Hearts

Derek McInnes suggests that VAR’s decision to rule out Tomas Magnusson’s opening goal was “harsh” following Hearts’ penalty shootout exit to Falkirk in the Scottish Cup. Playing their third game in six days, Elton Kabangu’s missed penalty allowed Ben Parkinson to send the Bairns into the hat for the 5th round. McInnes felt the shootout defeat “stings that little bit more”. ‘There were a lot of people at the start of this week that said to me about prioritising St Mirren over the cup game, and I didn’t like that mentality, I thought we should be prioritising both.’ ‘I think it’s important we are a strong cup team, it’s been a tough week, its took its toll in terms of injuries, suspensions, and the effort put out by the players output from the players’ ‘We started the game really strongly. I thought we would really need to get off to a flying start and impose ourselves in the game, and I thought we were brilliant in that first half hour.’ ‘But we were guilty of not taking enough shots, not working the goalkeeper enough, when you are as dominant as that in the first half hour youve got to make hay, and we didn’t.’ ‘We lose a poor goal, which skews everything; it’s the type of goal we don’t normally lose, but getting done in the wide areas isn’t good enough.’ Hearts had initially taken the lead in the 53rd minute, after Magnusson crashed home from close range. But VAR deemed that the Norwegian used his hand to control the ball, keeping the score level. McInnes was “disappointed” with the intervention. ‘The angle I’ve seen is not definitive that that’s a handball unless VAR have seen it from the main stand side.’ But I don’t think VAR should be getting involved in that. I didn’t see any real motion from Tomas [Magnusson] to gain an advantage; it’s the type of thing that was said VAR wouldn’t be involved in a couple of weeks ago at Hampden with Willie Collum. I thought it was really harsh. Captain Lawrence Shankland was forced off after suffering an injury, whilst the details of the knock remain unclear, McInnes may be without his starman before their table-top showdown with Celtic next week. ‘Not great, we don’t know exactly what he’s done, when it comes to penalties, you want to keep him on for obvious reasons, it doesn’t look good for next week anyway.’ We’ve got 8 days before we play Celtic, we’ll dust ourselves down, well see where we are, well get over the disappointment because that’s the job, and we’ll be ready for them.

Derek McInnes described his side’s 2-0 victory over St Mirren as “brilliant” as Hearts secured a second 10-man win in three days. His side survived 45 minutes with 10 men to beat Dundee on Sunday afternoon, butMcInnes believes this victory “tops it by a long way”. “We were in trouble. We got the experience on Sunday. We played similarly, although Dundee played a different shape to St Mirren.” “We were still carrying a threat with three at the top of the pitch to try and carry a threat, give us a bit of oxygen, give us a bit of relief. The three lads, Lawrence, Claudio, and Kyzi, carried a fight for us and gave us some good moments, but without scoring the goal.” Beni Baningime’s late challenge on Ronald Idowu gave the Jambos a mountain to climb in the 15th minute, but once more, they rose from the canvas to deliver a crucial victory, maintaining their six-point gap at the summit of the Scottish Premiership. “Beni Baningime, who’s as popular a boy in that dressing room as anybody, is in tears. We had to help him out. We had to dig ourselves out of a bit of trouble.” “With 10 men against a team like St Mirren, it’s not always easy. We thought we had enough encouragement at times, we had a couple of good opportunities, good breaks.” “It’s a great bit of play in the lead-up to Lawrence’s goal where the captain sets the right tone, gets the goal and then we have something to hang on to.” “That’s due to the effort of the lads. We can only set them up. I can only give them the instruction of what’s the best chance to get that clean sheet.” The win maintains their 100% winning start to 2026, keeping three clean sheets in the process. McInnes’ side have another quick turnaround, as they welcome Falkirk to Tynecastle for the Scottish Cup 4th Round on Saturday evening.

In the cauldron of Tynecastle Park, it was the calm head of Stuart Findlay that sent the Jambos on their way to back-to-back wins over rivals Rangers, and for the Hearts defender, the latest victory is a “testament” to the hard work of his teammates and manager. Speaking to the media at full-time, Findlay was “satisfied” with his side’s 12th league win of the season. “We knew how much was on the game today. There was no getting away from that. Rangers have been slowly chipping away with wins every week, and we knew they were going to be a difficult game. They’ve not lost an away game in over a year. We were under no illusions about how hard it was going to be.” “I thought we weathered the first 10, 15 minutes, they came out, probably the better side to start with. But we knew we would get our moments. Thankfully, I was able to pop up with the header and then Shanks does what Shanks does” Derek McInnes’s side have won three straight games, after a winless run had reduced their lead at the summit of the Scottish Premiership. Findlay believes the performances hint at the “mentality” of the squad. “We thrive in big games. I think we’ve shown that in all the big games so far, we’ve managed to show up with the performances to beat Celtic home and away, to beat Rangers home and away. It’s not easy to do, no matter what Celtic Rangers are going to show up. And it’s a testament to the boys in there that we’ve been able to do that. “We believe in ourselves, that’s a big thing. We come into these games with pure belief that we can get the victory”. Findlay was quick to point out the work ethic of his teammates, including another exemplary performance from captain Lawrence Shankland. “You’ve seen Lawrence lose the ball at the top end of the pitch and come back and make a tackle in the final third. You’ve got a midfield three of Cammy, Oisin, and Thomas, who will cover every blade for you. There wasn’t a guy on the park today who was a passenger. Every single person stood up and was counted. I’m so proud of all the boys in there.” Whispers of a title charge continue to gather pace for the Jambos, but Stuart advised that the dressing room refuse to be drawn into such talk. “We’ve reached the expectations of the fans by winning the majority of the games. I can’t stress enough that’s what we need to just keep doing. We just need to keep looking ahead to the next game.” “The title thing, as I said 100 times, I’ll let other people talk about that. We just want to make sure we have dusted that one off, and now it’s a massive Derby that we need to try and get another win.” High-performing partnerships are plentiful across the Hearts team. But perhaps none more effective than Findlay and Craig Halkett, who missed the game through injury. “Craig’s been an absolutely huge part for us this season. We were all sort of gutted that he couldn’t make it today. The boys did him proud, and we got a really good result.” “He was delighted for me (for scoring). As soon as I went in, he was the first guy who came up to me.” The Jambos return to league action at Easter Road on Saturday, in another formidable test for Derek McInnes’ side.