Hearts’ title hopes hit by late St Mirren winner after Halkett’s costly red card

Craig Halkett’s first-half red card proved costly for the Scottish Premiershipleaders Hearts as they lost 1-0 at St Mirren after a late header from Miguel Freckleton. The centre-back was dismissed in the 29th minute for denying the Saints debutant Jacob Devaney a goalscoring opportunity.

It was the third time in five league games that Hearts had been reduced to 10 men. Unlike the previous two occasions, however, they were unable to grind out a result in Paisley as Freckleton’s 88th-minute header consigned them to a third defeat of the season. The result leaves Hearts six points ahead of Celtic and Rangers, both of whom play their games in hand on Wednesday.

Stephen Robinson, the St Mirren manager, made five changes to the side that started the 0-0 draw with Dundee on Saturday, including handing a debut to the on-loan Manchester United midfielder Devaney.

There were two changes to the Hearts team from the 3-0 win at Dundee United as Michael Steinwender and Beni Baningime came in for Jordi Altena and Tomas Magnusson.

Saints had a decent chance in the third minute but Alex Gogic headed over from Declan John’s free-kick. At the other end, Alexandros Kyziridis saw a shot from the edge of the box easily saved by Shamal George. It proved to be the visitors’ only notable attempt of the first half.

The Hearts goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow had to make a good save from Mikael Mandron before Devaney’s cross from the right struck the top of the crossbar. Gogic then saw an inswinging cross from the left clawed out by Schwolow as the Buddies cranked up the pressure.

Hearts endured a blow in the 29th minute when they were reduced to 10 men. Stuart Findlay got caught dithering on the ball by Mandron, forcing fellow centre-back Halkett into some frantic last-ditch defending that resulted in him fouling Devaney just outside the box and being sent off. From the resulting free-kick, Killian Phillips’s effort was superbly saved by Schwolow, with Mandron unable to force in the rebound.

Saints thought they had gone ahead in the 39th minute when Marcus Fraser headed home the rebound after Gogic had nodded John’s free-kick against the post but it was ruled out for offside.

There was more frustration for the hosts just before half-time when they were awarded a penalty after Harry Milne fouled Jayden Richardson on the right edge of the box, but VAR deemed the offence was outside the box. John fizzed the resulting free-kick agonisingly beyond the far post.

Saints continued to knock on the door early in the second half and Schwolow produced a spectacular save to deny Mandron. But Hearts started to become a threat on the counterattack, with Cláudio Braga in particular carrying the fight to the Saints defence.

It felt like the game could go either way in the closing stages and Saints eventually made the breakthrough when Freckleton headed home John’s corner from close range.

“We’ve seen before in recent weeks when we go down to 10 men, I think there’s a belief there that we can go and get results and I think that showed in the performance,” said the Hearts manager, Derek McInnes.

“But we’ve got to own the fact that we can’t keep getting away with it, you can’t keep playing with fire. It’s a red card, there’s no complaint about that, but we caused it, we got ourselves into a fankle.

“We had two opportunities to play it forward, and we get ourselves in a bit of a state, and it culminates in a last-gasp challenge, and we’ve paid for it,” McInnes added. “From that point on, it was just making sure we kept it at zero for as long as we can and then hope for a moment.”

[Source: The Guardian]