Hearts 3 St Johnstone 2: Saints pay the penalty to leave Tynecastle empty-handed

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A late Lawrence Shankland penalty ensured St Johnstone left Tynecastle with no points to show for their efforts.The Scotland international stroked home the winner from the spot with little less than 10 minutes remaining.Saints had taken the lead through a lovely Graham Carey finish before goals from Kye Rowles and Liam Boyce had Hearts ahead.But Andy Considine nodded the Perth visitors level at 2-2 as the game started to enter its latter stages.Shankland and Hearts had the last laugh, however, to inflict a third straight defeat on Callum Davidson’s side.Davidson had made just one change from last week’s defeat to Aberdeen and that saw Stevie May getting the nod up top instead of Theo Bair.It has become no secret that Saints have been needing more attacking threat but they started well.With just six minutes on the clock a poor Craig Gordon clearance fell to the feet of Carey who, it must be said, still had plenty to do.Gordon, trying to recover back to a central position, could only watch the crafty Perth midfielder produce a majestic finish with the outside of his left boot.Soon Daniel Phillips was looking to double the advantage with a low, fizzing effort that Gordon needed to gather at the second attempt.Hearts did begin to work their way into the game and were on the prowl when Phillips lost possession in the middle of the park.The ball was worked to Boyce who was only denied by a wonderful blocking challenge from Alex Mitchell.From the resulting corner, however, Rowles rose above all to head the hosts level.Saints were on the back foot although May, now with the captain’s armband after Melker Hallberg was required to go off, did have a sight of goal on 29 minutes.He ghosted across his man to clip a Carey free-kick