Hearts take on Gus MacPherson’s St Mirren at Tynecastle tomorrow, looking to build on the significant victory they recorded over European rivals Aberdeen last weekend.
The other side in the trio of clubs most likely to finish in third place at the end of this season, Dundee United, travel to Pittodrie tomorrow, so the opportunity is clearly there for Hearts to put some daylight between themselves and at least one of their nearest challengers.
That therefore, makes this match against the Buddies absolutely crucial. It’s also just the sort of fixture that has always seemed to be Hearts’ achilles heel too – how many times over the years have we gone into what looked like an infinitely winnable match, the result of which would see us taking significant strides in a positive direction, only to suffer a good old-fashioned kick in the teeth? Quite a lot I would say, which probably explains why, outwith the obvious trio of the Old Firm clubs and Hibs, most Hearts fans you speak to will list the likes of St Mirren, Airdrie and Dundee as being among their least favourite teams. In fact there would likely be a lot more names thrown into that particular hat, as much to our disgust over the years most teams in the country have probably at one stage or another given us a doing when we’ve least expected it! Just one of the many pleasures of following Hearts, I suppose.
Traditionally St Mirren have always made life difficult for Hearts in matches at Tynecastle. Even in games where we’ve managed to nick all the points, I can’t think of too many occasions when we’ve given them a real doing, and given that for the most part the Buddies have tended to be hovering around the relegation area of the league, this has been a real source of frustration for those Hearts fans expecting a straight forward home victory. I can remember Saints goalkeepers like Campbell Money, Les Fridge and more recently Tony Bullock playing some absolute blinders against us to allow their team to plunder unlikely points from this fixture, so I’m hoping that their current number one doesn’t choose tomorrow to have a similarly ‘daft day’, to quote former Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh (*shudder*!).
While Hearts do have the ability to win comfortably tomorrow, I would be surprised if this isn’t another closely fought and fairly tense struggle. For all Gus MacPherson’s faults (his PR is right out of the Jimmy Calderwood school of diplomacy for example), he does tend to have his teams extremely well-drilled, particularly when facing teams higher up the league away from home. I wouldn’t expect there to be a great deal of space out there, so it’s probably going to require some craft from the likes of Driver, Aguiar or even Obua to open up our opponents, or perhaps even a well-executed set-piece, which would be nice for a change!
The previous two meetings between the sides this season have ended in victories for the Jam Tarts, but both were very much like what I’m predicting for tomorrow. Hearts won by a single goal on both occasions but had to fight all the way to grind out the points, particularly in the last game at Love Street when they were down to ten men for most of the 90 minutes. So Csaba and his players will know that they’re in for a stern test tomorrow.
Personally I’d quite happily settle for another scrappy 1-0 win courtesy of a late Eggert Jonsson header……
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In keeping with 80% of all SPL matches this season, it’ll most likely either be a draw or a one-goal win for someone !!