Lee, Wighton and Kingsley excellent, Berra as Garrincha - Hearts v Ayr United look back

Star men

While there were a couple of obvious poor performances there were a number of strong displays. To start with, Stephen Kingsley. He continues to impress. Everything he does, he makes it look easy. He creates chances, as he did against Ayr and is a goal threat, this time aided by some questionable goalkeeping from Viljami Sinisalo.

Then there was Craig Wighton. Off the bench he scored twice and assisted once. He scored the important equaliser that was a typical striker’s goal. His second was a brilliant accurate strike into the corner but what was perhaps his most impressive contribution was collecting the ball deep before zipping a lovely pass into the feet of strike partner Liam Boyce to score. Normally it would be roles reversed.

But for this writer the most impressive performer was Olly Lee. With Ayr shutting down the pass into Boyce’s feet for most of the match, Lee became even more important. He showed his intelligence at finding space in the final third. He is so good at taking the ball on the turn, especially in the half spaces between defence and midfield and full-back and centre-back. He created a chance for Boyce and scored to put Hearts back in the lead.

Key moment

Luke McCowan’s fierce strike to put Ayr United ahead on the hour mark raised plenty of eyebrows. It was sandwiched between two substitutions from Robbie Neilson, taking off the ineffectual Jordan Roberts and Elliott Frear. The goal and the changes acted as a catalyst for the league leaders to show their character in going behind and quality in being by far the best team in the second tier.

In hindsight

Waking up on Boxing Day presented fans with another reminder of the frustration of not being able to go to games. This writer may have been thinking for most of the game that they can count themselves lucky such were the conditions, but thinking about a festive Tynecastle with a big crowd, goals flying in, the match going back and forth, a packed away end it would have been a proper classic to remember.

Ref watch

David Munro was more than happy to let the game flow and showed no yellow cards. With that there is not much more to say about the official.

Laugh of the match

Christophe Berra or Garrincha (ask your dad or grandad)? It was quite the plot twist to see the centre-back venturing down the left wing and ushering a cross into the path of Craig Wighton to score. Even better was to follow. Well, maybe not better but certainly more amusing. He shuffled down the left once more producing a trick which bamboozled an opponent and even him, running away from the ball before going back to collect the ball and then crossing, albeit into the side-netting.

Moment(s) you may have missed

Sticking with Berra. The experienced defender was captain for the match with Steven Naimsith on the bench. It was the first time he played alongside Craig Halkett when Naismith wasn’t in the starting XI.

Many probably assumed it would be Halkett but the former club captain is clearly the vice captain now.