage.
The game became a little scrappy after that, as the clock ticked past 75 minutes, Spittal almost doubled his tally for the afternoon, but his free kick from the right-hand side of the penalty box flashed into the side net.
Hearts almost wrapped up the points with two minutes of normal time remaining. Substitute Kenneth Vargas cut in off the right wing and forced Rae into a smart stop, before the keeper was up quickly to deny Alan Forrest’s rebound.
Following five minutes of stoppage time, the Jambos rolled up their sleeves to dig out the three points as it finished just like it did in Perth earlier in the season, 2-1 to the men in maroon.
Hearts: Gordon, Oyegoke, Shankland © (Boyce, 90), Devlin, Rowles, Spittal (Vargas, 80), Boateng, Wilson, Penrice, Forrester, Drammeh (Forrest, 60)
Subs: Clark, Halkett, Grant, Forrest, Dhanda, Tait, Boyce, Vargas, Salazar
St Johnstone: Rae, Mikulic, Raymond (Carey, 46), Sanders, Holt © (Smith, 83), Wright, Essel (Keltjens, 83), Sidibeh, Sprangler, Kirk, Kimpioka
Subs: Sinclair, Carey, Kucheriavyi, Smith, McPake, Keltjens, Franczak, Dair, Brookfield
