Scottish Cup: Hearts 2-2 St Mirren: Teams face replay after helter-skelter match

WITH his socks down about his calves, several days’ growth on his chin and a barrel of a torso, Craig Beattie bears little resemblance to the lad who left Celtic five years ago.

If you hadn’t seen him play these last couple of weeks, you would be hard pressed even to identify him as a striker.

The No 4 shirt doesn’t help. On signing for Hearts last month, he was given a choice by the club’s kitman. “There was 14, 16 ... 37 was my old number at Celtic, and I thought, ‘you know what, just give me number four’. A few forwards have worn random numbers. Zidane wore number five. I thought, ‘just chuck it out there and see what happens’. I got a good bit of stick from the lads, but hopefully they’re taking it back now because the number four’s putting the ball in the net.”

Not only did he do that in Saturday’s William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against St Mirren, he set up a goal for Rudi Skacel and was wrongly denied a second of his own. With his contribution just before and after the interval, Beattie turned an entertaining match on its head, a bit like he did at Ibrox the week before, when he came on as a half-time substitute.

Hearts needed the lift. They were given quite a lesson in the opening half-hour by an outstanding St Mirren side, who had Paul McGowan orchestrating in midfield and Nigel Hasselbaink causing havoc in attack. By the time Graham Carey had put them ahead with a free-kick that slipped through a dodgy Hearts defensive wall, the travelling support were greeting every pass with a chant of “ole”.

Who knows how it might have turned out had Beattie not stopped the rot with a goal out of nothing? When Danny Grainger supplied the corner, nobody rose to challenge the 28-year-old target man, whose easy header flopped over the line.

A second just before the break would have been cruel on St Mirren, but a rejuvenated Hearts team were denied only by the assistant referee, who flagged for offside. Television replays later showed that Beattie had been no such thing when he turned in a shot at the back post.

Beattie, who was dismayed by the decision, says that he had a bizarre conversation with the official at half-time.

“Was it offside?” asked Beattie.

“I don’t know,” came the reply.

“So what did you put your flag up for?”

Hearts started the second half much as they had finished the first, most notably when three shots at goal – two by Stephen Elliot – failed to beat Craig Samson in the space of a few seconds.

Then Beattie returned to the fore. His cross from the left, which took the slightest of deflections, was begging for a conversion, which Skacel duly provided with a glancing header. It was the Czech player’s ninth goal in five matches against St Mirren.

Just after the hour mark, Beattie nutmegged Jim Goodwin and blazed over the bar, but it was to be the last of Hearts’ attacks as a captivating game entered something of a lull. For as stylish as they had been in the first half, St Mirren also looked short of ideas, but somehow they came up with an equaliser.

With seven minutes left, Hasselbaink danced clear to release a shot from the tightest of angles, which Jamie MacDonald blocked. Gary Teale’s attempt to capitalise on the rebound was also thwarted by the Hearts goalkeeper, who deserved better than the misfortune that followed. With the ball still loose, Hasselbaink knocked it across the six-yard area, where a deflection off Marius Zaliukas sent it squirming over the line.

Hearts felt hard done by, but after dominating less of the second half than St Mirren had the first, it was a reasonable outcome. Beattie tired towards the end, which was hardly surprising. This was his first start since November, his first 90 minutes in nearly a year. His desperate gulps at a trackside water bottle did not go unnoticed. “I was just being professional,” he smiled later.

After his release by Swansea in January, Beattie had talks with St Mirren, and considered several offers, but a short-term deal at Tynecastle was the most attractive option. “I thought it was a good opportunity, and it looks like I’ve made a good decision. I’m enjoying it. I feel like I can score any time I go on the pitch.”

A goal against Hibernian on Sunday, or in the replay a week on Wednesday, would go down nicely with the Hearts support. Beattie does not subscribe to the view that St Mirren now have the advantage. “For the first 20 minutes, they dominated the game, but after that we tinkered a little bit and got right on top of them. We’ve learned a lot from this. We know how to play against them now.”