Hearts are in the Scottish Cup quarter finals after beating St Mirren on penalties on a night of high drama in Paisley.
Toyosi Olusanya will have felt he should have given the home side the lead inside the first four minutes, racing onto a ball straight over the top from Zach Hemming but lifting it too high when he tried to lob Craig Gordon.
The same player fluffed another good chance in front of goal while Elton Kabangu drew a save out of Hemming at the other end.
St Mirren finally took the lead on 22 minutes through Mikael Mandron after Mark O’Hara’s low drive was parried into his path by Gordon.
Hearts‘ defence were struggling to cope with the pairing of Mandron and Olusanya and were deservedly behind at the break.
The second half didn’t differ all that much and Killian Philipps was the next home player to be guilty of passing up a scoring chance.
Hearts made some attacking subs which finally paid off on the 84th minute and it what a moment if was for Calem Nieuwenhof – on for his first appearance in almost a year and scoring with his first touch! And to extra-time we headed.
Hearts gained a quick advantage with teenager James Wilson showing amazing composure and then Craig Gordon making a brilliant save to deny Oisyn Smith.
After Kenneth Vargas made it two from two, Gordon pulled it out the bag again to save from James Scott.
Gerald Taylor missed one for Hearts to make it tense but James Penrice stayed calm to tuck the decisive kick away.
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Mandron and Olusanya at it again
They may only have had the one first half goal to show for it, but Mikael Mandron and Toyosi Olusanya continued their brilliant strike partnership.
The front pairing gave the Jambos the defence the runaround and it’s far from the first time this season they’ve done it to a backline.
They did the same to Aberdeen a few weeks ago and have caused problems with their pace and power on numerous occasions.
The Jambos players won’t have been surprised by their approach but they still struggled to repel it.
Hearts issues return
Pre-Critchley, and even for some of his tenure, Hearts have had problems with being too safe and passive when in possession.
Not being able to hurt teams or break them down.
They’ve made great strides in that department but for much of this game the display was back along those lines again.
In fairness, St Mirren are a side that will make always make it difficult for you, look to restrict your space and hit you on the counter attack.
So it can possibly just be chalked up to that, but Critchley won’t want to see many repeats of that sort of performance.
What a moment for Nieuwenhof
He has just spent the last 11 months kicking his heels with setback after setback keeping him on the sidelines for far longer than expected.
That was after expecting to be missing for just 12 weeks at the most.
So for him to make his return and score with his very first touch must have been a very special feeling.