Hearts’ Jamie Hamill to miss St Mirren clash

HEARTS must do without their weekend match-winner Jamie Hamill when St Mirren visit Tynecastle this Saturday, as the defender is suspended for the William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final.

Hamill was booked in both the original fifth-round tie with St Johnstone and the replay, meaning he incurs a one-match ban for the next round of the competition.

Having scored Hearts’ decisive second goal against Rangers at Ibrox, the 25-year-old must now endure the frustration of dropping out of the side. He recently served an automatic one-game suspension in the SPL after being red-carded against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park last month.

Ryan McGowan and Darren Barr are the two contenders to fill the right-back berth in Hamill’s absence. Paulo Sergio, the Hearts manager, will decide on the deputy later this week for a game which the Edinburgh club are eager to win to reach the Scottish Cup semi-finals.

Recent signing Craig Beattie, whose half-time introduction also helped secure the win at Ibrox, explained the importance of building on the result in Glasgow by progressing in both the League and Cup.

“Everybody was saying ‘well done’ but the first thing I said when I got back into the changing room [on Saturday] was that we have to kick on from here,” he said. “We’ve now got the chance to hopefully get to Hampden, and also cement a place higher up the league.

“I came on at half-time when the boys were losing and we managed to turn the game around and to come away with three points is fantastic. The manager just told me to go on there and liven everybody up.”