Wouter Vrancken hails Hearts spirit to hold off St Johnstone fightback
Wouter Vrancken was proud of Hearts for holding firm to see out a 2-1 home win over St Johnstone as he admitted his battle-weary side ran out of steam in the second half.
The Jambos – buoyed by their midweek Conference League play-off triumph away to Rapid Vienna – were good value for their two-goal lead after James Wilson’s early strike was followed by a second that went down as an own goal from Saints debutant Enes Alic, albeit Laurent Mendy was claiming it.
But their exertions in Austria, where they played with 10 men for 45 of the 120 minutes before winning on penalties, appeared to take a toll as they were left clinging on in the closing stages after Ruari Paton pulled one back for the visitors in the 48th minute.
“It was a decent first half, where we should have scored more goals,” said Vrancken, whose side are up to second in the William Hill Premiership. “And then after their goal, a little bit too much panic and the quality was gone and then we were just fighting to get the result.
“But I have to say I’m still proud of the players because they played 120 minutes and only had two days of rest. It’s not possible to fully recuperate or recover and a lot of people forget this, how hard it is.
“It’s all good as long as you feel the good energy, but when you get a setback in the game, like when St Johnstone score, then it makes it difficult. Then you feel the fatigue extra, physically, but especially emotionally.
“So I was happy to see that they kept together and that they fought together, because this is an important quality. You need quality on the ball, but you always have, in a game or season, difficult moments and then it is important that you can fight together for the results, and they did it today.”
Vrancken confirmed midfielder Tom Renaud is facing a lengthy lay-off after being taken off on a stretcher with an ankle injury in Vienna.
“It’s not good,” he said. “It will not be weeks, it will be months.”
Saints boss Simo Valakari said he enjoyed his side’s approach to the match as he lamented their inability to capitalise on their second-half pressure.
“To concede two goals in the first half, of course it’s a mountain to climb,” he said. “We are disappointed with the result, but I’m not disappointed with the application, the desire or the football we played.
“If you create that many chances, in that environment, then you just need to take them.
“But then when we push the opponent like we did in the second half, we are a very, very good team. We can really push them deep, with our rotations, our movement and our passes, and we can really suffocate the opponent. But again, you need to take your chances, so that’s the disappointment.”