St Mirren 0 Hearts 0

But once again no word from Hearts.

The Tynecastle side came closest to scoring in a New St Mirren Park stalemate, but the Buddies were the better side and could easily have won.

Despite the lack of goals there were plenty of conversation topics from a brighter game than the scoreline might suggest.

Hearts sub David Obua rattled the woodwork with a drive two minutes from time which hit the inside of Craig Samson's post then zipped across the goalline and stayed out.

At the other end Marian Kello made great saves from Paul McGowan, Graham Carey and sub Nigel Hasselbaink, Marius Zaliukas blocked Kenny McLean's volley and Stevie Thompson hit the bar with a flying effort.

The St Mirren manager and players were perfectly happy to talk about the game.

So why are Hearts somehow so special they don't have to?

The Tynecastle side adopting a policy of not speaking to the media — a dictat strictly adhered to on Saturday — prevents us pesky reporters asking awkward questions, such as; Why did manager Paulo Sergio go off like a Catherine Wheel on the touchline against Kilmarnock last week? Is there going to be a January firesale of big earners? Why can't Ian Black tackle anyone without a yellow or red card inevitably following? Does John Sutton still exist? And why do players' wages show up three weeks late?

Hearts may think withdrawing media access is a clever way of circumnavigating having to answer these testing questions.

But someone at the club should be either brave or bright enough to point out that a vow of silence is doing a disservice to one of the most loyal supports in the country.

The Hearts fans trailed along the M8 in decent numbers, making up just under 1,000 of the 4,771 crowd, and you suspect they want more information than the sanitised Vladspeak on the club's website.

Hearts don't have to speak to people, of course. Free world and all that. But if they choose not to, why aren't they being brought to book for their stance? It's there in the SPL's list of Media Guidelines: 'Each club must provide one manager/coach and one player to attend a post-match press conference'.

Couldn't be much plainer.

Yet Hearts seem able to drive a coach and horses through it with nary a word of reprimand.

SPL big cheese Neil Doncaster, below, is plenty good at firing out blogs giving his views on a wide range of topics. Not a peep from him about one of his biggest clubs laughing in his organisation's face.

The Hearts support have every right to want answers to the questions about what's going on at Tynecastle.

Regardless of their club's stance about the media, can anyone honestly say, after six wins in his 16 games in charge, that Hearts are any better under Sergio than they were under Jim Jefferies?

They started with a converted midfielder, Ryan Stevenson, in attack, and ended with Rudi Skacel up front with Stevenson wide on the right.

Skacel is called many things but 'hard-working' is seldom one of them and he did nothing to change anyone's viewpoint.

The banished Sutton may not be the universal panacea, but he is at least a striker, albeit one seemingly condemned to Gorgie oblivion.

St Mirren went into the game having lost five of their last seven games against Hearts, but they looked the likelier.

Boss Danny Lennon said: "Give the players great credit, they never seem to tire. They always seem to finish games looking very strong.

"We deserved something from the game. I'm disappointed it wasn't the three points, but this club hasn't taken anything from Hearts in a few years, so it shows we're heading in the right direction."

Paul McGowan, who had provided plenty of telling and clever touches, was an odd choice to be subbed.

But Lennon said: "Credit to Hearts. They'd done their homework and knew who our influential players were. We didn't want to be hit by a sucker-punch.

"Jim Goodwin gives us everything he has, but sometimes late on he needs a helping hand and you sacrifice players to accommodate that."