Hearts beat St Mirren on penalties on night of Scottish Cup drama – 3 talking points

Toyosi Olusanya, who raced onto a ball straight over the top from Zach Hemming but lifted it too high when he tried to lob Craig Gordon, will have believed he should have given the home team the lead within the opening four minutes.

While Elton Kabangu forced a save from Hemming at the other end, the same player missed another wonderful opportunity in front of goal.

On minute 22, St Mirren ultimately seized the lead through Mikael Mandron after Gordon parried Mark O’Hara’s low drive into his path.

Hearts’ defense was unable to handle the combination of Olusanya and Mandron, and they were rightfully behind at halftime.

There was not much of a difference in the second half, and Killian Philipps was the next home player to let a scoring opportunity go by.

Calem Nieuwenhof, who was on for the first time in over a year, scored with his first touch after Hearts made some forward substitutions that paid off in the 84th minute. And we went to extra time.

Teenager James Wilson’s incredible poise and Craig Gordon’s outstanding save to deny Oisyn Smith gave Hearts an early lead.

Gordon hauled out the bag once more to save James Scott after Kenneth Vargas made it two from two.

James Penrice maintained composure to nestle away the game-winning kick after Gerald Taylor missed one for Hearts to make it tight. Olusanya and Mandron at it once more

Despite only scoring one goal in the first half, Mikael Mandron and Toyosi Olusanya maintained their outstanding strike connection.

The front duo gave the Jambos the defense the runaround, and they have done this to a backline numerous times this season.

They have repeatedly caused issues with their pace and power, as demonstrated by their performance against Aberdeen a few weeks back.

Even though their approach wouldn’t have surprised the Jambos players, they still had trouble fending it off.

Heart problems resurface

Hearts have struggled with being overly cautious and passive when in possession, both before and during some of his tenure. being incapable of harming or dismantling teams.

Although they’ve come a long way in that area, the display was largely back to how it was before this game.

To be fair, St. Mirren is a team that will always try to limit your space, hit you with a counterattack, and make things difficult for you.

Critchley won’t want to see many performances like that, but it might just be put up to that.

An amazing time for Nieuwenhof

He has just been kicking his heels for the past 11 months due to setback after setback that has kept him out of action for much longer than anticipated.

That was after anticipating a maximum of 12 weeks of absence. It must have been a pretty amazing sensation for him to return and score with his first touch.

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