Top ten Hearts dropped three crucial points in the Scottish Premiership title race with a heavy 1-0 late defeat at St Mirren in Paisley.
The league leaders played a man down for more than an hour after Craig Halkett’s first-half red card and survived a barrage of attacks until Miguel Freckleton’s emphatic winner in the 88th minute.
The Jambos remain six points off the top but gave chasers Celtic and Rangers a chance to close the gap on Wednesday.
Stephen Robinson’s much-improved St Mirren earned a League One win from eight matches, taking them 12 points clear of bottom as they moved above Dundee into ninth.
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Miguel Freckleton’s close-range header puts St Mirren ahead against Hearts
In the end, the hosts deserved to win. They were the better of these two sides even before Halkett was replaced.
But that’s where the early pressure turned into a rush.
The Hearts stand-in captain initially covered well for a mistake by his defensive partner Stuart Findlay, but then stumbled in possession himself before bringing down Jacob Devaney on the edge of the box to deny a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
And the drama in the first half did not stop there.
St Mirren captain Marcus Fraser had the ball in the back of the net, however teammate Alex Gogic was adjudged to be offside when he headed the ball wide of the post and denied Fraser’s rebound.
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Craig Halkett receives a red card for a foul!
Robinson’s side then thought they had a penalty when referee Stephen McLean pointed to the spot after Harry Milne had tackled Jayden Richardson, but the decision was overturned by VAR as the foul had taken place outside the penalty area.
Hearts stopper Aleksandar Shvolo was called into action again at the start of the second period as he made an excellent save with his right shoulder from close range to deny Mikael Mandron.
The visitors seemingly weathered the storm after that, but were unable to repeat the heroics of last month’s back-to-back wins with a deficit as Freckleton won for the Buddies with a thunderous header from Declan John’s corner two minutes from time.
Hearts may be just three points clear when they take on city rivals Hibernian next week. This is followed by a top-of-the-table clash with title rivals Rangers on Sunday 15 February – live on Ski Sports.
Sunday, February 15, 4:15 p.m
Start at 16:30
Robinson: A well-deserved victory helps our survival
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After a poor run of results, St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson says his side are turning the corner after a ‘deserved’ win over league leaders Hearts extended their unbeaten run to four games in a row
St Mirren manager Steven Robinson speaking to Sky Sports:
“It was more like us tonight. It’s four unbeaten now, with two wins in that. We’re starting to build a little more momentum again. We’re starting to turn a corner. To put in a performance like that against the league leaders … it was more like us. I thought we deserved it.”
“We had a lot of half-chances, probably should have had more. Being sent off affects the game, but we were patient and managed to get the end product.”
“The way we started was excellent. Our press was really, really good and we kept taking the ball away from them. We missed two or three really good chances, the penalty was disallowed – both decisions were right, actually. I just saw them. We criticize the referees enough, but you have to tell when they’ve got it right too.
“Like I said, four games unbeaten. We managed to win the cup this season, which I think people have also forgotten. We have a chance to get into the quarter-finals of the second cup on Friday night. The goal at the start of every season at this club is to stay in the division. A win tonight helps us do that.”
McInnes: We’re playing with fire if we keep going down to 10
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Hearts manager Derek McInnes says his side must learn from their defeat at St Mirren as well as address their disciplinary problems after another red card against him
Hearts manager Derek McInnes speaking to Sky Sports:
“Very (difficult). I thought we did what we had to do to get something out of the game, we’re doing more than we want to because we’re constantly down to 10 men, but we challenged it.”
“We’ve been incredible because our coping mechanisms have been down to 10 recently, but we’re playing with fire if we keep working.”
“I have no complaints about the red card. Our refusal to play forward puts us in a position. We knew St Mirren were going to try to catch us, the gap between our centre-backs and theirs was 30 yards, but we refused to play behind them.
“We brought the game back to the fore. It was OK at times, we broke the press and got through it, but we had to play a lot more behind us.
“Nothing more than a red card. We had two chances to go forward and we didn’t. In the end we settled down and in the end Hulks has one last challenge. No blame on him for that.
“There’s a consequence. You’re fighting here and you’re trying to save something from the game, but there’s a consequence, a knock-on effect when a player is suspended.
“There are no complaints about the effort of the team and what we tried to do to do it. We did it recently, there is a belief and a confidence in the team to try to get something out of the game, but what is painful is that it comes from a game in a set where the numerical advantage should not matter. We are just caught under the ball. It is a good header, but we also have a free-kick, but we also have a free-kick.
“Credit to St Mirren, they pushed on and asked questions but for the most part we dealt with it and went down brilliantly right down to the dying embers.”