Hearts 2nd half spirit earns narrow 3-2 win

Sometimes, supporting Hearts feels like a burden you`ve been lumbered with for life, where brief highlights are soon replaced by mediocrity and disappointment – like the lacklustre performances of the past few weeks, just at a time when fans were hoping the team could stay close to the Old Firm after all the good work of the previous 3 months.

Today’s first-half performance was a perfect example, where the 2nd bottom team showed more desire and creativity than Hearts. The first 20 minutes alone saw St. Mirren produce 5 great scoring opportunities – 1 hit the bar, 1 was fluffed embarrassingly by Higdon from 3 yards, 2 produced great saves from Kello, and the other gave the visitors the lead.

Actually, I felt that the St. Mirren man who headed a free-kick back across goal for Higdon to knock in had fouled Andy Webster – but no-one could deny that the visitors were by far the better team.

The boos from the home fans which greeted the half-time whistle were fully justified. It had been a truly awful display from Hearts – with poor passing, judgement, ball control and movement being shown by the same players who had been dominating opponents a couple of months ago. David Obua and Adrian Mrowiec were probably the worst of the bunch, yet the thought of the Ugandan being replaced at half-time by Gary Glen was hardly inspiring. So I was pleasantly surprised to see these 2 replaced by Scott Robinson and Andrew Driver. Within minutes of the restart, it was clear that Hearts were getting more of the ball and becoming a decent attacking threat – with the 2 newcomers prominent.

A good run down the left by Driver allowed Palazuelos to deliver a fine cross which Skacel met, but his decent header was cushioned by a deflection. Then our Czech hero conjured up what he is best at – a left-foot drive from 25 yards into the corner of the net, after he had supported a good passing move through the middle.

When Stephen Elliott narrowly missed deflecting a Templeton drive into the net, we hoped Hearts would get the next goal. Sadly, it was Higdon who restored the visitor`s lead when he battled to win the ball outside the box and produced a fine shot on the turn into Kello`s top right corner. With Hearts having struggled to score goals recently, it would be a real test for the team to get even a point out of this match now, surely.

Templeton had to go off injured, replaced by Ryan Stevenson – and he proved to be a real handful for the St. Mirren defence as he played alongside Stephen Elliott. Rudi Skacel produced a wonderful overhead kick from 15 yards following another good Driver pass – but keeper Gallacher made a fantastic save. Then in 83 minutes, Stevenson showed good awareness to get on the end of a flick-on from a throw-in to fire in Hearts equaliser. A point was probably as much as Hearts deserved, but they were finishing the game as the better team – could they find a winning goal ? Well, it came in injury-time thanks to some clever anticipation from Rudi Skacel when he fired in a loose ball from close range after bit of a scramble in the goalmouth.

All 3 substitutes deserve a mention. Scott Robinson did very well, and reminded me of what David Templeton was like 6 months ago – full of running and clever short passes. Andrew Driver showed glimpses of his former self (at long last) with some good runs down the left, while Stevenson battled up front much more effectively than Obua had done. The full-backs Craig Thomson and Ruben Palazuelos were much more composed in the 2nd half, while Andy Webster caught the eye with a confident performance in defence.

Hearts were again without Kyle and Wallace, with Suso and Jonsson also missing. With a gap of 2 weeks now until the Easter Road derby, let`s hope the injuries to Suso and Wallace clear up to allow them to play. That 2nd half performance today at least gives us hope that the team can get back to a style of play (and spirit) which is expected from the SPL 3rd place team.