Cathro looks to benefit from St Johnstone suspensions

Ian Cathro hopes to reap benefits from the St Johnstone brawl that shocked Scottish football, saying the absence of Danny Swanson and Richard Foster is a welcome boost for Hearts.

The Saints sinners will be absent for tonight’s crunch Premiership clash in the race for Europe after they became embroiled in a fracas in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Hamilton.

Both players have been suspended pending an investigation, albeit that process will be hindered by a lack of video evidence.

Cathro was acutely aware of the incident but admits his only thought was how that would affect Tommy Wright’s line-up for the encounter in Perth – and he is delighted they will be without two key men.

“To be honest, all I looked into was what the sending off meant for us – two players are out of the game who are good players, who have been important players in the St Johnstone team,” said Cathro. “The fact they can’t play? That’s all right for us.

“From St Johnstone’s perspective, I can see the argument for both sides – it could help them or hinder them but that’s not particularly prominent in my mind.

“What has changed is there are now players unavailable for the game, and that’s the only bit that 100% affects this game.”

Hearts head to Perth trailing St Johnstone by two points, with fourth-place set to be the final Europa League berth, providing one of Celtic, Aberdeen or Rangers win the Scottish Cup.

Cathro has nothing but admiration for the consistency displayed by the Saints.

“The biggest success of St Johnstone over many years is they are organised, things are clear to them and they are very experienced,” Cathro said.

“They are good at managing their way through games in this league and, for that reason, everyone is going to face a tough game against them, home or away.

Cathro confirmed that Aaron Hughes and Arnaud Djoum are set to be sidelined tonight.

Hearts boss Ian Cathro: boosted by absence of Swanson and Foster.