Hendry starts Saints party Winning header sends travelling fans wild
Trips to the capital at this time of year tend to centre around plodding about the Christmas markets or indulging in some festive shopping.
But platform six at Perth Railway Station was laced with blue and white at the weekend as dedicated St Johnstone supporters followed their favourites to Tynecastle Park.
The only gift they were after was a three-point haul on the road which, before kick-off, hadn’t been achieved in the Premiership this calendar year.
Callum Hendry’s heroics ensured that unwanted stat has now been canned with the super substitute’s leap of faith in the 74th minute good enough for victory.
It wasn’t the first time Hendry had created scenes of a similar nature and his influence in this latest show - which moves Saints up to 10th - has been hailed.
Midfielder Murray Davidson said: “Callum has scored a couple of winners now. The manager says he has to be patient and is still young.
“He has got to learn certain things and I’m always shouting at him. But it’s for his own good.
“He has so much ability and we see it every day in training. I’m delighted for him and it will give him a boost because he was as frustrated as me missing the last two games.”
Local watering holes in the Haymarket area had received a welcome cash boost as around 500 fans from the Fair City pitched up two weeks before Christmas.
The Hearts faithful were hoping their new manager, Daniel Stendel, would provide the required tonic on what was a bitterly cold afternoon in Gorgie.
But the hosts, whose forward line was led by former Saint Steven MacLean, lacked any real cutting edge and, in the end, were deservedly defeated.
Saints should actually have been ahead early doors when Michael O’Halloran latched on to a long but guided Callum Booth pass down the left flank.
The Perth attacker had beaten goalkeeper Zdenek Zlamal to the ball, rounded him, but fired a shot straight at defender Aaron Hickey who had retreated to the line.
Matty Kennedy followed up with the rebound, which recovering Zlamal managed to push around the post. Apart from this, there was a real lack of goalmouth action.
After the break Kennedy took matters into his own hands with a surging run from the half-way line. His shot, though, drifted narrowly wide of the mark.
While Hearts were toothless for the majority, Booth needed to be switched on to make a glorious defensive clearance from Oliver
Bozanic’s whipped free-kick on 68 minutes.
Five minutes later Hendry was denied by a fabulous point-blank Zlamal save after O’Halloran had rolled a pass across the box.
But the young forward sent the away section crashing from their seats when the resulting corner was nodded into the back of the net from Kennedy’s delivery.
“I thought we were excellent with our work-rate and organisation,” Davidson said. “The manager made it very clear what he wanted us to do and knew they would come after us early.
“We knew we’d get space in behind and it was said at halftime the game would open up, which it did.
“We had not won on the road for a while. But we feel we merited it.
“We’ve got two clean sheets in a row at two extremely difficult places in Rugby Park and Tynecastle. We have four points from the last two and need to build on that.
“I don’t look at league tables but I’ve been made aware by plenty of people we were bottom.”
And so the support headed home – and back to the pub – with a spring in their step.
Davidson made sure to thank them for their backing and said: “The fans enjoy coming down on the train. I think a few of them had maybe had a few shandies.
“They were brilliant and, even at 0-0, they were pushing us on. We sent them away happy.
“They’ve not had too much to cheer about on the road. In the last 30 minutes, especially, they pushed us on which is always a help and appreciated.”
This was full-back Callum Booth’s second start for Saints and he again looked very assured throughout.
Alan Newlands handled the game well and brought the cards out when required. Each team were shown two yellows.