Heart of Midlothian secured a comfortable win against Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday evening.
Falkirk started well and put the pressure on early, earning a corner and forcing Alexander Schwolow into two saves.
It then looked like Falkirk would take the lead before the five minute mark as Calvin Miller found the back of the net with a strong finish, but his effort was ruled offside.
The visitors were the better of the two teams in the first 15 minutes as some defensive mistakes from Hearts allowed them to take more chances, but nothing would come from them.
Hearts took the lead just before the half an hour mark as a long corner from Alexandros Kyziridis found Frankie Kent in a sea of Falkirk players, who headed it home.
The hosts wasted no time doubling their lead. A scramble in the Falkirk box five minutes later saw Cammy Devlin pick up the ball, and his effort took a deflection as it flew towards the back of the net.
Falkirk tried to get back into the game just before half time, as Miller directed a powerful strike towards the Hearts goal which was tipped over the bar by Schwolow. The resulting corner was taken by Miller who found Sam Hart, but the Port Vale loanee headed wide.
John McGlynn made some attacking changes as the teams came out for the second half, as Dylan Tait and Kyrell Wilson made way for Ross MacIver and Ben Parkinson.
MacIver found himself with a chance an hour into the match as his low header was blocked by Hearts substitute Stephen Kingsley, and so did Ben Broggio who struck wide.
Hearts would have the final say though, as with four minutes of regular time to be played Blair Spittal curled the ball into the far corner and solidified the lead for the hosts.
Both teams were looking for another in the three minutes of additional time that were played, but the scoreline didn’t change as the referee blew the whistle for full time.
With sixth position confirmed, Falkirk will host their final Scottish Premiership match of 25/26 on Saturday against Rangers. With a kick-off time of 12:30pm, we hope to see as many home supporters as possible to cheer on the Bairns for the last time this season.
TEAM INFORMATION:
HEARTS XI: Alexander Schwolow, Frankie Kent (29’), Beni Baningime, Lawrence Shankland (C.), Claudio Braga, Cameron Devlin (34’), Michael Steinwender, Blair Spittal (86’), Harry Milne, Stuart Findlay, Alexandros Kyziridis.
BENCH: Ryan Fulton, Stephen Kingsley, Jamie McCart, Landry Kabore, Christian Borchgrevink, Alan Forrest, Jordi Altena, Sabah Kerjota, Islam Chesnokov.
MANAGER: Derek McInnes.
FALKIRK XI: Nicky Hogarth, Liam Henderson, Coll Donaldson (C.), Brad Spencer, Ben Broggio, Finn Yeats (sub Henry Cartwright), Connor Allan, Dylan Tait (sub Ross MacIver), Kyrell Wilson (sub Ben Parkinson), Calvin Miller (sub Ethan Ross), Sam Hart.
BENCH: Jamie Sneddon, Brian Graham, Gary Oliver, Kai Brown, Kalvin Bennett.
MANAGER: John McGlynn.
REFEREE: Nick Walsh
ATTENDANCE: 18861
