St Johnstone started the Premiership campaign far better than they finished the Viaplay Cup one but an encouraging performance wasn’t enough to earn any opening day points.
The Perth side gave as good as they got against Hearts for long spells of this top-flight clash.
However, they were beaten 2-0 by Hearts, with Yutaro Oda scoring just 15 minutes from full-time and Lawrence Shankland netting deep into stoppage time.
Steven MacLean changed over half of his team from the previous Saturday’s debacle against Stirling Albion, with new signings, Sam McClelland and Dare Olufunwa both making their debuts.
You could tell from the off that the manager’s tempo and endeavour demands were being met, with Saints players closing down opponents all across the pitch.
And they should have opened the scoring on eight minutes when the Hearts defenders failed to pick up Liam Gordon and the captain volleyed Graham Carey’s cross wide from eight yards out.
The visitors were far from their best in the opening half but they had a couple of headers – from Peter Haring and Frankie Kent – that were too close to Dimitar Mitov’s goal for comfort.
The evenly matched nature of the contest continued after the break, with Oda forcing a save out of Mitov and back to back Carey corners just before the hour mark causing six-yard box chaos for Hearts.
Mitov heroics
The Bulgarian keeper had to be at his very best to prevent Shankland scoring an opener with a first-time shot from a Stephen Kingsley cross.
Then he made a save of equal quality moments later when Kyosuke Tagawa was put through by Shankland.
But Hearts were building momentum and on 75 minutes they scored their winner – a crisply struck, low Oda shot after a deep cross broke fortuitously for him.
Saints couldn’t create a chance to level after that and Mitov was called upon to make another excellent save, this time from Kye Rowles.
He couldn’t do anything to prevent a Shankland injury-time tap-in as the hosts threw men forward and were caught on the counter, though.
St Johnstone – Mitov 8, Gallacher 7, McGowan 7, Gordon 6, May 6 (Jephcott 4), Carey 7, Wright 6 (Kucheriavyi 5), Olufunwa 7, McClelland 7, Ballantyne 6 (Steven), Phillips 6 (Smith 4). Subs not used – Sinclair, Considine, Ferguson, Parker, McCrystal.
Saints’ star man – Dimitar Mitov.
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