Saints come good to grab replay chance

Ten-man St Johnstone dug deep to stay in the Scottish Cup after fighting back to earn a deserved draw in Edinburgh.

By Eric Nicolson

Scottish Cup semi-final disappointment still weighs heavy on St Johnstone minds
Manager has no doubts Sandaza and Morris will continue to give 100% for St Johnstone

The Perth side were out of sorts in the first half and went behind to a David Templeton goal, but were vastly improved in the second period and levelled through Cillian Sheridan shortly after Dave Mackay had been sent off.

The teams will now go again in the replay next Tuesday night at McDiarmid Park.

Lomas made one change to the side which lost at Motherwell last weekend, with David Robertson replacing Marcus Haber. That also meant a tweak to the formation, with Saints lining up 4-5-1. It didn't work and Lomas admitted as much.

He said: ''Probably in the first half I was wrong. We allowed them too much possession but I changed the system at half-time and I asked for a reaction. That's exactly what I got.

''In the end, we had four or five great chances and it was one-way traffic before Dave Mackay was sent off.

"I never doubt the boys' fighting spirit. It's a great trait and there's no coaching session that can give you that. It comes from within.

"It would have been a travesty if we went out today.''

Opposite number Paulo Sergio didn't begrudge Saints the replay.

He pointed out: ''I'm not pleased with our performance. We should have done better when we were playing against 10 men, and maybe St Johnstone deserve the second game.''

The teams spent the first five minutes sizing each other up and Ian Black was the first to try a shot, but his 30-yarder didn't trouble Peter Enckelman.

Moments later, Murray Davidson let fly from a similar distance at the other end. It was a better-struck effort but the looping volley didn't have enough height to get over Jamie MacDonald.

On 10 minutes, Ryan McGowan fired an angled shot in from the left and Enckelman did well to smother it, with the Hearts strikers ready to pounce if he had spilled it.

Just seconds later, though, the Finnish international was beaten from a similar position.

On this occasion, Templeton was allowed to cut inside on to his right foot and his low shot found the net past the keeper's right hand to give Hearts an early lead.

Lomas couldn't have been happy with what he was seeing from the main stand at this point, and he made his way to the touchline earlier than he usually does.

Hearts kept piling on the pressure and this time it came from down their right. Scott Robinson drove to the byeline and his dangerous cut-back was gathered by an alert Enckelman.

On 17 minutes Robertson clattered into Templeton and was given a yellow card.

Two minutes later, Lee Croft found himself in a good crossing position high up the pitch but his ball into the danger area was cut out by Andy Webster.

After 20 minutes, Lomas summoned Sheridan back to the dug-out from his warm-up behind the goal and it looked like the Irishman was about to be brought on, but the substitution didn't happen.

Sandaza had a rare chance just after the half-hour mark but he misconnected with a left-foot shot from six yards after being set up by Robertson.

This was by far Saints' best spell of the match so far. On 32 minutes, when Craig crossed from the left, Sandaza and Marius Zaliukas battled for the ball in the box.

It looked like it might break for the former Dundee United man after their coming together, but Zaliukas was just able to get off the ground to head back to MacDonald at full stretch.

Hearts came close to extending their lead on 43 minutes when the ever-dangerous Templeton set up Robinson, only for the youngster to make a poor connection and make the save for Enckelman an easy one.

Murray Davidson became the second Saint to be booked, just before the break, for dissent.

At half-time Lomas made the substitution he had contemplated in the first period, sending on Sheridan for Robertson.

The change had an immediate impact. Just seconds after the re-start the former Celtic man burst down the left and crossed for Sandaza, whose header smacked the crossbar when he really should have scored.

The Perth men followed up this near-miss with a few minutes camped in the Hearts half, and they were beginning to look more like their usual selves.

On 52 minutes, Craig laid the ball back from the byeline and Murray Davidson charged on to it but couldn't keep his shot down. Seconds later Craig took the direct route to goal and blasted in a 35-yard shot which MacDonald punched away.

On 58 minutes, Hearts appealed for a penalty after the ball looked as if it struck Mackay's hand, but it wasn't given.

An excellent Saints move on 60 minutes ended up with Croft crossing to Sandaza but his first time shot was a poor effort.

Mackay was booked shortly after for dissent. He was swiftly followed into referee Craig Thomson's book by Lee Croft, who was very unlucky as, if anything, he was body checked by Black rather than the other way round.

On 68 minutes, Templeton did well to get a cross over from a tight space on the left.

He picked out Stephen Elliot just past the far post but the angle was too tight for the striker to beat Enckelman with his header.

All the good Hearts moves were flowing through their winger Templeton and he sent over another teasing cross which Elliot was just short of connecting with.

Black was booked on 72 minutes for speaking back to Thomson.

The card-happy referee controversially sent off Mackay on 74 minutes when he caught Templeton with a high kick. But it was highly debatable whether the Saints full-back even knew he was there. Lomas certainly thought he didn't.

He said: ''He hooked the ball over his shoulder and couldn't see the player. He doesn't have eyes in the back of his head. How can that be dangerous play?''

Hamill was booked in 77 minutes — yet again for dissent.

Soon after, Sandaza split the Hearts back four, who tried to play offside. Sheridan was one-on-one with MacDonald and he coolly slotted the ball past the keeper to level.

Saints nearly grabbed a winner when Sandaza found Croft, but he couldn't get a shot away. Then it took a last-ditch tackle by Webster to thwart Sandaza.

The play was racing from end to end in the dying stages and Templeton went on a mazy run which ended up with a shot straight at Enckelman.

Sheridan believes the second-half fightback will inspire Saints in the replay.

He said: ''We came together in the second half. Going down to 10 men tests your team spirit but that's never been an issue for us. I don't want to be too greedy and say we should have won but to come back like that will give us confidence next week.''

Attendance — 9,185.

Taken from The Courier