Hearts played out a 1-1 draw with St Mirren in a behind closed doors friendly on Wednesday, with Beni Baningime finding the net for the men in maroon, cancelling out Evan Mooney’s early opener for St Mirren.
In the 30+ degree heat, Derek McInnes’ side started the brighter of the two sides and had the first effort on goal, when Blair Spittal curled a free kick into the arms of Ryan Mullen after three minutes.
Spittal was involved again five minutes later, plucking the ball out of the sky perfectly, before picking out James Penrice on the left, the full back pulled the ball back for James Wilson, but the young striker missed his kick and the chance was gone.
The Buddies opened the scoring on 13 minutes. Hearts lost possession midway inside their own half and after picking out Evan Mooney, Mikael Mandron made a clever run on the overlap to create space for the young striker, and he picked out the corner of the net.
The Jambos were seeing more of the ball than their opponents and Sander Kartum almost found the equaliser on 21 minutes, cutting in off the right, he curled his left-footed effort just wide of goal.
The Jambos did find the equaliser they deserved eight minutes before the interval, Beni Baningime drove forward and let fly from 25-yards, his effort took a wicked deflection off Alex Iacovitti and completely wrong-footed Mullen between the sticks.
Half-time: St Mirren 1-1 Hearts
It was virtually two different 11s for the second 45 and there wasn’t a lot of action in the early exchanges, with the Jambos changing shape at the break.
Harry Milne went closest, heading over from an Alexandros Kyziridis corner, before the left back saw his free kick deflected wide.
It was the Jambos who continued to create the better openings, albeit it wasn’t a second period of full of chances. After a neat flick from Claudio Braga, Alan Forrest played an early diagonal to Kyziridis and after cutting inside, he curled an effort just wide from the edge of the area.
Up the other end, the Buddies had their first sight of goal for some time, with Callum Penman’s volley from the edge of the area being deflected just wide.
The game was beginning to open up as we entered the final 20 minutes and Kyziridis again had a sight of goal, but this time saw his effort beaten away by Mullen.
The final opening of the 90 fell to Braga and after a good interception midway inside the second half from Forrest, he picked out Musa Drammeh, who was able to slide in his strike partner, but on the angle, he was denied by Mullen.
Hearts 1st 45: Clark, Kartum, Penrice, Halkett, Steinwender, Findlay, Devlin, Baningime, Kabangu, Spittal, Wilson
Hearts 2nd 45: Fulton, McCart (Denholm, 85), Kent, McEntee, Milne, Forrest, Braga, Nieuwenhof, Borchgrevink, Kyziridis, Wilson (Drammeh, 63)
St Mirren: Mullen, Gogic, Iacovitti, Kenny, Richardson, Falconer, O’Hara, McAvoy, McMenamin, Mandron, Mooney
Subs: Urminsky, Fraser, Hutchison, Tanser, John, Penman, Smyth, Phillips, Taylor, Scott, Idowu
