Engaging affair sets up a Valentine's Day tryst

HEARTS and St Johnstone supporters now have the best part of a week to persuade their significant others that McDiarmid Park is an appropriate venue for a Valentine's Day date.

Neither side was able to win their William Hill Scottish Cup fifth round tie at the first attempt yesterday, meaning they will need to do it all again in Perth in eight days' time. Who needs chocolates, roses or fancy restaurants when there's Scottish football to be watched?

Both clubs will be in the hat for this afternoon's quarter-final draw at Hampden but both harboured grievances at not being there alone. Paulo Sergio, the Hearts manager, was unhappy with his side's second-half performance, as well as the decision by referee Craig Thomson not to award Hearts a penalty when the home side were already a goal to the good and on the sniff for a second. Sergio has previous with the Scottish Football Association's disciplinary department so not surprisingly chose his words carefully when asked about the decision not to penalise St Johnstone's Dave Mackay for handball. "I don't want to get myself in trouble," said the Portuguese. "But I think it's clear it was a penalty."

Sergio was even more taciturn surrounding the omission of Marian Kello, the goalkeeper left out of the squad by the Hearts hierarchy apparently for not agreeing to move to Austria Vienna on deadline day. His manager described it as "a political thing, not up to me to explain it" but was expecting to have to do without the Slovak again in Wednesday's league match against Celtic unless the issue can be resolved before then.

The decision to send off Mackay for a second yellow card after 58 minutes united both managers, even if for disparate reasons. Steve Lomas, the St Johnstone manager, felt the decision to dismiss his player for a high boot on Hearts' David Templeton was unfair. "I would like Craig Thomson and his assessors to explain that one to me," he said. "If someone's kicking the ball over their shoulder how can that be deemed dangerous play? He's not got eyes in the back of his head."

Sergio's gripe was that Thomson's decision to halt play denied Hearts the opportunity of breaking away on a four versus one counter attack. The Portuguese did not save his criticism just for the match officials, however. He was also disappointed with his side's display after the break, when they failed to add to Templeton's early goal and then conceded an equaliser not long after St Johnstone had gone down to 10 men.

In truth, a draw was probably the fairest outcome. An insipid first half – notable only for Templeton's fine early strike –gave way to a cracking cup tie after the break, with both teams committed to attack and not holding back in the tackle either. St Johnstone undoubtedly benefited from Lomas' decision to introduce Cillian Sheridan at half-time and switch to a more attack-minded 4-4-2 shape. They could have won the tie before the end – Fran Sandaza was surprisingly lax in attack – but Lomas took his own share of the blame.

"It would have been a travesty of justice of we had gone out the cup today," said the Northern Irishman. "But I was wrong in the first half. It was my fault for changing the system."

Within 50 seconds of the half-time change Sheridan had made an impact, sending in an enticing cross that Sandaza headed against the Hearts crossbar. St Johnstone forced a number of corners, Murray Davidson scooped a chance over the crossbar, Liam Craig fired in a long-range effort that was parried by Jamie MacDonald, and all of a sudden we had a proper cup tie.

Just four minutes after Mackay's dismissal, Sheridan turned out to be the man to earn St Johnstone a replay. A poor touch from substitute Mehdi Taouil, seconds after coming on, gave Sandaza possession and his pass was dispatched beyond MacDonald clinically by Sheridan. "He's got every attribute to be a top, top player," said Lomas.

Taken from the Herald