Hearts B fall short against St Johnstone despite valiant effort as young Jambos bow out KDM Evolution Trophy
It was a valiant effort from Angus Beith’s men against statistically the best team in the competition.
Hearts B lost 1-0 to Scottish Championship leaders St Johnstone as their KDM Evolution Trophy run comes to an end.
The match was supposed to take place at Ainslie Park last week, however was postponed due to weather conditions Saints boss Simo Valakari described as ‘impossible’ as Storm Bram swept the nation. Instead it went ahead on Tuesday night at the same venue.
Hearts frustrated their opponents for 76 minutes but St Johnstone striker Jamie Gullan eventually broke the deadlock to break young Jambos hearts. It was always going to be a tough task for Beith’s youngsters, against a Saints side with plenty of talent. Former Hibs midfielder Sam Stanton started for the Perthshire side, while prominent striker Adama Sidibeh came off the bench in the second half. However, Hearts’ recent pre-contract agreement signing Josh McPake was an unused substitute.
‘I thought we more than matched them’
In a week where Dumbarton were hammered 9-0 by Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the same round, Hearts B certainly didn’t disgrace themselves against quality opposition. After the match, Beith told the Hearts website he thought his side went toe-to-toe with the Championship leaders.
He said: “I was disappointed to go out because obviously we're in a cup competition and we wanted to progress. So the immediate feelings after the game were disappointment, but I haven’t had much time to reflect on the game, but my immediate thoughts are immense pride at how we played.
“I thought we more than matched them. I think we needed a little bit more quality in the final third. Potentially there was a bit of contention with the decision for the goal, potentially Kai's fouled. So yeah, there were opportunities for us to score, but I think overall there’s good feelings coming away from the game of how we competed.”
The future is bright
The young Jambos boss also picked out some individuals he thought flourished in the cup tie. He continued: “I thought Kai (Smutek) was magnificent and he's not played in a number of weeks now. So to come straight back into a game where he's playing against players that are performing at a very high level, I thought all things considered, he performed magnificently.
“I thought Alfie (Osborne) was really good alongside him as well. There were a number of good performances. Keir (McMeekin) showed some brilliant little wee glimpses in the first half as well. We just lacked a little bit of quality and a little bit of luck in the final third. It didn't quite come our way, but some brilliant individual performances and Kai was right up there.”
Meanwhile Simo Valakari was relieved to get over the line at Ainslie Park as he now prepares himself for John Robertson’s Ross County in the next round. The Saints boss said: “it’s job done, that’s the most important thing. We set out to get through to the next round and we did it, although it wasn’t in the most convincing fashion.”