Hearts 0 - 1 St Mirren

Scorer: McGinn (16)

Hearts plummet down the Clydesdale Bank Premier League at the same rate as their owner's plunging popularity.

Vladimir Romanov was not at Tynecastle to witness this latest setback - presumably home resting his feet after winning Lithuania's Celebrity Come Dancing. In his absence the Hearts players and faceless board members bore the brunt of the home fans' ire during and after this defeat to St Mirren, who eased their relegation woes while dragging their opponents further into trouble.

Hearts have now won just once in 10 matches and this defeat, coupled with Kilmarnock's victory over Hibernian, saw them tumble down to 10th place in the table, just a point ahead of the Paisley side, who have a game in hand. Against a limited St Mirren team without a win in their last seven league games, Hearts seemed unable or unwilling to summon any Boxing Day fight.
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A Christian Nade volley straight at Chris Smith was the total of their endeavour in the opening 45 minutes and they fared little better after the break. While his players held a private meeting to try to find solutions, Stevie Frail, Hearts' assistant coach, again did his best honestly to analyse his side's fraught situation.

"We had not enough fight nor commitment, we didn't play and everyone was nervous," he said. "We're in a relegation battle. If we think we are too good to go down then that will make it even harder.

"We're in a real dogfight and we deserve to be in it. But it's not just about the players. It goes right to the very top and things are clearly not going the way they should."

As a sanctuary for the disenfranchised, Tynecastle has few equals. Despite the restoration of two local favourites to the team - Steve Banks, in goal for the suspended Eduardas Kurskis, and Ibrahim Tall in central defence - the abuse tumbled from the stands even before Stephen McGinn had prodded the visitors in front after 16 minutes.

Frail continued frantically to shout desperate instructions from the touchline while Michael Stewart, often Hearts' most dynamic midfielder, sat in the dugout alongside him, free from suspension and yet curiously not in the starting XI.

For St Mirren, a solid three in central midfield proved an impenetrable barricade to Hearts' timorous thrusts forward, while in attack Billy Mehmet and Stewart Kean motored about purposefully if with little end product.

The only goal of the game was nicely worked and as out of the place in this brutal encounter as a snowman with a suntan. Ian Maxwell ambled forward from defence and his deep cross found McGinn in splendid isolation. The midfielder took one touch before finishing crisply for his third St Mirren goal.

"We feel he's a threat going forward as he times his runs into the opposition box very well," said Gus MacPherson, the manager. "I felt our play merited the three points."

Stewart's introduction four minutes after the restart - perhaps someone remembered at half-time that the transfer window soon reopens - sparked a revival of sorts, but St Mirren still had the better chances.

Banks plunged bravely to the floor to deny first Kean and then Mehmet before blocking McGinn's volley after the midfielder had again been left unattended at the back post.

At the other end, Smith, in the St Mirren goal, had been called upon so infrequently he could have swung a hammock between his posts and enjoyed a festive doze.

He was finally called into action around the hour mark, touching Michal Pospisil's header over, but that was Hearts' last hurrah.

"We're sh*te and we know we are," lamented the home support. Few disagreed.

Hearts
Banks; Neilson, Tall, Berra, Wallace; Ivaskevicius (Mikoliunas 49), Jonsson (Stewart 49), Palazuelos, Driver; Nade (Pospisil 60), Velicka. Subs: Basso, Elliot, Goncalves, Zaliukas
Booked Velicka 72, Neilson 73

St Mirren
Smith; van Zanten, Potter, Maxwell; Reid, Mason, McGinn, Burke (Murray 65), Miranda; Mehmet, Kean (Corcoran 90). Subs: Howard, Brady, Dargo, Molloy, McCay
Booked Smith, McGinn

Referee I Brines

Taken from the Herald