3 1 victory over St Mirren at Love Street

Hearts managed to bounce back from last week's setback at Inverness by recording a 3-1 victory over St Mirren at Love Street this afternoon.

The lovely metropolis of Paisley did not represent a happy hunting territory for Hearts last season, and today's victory was their first over the Buddies since their return to the Premier Division last year.

Hearts once again frustratingly lined up with just one man in attack, Christian Nade, and with the home side also employing a similar tactic for long spells, what we saw

It was a fairly negative game of football with very little in the way of quality on display. In fact let's not beat around the bush here - it was pretty awful stuff!

However it's been said before that having an ability to 'win ugly' can be a very useful quality and I suppose if any team in the league were asked if they'd be happy with doing this for 38 matches in a row, then I'm quite sure I know what the answer would be!

The first half was particularly dull, with the only thing of any real note taking place being the apparent mini-competition between both sets of defenders to see who could punt the ball the longest distance....I think that Jose Goncalves managed to nick the title with one particularly monstrous hoof midway through the half! It really was desperate stuff.

It was quite a physical match and referee John Underhill had his work cut out trying to keep up with the multitude of late tackles being put in by both sets of players. Indeed as early as the first minute Michael Stewart was completely taken out of the play right in front of Underhill, but obviously it was one of those 'it's too early to book him' type of situations.

Nade had an excellent chance to put Hearts a goal up after half an hour when he latched onto a nice floated pass from Larry Kingston, but the striker hurried his effort and with the goalkeeper in No Man's Land, he was unable to even get close to hitting the target with his lob on the run.

However the visitors did manage to take the lead just a few minutes before the interval. Stewart's outswinging corner found its way to the back post and Andy Driver, from a similar angle to where he scored from against Rangers (but closer in), made a sweet connection first time with his left foot and it went through the 'keeper and into the net. In my view although it was a good hit from Driver, the goalkeeper really ought to have blocked it, but Hearts were obviously not complaining.

Half time 0-1

Hearts emerged from the dressing room with their obligatory substitution having taken place, but for a nice change it actually appeared that a correct and positive decision had been made this time. Ksanavicius, who had been fairly ineffective as well as picking up a booking, was taken off and Calum Elliot was on in his place, meaning that Hearts would actually have two forwards on the park for once. It was a move that worked well, even if Hearts' play didn't exactly hit the heights thereafter!

The home fans were bleating for every decision going from Underhill but the ref was generally doing very little to appease them. Two St Mirren penalty claims for handball were turned down early into the half and then within a few minutes, it was Hearts who ended up being awarded a spot-kick after Michael Stewart had been felled in the area. To be honest there weren't too many complaints from the home players about this decision and it was little wonder - Stewart was clearly clipped as he sped towards goal.

Stewart himself took the kick as he had against Rangers a fortnight ago, and although the corner he picked was different, the result was the same and Hearts now had a commanding two goal lead.

St Mirren to their credit had a real go at Hearts after this, but generally speaking they weren't troubling debutant Anthony Basso between the sticks too much. However the 'keeper did flap alarmingly at one cross that came in, sparking fears about his decision-making not exactly being the greatest! Later on the Frenchman also tried to do his Edwin Van Der Saar impression by taking the mickey out of a St Mirren forward.......all I can say about that is that he has some way to go before he's even close to the famous Dutchman when it comes to being comfortable on the ball outside of his area......my God!

St Mirren pulled one back with just over ten minutes to do. A right-wing cross tempted Basso off his line and Corcoran nipped in front of him to head the Buddies seemingly back into the contest. In my view it was both poor goalkeeping (Basso dashed out recklessly and never looked like getting to the ball) and poor defending by Tall to allow the forward to get in front of him, but credit to the striker for a nice finish.

Any thoughts that St Mirren may nick a point were quickly dashed however, when substitute Andrius Velicka scored with just about his first touch of the ball. Springing the offside trap, Velicka bore down on goal and from a tight angle, toe-poked it past the 'keeper at his near post. Velicka gets a fair amount of stick from Hearts fans from time to time for his workrate and lack of pace (and rightly so), but one thing he does have is an eye for goal and he demonstrated that well here.

So despite a distinctly ordinary Hearts performance, they managed to get an excellent result today. I suppose we should not grumble too much therefore, but I can't imagine that anyone is getting too excited just yet.......given what happened after the cautious optimism generated by the Rangers result, we really are far too experienced now to fall for that again aren't we? Or are we?!