Hearts lack quality to boost bid for top-six place

Since the Clydesdale Bank Premier League was introduced in 1998, Hearts' lowest finish among the elite was sixth in that inaugural season. If they miss out this year, it will be the club's worst performance in a decade.

In order to avoid that fate, Hearts will need to perform with a great deal more flair and imagination than was evident at Love Street on Saturday. While, admittedly, a swirling wind and a bumpy pitch did nothing to promote good football, the most worrying aspect of this Hearts' display concerned how little the visitors did with their possession.

For a club with supposedly the third-highest wage bill in the top tier, it was difficult to see where the money was being spent on this blend of inexperienced youngsters and average imports. True, high earners of the calibre of Laryea Kingston, Ibrahim Tall and Christian Nade were all absent through injury, but the standard of those who came in was moderate.

George Burley, the Scotland manager, was an interested onlooker at this game – he was thought to be running the rule over Christophe Berra – and one can only guess at what he made of the changes in personnel since he left the club in the autumn of 2005. Of the players Burley took to the top of the SPL, only Robbie Neilson remained in Hearts' starting line-up on Saturday.

Up front against St Mirren, Hearts had to rely on a partnership of Calum Elliot, 21, and Jamie Mole, 19. The only alternative on the bench was Ricardas Beniusis. With Roman Bednar on loan at West Brom (a potential £2.3m move will become permanent in the summer) and both Michal Pospisil and top scorer Andrius Velicka sold this year, it's little wonder Hearts posed so little in the way of a goal threat in this game.

Elliot and Mole were both willing enough and worked hard throughout. To be fair, they combined well once after half-time when Mole broke clear on the right before supplying a decent cross which Elliott struck firmly and Chris Smith saved competently. Otherwise the eagerness of youth sorely missed the shrewdness of experience.

Andrew Driver was the pick of the wide players but he limped off before half-time after missing Hearts' best chance of the first half.

Deividas Cesnauskis made no impact on the game and Saulius Mikoliunas wasn't significantly involved until he secured an unexpected share of the spoils with a late goal.

It was a terrific piece of skill from the Lithuanian winger which earned Hearts a draw. From a corner on the left, substitute Michael Stewart cut inside and drove a hopeful low shot which was cleared by the St Mirren defence only as far as Mikoliunas on the edge of the box. He showed good composure on the ball, made space for himself with a shift of body position and then stroked a low, left-f
oot shot into the far corner of the net.

Caretaker manager Stevie Frail thought Hearts controlled the play for long stretches and deserved their point. In terms of chances created, however, St Mirren were streets ahead.

The link-up play of their strikers was productive and, on a different day, Andy Dorman's incisive runs from midfield could have been rewarded with a hat-trick.

As it was, St Mirren's goal came from Ian Maxwell's free-kick which was badly misjudged by Christos Karipidis. The big Greek defender misread the flight of the ball and allowed Craig Dargo to execute a clever cut-back which Jim Hamilton slashed past Steve Banks.

Thereafter, Dorman, who carries an echo of John Wark in the way he times his runs from midfield into the penalty box, was unfortunate not to secure all three points with a driven shot which eluded Banks only to strike the base of a post.

Taken from the Scotsman