Hearts 1 St Johnstone 1 - Match Report

Aug 17 2010 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

IF your bag is drama with a continental flavour, raw emotion, theatrics, farce and a few chuckles thrown in for good measure, Edinburgh in full festival mode is hard to beat.

The reviews might have been mixed from home critics but nearly 15,000 patrons at sun-kissed Tynecastle weren't demanding their money back when the stars exited stage left after the curtain had come up on another SPL season.

Five Perth newcomers enjoyed top billing and the four who featured can be satisfied with their shift as Saints showed the fortitude and resilience which hallmarked last term's performances. But there's now a desperate need for reinforcements.

Not only did they rebound instantly from losing the opening goal but bolted the back door in the face of adversity, with leading man Michael Duberry seeing one colleague coming a cropper, another relieved of duty soon after the interval and Steven Anderson red carded for an X-rated lunge on Oscar candidate Santana, who was later booked for taking a dive any stunt man would have been proud of.

Anderson's tackle was of a kind usually reserved for flickering black and white footage, copyright Norman "Bite Yer Legs" Hunter. The needless hit took place out on the touchline near the half-way line and that riled a manager who had handed Anderson the starting jersey he has craved.

With 16 minutes remaining, 10-man Saints retreated into their shell, erecting two banks of four to shelter new keeper Peter Enckelman from the anticipated storm.

But apart from a miraculous Duberry headed clearance under his own crossbar to thwart sub Kevin Kyle's looping effort, the short-handed Perth side ran down the clock comfortably, with the Finnish number one rarely perturbed after furious Hearts onslaughts in the opening minutes.

It was another first day without a win but Saints extended their undefeated sequence in Edinburgh's East End and a point was entirely acceptable.

The defence had already been re-jigged when Calum Elliott dived to power an angled close range header into the far top corner after another superb delivery from rampaging Scotland left-back Wallace with the interval looming.

The Jambos were still in self-congratulatory mode when sub Cleveland Taylor made his mark and provided an instant riposte. On for luckless Danny Grainger, who was wheeled away on a stretcher after clattering into a post boldly defending a swinging free-kick, the English winger scorched past Thomson to deliver a perfectly weighted cross which a tumbling Parkin buried with a gravity-defying 12-yard header.

It was the stuff dreams are made of, with the former Walsall striker slowly gaining momentum in pre-season. Fellow debutant Marcus Haber's physical presence and pace will be assets, while Enckelman oozed confidence with hands and feet. Taylor created the equaliser but his advances had to be curtailed after Anderson's dismissal.

This Saints line-up, surely one of the most imposing ever amassed by a Perth manager, was denied Grainger's long throw weapon after his 19th minute close encounter with an upright. But the makeshift defence coped with anything thrown at them by a home side turning to human battering ram Kyle before the credits rolled.

Grainger's place was taken by Liam Craig and he coped manfully with the chores, while Chris Millar ended up mirroring him at right-back, with a half-fit Dave Mackay clearly toiling and Anderson doing his Charles Bronson vigilante bit.

The defender, who had been rock solid in central defence, didn't see the funny side of things, even when ref Steve O'Reilly improvised a Fringe-inspired one man show, miming the dismissal after watching his red card glide to the turf.

HEARTS: Kello, Wallace, Barr, Palazuelos, Santana (Novikovas 79), Black, Templeton (S. Elliott 65), C. Elliott (Kyle 65), J. Thomson, C. Thomson and Zaliukas. Subs not used: Balogh, Kucharski, McGowan and Mulrooney.

SAINTS: Enckelman, Mackay (Rutkiewicz 54), Grainger (Taylor 22), Morris, Duberry, Millar, Parkin, Craig, Anderson, Davidson and Haber (Samuel 72). Subs not used: Smith, Dobie, Caddis and May.

REFEREE: Steve O'Reilly.