How Hearts changes helped follow up Euro heroics with Viaplay Cup rout against Partick

Hearts eased past Partick Thistle to set up an intriguing Viaplay Cup quarter final meeting with Kilmarnock.

Hearts' Odel Offiah scores on his debut to help his side to a 4-0 win over Partick. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

A Gorgie team that has been scoring freely, except when they meet the Rugby Park in the league last weekend, they will take a second run at Derek McInnes’ men when they head to Ayrshire next month.

On the back of the first leg of their Europa Conference League qualifying tie with Rosenborg, it proved impossible for Hearts to find the breakthrough against a Killie team who have now played the Gorgie outfit, Rangers and Celtic and not conceded a goal. But there were no such issues this week as Partick Thistle offered less resistance.

They helped the home side into the lead in just the 10th minute, when Alex Lowry plonked a corner onto Kye Rowles’ head. The Aussie’s effort was heading wide before it ricocheted off Thistle striker Brian Graham’s standing leg and into the net. And, with well-timed contributions from debutant Odel Offiah seconds before the interval and from the prolific Lawrence Shankland two minutes after the restart – he has netted four goals in his first five games – it meant that by the time Kyosuke Tagawa came on to open his account for the club, the outcome was already au fait accompli.

With Gorgie still buzzing from the team’s European heroics, the man of the hour, Cammy Devlin, was one of six changes to the starting line-up. Afterwards, technical director Steven Naismith said it has been a case of horses for courses, rather than bringing in a second string to allow him to rest some tired legs, but it certainly gave those involved an opportunity to prove they are more than the reserves and fight for inclusion when the capital outfit welcome PAOK on Thursday in the hoping of extending European involvement by booking a place in the group stage.

Stephen Kingsley, Liam Boyce, Devlin, and Aidan Denholm all dropped to the bench, while Yutaro Oda and Nat Atkinson were left out completely. They were replaced by Offiah, Toby Sibbick, Caem Neiuwenhof, Barrie McKay, Kenneth Vargas and Lowry as the management team altered the shape of the side.

A predominantly young side, the instructions from the sidelines suggested they remain a work in progress, as did the patchiness of the play. But there was more than enough for the coaches and the fans to be pleased with as they tried to play the high energy, crisp style of football that had served the team so well against Rosenborg.

And, with the wiley and influential Shankland leading the line, they added more goals to bolster the scoreline and the feelgood factor. Offiah, the Brighton defender currently on loan in Edinburgh, rifled his header in off the underside of the bar right at the end of the first half.

There was no time for Thistle to respond and they were not given the opportunity to bounce back after the restart as Shankland showed industry and awareness to read Aaron Muirhead’s slack pass, close it down, and race forward to bury the shot.

The strength in depth on Hearts’ bench was too much for Thistle to contend with and Tagawa was played through by Lowry to net his first goal for the club and his team’s fourth and final of the day.