42

Tynecastle

Saturday 10^th October 2026

This season feels a little bit like the morning after the night before for Hearts. After coming within 10 minutes of winning the league title for the first time since 1960 they saw departure after departure over the summer. This included both their manager and their captain jumping ship to Rangers as well as a number of moves to cash in on last year’s star performers as the Jamestown Analytics model showed how it works in practice.

There was always likely to be a hangover as lots of new players tried to work out how to fir into the new manager’s new system. The man to take on this slightly poisoned chalice was Wouter Vrancken brought in by Tony Bloom following a long list of jobs in Belgium. Initially it looked like the task might be too much for him and pressure from the fans was incredibly high after successive aggregate losses to Sturm Graz and Benfica saw Hearts knocked out of the qualifying rounds for both the Champions League and the Europa League. Vrancken managed to stabilise the ship with a penalty shoot-out win over Rapid Vienna which secured UEFA Conference League football. The club then went on a nine game unbeaten run across all competitions including a dominant derby win against Hibs to get the fans fully back on side.

Realistically it was always likely to be a much more difficult season for Hearts this year compared to last year but they still look to be the third best team in the country and the expected resurgence from both Celtic and Rangers hasn’t really happened yet. With a bit of foundation building the team could be in an excellent position to challenge the Old Firm dominance again in the coming years.

I’ve only seen Hearts play once before when they visited Dundee at Dens Park last year but I was impressed by their style of play and even more by the passion of their travelling fans that day and I’ve been looking forward to seeing them again since. Tickets can be difficult to get hold of so I knew I would be looking at a less attractive fixture and even then I needed to be organised to try and get tickets shortly after they opened up to general sale. Fortunately I remembered in time to get what looked to be a pretty good seat in the main stand for today’s game.

Knowing the west side of Edinburgh reasonably well I realised that the easiest way to get to Tynecastle would be to get the train down and the advantage of having to plan ahead for tickets was that train fares were still fairly reasonable. I booked early and looked forward to a journey without any changes and with only a short walk at either end.

I used the journey down to do some reading. For my birthday Naomi had bought me some Scottish football related books. The first two were fairly lighthearted tales of Cowdenbeath and East Stirlingshire. The final book was a much heavier tale and one that I had been putting off until the time was right to read it.

McCrae’s Battalion is the story of the 16th battalion of the Royal Scots which was raised at the start of WWI by Sir George McCrae. It was one of the Pals battalions of the war, this one composed largely of professional and amateur sportsmen including 16 of the Heart of Midlothian team that were leading the league at the time it was established in 1914. They were not sent to the front until the end of 1915 and so continued to play their fixtures whilst undertaking basic training. The impact of this took an increasingly large toll and they eventually finished second to Celtic.

The battalion was one of the first to go over the top during the ‘big push’ at the Battle of the Somme and they managed to penetrate further into enemy lines than any other battalion on the day. Like almost every battalion at the Western Front they suffered extraordinary losses seeing their number reduced from almost 800 to around 170 at the Somme. As you can imagine, it’s not an easy read but it’s a really important and inspirational story and an incredibly well written book. The exploits of the battalion are commemorated at Tynecastle but unfortunately the memorial garden is not accessible on matchdays.

Arriving in Edinburgh I put my book away and set off on the walk to the station. Despite how many times I’ve been to Edinburgh I’ve not been anywhere near Tynescastle before so it was a new area for me. It was a quick and easy walk though and before long I found myself at the ground.

The outside of the ground, or at least of the main stand, is all shiny metal and glass. It’s a much newer and fancier appearance than most Scottish grounds and has clearly had work done fairly recently to renovate it. There was a large club shop with a queue to get in so I thought picking up a pin badge would be easy but once inside it was incredibly busy and I could find almost everything you could possibly imagine but not a pin badge.

The disappointment continued inside the ground to be honest. For all the work that has clearly been done the ground has been left feeling a little soulless. There are nice wide concourses which make getting around very easy but there is very little to let you know this is Hearts’ ground. There was also nowhere to buy a programme and, as far as I can tell, no 50/50 draw. It felt a bit cold and clinical.

Thankfully once you go through to pitchside things improved dramatically. There clearly isn’t a bad seat in the ground as there are no pillars anywhere and therefore no restricted views. I was very pleased with my spot though. I was 10 rows back and right behind the home bench giving a great view of the whole ground. The only real problem was the fan beside me who, I was to learn as the game went on, despite being roughly 60 still had the behaviours and sense of humour he probably had when he was 16. He talked constantly throughout the game and nothing he said was accurate, interesting, or funny.

The teams lined up for the pre-match formalities and as they stripped off ready for kick-off I was reminded of how great the kit combinations can be in Scottish football. Hearts in their classic maroon home kits against St Mirren in a pale gold away kit looked absolutely fantastic.

Right from the start it seemed this was destined to be Hearts’ day. Their passing was quick, generally accurate, and purposeful as they found multiple routes through the midfield and defence of St Mirren. Josh McPake, fresh from making his Scotland debut in midweek, looked threatening down the left hand side and St Mirren had no answer to Claudio Braga in the middle of the pitch either.

After a few half chances had come and gone (largely to left back Harry Milne) Hearts looked to have their first good opportunity from a free kick just outside the box. Calvin Miller chipped it into the box where Laurent Mendy bizarrely seemed to almost clear it with a header back. Chris Mochrie tried to control the ball before clearing it but he chested it straight back to Mendy who lashed it past Jacob Chapman in the St Mirren goal to give Hearts the lead.

The Hearts onslaught continued and just after the half hour mark they made it two. Braga played in McPake down the left hand side and he burst into the box. Alex Gogic tried to keep up with him and apply some pressure but in doing so got his legs tangled with McPake and brought him down. The referee had little choice to award the penalty and Miller stepped up to convert it easily.

As the game progressed towards half time Hearts couldn’t really have looked more comfortable. Every contested ball was being won by them and St Mirren constantly looked like they were waiting to make a mistake. There were no more goals before halftime but St Mirren could count themselves lucky to still be in the game, Hearts had wasted more chances than they had taken.

St Mirren made a triple chance at the break clearly looking for something different in the game. The only difference that manifested itself though was that Hearts started to take more of their chances. McPake played in James Wilson inside the box and as he pulled the ball back ready to take a shot his standing leg was tripped and Hearts had another penalty. Miller stepped up again and St Mirren found themselves three down.

Four minutes later and the game was completely over. Yet another mistake in the St Mirren midfield was jumped on by Miller. He slid the ball through to Braga who accelerated past the defence, danced around Chapman and slotted the ball into the empty net for Hearts’ fourth.

To St Mirren’s credit they continued to play and to push for at least a consolation. Their effort was very nearly rewarded when Luke Thomas played in Calvin Ramsay who was one on one with Hearts keeper Beau Reus. The fact he somehow managed to keep the shot out with a strong one handed save summed up St Mirren’s afternoon and plenty of the away fans decided they had seen enough after that.

Hearts weren’t done though. McPake had been struggling with cramp for some time and had needed help stretching from both his own teammates and some of the opposition. He had signalled to the bench that he needed to come off and was hobbling around until a substitution could be arranged. While waiting though a long, cross field ball was played to him by Malachi Fagan-Walcott. McPake found some extra energy, beat his man to the ball, before strong-arming another defender out of the way and lashing the ball beyond Chapman. Hearts manager Wouter Vrancken laughed and threw his arms up in the air having been rushing to replace him seconds beforehand.

St Mirren were done now and the only thing that excited the fans was an opportunity to use the referee as a lightning rod for their dislike of the SFA, the only topic that brings all Scottish football fans together. The final whistle was greeted by cheers not just for the nature of Hearts’ win but also the news that Hibs had lost under new manager Marink Reedijk away at Dundee United.

I was out of the ground quickly and made my way back to the station with just enough time to grab some food for the journey and settle back in for the remainder of McCrae’s Battalion. Having a journey where I didn’t have to worry about making connections was a nice change and meant I could just relax the whole way home. It seemed to pass a lot quicker as a result and I arrived back with just one chapter left.

The Facts

• Ground
  • Tynecastle
• Home
  • Heart of Midlothian
• Away
  • St Mirren
• Competition
  • Scottish Premiership
• Result
  • 5 – 0
• Scorers
  • Laurent Mendy, Calvin Miller (2), Claudio Braga, Josh McPake
• Attendance
  • 18,592
• Cost
  • £28.50
• Total distance travelled
  • 184 miles
• Transport
  • Train
• My MotM
  • Josh McPake, a really easy choice this week (although not the choice that either of the match sponsors made). McPake was creative, strong on the ball, and a real thorn in St Mirren’s side. He’d have been my choice even without his late and very well deserved goal.