The last time any of our strikers scored for us in a competitive game was when we played Gretna back in March, with Billy Mehmet and Craig Dargo both finding the back of the net. Since then Andy Dorman, Gary Mason, Ryan McCay and Will Haining have all managed to score a goal each. Hardly a fantastic state of affairs and as this is an away game against a big club there's very little chance of things changing. We'll probably go with Mehmet up front on his own, with the likes of Garry Brady and Stephen McGinn encouraged to push forward from midfield.
If we go by football's unwritten rules, we should start with Dennis Wyness and Jim Hamilton tomorrow. Both are former Hearts players and are therefore duty bound to score against their former club - as Hamilton did at Love Street last season. Realistically, both will be on the bench. If we were to go with two up front it's possible that Hamilton could start, although it's more likely Tom Brighton would be given a place in the side.
The good news is that Dargo is nearly fit, but he probably won't feature tomorrow. Fortunately, Dorman is also fit and should start, providing some much needed drive and creativity from the midfield. Will Haining returns from suspension and is likely to replace the impressive Scott Cuthbert, while everyone else who has been struggling with injuries is fit. Despite that, don't be surprised if we play a similar sort of team to the one that faced Celtic a fortnight ago.
While it might be dull watching Saints, being a Hearts fan is anything boring. Unfortunately for them, it's usually off the pitch matters that are causing the excitement. After finally appointing a manager in the shape of manager Csaba Lazlo a few months ago, chairman Vladimir Romanov has once again decided to stick his mucky paws in where they aren't welcome. It would seem that last week at Ibrox he told Lazlo not to play goalkeeper Steve Banks, as apparently he can't be trusted because - in a rare sign of sanity - he realised it might be better not being at Tynecastle. Jamie MacDonald played last week but it is likely to be former Kaunas keeper Marian Kello who starts tomorrow.
As a fan of a neutral club and someone who despises the Old Firm, the situation is incredibly frustrating (while also being quite funny at times). They should be a lot better than they are. They should have broken the Old Firm's stranglehold in 2005/06 as the league was there for the taking before Romanov decided to get rid of George Burley for some insane reason. Yet many of their fans buy the utter nonsense Romanov spouts about conspiracies and media monkeys and are so blind that they cannot see how bad things are at times and how much better they should be. I would say it's a shame, but as they keep whining about Saints supposedly lying down to Celtic in 1986 then I'll just say they deserve it!
Prediction time? We'll lose. Hearts will score at some point and we won't thanks to our lack of a proper attacking threat.