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RSSU19s Match Centre: Hearts 2-1 St Mirren
Hearts U19s produced a stirring comeback to come from behind and beat St Mirren at the Hearts Football Academy today in a match heavily affected by awful weather conditions in Edinburgh.
At the last minute, the Wee Jambos were forced to switch the game against the Buddies to Riccarton's all-weather astroturf surface following a torrential rain storm that hit the capital shortly before kick-off.
Victory was all the more impressive as Darren Murray was forced to make three changes to his initial starting line-up on the advice of the U19s physiotherapy team.
As a result Gary Glen, Paul Mulrooney and Mark Cowan, who were all due to start, were pulled out of the game. Ryan Wallace, named as a substitute, also missed out.
"Rather than postpone the game and be faced with a pile up of fixtures, we agreed that we'd switch the match to the astroturf," coach Darren Murray told Hearts News.
"We had to make some changes to the starting line-up because astroturf is obviously a very different type of surface, and we know the problems that it can cause in a match situation in terms of injuries."
After going a goal behind in the first half, Hearts drew level from Mark McCusker after 32 minutes. Captain Ryan McGowan netted a winner 18 minutes from the end, heading into the back of the net.
Darren Murray was a happy man, with triumph achieved over adversity. "We really did deserve to win in the end," he said.
"We did not start particularly well, which was probably not surprising given the start to the match, but we warmed up to the challenge and thoroughly deserved the three points.
"I am delighted for the players. It's great to make it back-to-back wins."
Hearts: Thomson; Kelly, Balatoni, Hamilton, Trialist, Robinson (J Woods 70), McGowan, Mearns (D Thomson 60), Kostadniov (Wagner 45); Husband; McCusker. Subs not used: Adam, McAllion.
