Copyright scotsman
Hearts showed commendable fight and resilience in twice coming from behind to draw 2-2 with St Mirren in Paisley. The result maintains their unbeaten start to the William Hill Premiership campaign, but they were made to work relentlessly for a hard-earned point. Dan Nlundulu opened the scoring with a stunning overhead kick before Lawrence Shankland pulled Hearts level in the first half. After the break, Miguel Freckleton restored Saints’ advantage before Claudio Braga’s header restored parity. Hearts remain top of the league after 10 matches and finished this game strongly as they pushed for a winner. Substitute Landry Kabore thought he’d scored it from close-range, but VAR ruled it out for offside in the build-up. St Mirren’s guts and tenacity ensured the league leaders never got their own way at any point in the game. They, of course, are the only team to inflict any kind of defeat on the Edinburgh club this season after knocking them out of the Premier Sports Cup on penalties. Even with manager Stephen Robinson in the stand, Saints knew their roles and carried them out with admirable industry. Both teams had goals ruled out by VAR on a dramatic evening in which they never gave up the fight. Hearts head coach Derek McInnes named the same starting line-up for the sixth consecutive game, while St Mirren also named a strong side despite an impending League Cup semi-final against Motherwell on Saturday. They were without the influence of defender Alex Gogic through suspension. As expected, the hosts employed an aggressive pressing game to ensure Hearts got little time on the ball. On 13 minutes, a swift attack from the men in maroon ended with Shankland’s pass to Beni Baningime inside the penalty area. He struck a right-footed shot beyond the goalkeeper and off the inside of the far post, but the ball bounced out of the goal instead of into the net. Alexandros Kyziridis was also causing problems down Hearts’ left flank, however St Mirren scored first on 28 minutes. Goalkeeper Shamal George launched a high free-kick which dropped in behind Stuart Findlay. Nlundulu, with his back to goal and under pressure from Findlay’s central defensive partner Craig Halkett, controlled the ball before executing a superb overhead kick beyond Alexander Schwolow and into the Hearts net. It took Hearts six minutes to level the scoreline. When Stephen Kingsley’s cross was headed out by Freckleton, Keanu Baccus miscontrolled the ball and it dropped into Shankland’s path eight yards from goal. He doesn’t miss from there, and the ball was soon nestling in the net. St Mirren appealed for a penalty moments later when Milne clumsily dunted Baccus from behind inside his own box, but referee Matthew MacDermid was unmoved. Home supporters in the main stand aimed some choice taunts at McInnes as the interval approached, but he laughed in their direction. He wouldn’t have been amused a minute after the restart when Shankland chose to shoot from the tightest angle instead of roll the ball across goal where two team-mates waited. Schwolow tipped a Killian Phillips header over his crossbar before St Mirren regained their advantage. Declan John’s corner was cleared back out the full-back and he delivered a cross which spun off Kingsley’s head towards the back post. Findlay won the header but succeeded only in nodding the ball down for Freckleton. He produced a smart finish on the turn which flew beneath the diving Schwolow. A VAR offside call prevented Hearts falling further behind when Freckleton hit the net again a few minutes later. Mark O’Hara was offside and also deemed to be blocking Shankland. Schwolow then pulled off an outstanding save to touch Phillips’ towering header away to his right at full stretch. Saints were causing the Tynecastle side problems with their aerial threat. Just as the visitors looked to be under pressure, they broke forward to equalise again. Kyziridis made space for a deflected shot which crashed off the crossbar, and Braga was in place to head home the rebound at make it 2-2. The game was now wide open and very end-to-end with supporters reluctant to take their eye off the action, even though quality was not always the evening’s best attribute. Hearts pushed for a winning goal into the final moments. Kyziridis stung George’s palms from distance, Kabore’s close-range finish hit the net and looked to have secured three points, but another VAR intervention confirmed an offside call despite the full away end celebrating with an ecstatic Kabore. That added to a tense and frantic final period and the away side refused to give up entering five minutes of stoppage-time. Kabore unleashed a vicious volley at goal which was blocked. The Burkinabe forward had made a fair impact on this encounter as he works to earn a starting slot. Try as they might, Hearts could not secure that winner and had to make do with a draw. Here are the Hearts player ratings from Paisley
