Stewart sins but Saints fail

UGLY, INTEMPERATE but mostly banal. Hearts, deservedly depleted, scored with the only real chance of the game for either side, a glancing header against the run of play. It was their last visit to Love Street before it is demolished and it was a profitable one.

St Mirren, with half the match to use their numerical superiority against 10 men, tried to make their advantage count, but failed to break down a resilient defence or even warm the fingers of Janos Balogh. Indeed, they did not have one shot on target in the whole game and neither their adventurous formation nor use of all three substitutes could alter the game's course.

The goal came from an accurately delivered free-kick on the right by Andy Driver, Eggert Jonsson heading mightily from a thicket of heads and challenges. The free-kick had been won by Robbie Neilson, whose charge was illegally terminated. It was the substitute's first appearance since an injury in April. His dynamism proved decisive, and not just in attack - he was, like his fellow members of the Hearts backline, unimpeachable.
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This victory was built on that defence. Both Jonsson, pressed into service as an emergency central stalwart, and Christophe Berra won nearly everything aerially and their blocking was superb.

St Mirren brought on Jim Hamilton to challenge in the air and although he did manage to win a header or two he was so much under stress that he could not deliver the ball to any of his cohorts.

There was incident in the first half, none of it, however, edifying.

Hearts' midfielder Michael Stewart left the field, correctly, five minutes before the break after a swipe at Hugh Murray and an interminable wait for justice. Once more referee Mike McCurry was involved in controversy. He did not see the offence, neither did the stand-side assistant and it took the fourth official, after three or four minutes of dithering inaction, to brief the main official who, belatedly, produced the red card.

Stewart is not the kind of lad whose drink-holding arm you'd risk nudging of an evening. He needs no real trigger to react and he could have no complaints about his dismissal. Against a better side his action would have lost his team the game. He was tackled by Murray and whether contact was clean or not he first swung a leg at the opposing player and, when that failed to make contact, he pushed him over. Murray, on his knees, held his hands up imploringly but McCurry ignored him and trotted into the box for a corner to Hearts.

At that point the referee might have noticed Bobby Madden, the only one of the four arbiters to spot the offence, waving and shouting to him about his miss but it took him a long time to pay attention and to act. The red card adds to Stewart's four yellows this season.

Gus MacPherson, the St Mirren manager, was sure it was a righteous sending-off having viewed the TV replay. Csaba Laszlo, the Hearts man, effected the myopia which normally strikes managers when their players sin. His post-match soliloquy was epic, bettered only by the fishing boats and sardines one from Eric Cantona.

Post dismissal the Hearts fans took up the ritual cheat chant, presumably against Murray, or perhaps McCurry and his officials, which was the height of hypocrisy as their player, Saulius Mikoliunas, had performed his infamous collapsing manoeuvre earlier. The Lithuanian's reputation will never recover from his dive just over a year ago for his country against Scotland. It will take him a time to recover, too, from the clash he came off second best in against John Potter which saw him substituted with a knee injury. In the last match at Love Street in March the two were again jousting, this time the defender was withdrawn after a spectacular attempt at an overhead kick connected with his face.

MacPherson brought on his three substitutes in the second half but failed to pierce the redoubt, and the home side were punished for their profligacy after Neilson escaped down the right flank and was brought to earth.

Taken from the Sunday Herald