Scottish Communities League Cup final: St Mirren 3 Hearts 2

11:00PM GMT 17 Mar 2013

Move along there, St Patrick. This March 17 belonged to St Mirren, who prevailed over Hearts in an enthralling Scottish Communities League Cup final at Hampden Park to become the 13th team to have their name engraved on the trophy.

In a contest which exemplified football’s compelling tendency to redirect fortune with a single touch of the ball, Hearts had looked as though they would inflict a defeat on the scale of their 5-1 destruction of Hibernian in last year’s Scottish Cup final. The turnaround left Ryan Stevenson particularly dislocated.

The 28-year-old Hearts midfielder scored the first and the last of the five goals and hit the post and crossbar in the dying stages. Had his colleagues - especially John Sutton and Michael Ngoo - been as sharp in front of goal they would have swept St Mirren aside in an opening half-hour in which the Paisley players were hesitant and disjointed, conceding possession in unforgiveable fashion and being hustled out of challenges in a manner that silenced the black and white ranks behind Craig Samson.

In the 10th minute Ngoo, foraging on the Hearts left, did enough to permit Stevenson a scrap of possession which he alchemised into gold, holding the ball under pressure from a clutch of opponents until he released a shot which deflected off Paul Dummett and looped beyond Samson.

This was the signal for Hearts to rampage. A prompt from Jamie Walker wanted only a contact from Sutton to produce the second goal but the striker could not stretch the inch or so required to connect. Walker then dug out a superb cross which found Sutton beyond the back post but this time the Englishman’s header smacked off the upright.

Another two opportunities, just before the half hour, seemed impossible to miss, first when a Kevin McHattie free-kick was allowed to bounce three yards in front of the stricken Samson but Ngoo could not make anything of it. Mehdi Taouil carved out the next opening, shuttling a cutback across the exposed Saints goalmouth, but again Ngoo was a fraction off the pace.

St Mirren clung to slim hope. Their fans, silently imploring, turned their eyes towards the technical area, and were rewarded by a tactical switch by Danny Lennon.

The Buddies’ manager had stationed Conor Newton and John McGinn in front of his defence, with Stephen Thompson playing a lone forward role in front of Gary Teale, Esmael Goncalves and Paul McGowan, a trio who were being swamped by Hearts’ midfield four. Lennon responded by pushing Goncalves up and, almost immediately, St Mirren were back in the game.

The move that brought the equaliser saw St Mirren realise the manager’s vison of a passing team. It began with David van Zanten spotting that Thomson had come deep towards the halfway line, dragging three disoriented Hearts defenders with him.

Thomson took them all out of play with a clever flick to Teale, who bolted into space beyond them and, with Jamie MacDonald utterly exposed, rolled a pass across the box for Goncalves to place a simple shot behind the goalkeeper. In an instant, St Mirren were transformed, as was the occasion. After the break Dummett ploughed along the left to deliver a cutback which Thmosn struck into the net without even glancing at the target.

Now it was Hearts’ turn to lurch bemused in the wake of St Mirren’s darting play. They fell further behind when Newton played a give and go with Goncalves and strode on into the box to ram a right foot drive between MacDonald and his left hand post.

The Tynecastle side were under the supervision of their new manager, Gary Locke, and watched by Vladimir Romanov, in what might have been his last appearance as majority shareholder, prior to a buyout expected imminently. With seven minutes remaining Stevenson got on the end of a nodded ball from Danny Wilson, but his finish skipped off the crossbar.

Within a minute he had found his range, thrashing a low drive beyond Samson. With two minutes left he struck a shot which the goalkeeper could only parry, then smacked the rebound off the post.

Stevenson had given everything, but the victory was St Mirren’s. Said Lennon: “I kicked every shot, headed every header and tackled every time Hearts got the ball in the last 20 minutes - but the credit goes entirely to our magnificent players.”

St Mirren (4-2-3-1): Samson; Van Zanten, McAusland, Goodwin, Dummet; Newton, McGinn (Carey 80); Teale, McGowan, Goncalves (Mair 90); Thompson (Parkin 76). Subs. Adam (g), McLean. Booked: Goncalves, Teale.

Heart of Midlothian (4-4-2): MacDonald; McGowan, Webster, Wilson, McHattie; Stevenson, Barr (Holt 69), Taouil (Carrick 80), Walker (Novikovas 63); Ngoo, Sutton. Subs: Ridgers (g), McKay. Booked: Ngoo, Webster.

Referee: C Thomson.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk