Lawrence Shankland scored the only goal of the game as Hearts defeated St Johnstone 1-0 at Tynecastle Park in the Scottish Premiership this afternoon.
The Scottish international got in the way of teammate Liam Boyce’s goal-bound effort just after the hour mark to claim his 11th Hearts goal of the season and defeat former Jambos boss Craig Levein.
Hearts remain in 4th position in the cinch Premiership and now make it nine wins in their last ten matches against the Perth Saints.
St Johnstone’s three-game unbeaten run since changing managers has now ended and they slip back into the league’s relegation play-off position.
Craig Levein returned to the Tynecastle dugouts for the first time since leaving Hearts in 2019 but he was ‘disappointed’ not to receive a tougher reception from the home support. He said:
“Over the years, I’ve been in this dugout and that dugout, and this dugout and that dugout.
“I was expecting to get a little bit of stick but it didn’t really materialise. I’m a wee bit disappointed in that.
“I’ll need to have a word with the Hearts fans about that.”
Hearts boss Steven Naismith was pleased with the performance of his players but not with the performance of the match officials after Alan Forrest was denied a first-half penalty. He said:
“It’s not down to VAR, it’s down to decision-making.
“It’s every week, we had a meeting with them during the week which was a good meeting, productive.
“Everyone scheduling should help to get everybody at these meetings to make things better.
“It’s a penalty, it’s a penalty all day long.
“Are referees refereeing the game differently now because they think VAR might step in?
“But if it doesn’t hit the threshold to be ‘clear and obvious’ or whatever it may be, it’s not given.
“It’s a penalty, no debate about it.”
