Will Hearts bounce back against St Johnstone?
Cup tie revenge is also needed for Jambos
All things come to an end and so Hearts praise-worthy unbeaten SPL run crumbled at Celtic Park on Wednesday night. The defeat itself wasn’t the worst thing, you can lose in Glasgow for a number of reasons but it was the performance that would have really disappointed Hearts fans. Celtic were good but Hearts were just not at the races and could only muster a few skewed shots in the first half as a sign of attacking play.
Three points against the big two in back to back games is not bad but four or more would have indicated that Hearts are right in the mix for the title hunt. That talk will quieten down now for a while but it is up to Hearts to put themselves back in there.
Big teams don’t lose too often, that is why they are seen as the big teams but you learn a lot about a club in the way they handle defeat and this is what the Tynecastle crowd will be looking for today.
Will the defeat on Wednesday impact on the confidence of the players or will there be a fired up Jambo team looking to put things right?
Although Hearts had a decent unbeaten run in the SPL going on, they weren’t unbeaten against SPL opposition and they certainly weren’t unbeaten at Tynecastle. That is because their opponents today St Johnstone hit them with a late Peter McDonald sucker punch and knocked them out of the cup.
That was a sickener for the Jambos and if the Perth side can do it again, the boys in maroon will really start to hate the sight of Derek McInnes and his men. With a win against Motherwell in midweek and an unbeaten run that stretches back to Boxing Day (when they were undone in injury time), McInnes has his team motoring along quite nicely.
St Johnstone will have serious thoughts about a top six finish this season and avoiding defeat today will send out a big message to the teams above them. They may be sitting in 8th at the moment but there is no reason why St Johnstone should not set their sights as high as fourth for this campaign. However, one step at a time…
Kevin Kyle looks set to miss out again for the home team and Danny Grainger starts a two game suspension for the away team.
It’s the big game in the SPL this weekend – can St Johnstone shock Hearts again?
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