Hearts 1 - 2 St Johnstone: Johansson breaks ten of Hearts

Published Date: 22 November 2009
By Martin Hannan at Tynecastle
Nade 35
Samuel 60; Johansson 86
FRUSTRATION remains the order of the day for the Tynecastle faithful as Hearts threw away a lead, saw their best defender red-carded and lost out to substitute Jonatan Johansson's late winner.

This latest home setback caused questions to be raised about the future of Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo. Amid after-match rumours that he had already quit, a club spokesman confirmed that Laszlo had a ten-minute call with owner Vladimir Romanov, but had definitely not resigned.

"It's no problem to talk with the owner," said Laszlo, "you can see the problems are out on the pitch. I need to talk to the board about the best way of stabilising us."

The Tynecastle panic buttons have been pressed, then, but make no mistake, St Johnstone won this on merit to cheer up a squad devastated by the news that the popular Martin Hardie is out for the season after damaging knee ligaments. "We have to make sure that we stay up so that he can come back as an SPL player," said manager Derek McInnes.

Hearts' injury problems are also mounting. Laszlo revealed that Andrew Driver and Marius Zaliukas will see specialists in London tomorrow.

Hearts made a bright start, and if young Gary Glen had taken his time instead of snatching at a couple of early shots, he might have made a considerable impact. Graeme Smith in the St Johnstone goal dived to punch away a dangerous Christian Nade cross before the best early chance fell to Ian Black after a dash down the left and cross by David Obua. The St Johnstone defence got back to pressurise the midfielder and his effort went wide.

Referee Stevie O'Reilly generously ruled that Kenny Grainger's pass back to Smith was accidental, but he evened things out later by not awarding a penalty for Jose Goncalves's stray boot catching Kenny Deuchar, though that incident may have stayed in the referee's mind.

It took 12 minutes for St Johnstone to create a serious chance, and Filipe Morais should have done better than fire his shot straight at Janos Balogh. It says much about the next 20-odd minutes of sterile play that Nade and opposition danger man Collin Samuel were spectators while Goncalves and Kevin Rutkiewicz led their defences manfully.

After 35 minutes, just as the match looked to be heading nowhere, Nade momentarily dropped into midfield, picked up the ball, strode forward a few paces and hammered an unstoppable shot from fully 30 yards past the despairing Smith. Encouraged, Hearts poured forward and Jason Thomson shot wide from distance while Smith pulled off a diving save from Obua.

At half-time St Johnstone sent on Kevin Moon for Chris Millar. It was a crucial tactical change by McInnes, as Moon spread the play and worked well with the tireless Jody Morris.

Then came St Johnstone's equaliser. Morais cleverly eluded Thomson and sent in a perfect cross which Samuel rose to head down past Balogh. Morais went off injured shortly afterwards, replaced by Liam Craig, and it was he who featured in the incident which changed the match. St Johnstone were already in the ascendancy, Samuel twice shooting wide and Balogh denying Morris at point-blank range, before Goncalves lost the plot in the 80th minute, lunging in with a ridiculously high boot that would have caught Craig on the forehead if it had landed. Perhaps remembering earlier when he gave Goncalves the benefit of the doubt, this time referee O'Reilly went straight for a red card.

Given Hearts' recent luck, the denouement seemed almost inevitable. As St Johnstone roared into attack, Morris sent over a high cross which Craig nodded back across goal to substitute Johansson standing where Goncalves would probably have been. With his second touch of the match, the former Rangers and Hibs striker made no mistake from close range, notching his first SPL goal in ten years.

Laszlo's ears will now surely still be ringing from his chat with Romanov. The fans' hero of last year may not have much time to turn things round.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Michael Stewart and David Obua worked hard, Christian Nade's wonder goal was special, Kevin Rutkiewicz was in commanding form but hard-working Jody Morris gets the nod.

QUICK FACT

Nade's superb strike was not a bad way to score his first goal of the season, and indeed his first in any competition since 14 February.

TALKING POINT

Jose Goncalves deserved the red card for his ludicrously high challenge on Liam Craig. He may not have made much contact but his attempted tackle was reckless in the extreme.

Taken from the Scotsman