Hearts battled to a 1-1 draw at home against Linlithgow Rose in the Lowland League on Friday night.
Substitute Owen Muirhead’s 90th minute strike earned the Jambos a point in a match where the home side had two goals disallowed for offside.
Angus Beith made five changes from the previous game against Strollers, with Gus Stevenson, Gregor Crookston, Henry James, Macaulay Tait, and Lucas Smith coming into the side.
It was a cagey opening to the game with Linlithgow controlling the possession. The Rose would strike first in the 10th minute.
Hearts goalkeeper Jack Lyon collided with a Linlithgow attacker in the box and the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty.
Dylan Paterson stepped up and dispatched the penalty into the bottom right corner which crept under the gloves of Jack Lyon.
The Jambos had their first chance of the evening on 20 minutes.
Macaulay Tait drove brilliantly from midfield and passed it through to Bobby McLuckie on the left wing who played a cut-back into the box, but it was cleared away for a corner in the end.
In the 40th minute, the Jambos were forced to make an early substitution after Gus Stevenson went down injured.
Substitute Owen Muirhead looked to have scored straight away. He was played through on the right wing and dribbled into the box before unleashing a low strike into the bottom right corner, but the linesman raised his flag for offside.
Half-time: Heart of Midlothian 0-1 Linlithgow Rose
Hearts looked to improve in the second half as they hunted for an equaliser.
On 50 minutes, Matty Gillies was played through on goal and dinked the ball over the goalkeeper and into the net, but it was ruled out for offside once again.
Minutes later, Jack Lyon was forced to make a fantastic save. The away side had a free kick from just outside the area, and the strike looked destined for the top left corner. It was picked out of the air by Lyon and cleared away by the Hearts defence.
In the 65th minute, the match was brought to a standstill after the referee pulled up with a calf injury. Following the lengthy delay, the home side looked to turn the screw.
In the 90th minute, Hearts finally got their equaliser. Owen Muirhead was played in behind the Linlithgow defence, and got down the byline before brilliantly dinking one with his left foot into the bottom right corner for 1-1.
Moments later, Muirhead had a chance to get his second and put Hearts ahead.
After some neat passing around the box, the ball was played into Muirhead just inside the area. His right footed effort sailed agonisingly over the crossbar in the end, as the match ended all square.
Speaking to the Official Hearts Website at full-time, Angus Beith said:
“I'm disappointed we didn’t win the game. I thought our second-half performance in particular was brilliant.
“We had to deal with the adversity of the referee going off and we started the second-half so well and we managed to maintain it when the game restarted, which was brilliant.
“We looked like the team that was going to win towards the end. But the most pleasing thing was the performance levels from the team, they performed at a really high level tonight and competed really well against a very good team in this league.
“We had a lot of variation in our game, we managed to go and play through them and play in between the lines and pick them off that way.”
The manager said he was happy to see Owen Muirhead get on the scoresheet.
“I’m delighted for him. We touched on it in the changing room after the game, Owen had been training with the B team initially at the beginning of the season. For the last eight weeks he’s been training with the 18s, which has been better for his development and getting game minutes.
“He’s worked really hard and has put in consistent training performances, and he’s reaped the rewards tonight and produced a great run and a brilliant finish.”
Hearts XI: Lyon, Smith, Nair ©, Stevenson (Muirhead 41’), McLuckie, Duncan, Gillies, Ross, Crookston (Hogarth 65’), James (Osborne 90’), Tait
Subs: MacDonald, Muirhead, Hogarth, Osborne
Linlithgow Rose: Binnie, Thomson, Thom ©, Skinner, Paterson, McMullan, Brown, Watson, Ogilvie, McMartin, Alan
Subs: Wallace, Rae, Sneddon, Devine, McCracken, Henderson, McDowell
