Hearts purr over style of football after 5-0 St Mirren rout as player lost in warm-up has significant impact

Wouter Vrancken felt swashbuckling Hearts took another step towards becoming the team he wants them to be after they eased to their biggest home win in the William Hill Premiership for three-and-a-half years with a 5-0 dismantling of meek St Mirren.

The third-placed Jambos rarely looked in any danger after Laurent Mendy fired them ahead in the 20th minute.

Calvin Miller then notched two penalties, either side of half-time, before further goals from Claudio Braga and Josh McPake earned Hearts their most emphatic league victory at Tynecastle since they hammered Ross County 6-1 in April 2023.

Claudio Braga was on the scoresheet as Hearts thrashed St Mirren 5-0. | SNS Group

The Jambos have won all four league matches at home since Vrancken took charge in June, and the Belgian is heartened that his team – the highest scorers in the Premiership with 19 in eight games – are playing in a way that is inspiring both the players and their supporters.

“From the first session (in the summer), the players liked what we were doing and they tried to make those steps and you see it today that they are trying to do it and succeeding,” said Vrancken.

“We try to play a kind of football that is positive and constructive and proactive, and not a reaction.

“I think people come to the stadium to see nice football, to see goals from your side.

“Also for the players, we try to play a style of football that, when you were a little boy, when you started playing football on the street, you played football to score goals, not to stay in front of your goal and prevent the goals.

“You want to score goals because this is the nicest feeling you have in football.

“We are trying to play a type of football where we can come in the positions as much as possible to get this feeling. Some days it will work better than other days, but it’s nice to see that it worked well today.

“It’s good for the guys that they have such a game where they felt comfortable on the ball. Also out of possession we were good. Hopefully it gives us more confidence for this run of games.”

It was a fourth defeat in succession for St Mirren, and manager Craig McLeish said: “It’s not good enough from our point of view. We shot ourselves in the foot and gave away two penalties which are avoidable.

“There were individual errors for the other three and that’s not to take anything away from Hearts, who were excellent.

“You can’t come to places like this and expect to play football from the first minute, you have to earn that right. You have to fight and out-run teams and we didn’t do that at points.

“It’s not an excuse but we lost Niko Agrafiotis in the warm-up and he’s a big part of what we’re trying to do. We had to shuffle things around and it didn’t quite happen for us.

“We all have to take responsibility. I have to rectify it.”