This was a rather bizarre game and, to alter a famous cliche slightly, was a match of three thirds. Saints dominated the opening half hour or so with some terrific passing football and only had one goal to show for their efforts thanks to Graham Carey's free-kick. Then Hearts responded, Craig Beattie equalising before having a goal disallowed right on half time, only to set up Rudi Skacel to put the jambos in front just after the restart. We struggled big time but came into things more in the final 20 minutes or so and Hasselbaink's deflected effort means we'll do it all again later this month. There will be few complaints!
Injuries meant Saints fielded a rather attacking line-up, Lee Mair and David van Zanten the only fit defenders. In came Carey and Paul McGowan, the former shunted to leftback. Despite that we were well on top as Steven Thompson, McGowan and Hasselbaink spurned chances. All Hearts had to show for their efforts was an effort Andrew Driver should have buried rather than firing at Craig Samson's legs.
The breakthrough finally came in the 27th minute when Hasselbaink was blocked and Carey stepped up to fire the free-kick through the gap in the wall into the net. We continued to dominated but failed to extend our lead, but you can guess what happened next - Hearts won a corner and Beattie headed it home.
Before play resumed our arch nemisis Rudi Skacel came on and suddenly Hearts were the dominant force, Beattie having a goal wrongly ruled out right on half-time. The break failed to change things, Samson twice blocking before Stephen Elliott smashed wide in the opening few seconds. The warning wasn't headed, Beattie - who we tried to sign remember - crossing for Skacel to head the Jambos in front.
Having dominated the first half hour, Saints were now firmly on the front foot as Hearts looked to extend their lead - Beattie, Elliott and Skacel spurning chances. Our best hope when Thompson brought the ball down and got ready to shoot, only for Hasselbaink to nip in and fire over instead.
With a depleted bench there weren't many changes we could make, so putting Hugh Murray on for Kenny McLean seemed an odd move. However, it seemed to steady the ship and while Hearts remained on top we were back in things. With six minutes left Hasselbaink tried his luck with a shot that was blocked, the ball spun to Gary Teale who saw his effort blocked and when Nigel gathered the ball, he cut back before slipping the ball into the net via a huge deflection off of Marius Zaliukas.
Both sides had chances to win it after that but couldn't take them - Samson getting away with the officials failing to note he'd caught the ball outside his box - and it means another meeting in Paisley a week on Wednesday. If it's half as good as this it'll be a cracker!
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