Sunday October 11th 2026
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Adam Bowen
It was a big game at Tynecastle on Saturday with both teams looking to get back to winning form.
Hearts made 4 changes from their draw at Kilmarnock before the international break. Findlay, Borchgrevink and Magnusson were all benched. Kingsley wasn’t involved in the squad as they didn’t want to risk him following his recent injury. Ageu, Milne, Altena and Fagan-Walcott all came into the starting 11.
As for St Mirren they made two changes follow their heavy defeat at home to Dundee United. Mochrie and Agrafiotis where listed to start with Sule and Phillips dropping to the bench. However, Agrafiotis felt something in his calf pop during the warm up, according to manager Craig McLeish, so Phillips did end up starting the game.
Hearts opened the scoring, winning a free kick in the 20th minute, where Miller’s ball found Mendy’s head, although he played it back towards Mochrie of St Mirren who managed to make an even bigger meal of it chesting the ball straight back into the path of Mendy, who unleashed a cracking volley into the top right of the goal.
11 minutes later another St Mirren individual error, this time by captain, Gogic, led to Braga picking up the ball and playing McPake through on goal. Matters got even worse for Gogic as when he caught up with McPake’s brilliant speed, he got to close leading to McPake’s foot getting caught on Gogic’s knee, resulting in a penalty kick. Miller calmly stood up and placed it into the right hand side of the net, sending Chapman the wrong way.
Five minutes into the second half Wilson gained the ball inside the box before cutting back where he was swiped, leading to another penalty kick. It was Miller again who went the same side; this time Chapman dived the right way but not enough as the ball found the corner of the net.
Again, Miller was involved in the next goal dribbling the ball from the centre circle before playing Braga through, his positive first touch led to a one-on-one where he took it around the keeper and slotted it home. The sliding St Mirren defenders only helped bundle it in.
It was the man making his league debut for Hearts, Fagan-Walcott who was vital to the 5th goal. His long ball from the defensive third found McPake, who was outstanding all game, he brought the ball down before showing immense strength, shrugging Donnelly to the floor, before composing himself and finishing clinically toward the near post.
It was a demolition served by Hearts, showing any doubters this season that Hearts are still a very strong team despite the departures they suffered during the summer window.
Wouter’s side has won all 4 of their league games at Tynecastle this season, scoring a lot of goals. When Wouter Vrancken was asked about how important this is for the supporters getting behind the team, he mentioned that ‘we try and play a kind of football that is positive and constructive, and proactive and not a reaction.’
Saying how for his players, he tries to play a style of football similar to when they were kids, ‘when you were a little boy, when you started playing football on the street, you played football to score goals, not to stay behind before your goal and prevent the goals. You want to score goals, because this feeling that you get then, that’s the nicest feeling you have in football.’
St Mirren boss, Craig McLeish stated after the game, ‘that it is not good enough for our point of view. We shot ourselves in the foot at times, two penalties that are avoidable, individual mistakes, errors for the other 3 and that’s not to take anything away from Hearts, they were at it today, they were excellent.’
He added, ‘I wouldn’t be looking at going and ripping things up and starting again, but we need to do better at what we’re doing. ‘We’re approaching games differently each week and you just cannot’t shoot yourself in the foot like that.’
Hearts will now go into a tough week full of confidence, where they face Nordsjaelland in their first game of the Europa Conference League before the return to Celtic Park on Sunday, where everyone will be thinking about what happened last time these two played.
St Mirren will prepare for an away trip to Pittodrie where they face Aberdeen on Saturday.
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