Hearts rounded off their pre-season camp in Spain with a 3-1 victory over Crawley Town on Friday. An own goal had the men in maroon ahead early doors, before Alan Forrest doubled the lead.
Crawley halved the deficit shortly after, but James Wilson added a third in the second half to round off the scoring at La Finca.
The Jambos started the brighter of the two teams and were ahead inside four minutes. After a good press saw Elton Kabangu’s strike beaten away by Crawley stopper Harvey Davies, Alexandros Kyziridis was quickest to react and when he returned the ball to Kabangu on the overlap, his cross was deflected past the helpless Davies.
It was one-way traffic in the early exchanges, and the press was proving very effective. Kyziridis was next to try his luck and after driving past his man, he forced a smart stop from the feet of Davies.
Two minutes later and the Jambos went close again. Kyziridis produced the perfect free kick delivery to find Kabangu, who had managed to find space in between two Crawley players, he headed the ball downwards, but was foiled by a great stop by Davies.
Kabangu saw another effort deflected behind on 18 minutes, after good pressing from Harry Milne saw Hearts regain the ball high up the park and from the resulting corner, the lead was doubled.
Craig Halkett’s header was cleared off the line, but only as far as Alan Forrest, who volleyed home through a crowd of bodies from 20-yards.
Crawley pulled one back with their first real effort on goal, the Jambos looked for a flag that didn’t come and the ball was slotted low past Ryan Fulton on 21 minutes by Louis Flower.
The Jambos went straight back on the front foot and were looking dangerous from set plays. Halkett must’ve thought he’d scored when rising highest at the back post to meet Milne’s corner, but his header was deflected over from close range.
Half-time: Hearts 2-1 Crawley Town
The Jambos made 11 changes at the break and naturally, the game took a little bit of time to settle into a rhythm. It was the men in maroon who had the first opening after the interval, a nice ball in behind found Sander Kartum and his effort was well kept out by the onrushing Davies.
Blair Spittal was next to go close shortly after the hour mark, looking to catch the keeper out at his near post with a clever free kick, but his effort flicked the outside of the post.
The Jambos restored their two-goal lead on the 70-minute mark. Christian Borchgrevink played a smart ball down the right channel for Musa, who had timed his run well and he picked out Wilson at the back post who tapped home from close range.
That was the cue for Lawrence Shankland to enter the field as he featured for the final 20 minutes of the match, but there was little to report in the final stages as Hearts ran out 3-1 winners.
Hearts 1st 45: Fulton, Forrester, Milne, Halkett, Steinwender, McEntee, Forrest, Baningime, Kabangu, Braga, Kyziridis
Hearts 2nd 45: Clark, Borchgrevink, Kingsley, Kent, Nieuwenhof (Denholm, 81) , Findlay, Spittal, Kartum (Shankland, 71) , Wilson, Devlin, Drammeh
Subs: Clark, Stone, Borchgrevink, Kingsley, Shankland, Kent, Nieuwenhof, Findlay, Spittal, Neilson, Kartum, Wilson, Devlin, Denholm, Drammeh
Crawley Town: Davies, Radcliffe, Barker, Trialist, Trialist, Anderson, McKirdy, Adeyemo, Brown, Cashman, Flower
Subs: Heater, Flint, Papadopoulos, Pereira, Roles, Holohan, Forster, Tshimanga
