Hearts 2-1 St Johnstone

Mark Atkinson reports from Tynecastle.

Transcript

00:00It will be St. Johnston that sits at the bottom of the Premiership table on Christmas Day

00:05after Hearts won 2-1 here at Tyne Castle in the William Hill Premiership.

00:10It's the Christmas songs blaring out at full time.

00:13A bit of festive feel-good for these Hearts fans who 72 hours ago

00:17were during their team off the pitch following a 2-2 draw with Petrobe Cub

00:21that eliminated them from the Conference League.

00:23They were much more synergy between team and supporters here

00:28helped by a good performance by Hearts in the first half

00:31taking the lead when birthday boy James Penrice headed them into a deserved lead

00:36against a St. Johnston team that were really poor in the first half

00:40and could have been further behind

00:42had James Wilson's strength not been chopped off for a very marginal offside call.

00:47To be fair to Simo Vallacari and his Saints team

00:50they came back out at the break, reinvigorated and got an equaliser

00:54when they were owed a penalty for a handball by Penrice

00:57converted coolly by Graham Carey

01:00and there was a moment where St. Johnston could have gone on to score a second

01:04adding a centre back far just wide

01:06but to be honest Hearts rebuked pretty quickly

01:09and scored a really good winner actually through Blair Spittle

01:11a lovely volley heading home after a corner from James Penrice

01:16wasn't clear properly, he volleyed the ball

01:18plum into the bottom corner past an unsighted Josh Ray.

01:23St. Johnston tried to get back into the match

01:25but they couldn't really find a way through this Hearts team

01:28in fact they were limited in attack

01:30Hearts kept them at bay pretty well

01:32and then we feel Cammy Devlin putting on a Tiger-ish performance

01:36to make sure they dominated that part.

01:38It means that Hearts actually not just moved off the bottom of the Premier League ship

01:41they are up to 10th place out of the relegation zone

01:44with St. Johnston on bottom spot

01:46and then Ross County a point ahead of them on 11th.

01:50The action hasn't stopped though

01:52it's the Boxing Day diary between Hearts and Hibbs

01:54at both the capital clubs

01:56out of trouble momentarily

01:57that game will be huge on Boxing Day.

01:59Full time at Tyne Castle

02:00it finished Hearts 2, St. Johnston 1.