Hearts through to Scottish Cup semi-final

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 17^th 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