McSwegan on the mark as Hearts look to Europe

HEARTS took a significant step towards securing third place in the league last night with a deserved, if slightly controversial, win over St.Johnstone.

The Tynecastle side are now ahead of Motherwell, who drop to fourth place, and are in the driving seat in the race to take that UEFA Cup place.

It was a sixty-fifth minute Gary McSwegan header which separated the sides in a game which only came to life after half-time.

Until the the biggest excitement for the crowd of little more than 4,000 was watching the scores from the European champions league games being broadcast on the giant scoreboard.

However, after the break both sides, no doubt with a flea in their ear from their respective managers, upped the pace and put together some good moves.

St.Johnstone will feel aggrieved they did not at least take a share of the points as they seemed to be denied a blatant penalty when Paddy Connolly was bundled down in the box by Scott Severin, seven minutes before Hearts got the goal which won the game.

They will also be cursing the good form of Hearts goalkeeper Antti Niemi, who pulled off two magnificent saves from John O'Neil near the end.

The win will give confidence to Hearts who have now won five of their six last league games and play Edinburgh rivals Hibernian at Easter Road on Saturday.

Their best performers on the night were the front pairing of McSwegan and young Gary Wales, who is keeping the experienced Stephane Adam out of the team.

Jim Jefferies revealed afterwards that German striker Jens Paeslack, from second division side Karlsruhe, will come to the club at the weekend for trials, but the big striker will have to do well to earn himself a contract as it is the front men who are making Hearts tick at present.

From a St.Johnstone point of view, they did come back at Hearts in the second-half but considering they were playing at home they did not create nearly enough chances.

In his programme notes before the game St Johnstone manager Sandy Clark said he believed Hearts were the best team in Scotland outwith the Old Firm, and with a few more wins like this he could just be right.

After their 4-1 defeat against Rangers in the Scottish Cup on Sunday, Hearts coach Jim Jefferies made two changes, with Darren Jackson and Fitzroy Simpson dropped to make way for McSwegan and Scott Severin.

For most of the first half neither side put together any sort of cohesive moves and chances were few and far between.

Ironically, the best of them fell to former Hearts player Stephen Frail in 37 minutes when his shot from a Nathan Lowndes cut-back just went wide with Niemi well beaten.

Apart from that, the only other real highlight in a scrappy first 45 minutes came when a Severin through-ball to Wales was intercepted by keeper Stephen Robertson, who had rushed from his area to make a clearance.

However, he didn't make a good connection and the ball fell to Colin Cameron midway inside his own half who tried an ambitious long-range effort with his left foot which went narrowly over the bar.

St.Johnstone had the slight edge in terms of chances with Paddy Connolly being denied by an excellently timed tackle from Grant Murray in the box while Lowndes made a hash of an early opportunity when he was put through by Connolly.

In the middle of the park there was an interesting battle bubbling up between Paul Kane and Hearts captain Colin Cameron., but despite their best efforts play mostly petered out near the opposition penalty area.

It was Hearts who started the brighter after the interval, no doubt after being given a tongue lashing from Jefferies about the lack of chances they were creating.

Apart from Cameron, only Wales up front had looked like causing any sort of problems to St Johnstone, and it was the young striker who did well to bring out a save from Robertson in the early stages of the second half.

The Perth side did try to create chances of their own, but apart from a header from John O'Neil and another moments later from Jim Weir which went narrowly wide they failed to get in behind the Hearts defence as much as they would like.

In 58 minutes Hearts had a lucky let off when referee Stuart Dougal turned away St.Johnstone penalty claims.

The incident which sparked the home fans' fury came when John Paul McBride put through a

perfect ball to Connolly, who looked as though he was bundled off the ball from behind by Severin. However, Dougal waved the claims away, despite strong protests from the St Johnstone players.

That sparked life into a game which badly needed it and both sides seemed to find an edge to their performances.

Hearts made a half-hearted claim for a penalty award minutes later when Darren Dods clashed with McSwegan in the box, but Dougal quite rightly turned that appeal away also.

That signalled a period of sustained Hearts pressure and they took the lead in 65 minutes through a well-worked set-piece. O'Neil fouled Thomas Flogel wide on the St Johnstone right, giving Hearts a free-kick which was taken by substitute Lee Makel, who had come on minutes earlier for Robert Tomaschek.

The Geordie-born midfielder flighted in a magnificent free-kick straight onto the head of Gary McSwegan, who rose unchallenged to head home.

The striker, making his first start for six weeks, had looked sharp in the second half and his strike gave him his tenth goal of the season.

St Johnstone - Robertson, Frail, Dods, Weir, Bollan, Griffin, Kane, McBride, O'Neil, Lowndes, Connolly. Substitutes - Cuthbert, O'Halloran, McAnespie, McMahon, Jones.

Hearts - Niemi, Flogel, Murray, Pressley, Leclercq, Naysmith, Tomaschek, Cameron, Severin, McSwegan, Wales. Substitutes - McKenzie, Adam, Jackson, Makel, Simpson.

Referee - Stuart Dougal.

HEARTS are set to beam back Saturday's Edinburgh derby to Tynecastle for the first time in their history.

The club will show the game live on big screens in the Gorgie Suite at the stadium, and 400 fanswill be able to see the action for #12.

Club spokesman Douglas Dalgleish said: ''It will be a first for us, and we can do things like this now because of our partnership with SMG. Hopefully, the supporters will take advantage of it.''