Levein’s delight as Jambos toughen up to beat ‘bully’ Saints

Hearts manager Craig Levein was thrilled to see Kyle Lafferty dish out Scottish Cup punishment to St Johnstone – and relieved his players avoided injury in the face of some bruising challenges.

The Northern Irishman took his tally for the season to 14 with a double either side of a stunning effort from Demi Mitchell as the hosts booked their place in the quarter-finals for the first time since lifting the trophy six years ago.

After riding their luck in emerging victorious in a narrow 1-0 win over Saints in the Premiership last weekend, Hearts were worthy winners this time.

There were still some anxious moments in the second half for Levein and his staff, particularly when Murray Davidson and Chris Kane collected yellow cards for clattering into Ross Callachan and Christophe Berra respectively.

Levein said: “I thought the one on Berra was naughty and it was late. They had about four or five of those.

“Years ago we succumbed to that type of bullying.

“Maybe that’s a bit strong a word, but teams are being physical and seeing if we’re mentally prepared to battle to win a match.

“But we’re a different team now. We’re not soft.”

Levein was delighted for goal scorers Lafferty and Mitchell.

“Kyle’s first goal was a fantastic finish,” said Levein, who left out Steven Naismith due to a minor hamstring injury.

“Arnaud Djoum stole the ball, played Kyle through and it was a ridiculously tight angle on his left side.

“Then he gets his second and I left him on hoping that he might get a third.

“Demi Mitchell had been unlucky not to score for us. I was right behind his, that was beautiful to watch.

“As soon as it left his foot, it was going in the top corner.

“The biggest thing for me is the delight on his face when he scored.

“Football is a great game when you see kids doing something like that and feeling good about themselves. It made me smile.”

Saints captain Joe Shaughnessy was at fault, playing an ill-advised long-throw into the centre circle for the opener.

Djoum read the defender’s intentions and intercepted before Davidson could react. He fed Lafferty, who, from an acute angle, managed to squeeze his left-foot shot past Alan Mannus.

Mitchell then notched a sublime strike in the 54th minute.

Djoum found the on loan Manchester United wing-back after tearing forward on the counter and Mitchell arched a superb effort into the top corner from 20 yards.

The victory was sealed four minutes later when Lafferty made – and finished – the third.

Lafferty exchanged passes with Anthony Mcdonald and Michael Smith before the towering forward placed a left-footed shot past Mannus from close range.

Saints boss Tommy Wright, who feared Stefan Scougall’s season was over with a combination of knee and ankle injuries that forced the midfielder off in the midweek defeat to Motherwell, was furious about the way his side conceded the first goal.

“When you give away two goals you can’t win a football match,” he lamented.

“I don’t know what Joe is doing at the first, we worked on throw-ins yesterday. And the idea certainly wasn’t to throw it at Murray Davidson on a bobbly pitch.

“So we’ve gifted them the first. “We actually started quite well, we caused them problems with Joe’s throws that no one stepped up and attacked.” 55 Possession 45 5 Shots on target 1 2 Shots off target 5 1 Corners 3 2 Offside 4 17 Fouls 8 2 Cautions 4 0 Sending-offs 0