Hearts were unconvincing but they took all three Premiership points against a defensively shoddy Kilmarnock side with a 3-2 win.
Hearts opened the scoring inside eight minutes through loanee Elton Kabangu after a decent start from Kilmarnock.
The away side were questionable defensively as young James Wilson squared a ball across the box to Kabangu, who fired in first time with ease.
Injury-prone Craig Halkett was then an early casualty as he appeared to pull a muscle in his leg. As such, he had to be replaced by young defender Lewis Neilson.
Kilmarnock ended the first-half as the stronger team with good spells of possession and that continued at the start of the second-half.
This time, Killie made their pressure count by deservedly equalising through Wales. Marley Watkins did well on the right wing to keep the ball in play and he clipped a ball towards Wales, who fired home with precision past Gordon.
Hearts appeared to be playing musical statues as they froze defensively and groans from the Tynecastle crowd started to become a little more audible.
But those murmurings quickly dissipated when Hearts went in front for the second time. McCart escaped the attention of Robbie Deas at a corner and buried a free header past Kieran O’Hara for 2-1.
The goal came against the run of play but Kilmarnock can’t have any excuses for the shoddy defending on display.
It all started to fall apart for Killie at the back as the Jambos increased their lead thanks to a goalkeeping howler from O’Hara.
He looked clear favourite to punch a high ball away from his area, but he misjudged it under the challenge of Jorge Grant who managed to get his head onto the ball and knock into the net.
What next? Well, Kilmarnock managed to pull a goal back almost instantly.
Hearts-linked Danny Armstrong schooled James Penrice on the right and dug out a deep cross towards the back post for Murray, who rose above young Adam Forrester to head home.
Kilmarnock pushed for a winner as David Watson brought out the best in goalkeeper Gordon, while Deas should have done better with a free header.
Hearts substitute Musa Drammeh could have scored a second-half hat-trick with the chances he was presented with, but it appears the Spaniard lacks the conviction required to play for the Jambos.
The Gorgie men held on in the end and secured a victory that takes them nine points clear of bottom club St Johnstone.
Here’s three things we learned from Hearts 3-2 Kilmarnock.
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Kilmarnock gift-wrap Hearts a win
As mentioned, Hearts were really not at their greatest this afternoon, which has been a common theme all season given their league position.
But what they did do was capitalise on some very poor Kilmarnock defending which manager Derek McInnes will be fuming over.
Killie are renowned for being pretty solid under McInnes but the back four and goalkeeper let themselves down this afternoon.
Robbie Deas’ performance was littered with errors, most prominently for the Jambos’ second goal when he failed to pick up Jamie McCart at a corner.
Stopper O’Hara was wholly at fault for Hearts’ third and you’d have to say, Killie could have got something out of this encounter if it wasn’t for their defending.
Hearts end Kilmarnock Tynecastle hoodoo
Hearts have a reputation for struggling against Kilmarnock at home.
They hadn’t won against the Ayrshire side at Tynecastle since December 2022 until today as they just about got over the line.
Kilmarnock had double the efforts on target compared to Hearts as the Tynecastle side failed to really take control in midfield and thus carve out chances.
But Hearts definitely had more clear-cut opportunities and almost all of them were through Musa Drammeh in the second period.
If Lawrence Shankland was in the Spaniard’s place, you’d back him to score all three of the spurned efforts.
Neil Critchley will take the victory but there is work to do – perhaps new signings Michael Steinwender and Sander Kartum will provide something different across the rest of the season.
Hearts-linked Danny Armstrong impresses for Kilmarnock
Killie winger Armstrong came on as a second-half substitute and was a danger on the right hand side of midfield from the off.
He assisted Kilmarnock’s second goal which was headed home by Fraser Murray and gave Hearts left-back James Penrice plenty of thinking to do.
Armstrong has been strongly linked with a move to Tynecastle in the summer and has held initial talks over a potential pre-contract deal.
The 27-year-old did his chances of earning a Hearts deal no harm at all as fans got a glimpse of what they could be getting out of Armstrong next season.