Another narrow triumph gave Hearts a fourth successive league win and moved them up to third in the Premiership table. Lawrence Shankland's 13th goal in all competitions, and his 12th of the club campaign, earned a vital 1-0 victory over Kilmarnock at a freezing Rugby Park.
Shankland's first-half shot from an acute angle was fumbled into his own net by the Ayrshire club's goalkeeper Will Dennis. That proved decisive enough to settle this encounter and push Hearts to third for at least 24 hours. St Mirren drop to fourth ahead of their visit to Rangers on Sunday.
Kenneth Vargas was ruled out of this match with a minor injury as Hearts continued with a 3-5-2 system which helped win their previous three league games. This was Derek McInnes' 700th fixture as a manager and he was keen for three points to mark the occasion.
After a fairly even opening period, Hearts took the lead on 19 minutes. Kye Rowles' pass out of defence was intended for Liam Boyce, whose outstretched toe-poke helped push it in behind the home defence. Shankland fastened onto the ball, strode past defender Lewis Mayo near the byline and prodded a low shot goalwards which Dennis' arm deflected into the net.
Kilmarnock's David Watson wasted an excellent chance to equalise within a few minutes. Unmarked approaching the six-yard line, he sent Danny Armstrong's cutback spinning wide of the far post. Hearts then lost Boyce to injury on 29 minutes. He appeared to stumble and jerk his leg after turning to play a forward ball.
There was a moment of controversy five minutes before half-time when Dennis was extremely fortunate to escape a red card. Alex Cochrane's forward pass sent Yutaro Oda sprinting through as Dennis charged out of his penalty area. The Japanese touched the ball past the keeper and was brought down by a high challenge. Oda was flagged offside but a VAR check for serious foul play concluded that Dennis should not be sent off, and that the yellow card issued was sufficient.
The visiting goalkeeper Zander Clark stopped Corrie Ndaba's effort late in the first half, but at the interval Hearts looked in control. Kilmarnock were more purposeful after the break and played a lot of the second half in their opponents' half seeking an equaliser. They lacked the quality to find a breakthrough, though.
Clark held Armstrong's header in the closing stages with the Tynecastle side guilty of sitting too deep at times. Substitute Kyosuke Tagawa added some extra energy in attack even though his team were not getting forward too often. Cochrane did sting Dennis' palms in the dying minutes before the final whistle confirmed a vital result for the away side.
Here are the Hearts player ratings from Rugby Park:
1. GK Zander Clark
7/10 Tremendous instinctive save late in the first half to stop Danilo scoring. Also stopped shots from McCausland's and Lundstram after the interval.
2. RCB: Stephen Kingsley
6/10 Had a lot to deal with as Sima ran in and out of channels on his side. Coped fairly well.
3. CB: Frankie Kent
6/10 Commanding in the air. Angry at some fouls given against him when he was dragged out of central defence.
