Hearts thrive under Sergio

Published Date: 17 September 2011
By Barry Anderson

Hearts 2, St Mirren 0

Jamie Hamill's penalty, awarded after Marius Zaliukas was tripped by Ilias Haddad, opened the scoring shortly before the interval. Lee Mair's own goal concluded the win and maintained Hearts' encouraging sequence of form in recent weeks.

With Andy Webster sustaining an injury during the pre-match warm-up, Hearts were forced to alter their starting line-up. Eggert Jonsson was promoted from the substitutes' bench into central midfield, Adrian Mrowiec dropped into defence and John Sutton filled the void amongst the subs.

St Mirren were first to threaten when McGowan's through ball ricocheted off the knee of striker Steven Thompson into the path of his namesake midfielder, Steven Thomson. His 22-yard drive arced towards the top corner but was no serious threat to the Hearts goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald.

As Hearts settled into their passing rhythm, the visitors played primarily on the counter-attack. Ryan Stevenson unleashed an effort from distance which Craig Samson pushed over his crossbar. However, there was a lucky escape for the Edinburgh club on 32 minutes. Haddad nodded Gary Teale's free-kick back across the face of goal with no visiting player on hand for what would have been a simple touch into an empty net.

Hearts converted their territorial dominance into a 1-0 advantage two minutes from the interval. Stevenson played Danny Grainger's pass first-time into the path of Zaliukas and the Lithuanian ventured into the penalty area before being taken down by Haddad. Hamill stroked the ball to Samson's left from 12 yards to secure a vital advantage at the interval. Indeed, David Obua ought to have made it 2-0 after capitalising on Lee Mair's dreadful pass across his own penalty box. His shot on the run was repelled by the diving Samson.

There was little sign of St Mirren emerging from their shell much in the second half either. Hearts continued monopolising possession without managing to cut through their resistant opponents. All that was required was one dangerous delivery to finish the match as a contest, which Grainger supplied. His left-footed cross was attacked by Stevenson and appeared to come off Mair before rolling past Samson. With that, Hearts could relax.

They closed the game out in professional fashion and Sergio even introduced the out-of-favour John Sutton and young Scott Robinson before the end. They helped see out the 90 minutes and secure a deserved three points for their team.

Hearts (4-3-1-2): MacDonald; Hamill, Mrowiec, Zaliukas, Grainger; Black (Robinson 88), Jonsson, Obua; Taouil (Templeton 80); S Elliott (Sutton 84), Stevenson. Subs: Balogh, Novikovas, Skacel, G Smith.

St Mirren (4-2-3-1): Samson; Van Zanten (McShane 74), Haddad, Mair, Tesselaar; Goodwin, Teale; Thomson, McGowan (McLean 58), Hasselbaink (McKee 58); Thompson. Subs: Smith, Barron, McAusland, Carey.

Referee: Charlie Richmond.
Attendance: 12,572.

Taken from the Scotsman