Simms insists he did nothing wrong at clincher
Hearts striker Ellis Simms claimed referee Greg Aitken was perfectly correct to allow his side’s second goal against St Mirren.
The on-loan Everton player ran behind the home defence and was denied the chance to score when goalie Jak Alnwick dived at his feet.
Simms’ attempt to smack the ball home left the Buddies’ No. 1 flat out on the turf as Devlin hit the net.
“It was a coming together but I played the ball first,” said the 21-year-old.
“That’s what keepers are there for, to make saves and be brave.
“There was no malice in it.
“The ball came back out and Devlin put it in. So, it was a fair challenge.
“He didn’t get hold of it and the ball came back out. Obviously, they’re going to say it was a foul because of the state of the game.
“But there was no real bad intention in there. It was just unfortunate for them.”
Jambos’ boss Robbie Neilson agreed with his player and felt that Aitken called it right when he decided to send off Conor Ronan for his tackle on Beni Baningime.
He said: “The ref got the key decisions right. We’ve seen the tackle and it’s a stonewall red card.
“It’s not malicious but the boy has gone over the top of the ball.
“The sending off made a difference to the game but even prior to that I thought we were playing well.
“For the penalty they thought they should have had, the player jumps into the challenge and looked for it.
“I know Stephen Robinson will probably see it differently.
“For our second goal, Simms has to challenge for it. The goalkeeper dives at his feet and they come together, but I don’t see an issue with that.”
Neilson was relieved to end a losing run in the Premiership.
He added: “It’s good to win again but in the first half against Dundee we probably played better than we did here.
“The performances have been alright, it’s just the results we’ve been missing.
“The substitutes made a difference to us.
“We don’t have a big squad. We went with quality over quantity in the summer.
“For this game we had Gordon, Halkett, Baningime and Boyce back.
“That’s the spine of our team, really experienced players and our best performers this season.
“That allows us to have quality like Simms, Ginnelly and Halliday on the bench.
“We created five or six really good chances and managed to get two goals.
“I’m delighted with the whole group.”