Perhaps the unseasonal heat induced torpor among the Hearts defenders or perhaps it was just that the glaring sunshine was in their eyes but whatever the contributory factors for the shoddy defending Murray Davidson will rarely feel as welcome in an opposition penalty box than he was when scoring the goals that shocked the home support at Tynecastle yesterday.
The midfielder was not so much unmolested as he was invited to head home both times as corner kicks from Liam Craig saw the ball all but ushered his way on or around the edge of the six yard box and he showed no lack of appreciation in accepting the gifts.
The first looked to have been slightly mishit, bouncing well short of the near post which may have confused the first line of defenders, but the second was inexcusably allowed to carry untouched all the way to the back post where, from six yards out, Davidson stooped to make sufficiently solid and well directed contact once again.
He came close to completing a headed hat-trick from yet another Craig corner, too, but lessons had been learned sufficiently that he was at least put under pressure at the third time of asking.
Tellingly the goals both owed at least as much to Hearts’ failings as to any creativity by their visitors. While the home side were slightly better in the second half it was still St Johnstone who showed much the greater urgency and they were by no means flattered by the final scoreline, albeit their third was registered during Hearts’ best spell of the game as they finally roused themselves in the closing minutes.
As had also happened far too often the late clincher came as a result of Hearts giving the ball away far too easily, Prince Buaben’s misdirected pass picked up by substitute Stevie McLean who fed David Witherspoon on the right and he slipped the ball between the legs of Jordan McGhee into the path of Darnell Fisher who, from a fairly tight angle 15 yards out, did well to put his well struck first time shot across Neil Alexander and inside the far post.
Before that the Hearts goal-keeper had already pulled off a fine save in somehow clawing away McLean’s glancing header at full stretch, an opportunity that had once again arisen as a result of his defenders’ failure to deal with a Craig set-piece, this time a free kick from midway inside their half and Tommy Wright, the St Johnstone manager, was understandably highly satisfied.
“We showed what a good side we are from the first whistle today. We dominated the 90 minutes and probably could have scored a lot more, but you can’t complain about three nil, a clean sheet limiting a good side to very few opportunities and some of the football we played was excellent so it’s been a really good day for us,” he observed.
“I’ve been here a few times and seen teams get turned over. I know how they can put you under pressure, but I thought we were on the front foot from the first minute and I don’t think they really got a foothold in the game which was down to how we played.”
Robbie Neilson, his Hearts counterpart, readily acknowledged that his team, which had only previously lost to the two teams above them at Tynecastle in the Premiership this season, had been completely outplayed and had consequently missed out on a good chance to make ground on second placed Aberdeen.
“We’ve been doing really well this season, but we’re not good enough to win games when we have five or six players who don’t perform,” he said.
“We shouldn’t be getting beaten three nil at home. We just weren’t at the races today to be honest. We tried to change things, move things around, formation and personnel but we just couldn’t get that spark that we needed today.”
Goals: Davidson (11, 22), Fisher (88)
