Heart of Midlothian 2 Partick Thistle 1
William Hill Scottish Cup Quarter Final Replay, Tuesday 12th March 2019 – Tynecastle
On a night you wouldn’t put your dog out, Hearts finally stumbled over the line in their William Scottish Cup tie against Partick Thistle. In truly atrocious weather conditions, the Maroons came from behind to notch a narrow 2-1 win in the quarter final replay at Tynecastle and set up a semi-final tie against John Robertson’s Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Hampden next month.
The home support were stunned when the Championship’s second bottom side took the lead in the 17th minute when slack defensive play allowed McDonald to tap home the opening goal.
Hearts were struggling and the fans weren’t slow in making their feelings known. However, seven minutes later Hearts were level when Craig Wighton set up Uche Ikpeazu to fire home the equaliser.
Ten minutes later Hearts were ahead. Jake Mulraney was fouled inside the Thistle penalty box and Sean Clare stroked home the resultant penalty kick.
Hearts were awarded a second penalty kick in the second half after Ikpeazu was fouled. The big striker took the spot kick himself but rather wished he hadn’t after his weak shot was saved by Thistle keeper Hazard.
Thistle had a couple of late penalty claims turned down by referee Bobby Madden, but the home side were deserved winners and will travel to Hampden for the semi-final next month confident of reaching their first Scottish Cup final in seven years.
Hearts: Zlamal, Souttar, Berra, Lee (Haring, 65′), Clare, Djoum, Wighton, Garuccio, Ikpeazu, Mulraney, Godinho.
Partick Thistle: Hazard, Elliott (Cardle, 50′), Penrice, Anderson, Spittal, Bannigan, McDonald, Slater, Mansell (Storey, 67′), McMillan, Saunders.
Referee: Bobby Madden
Attendance: 10,351
Author of The Team for Me - 50 Years of Following Hearts. Runs Mind Generating Success, a successful therapy practice in Edinburgh. Contact me if you want rid of any unwanted habits. Twitter @Mike1874
