New era at Hearts begins with same old story

Heart of Midlothian 0 St Johnstone 1

Ladbrokes Premiership, Saturday 14^th December
2019 – Tynecastle

There
may be a new man in charge of Hearts, but it was a case of the same old lamentable
story of season 2019/20 as Hearts slipped deeper into the relegation mire after
a 1-0 loss to St Johnstone at Tynecastle.

A goal
15 minutes from the end from Hendry gave the Perth Saints a vital win as Daniel
Stendel’s reign as Hearts manager began in hugely disappointing fashion.

Stendel
made four changes from the Hearts team that lost to Motherwell last Saturday
with Oliver Bozanic, Aaron Hickey, Aidan Keena and goalkeeper Bobby Zlamal
returning to the starting eleven.

The
Hearts supporters gave their new manager a rousing reception and their team
began the game brightly enough. However, the defensive frailties that have
blighted Hearts season surfaced again as St Johnstone really should have opened
the scoring after just ten minutes. A long ball forward confused the Hearts defensive
line and O’Halloran took the ball round Hearts keeper Bobby Zlamal and seemed
set to pick his spot to score. However, he didn’t vouch for a brilliant goal
line clearance from Aaron Hickey to save the day and Tynecastle breathed again.

Zlamal
then saved from Kennedy as the visitors grew in confidence and Hearts early
promise evaporated into the cold Gorgie air.

Jamie
Walker tried his luck with a shot on goal, but Saints keeper Clark nudged the ball
round the post. Steven MacLean then had a chance to score against his former team,
but he blazed his shot high into the visiting support in the Roseburn Stand who
took great delight in the striker’s obvious anguish.

Stendel brought on Ryotaro Meshino for the ineffectual Aidan Keena at the start of the second half but the on-loan Manchester City player struggled to make any impact as Hearts toiled laboriously and made little threat to the St Johnstone goal.

With
a little over 15 minutes remaining St Johnstone looked like they had scored
when Hendry shot for goal inside the Hearts penalty box. It looked a certain goal
but Zlamal produced a brilliant save to deny the Saints player.

However,
Hendry was denied only for a matter of seconds. From the resultant corner the
Saints man headed the ball home from close range to give Tommy Wright’s men a
deserved lead.

That
was that as Hearts huffed and puffed and never looked like even threatening an
equaliser. It was another woeful display in a season of woe – it’s certainly
not the season to be jolly for anyone in maroon.

After
the game, Daniel Stendel stated the obvious by saying there was much hard work
to be done at Tynecastle. He told BBC Sport Scotland:

“You can see the players wanted
to try the new things, but we did not deserve to win, we have not really
created chances. I hope the fans give the players more chance to change the
opinion, because we need help from the stands.

“We can play so much better than
today. We have some big players injured and when they come back I hope we will
have more quality to change things.”

Next up for Hearts is the visit of
league champions Celtic on Wednesday evening. What could possibly go wrong?

Hearts: Zlamal, Smith, Berra,
Bozanic, Clare (Ikpeazu, 66′), Walker (Damour, 80′), Whelan, MacLean, Halkett,
Keena (Meshino, 46′), Hickey.

St
Johnstone:
Clark, Davidson, May (Hendry, 60′), Kerr, O’Halloran, McCann, Holt (Craig,
80′), Ralston, Gordon, Booth, Kennedy (Wotherspoon, 86′).

Referee: Alan Newlands

Attendance: 16,347

Top
man: Aaron
Hickey