St Mirren 0 - 0 Hearts: Saints march on as capital side show serious lack of inspiration

Once more on the road they were pretty guff and, when it came to the media, still in the huff.

They claimed their first point in three games following the recent defeats by Kilmarnock and Rangers but their efforts were barely worth that. The exception was Marian Kello, who ensured the rot was stopped by springing himself upwards in a flash to block a battered effort from Nigel Hasselbaink ten minutes from time. That was added to a collection of fine stops with David van Zanten, Paul McGowan and Graham Carey all denied across the afternoon.

Those in front of Kello were all too often left looking sluggish and uninspired as the home side produced the more engaging and constructive football. Hearts will point to the fact that a flashing 30-yard first-time effort from substitute David Obua in the closing minutes came within the width of the post of winning them an encounter described by St Mirren manager as an “absolutely thrilling, cracking zero-zero”. Craig Samson was beaten by that effort, which came off his inside right post and flashed across the goal, to Lennon’s relief.

“We have lots of goalmouth action, lots of balls in key areas and their goalkeeper was immense,” he said. “We maybe just needed a rub of the green but you could say we got that with the Obua shot. It is important we are competing in the right half of the table, within the top six.”

Hearts’ lameness outside of their own environs can lead you to think Vladimir Romanov might be well within his rights to take a scythe to the club’s wage bill. The Tynecastle side never exhibit any great fluency or drive. They almost never win, with one victory outside Tynecastle since February. And not all of that can be blamed on the chaotic stewardship of a club that sees late payment of wages – the players’ latest salaries were settled up on Friday – and bills. Or the new-found determination to lose some high earners.

Watching St Mirren outplay the Gorgie men was to be reminded how little Romanov has derived from his investment. Lennon has put together his squad for around a £1m annual outlay – which is an eighth of Hearts’ player wage costs – yet the Paisley club appeared more like a top-five SPL team than Hearts, despite remaining two points shy of the Gorgie club in sixth place. Yet, last season, when Hearts did achieve the league placing their wage bill would tell you they ought to earn comfortably, Romanov considered it a poor return and sacked manager Jim Jefferies.

“Hearts deserve a great deal of credit for what they put into the match,” Lennon said of yesterday’s encounter, overly magnanimously. “I feel for Paulo because it has been a very, very difficult emotional week for them. I just hope everything is sorted out behind the scenes. Whether you are a professional footballer at the top of the game or a cleaner or watching in a kitchen you deserve your wages at the end of the week, full stop.”

When it came to earning their corn, home performers such as Carey, whose wicked delivery from the left proved such a weapon, McGowan and Stephen Thompson, brought a variety to the home team’s play too often missing in Sergio’s selection. Thompson, indeed, almost netted early in the second period when he threw himself at a cannonball effort from Carey and diverted the ball on to the frame of the goal. Meanwhile, Obua’s strike aside, the only other troubling moment for the hosts from Hearts came when an almighty scramble had Eggert Jonsson hacking away on the goal-line amid a ruck of bodies after Samson had blocked a header from the midfielder.

It could be deemed the moment that summed up the Tynecastle club’s week,in that it was horrible, messy and ultimately unproductive.