Hearts play on Paisley men's pattern

PERSISTENCE from Hearts and St Mirren's fixation with conceding late goals conspired to end a mini depression at Tynecastle. In fact, the 3-2 victory may actually become a turning point following two successive defeats. That sequence seemed likely to extend to three for long spells on Saturday, but Rudi Skacel's merciless finishing hauled the hosts out of a rut and continued a recurring theme for St Mirren.

It would be churlish to term Hearts lucky given the character they displayed in coming from behind twice. Michael Higdon had St Mirren ahead on two separate occasions, parity restored once by Skacel and once by substitute Ryan Stevenson before the Czech prodded home the winning goal in the second minute of stoppage time. That the hosts were 2-1 down nine minutes from full-time and still finished victorious illustrated their gumption.

But for all Hearts' fortitude, it was difficult to escape the notion that St Mirren deserved at least a point. They were inventive, bold and clever in a first half which must rank as one of their finest of the campaign. That they left Edinburgh with nothing was down to an alarming and inexplicable second-half retreat, plus their now customary late capitulation. They have now conceded 14 times in the final five minutes of matches this season.

Hearts were rightly unperturbed by their visitors' problems after maintaining a 12-point advantage over fourth-placed Dundee United in the SPL table. Their relief at winning when even a draw looked beyond them for long spells overpowered any feelings of sympathy. After Stevenson's equaliser, they actually counted on a late collapse from the opposition given it is becoming something of a Paisley trademark.

"When I scored we're thinking about kicking on," said Stevenson. "Rudi ran by me and said 'they concede goals so let's keep going'. That's testament to us that we did keep going because it would have been easy to hang on for a draw. It speaks volumes for us that we managed to grind it out.

"Once it went to 2-2 you could see they were going to hang in for the draw. We were pushing them back. Rudi did what he does best and comes up trumps with the goals. It was massive for us to get the three points because Dundee United and Kilmarnock both had good results. It could have been squeaky bum time if we'd lost."After losing to United on Wednesday it made Saturday a huge day for us."

Higdon converted the first goal after passing up two clear scoring chances in the opening minutes. Teenager Kenny McLean delivered a left-footed free-kick from the right, Darren McGregor headed intelligently back across goal and Higdon nodded the ball outwith Marian Kello's reach and over the goal line before Craig Thomson could clear. Steven Thomson struck a post and Paul McGowan stung Kello's palms with a volley, and at half-time the only wonder was why St Mirren were not out of sight. Their profligacy was to be punished.

Hearts' rally only materialised following an interval roasting from manager Jim Jefferies and his assistant Billy Brown. "Billy and I both lost it at half-time really," admitted Jefferies. "We were so sloppy. We were edgy and nervous at the start, giving balls away when there was nobody near us. That gave St Mirren a lift. When I calmed down the only thing I could say was that we were only 1-0 down at half-time. We passed the ball out the park and looked nothing like the team we had been.

"You look for a reaction and say, 'right, it's that bad we've got to go for it and take a risk'. We had to get Skacel forward and use the width. I thought our three subs (Stevenson, Andy Driver and Scott Robinson) all made a massive impact in the game. As bad as we were in the first half, I sat them down and praised them for their reaction at the end. What a bit of character to come back."

Whilst the wallpaper was peeling of the walls of the home dressing room, Stevenson remained outside warming up. "I was smart enough to stay out. Sitting on the bench you could see the manager wasn't happy. The pace he went up the tunnel was the fastest I've ever seen him move. I did the sensible thing for once and stayed out during half-time." Skacel supplied an unstoppable equaliser from 25 yards 11 minutes after the restart, but Higdon was allowed time and space to turn and angle a left-footed shot into the top corner to restore St Mirren's advantage. Stevenson converted Hearts' second following clever hold-up play from Stephen Elliott inside the penalty area. That teed the game up for an enthralling ending which was completed when Skacel touched home Craig Thomson's corner.

"We know St Mirren's track record of losing goals in the last minutes. I saw it myself at Aberdeen," said Jefferies. "You could sense when we got the corner in the last minute that it would just be their type of luck to desert them. They deserved to be 1-0 in front but if you don't take your chances you run the risk of being punished. I thought we were as good as we have been in the second half. You're at a big club and you look for a reaction because you're going to throw away third place if you just accept things."I thought it was a really good second half performance."

Danny Lennon, the St Mirren manager, bore the look of a haunted man who was at a loss to explain why his team are unable to see a game out. "Once again it's deja vu for us. You're actually saying this is the day we'll have that mentality to see it through. I wish somebody had a magic formula for how to see a game of football through at the moment. We'll get at the players, we know the positive things they're doing. The only thing we can ask them to do is score more than the opposition.

"In the first half we created good opportunities and caused Hearts a lot of problems. I don't think anybody would have argued if we were up 3-0 at half-time. We knew we'd get a reaction from Hearts but I felt we counteracted that. Lapses in concentration cost us. We've given the ball away and we haven't taken responsibility in our own penalty box. We're now coming in to nine very crucial games to go and we're second bottom. Although we have a lot of positives I'm like a broken record right now. Do we have the bottle, the mentality, to go and see a game of football out?" "I'm pretty sure the St Mirren players will be thinking about it," said Stevenson of their unwanted habit. "I watched their game against Aberdeen and you knew it was coming. I said to my wife 'they are going to score'. And sure enough they did. The more it happens the more you start to think about it. It's a vicious circle and it's happened again. It's a positive for us but Danny will want to address it for the rest of the season. Automatically teams will get a lift from it. If you're 1-0 down with ten minutess to go it does spur players on. Managers will point it out and it will be in the St Mirren players' minds. Sometimes that panic sets in. When luck is against you, the ball goes in."