Heart of Midlothian v St Johnstone

Hearts long unbeaten run came to an end as well as their hopes of Scottish Cup glory in a disappointing evening at Tynecastle in front of a crowd of 6,261.

After frozen pipes forced the postponement of Sunday's tie both teams knew the winner would go on to face Falkirk or Partick Thistle at home in the 5th round with a great chance to progress to the quarter-finals.

Jim Jefferies made three changes from the New Years Day victory over rivals Hibernian. Rudi Skacel, David Templeton and Calum Elliot made way for Ryan Stevenson, Arvydas Novikovas and Stephen Elliott while Jamie MacDonald kept his place in goal.

The game took on a pre-season feel with the home fans situated in the Main and Gorgie Stands and the Saintees supporters tucked into the corner of the Roseburn stand. The Wheatfield stand sat completely empty apart from a handful of ball boys.

With the players' voices clearly audible the Perth Saints started the game brightly pinning the home side back with Jody Morris marshalling the team from his midfield role with his familiar swagger.

The home side's first attempt at goal came in the 13th minute when Ryan Stevenson drove from midfield to latch onto a Kyle knock-down only to drag his shot past the far post from the edge of the box.

An Eggert Jonsson throw-in from the right found Kyle in the box after 17 minutes as the Jambos began to insert pressure on the Saints backline. The big number nine spun his marker and fired in a shot from a tight angle which was blocked by the Finn, Peter Enckelman, in goals.

Only a minute later and Hearts' danger man Novikovas picked the ball up on the left and travelled nearly 50 yards into the box leaving the Saints defence in his wake but his left footed drive whistled past the post.

Just before the half time interval the away side came close to scoring not once, but twice. Firstly Sam Parkin made space for himself 20 yards from goal as he collected a cross and in the same movement sent a volley just past the left hand post of Jamie Macdonald's goal. Less than a minute later the nemesis of Scottish Cup past, Colin Samuel, brought a sprawling safe from MacDonald after a defensive mistake allowed him to get a header in on goal.

As with the first half Saints were first to impose themselves after the break with both Parkin and Samuel causing the Jambos backline problems with their height and pace respectively.

Hearts struggled to get any real rhythm to their play as Saints continued to press the home side into mistakes and right-back Dave Mackay will feel he could have done a lot better with a back post header after 52 minutes. A deep cross alluded everyone except Mackay who seemed to be caught in two minds as he sent his free header back across the face of goal with no one there.

Only seconds later a free-kick caused trouble in the Saints backline as Enckelman failed to collect the cross and Danny Grainger almost put a header into his own net as it went for a corner.

The game began to open up as Hearts went to 4-4-2 as Obua and Templeton came on to replace Kyle and Black. But it was the away side to trouble first. Samuel raced away from Zaliukas to reach a through ball. But a heavy touch took him away from goal and a weak shot was easy for MacDonald to gather.

With just over an hour played Obua had a miss to rivals Glen's against Hibs as he scooped the ball over from six yards with the goal at his mercy. Novikovas and Palazuelos played a neat one-two on the half way line with the latter going forward to play in Elliott who in turn rolled the ball across the box only for Obua to miss.

The game was flowing back and forth as both teams looked to finish the game on the night. The home sides defence was all over the place as the long-haired substitute Steven May went through on goal and looked likely to break the deadlock only for Eggert Jonsson to make a last ditch challenge taking the ball of the youngsters toe.

Up the other end Enckelman again failed to deal with a crossed ball but Templeton seen his flick blocked by Duberry.

Disaster struck with four minutes left as Hearts once again could not deal with a long ball and substitute Peter MacDonald wriggled free of Ismael Bouzid to slide a right footed shot past namesake Jamie to send the small army of travelling fans into raptures and onto the trackside.

Three minutes of injury time were signalled and with almost the last kick off the ball Stephen Elliott pounced on a loose ball eight yards from goal. His right-footed attempt looked to be heading into the corner of the net but Peter Enckelman stretched to his left and pushed the ball away to seal the Perth sides victory.

Hearts: MacDonald; Jonsson, Zaliukas, Bouzid, Palazuelos; Mrowiec, Black (Templeton 59), Stevenson; Novikovas (C.Elliot 75), S Elliott; Kyle (Obua 57). Subs not used: Kello, C Thomson.

St Johnstone: Enckelman; Mackay, Grainger, Duberry, Anderson; Millar, Craig, Davidson, Morris; Samuel (May 66) Parkin (MacDonald 78). Subs not used: Smith, Maybury, Caddis.

Referee: Iain Brines

Top man: Ryan Stevenson

Hearts World