Hearts 2 St Mirren 2

From GARETH LAW at Tynecastle
Published: 10th March 2012
THEY were decisions that might have seen him blow up.
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Paulo Sergio insists he would rather deal with them than having machines referee games.

Hearts striker Craig Beattie had already marked his first start by cancelling out Graham Carey's opener.

When he had the ball in the back of the net again on the stroke of half-time he looked up to see assistant Gary Cheyne wrongly flagging for offside.

Then, after Rudi Skacel had put the Jambos in front, Nigel Hasselbaink sent Ian Black tumbling before firing a shot which deflected in off Marius Zaliukas to snatch Saints a draw.

It put Sergio's hopes of a first Hampden day out on the park on hold after twice visiting the national stadium on disciplinary charges.

He picked his words carefully afterwards and sighed: "We don't win anything by talking about that.

"I have to accept there were mistakes. We all make mistakes and have to live with them, I don't want to criticise the match officials.

"I believe it's better like this than having machines refereeing the games.

"As for what happened with Black? I won't talk about this but you have a responsibility to write it because everyone saw what happened to him. He was returning to his position and the St Mirren player grabbed him.

"I thought the foul for the free-kick they scored from was too soft as well."

Until Hasselbaink's 84th minute leveller, Skacel had looked like being the curse of the Buddies once more after bagging two hat-tricks against them in two seasons.

He'd stepped off the bench to replace the hopeless Adrian Mrowiec before the break then nodded Hearts in front from Beattie's cross three minutes into the second half.

It all added up to a dramatic 90 minutes of football, although it hadn't looked that way before kick-off.

Tynecastle hardly had the feel of a big Cup tie, with the lowest home crowd of the season inside and a broken PA system meaning the eerie atmosphere couldn't even be masked by blaring out tunes.

Jambos made four changes to the side who won at Ibrox last time out, the major one being Beattie getting his first start.

Home fans cheered just 40 seconds in when a "Testing, one two three" boomed out as the speakers sprung to life.

They weren't able to say the same about their team as St Mirren bossed things for the first half hour.

Just six minutes in Black played the ball straight to Steven Thompson who fed Paul McGowan.

He sent Gary Teale scampering down the right and when he centred Thompson could only shoot straight at Jamie MacDonald.

Moments later Teale was claiming for a penalty when Thompson's attempt fell to his feet and his shot smashed off Danny Grainger's hand.

While Grainger couldn't get out of the way his hands were in an unnatural position but ref Stevie O'Reilly waved play on. Mrowiec is usually the steady head the Jambos depend on in front of the back four but the Pole was unusually off the pace from the off.

When Hasselbaink skipped past him far too easily down the left his cross should have seen the Buddies go in front.

The ball was perfect for McGowan at the back post but he sliced his volley horribly wide.

Saints were relentless and Carey robbed Ryan McGowan then sent Hasselbaink clear. He turned inside Andy Webster but saw his shot tipped over by MacDonald.

For all the Buddies' good work they should have fallen behind on 20 minutes after McGowan fed Beattie who threaded Andy Driver in.

He was clipped and stumbled as he went through but rather than go down to win a certain penalty he stayed on his feet and saw the in-form Craig Samson spread to block.

They were to pay for that miss when Carey smashed Saints into a deserved 27th minute lead.

Again Mrowiec was at fault, giving the ball straight to Hasselbaink who was hacked down by Webster and Carey stepped up and fired through a gap in the loosely set up wall.

After that the Buddies had a spell of keep-ball as the Jambos chased shadows.

It was attractive but it wasn't effective and Hearts hauled themselves back into it eight minutes before the break.

Grainger flighted in a corner and Beattie was allowed space for a free header and Samson could do nothing about it. Beattie should have been celebrating again when he slammed in Black's cross but he was denied by Cheyne's dodgy decision.

The Jambos carried on where they'd left off after the break as Elliott's shot was well saved by Samson, who also kept out McGowan's deflected shot before Elliott slammed wide.

Skacel — who replaced Mrowiec — showed no mercy when Beattie picked him out with a cross and he glanced beyond the stranded Samson.

Beattie then danced past Jim Goodwin but blazed over as Hearts looked set for a semi-final spot — until Saints drew level with six minutes left.

Teale had looked set to level but was denied by MacDonald only for Hasselbaink to see his shot deflect in for a replay on Wednesday week.