Remember me
Hearts boss reflects on 10-man victory over St Mirren
Derek McInnes has revealed he instructed his players to bail out Beni Baningime after the midfielder’s red card left Hearts a man down against St Mirren for the second time in successive games.
As the Tynecastle manager noted, his side were left in an even worse predicament than on Sunday, when they lost goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow shortly before half time while a goal up against Dundee.
Baningime was sent off just 15 minutes in against St Mirren following a lunge in his own half on Roland Idowu. Initially shown a yellow, the card was upgraded to red following a VAR review.
Hearts' Beni Baningime looks dejected after being shown a red card following a VAR check against St Mirren. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group) | SNS GroupBaningime was inconsolable when he left the pitch. According to McInnes, the 27 year-old was in tears in the dressing-room in the knowledge that he had left his players with such a big mountain to climb.
But as on Sunday, they climbed it to maintain their six-point lead at the top of the Premiership having played everyone home and away. Hearts even left themselves something to spare when Tomas Magnusson put his side two goals in front with ten minutes left after Lawrence Shankland’s opener on the hour mark.
“We were in trouble, there's no two ways about it,” admitted McInnes afterwards. “I don't think there's a more popular boy in our dressing room than Beni and he was in tears. We said at half-time we were going to have to dig him out here, we were going to have to do it for ourselves again. I think the experience of Sunday perversely probably helped us.
“It was a different scenario because it was 75 minutes to go and we didn't have anything to hang on to. We had to get that moment, we had to still find that bit of quality to get something to hang on to. It was a long time coming but we had a few good opportunities prior to that.
“It's brilliant for the lads, I couldn't be more pleased for them,” he added. “I couldn't be more proud of them. It's not easy, we're not going to be able to keep winning games with getting men sent off. But we've dug ourselves out of a couple of holes in the last couple of games. It shows what can be done. You're always learning about your players. It's a good reference for us if it happens again, but it better not happen again, because you cannae keep doing it. But good on them.”
Knowing Hearts had to go for the win, McInnes kept three players up front until the hosts had secured the first goal, whereupon he moved to protect the lead. A fifth centre-half in Frankie Kent was sent on for Shankland after 73 minutes.
Hearts head coach Derek McInnes with Claudio Braga at full-time after the 2-0 win over St Mirren at Tynecastle. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group) | SNS Group“St Mirren never made any changes at half-time, and I thought they might have,” he explained. “So it was the same sort of message at half-time. But obviously when you get a goal and then St Mirren make a few changes, the last change with Frankie coming on, when they go with two out-and-out wingers and two through the middle, we needed to go to a five then. And that's why a 5-3-1 was the way to see the game out.”
The manager praised Harry Milne, who was named of the man of the match as he continued an amazing recovery from an ankle injury sustained last week in training and which saw him rated a doubt to play any part in the upcoming games against Dundee and St Mirren. In the event, he was named on the bench in the first game and played all 90 of the second, where he excelled.
Milne started off at left back before being moved into midfield, from where he created the second goal with a driving run and shot that was headed in by Tomas Magnusson after Shamal George’s save. “He has been brilliant everywhere except wide right, where I kept playing him!” said McInnes. “He was magnificent. They all were, but his part in the goal, the running power. Considering what his scan showed, it defies everything. I wish they were all like him to be honest. Magnificent.”
McInnes did have some bad news to impart for Hearts fans when he revealed that left-back Stephen Kingsley, who injured his groin in training ahead of Sunday’s Dundee game, was now ruled out for six weeks.
“Not good,” he said when asked for Kingsley’s prognosis. “A 2C (tear), which is bizarre, to be honest, considering what it was. It's maybe about six weeks, I think.”
Another worry was the sight of Cammy Devlin, once again superb in midfield, limping off in stoppage time. “I don't think it looks good at the minute,” said McInnes. “But we'll see how he is. It's clearly a tough one. He wanted to walk off or limp off. He didn't want to stretch it. We'll see how it is in the morning.”