Saturday August 29th 2026
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Adam Bowen
Following on from their European triumph in Austria, Hearts welcomed newly promoted side St Johnstone.
Hearts boss Vrancken made 4 changes from the starting 11 on Wednesday night.
Miller and Spittal were given a well-deserved rest on the bench whilst McCart and Renaud were not involved in the squad due to injury.
Vrancken informed the press room that McCart was left out as he is still feeling tightness in his calf from Wednesday’s game, however the Hearts manager believes he will be back for Thursday’s Edinburgh Derby.
It is bad news for Hearts fans in terms of Renaud though, as he is expected to be out for months with an ankle ligament issue.
Onto the game
As expected Hearts started strong, putting pressure on St Johnstone with a header from a couple of yards out drawing an incredible reaction save from Steward, somehow keeping the score level.
It was only a minute later when Mitchell played a terrible pass out straight into the feet of McPake who played Wilson through straight away, the youngsters’ first-time finish found the back of the net.
Hearts continued to play well although they began to look a bit shaky at the back as St Johnstone pushed up the pitch.
The whole stadium thought Hearts were going to be awarded a penalty when Borchgrevink looked like he was tripped up in the box. However, the replay shows the referee’s decision to not award a penalty was correct, as it was a blatant dive from the Hearts defender.
Hearts found the net 5 minutes before half time after Mendy met the end of Altena’s free kick; however he flew into the keeper as he headed the ball so the referee rightfully awarded a free kick before any celebrations could ensue.
Three minutes after the restart St Johnstone hit back. A poor headed clearance fell at the feet of Stanton who played a great ball through for St Johnstone’s number 99, Paton, who took the opportunity brilliantly, slotting the ball past Reus and putting his team back in the game.
St Johnstone really piled the pressure on for the remainder of the game and looked the better side, however the European clash earlier in the week may have been to blame for that. St Johnstone goalscorer Paton alluded to that point saying, ‘I think their European tie helped, you could see them kind of die a little bit.’
Hearts still had their own chances including a great run from Altena before he played the ball near the 6-yard box where St Johnstone performed numerous heroic blocks to keep them in the game.
It was a hard-fought win from Hearts in the end as they managed to see out the game with the final score being 2-1.
St Johnstone can be more than proud of their performance. Manager, Simo Valakari, said in his post-match interview ‘we are a very good team. We are a very, very good team.’ When asked about how much encouragement this game can give to the team, he stated that ‘people just see a result, we know inside where we are, what we are capable of doing. We know what we need to improve. We know where we are good at it. We know how we need to do that over the 90 minutes.’
He also congratulated Hearts for making it to the League Phase of the UEFA Conference League saying, ‘it is a big big big thing.’
Up next is the big one for Hearts, a trip to Easter Road where they will be looking for revenge following their 3-2 defeat in their last meeting. Magnusson stated, ‘we are ready to go to Easter Road and face them.’
Wouter Vrancken spoke on today’s game saying, ‘after their goal, a little bit too much panic and the quality was gone’ however he is ‘still proud’ of his players performance today considering the ‘tough’ schedule they’ve had this week.
He also said he is ‘looking forward’ to the Edinburgh Derby, a game he says, ‘you want to win for the fans.’
As Hearts recover now from a difficult week, all eyes will be looking towards Thursday night at Easter Road.
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