St Johnstone 3-3 Hearts: Three things learned as Jambos move off the bottom of the Premiership

Ali McCann struck St Johnstone's second goal against Hearts

Character to come back twice

Hearts showed admirable guts and courage to come from behind twice in this game and take a point back to Edinburgh. They were 1-0 down to Stevie May's opener but led 2-1 at the interval thanks to Liam Boyce and Steven Naismith goals. Then, trailing 3-2 on 90 minutes, Sean Clare emerged with a thunderous strike from 20 yards to level the scoreline once again. That defiance will be crucial if Hearts are to successfully fight off relegation. This draw lifted them off the bottom of the league ahead of Hamilton, who face Celtic on Sunday.

Scoring and conceding

There is no doubt Hearts will score plenty goals under Daniel Stendel but conceding three will have been a concern, especially after working so hard to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 advantage early in the game. Their back line was too exposed in the second half and St Johnstone exploited that ruthlessly having been behind at the break. At one point, the hosts looked capable of scoring with every attack. Hearts goalkeeper Joel Pereira will have been disappointed at losing the second goal to Ali McCann given he got a hand to the ball but did not stop the young midfielder's effort.

Meshino's return

The on-loan Manchester City forward spent the first half of January on international duty with Japan Under-23s at the Asian Championships in Thailand. He returned just prior to the Scottish Cup tie against Airdrie but was not risked in that match, or subsequent league games against Ross County and Rangers. This was his first appearance of 2020 and he struggled to get into the game. Meshino lined up wide on the left and took up good positions in the final third. However, he was well marshalled by the St Johnstone wing-back Anthony Ralston and was replaced by striker Uche Ikpeazu near the hour mark.