St Mirren drew 1-1 against a strong Hearts side in a closed-door training match at La Finca this evening.
Stephen Robinson’s men took an early lead when Evan Mooney opened the scoring on 13 minutes. Good pressing from Carrick McEvoy saw the Youth Academy graduate steal the ball from Beni Baningime in the middle of the park. Conor McMenamin raced on to it and fed it to Mikael Mandron who perfectly weighted pass found Mooney scuttling down the left. The 17-year-old cut in from the side and slammed beyond Zander Clark from 16 yards.
Saints thought they had a second just before the water break when Conor McMenamin netted, but he was denied by the offside flag.
Conor McMenamin thought he'd scored Saints' second
Hearts levelled a little over 10 minutes after the restart from the water break with Baningime's strike from 20 yards taking a deflection off Alex Gogic before finding the net.
Only Gogic remained from the first-half line-up as the manager took the opportunity to rotate the team and change shape. The Cypriot would eventually be replaced by Saints youth prospect Billy Hutchison on 72 minutes. That substitution came after Mooney had to return to action when Roland Idowu was take off as a precaution, while Callum Penman almost put Saints ahead for a second time with a low effort deflected just wide of the left-hand post.
Declan John was denied a few minutes after a water break when his free-kick was brilliantly touched over the bar by Hearts goalkeeper Ryan Fulton. Saints stopper Peter Urminsky made a terrific save himself to deny Hearts’ Claudio Braga. The goalkeeper made himself big to pull off an important block after Musa Drammeh had put the forward clear on goal.
Full-Time: Hearts 1-1 St Mirren
First-Half - St Mirren: Mullen, Gogic, Kenny, Iacovitti, Richardson, O’Hara (c), McEvoy, Falconer, McMenamin, Mandron, Mooney
Second Half - St Mirren: Urminsky, Fraser (c), Gogic (Hutchison 72), Tanser, Penman, Phillips, Smyth, Taylor, John, Idowu (Mooney 63), Scott
