Tynecastle trip for Saints
First Team

Tynecastle trip for Saints

28th September 2018

Friday 28 September 2018

Saints head to the capital tomorrow to face top of the table Hearts at Tynecastle in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Craig Levein's side come into the game undefeated so far this season but tomorrow's opponents did lose their 100% record in a 0-0 draw with Livingston last weekend.

Tommy Wright's men go into the match having suffered back-to-back defeats against Rangers and Celtic, although the manager was impressed by his players' response against the Hoops during the week.

The game will also see Saints come up against an old favourite and cup final goalscorer, Steven MacLean.

Tommy told the club's official website this morning that if his players put in a good performance then he's confident of coming home with the points.

"The game has come around quickly after Wednesday," the manager said, "so the boys have just been recovering and preparing for the match over the past few days.

"There were a lot of positives to take from the match against Celtic and I'll be looking for a similar level of energy and hard-work from the players. If we do that we can definitely cause Hearts problems.

"We always knew that this run of fixtures was going to be difficult. We started it well with a point against Aberdeen and possibly could have had more.

"After losing at Ibrox last week we want to bounce back and I believe that if we play well we can take all three points on Saturday."

Craig Levein's men sit at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table and Tommy has been impressed by their start to the campaign.

"They've made a great start and expectations are certainly a lot higher there now. I was at the Livingston game and the fans were getting a little agitated at 0-0.

"I thought we played well against them last season but we just made too many mistakes and it cost us.

"I'm confident we can go there and win and take us past the 10 point marker which was always our next target after we won our first game."

On the injury front, striker Tony Watt has been struggling with a knock and the manager admits he doesn't know if the 24-year-old will be fit enough to play tomorrow.

"We'll assess Tony again in 24 hours," Tommy said, "we only want to select him in the squad if he's fit. The trouble is when you pick a player who is carrying a knock if he has to come off you are forced into a sub earlier than you'd like.

"Conor Mitchell rolled his ankle so he's also ruled out which means Mark Hurst will come onto the bench. It's a blow for Conor because it looks like he'll also be out of the Northern Ireland U21 squad too.

"Drey and Matty will both be available so apart from Conor, Tony and the long-term absentees - Murray and Brian Easton - I have a full squad to choose from."


Tomorrow's match is a 3PM kick-off at Tynecastle and the referee is Nick Walsh.

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