Blair Spittal’s volley proved decisive as Hearts ground out a 2-1 win over St Johnstone at Tynecastle to climb off the bottom of the William Hill Premiership at the expense of their opponents.
The Edinburgh side – under pressure to respond after incurring the wrath of their fans as they crashed out of the Conference League on Thursday – produced a strong first-half display and led at the break through James Penrice.
Saints equalised early in the second half through a penalty from substitute Graham Carey, but Spittal soon restored the hosts’ advantage and they held firm amid a nervy finale to leapfrog the Perth side and Ross County to move into 10th place.
Hearts boss Neil Critchley made four changes to the side that started the grim 2-2 draw with Petrocub on Thursday as Adam Forrester, Malachi Boateng, Musa Drammeh and Spittal came in for Craig Halkett, Macaulay Tait, Alan Forrest and Yan Dhanda.
There were three changes to the Saints side from the 3-2 defeat by St Mirren as on-loan Hearts defender Lewis Neilson, Matt Smith and Nicky Clark were replaced by Andre Raymond, Sven Sprangler and Aaron Essel.
The hosts started strongly and Forrester drilled just wide in the third minute after being teed up by Lawrence Shankland on the edge of the box.
Moments later James Wilson was put clean through by a lovely pass from Shankland, but the teenager ran the ball too far wide as he went past goalkeeper Josh Rae and when he cut the ball back across the six-yard box, Drammeh was penalised for a foul.
Hearts made the breakthrough in the 16th minute when Cammy Devlin floated a nicely-weighted pass out to the right for right-back Forrester, whose cross was glanced home at the near post by fellow full-back Penrice, who had ghosted in from the left.
With their tails up, the Jambos went in search of a second and Saints defender Bozo Mikulic was forced to divert a Forrester cross over his own crossbar before Shankland saw a header from a Penrice delivery gathered by Rae.
The Edinburgh side thought they had doubled their lead in the 38th minute when Wilson drilled home a low shot from inside the box but – after a VAR check – it was ruled out for offside against the striker in the build-up.
Saints had offered little in the first half and manager Simo Valakari sent on Carey in place of Raymond for the start of second half.
The substitution paid off swiftly as Carey’s inswinging free-kick from the right was handled by Penrice. The Irishman duly tucked the spot-kick low to Craig Gordon’s left.
The hosts were suddenly wobbling and immediately after the equaliser Adama Sidibeh outpaced Daniel Oyegoke to get himself clean through before thumping a powerful shot just wide from the edge of the box.
But Hearts regained the lead in the 58th minute when Spittal fired a superbly-executed volley low into the net after Penrice’s corner broke to him on the edge of the box.
