Hearts cruised into the Scottish Cup semi-final stage on Friday night as they overcame Dundee at Tynecastle.
After losing the Edinburgh derby to Hibs the previous weekend, Neil Critchley was happy to see his side bounce back in style under the lights.
The Jambos were deserved winners as two fantastic goals from January transfer window addition Sander Kartum and an own goal from Simon Murray was enough to beat the Dens Park outfit.
Hearts were then drawn against Aberdeen in the semi-finals as they avoided massive favourites Celtic and Premiership strugglers St Johnstone.
Michael Stewart took in the quarter-final victory over Dundee for Premier Sports and watched Kartum score probably one of the best braces you’ll see this season.
The Norwegian’s first goal was bent into the top corner of the net, while his second was a moment of genius as he finished past Trevor Carson with the outside of his boot.
Kartum has already been labelled ‘very dangerous’ and that was clear to see on Friday as Hearts fans witnessed the former Brann man’s true quality.
But Stewart, despite all of this, wasn’t very complimentary of the player in his post-match analysis to Premier Sports on Monday night.
Michael Stewart’s surprise analysis of Hearts’ Sander Kartum
On the Scottish Football Social Club podcast, the outspoken former Jambo told Hearts fans to ‘calm the jets’ over Kartum because he didn’t do a great deal more in the game besides his two goals.
Stewart appreciates Kartum’s technical ability, but thinks he looks a bit lost on the side of a diamond. And he wants Hearts boss Critchley to deploy him more often in a central playmaker role.
Stewart said: “Just calm the jets, you know? With the greatest of respect, he (Kartum) didn’t – and this is no criticism of him because he scores two great goals that effectively win the game – do a great deal more in the game.
“You can see that he’s a very nice technical player. But the first sort of time that I’d watched him is exactly what comes out, technically very nice.
“And then you’re going, Brann was probably the biggest club that he’d been at throughout his career and I’m looking at him and going, ‘he looks like he could play at a higher level.’
“And watching him so far, my biggest concern would be, you need to have him in the right area of the park for him to have an impact. Playing on the side of a diamond is not going to get the best out of him.
“Now I know that might not be how Neil Critchley’s going to line up in the future. But at the moment, the game passed him by. He, for me, needs to be playing as a No.10 in behind the striker and not having to be running here, there and everywhere.
“You need to get him in that area where he can really affect the game, which he did for the second goal, but he needs to be in there most of the time. Otherwise, he looks like a player who would drift, to be honest.”
Why Kartum wanted to sign for Hearts
Hearts shelled out a reported £320k to make Kartum their own a couple of months ago. The 29-year-old spent two years with Brann before his switch to Tynecastle.
He had already came up against Scottish opposition this season in St Mirren as Brann knocked them out of the Europa Conference League qualifiers in August.
And after a taste of the Scottish football atmosphere, he was keen to join the Jambos, as well as listing a number of other reasons.
Kartum said: “It’s a big club with amazing fans and it’s a chance for me to play outside of Norway.
“So I’m looking forward to it. I want to get out of my comfort zone and try something new and when the chance came I had to take it.
“I feel like it’s happened naturally, like taking steps in each club I have been to. When the opportunity came to go to Hearts, it was a big move for me, so I had to try it.
“First of all, it’s the club and then the other factors, like I said, the city and the match was perfect. A big club and a big city.”