With no relegation to worry about, Saints seemed to be resting a few players for Tuesday's cup tie. Billy Mehmet and Mark Corcoran made way for Hamilton and Franco Miranda, while Stephen McGinn replaced Hugh Murray. Worringly, Will Haining was out injured and he was replaced by the returning David Barron.
The first decent chance of the half fell to Ian Maxwell, but his shot from McGinn's poor corner was blocked by Christophe Berra. There was a hint of hand ball, but it was probably accidental.
What wasn't accidental was what happened a few minutes later. Hearts blatantly took a freekick a good ten yards from where the foul was committed, but - despite Saints boss Gus MacPherson pointing out the marks on the pitch where the foul occured - they got away with it. Fortunately, it came to nothing.
Hearts arguably had the better of the first half, Andrew Driver duffing a shot wide and also haivng one turned away for a corner by Chris Smith, who did well to save Christos Karipidis' header from the resulting corner. However, by this point Saints had lost John Potter after his head took the full brunt of a kick from Mikoliunas. It was completely accidental, but Potter was unconcious and had to be stretchered off before being taken to hopsital. Get well soon John!
Despite some decent play, Saints chances were few and far between in the first half, with Andy Dorman having the best when he charged forward before shooting just over the bar.
The second half started in exciting fashion, Jamie Mole picking out Calum Elliot whose shot was brilliantly tipped over by Smith. The striker also put an effort wide before the incompetent official booked McGinn for a tackle that was no worse than most being made by men in maroon.
Just before the hour mark Saints went in front. You'd expect Hamilton to knock the ball down to Dargo but instead the opposite happened. Maxwell's free kick was knocked back by Dargo and Hamilton hammered it home to open the scoring.
Saints nearly doubled their lead when Hamilton and Dargo combined to set up Miranda to shoot wide, before things got silly. First, all three officials somehow missed Millen being taken out off the ball by Ricardas Beniusis. Then a Hearts player got away with a high challenge before a ball was played over the top for Elliot, who went down probably looking for a foul. Play raged on and Michael Stewart shot just wide.
At the other end a through ball found Dorman - making one of his usual runs - but his shot hit the post, before Maxwell was penalised for having the cheek to win a ball with a good challenge. Miranda entered the book soon after for another tackle that didn't seem that different to most being made by Hearts players. Well, if tempers are fraying, Franco is always going to be the first to get booked.
Stewart flashed a shot across goal before Dargo brought a tame save from Banks. However, Saints were being pegged back more and more and Hearts drew level with three minutes left. Stewart's corner was only cleared to Mikoliunas at the edge of the box and he ripped a shot past Smith.
Normally, you'd expect Saints to sit back and try to cling on for a point. Not a bit of it. They had two chances to win it. First, Dorman had a shot saved by Banks that sub Billy Mehmet blazed over before, in injury time, Barron picked out Dorman only for his shot to go just past the post.
All in all, probably a fair result. Hearts had the better chances in the first half while we had the better ones in the second. Fingers crossed we can go one better on Tuesday night (and actually get a decent ref for once!).