St Mirren 0-1 Hearts

Published: Today

IT WAS a day for honouring fallen comrades who went over the top to inspire others.

But that’s enough about Michael Stewart’s role here.

It was also the afternoon when we stood in silence for the dead of two world wars.

So at least Love Street basked in one bit of goodwill.

The rest was all a bit unpleasant, a bit messy, even a bit vindictive.

Lest we forget, though, it was also a bit good in the end for Hearts.

And maybe that’s why coach Csaba Laszlo shouldn’t be fining red-card idiot Stewart for leaving his mates with a mountain to climb — but THANKING him.

Because in a situation where his platoon was already ravaged, the Romanian suddenly saw a new fight in his troops, a willingness to fix bayonets that had been missing for weeks.

Before Stewart took a flakey and leapt into Hugh Murray, the Jambos were going nowhere.

They were being passed to death, making as much of an impact on the Saints as they had on Celtic six days earlier.

After the mind-blowing confusion of his eventual dismissal?

They bound together, developed a cunning plan. They drove the home crowd mental with their constant willingness to go down like they’d been snipered.

But they simply never looked like losing.

When Eggert Jonsson — played out of position at centre-half because of injuries and suspensions — nodded a 78th minute winner, it was no smash-and-grab job.

A goal had been coming for ten, 15 minutes before the Icelander got his head to the terrific Andy Driver’s free-kick.

The depressing thing for St Mirren is that they knew it, too.

They had everything in their favour after Stewart walked three minutes before the break.

Boss Gus MacPherson made three attacking changes — yet his team created just ONE decent chance, bobbled wide by top scorer Billy Mehmet just after half-time.

They patiently started what seemed like hundreds of moves from the back. Yet long before the end, they’d run right out of ideas for how to break the opposition down.

In the end, it was Laszlo who had all the answers.

And thankfully for Hearts, they were a lot simpler than the ones he gives in his post-match interviews.

The way he talks — and talks and talks — it would be easy to switch off. You could ask him a question, go off and re-tile the bathroom and by the time you came back he’d still be answering it.

But stick with him, stay tuned and you’ll find a man with a real football brain, a real depth of knowledge and a real desire to improve day by day, game by game.

The full text of his assessment runs longer than Obama’s victory speech. So here are the highlights.

He said: “Everything was not fantastic, but we had players on the field with character and spirit.

“A lot of people talk about problems, but I prefer to talk about solutions. Who wants to follow people who have only problems, but no solutions?

“That’s why I could stand here and talk for two hours after things like the red card, but that gets us nowhere. What matters is how you react to situations and we did that really well.

“What I find the more I am here is that I am listening and I am hearing, but making my own decisions.

“When I came here, people said we had no right-back. But Eggert Jonsson has proved a really promising player, Jason Thomson has come in after no one even spoke of him and Robbie Neilson has played his first game for me and shown he is also good wide on the right.

“People also tell me that Mikey Stewart, Rueben Palazuelos and Bruno Aguiar can’t play in the same midfield. But, despite what happened to Mikey, I now see they can.

“If you want me to talk about emotions, it’s hard for me to put them into words. But if you want me to talk about positives, then there are so many.”

Let’s be honest, when you have a gaffer who can even see yet another red card for one of his main men as a positive, you’re dealing with a pretty special kind of bloke.

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As for the guy who earned that red card?

Sorry, Michael. But we’re dealing with a pretty special kind of problem here.

That’s three sendings off in less than a year to go with 18 yellows in two-and-a-half seasons.

So many caused by an attitude you couldn’t penetrate with a pneumatic drill.

Five seconds before this latest offence, he was running away from Murray and spreading the play so calmly he was almost lost in his own cigar smoke.

Yet because Murray refused to give up, because he delivered a little nip to the heels, Stewart became shrouded in red mist, hurling a boot, an elbow and everything else into a challenge that could only bring one decision.

The fact that it took nearly three minutes to make that decision will go down as one of THE great football farces.

Mike McCurry wasn’t to blame. Like a lot of people he was following the ball. But the fact his assistants George Middleton and Derek Rose failed to help him out is scandalous.

One of them must have seen what happened. Yet both blanked him.

So we had this mess where Hearts are waiting to take a corner, Murray’s being lectured for complaining, Jack Ross and Christian Nade are having to be pulled apart — and, finally, fourth official Bobby Madden’s getting the ref’s attention to tell him what Stewart did.

What I can’t work out is why he didn’t just tell him right away.

Murray said: “I was tracking Michael and caught his foot by accident. He’s had a lunge, a bit of a kick out at me.

“I said that to the referee but he said he hadn’t seen it. But the fourth official has come out. You have to applaud him for taking responsibility.”

It’s time for Michael Stewart to do the same.