Hearts overcame Beni Baningime’s early red card to pull off a stunning 2-0 win over St Mirren and restore their six-point cushion at the top of the William Hill Premiership.

The midfielder was dismissed for a rash, studs-up challenge on Roland Idowu after just 15 minutes with the match still goalless, sucking the life out of a pumped-up Tynecastle crowd and leaving the Jambos up against it.

But – as they had done when digging out a 1-0 win with 10 men away to Dundee on Sunday – the buoyant league leaders found a way to eke out a potentially huge victory courtesy of second-half goals from captain Lawrence Shankland and substitute Tomas Magnusson.

Derek McInnes’ side are now six points clear of both Rangers and Celtic, who they host in their next league match a week on Sunday.

The Hearts boss made four changes to the side that started Sunday’s victory at Dundee, including handing Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon his first start of the season in place of the suspended Alexander Schwolow.

There were three changes to the Saints side that started Saturday’s home defeat by Falkirk, with Oisin Smyth pitched straight in after being recalled from his loan at Partick.

Hearts appeared comfortable in the opening stages until Stuart Findlay’s loose pass put Baningime in trouble just outside the Hearts box and the midfielder lunged into a reckless challenge on Idowu. The midfielder was initially yellow-carded before it was upgraded to a red after referee Kevin Clancy was asked to go to the monitor.

Hearts seemed spooked initially after this unforeseen setback and they were relieved to see a brilliant curling effort by Idowu from the angle of the box ruled out for offside in the 21st minute.

The hosts soon started to regain their composure, however, and Claudio Braga had two good chances within a minute, firstly sliding Harry Milne’s cross just wide at the near post before blazing over after getting in behind the Buddies’ defence.

Hearts should have gone ahead just before the break when Alexandros Kyziridis dispossessed Smyth and bore down on goal, but goalkeeper George made a vital save before denying Braga from the rebound.

The leaders started the second half strongly and Kyziridis blasted over from wide on the right before Shankland was denied by George after getting on the end of Braga’s low delivery from the left.

The 10 men, sensing an opportunity to pull off a huge victory in the title race, got themselves in front on the hour when Blair Spittal got down the right and sent a low delivery across the box for Shankland to prod beyond George, sparking delirious scenes inside a ramped-up Tynecastle.

Just as Saints were starting to crank up the pressure, Hearts got themselves up the pitch and scored a second in the 80th minute when substitute Magnusson followed up to nod gleefully into an empty net after Milne’s shot had been parried by George.

‘We dug Benny out of a hole – he was in tears’

Derek McInnes speaking to Sky Sports:

“We dug Benny out of a hole tonight, the players. We spoke about that at half-time. The boy was in tears.

“When we needed a big performance, we delivered it. We just need to keep going.

“We’ve got a long way to go and there’s so many points, but we’re in a strong position. There’s no two ways about it.

“We’ve beaten the teams round about us. We haven’t lost to those. I think we’re building a lot of confidence, but we know that every game is a challenge.

“From Dundee, Livingston, Rangers, every team we play in this league. I’ve said it so many times, we’re not wholly better than everybody else, but we’ve got something special going on here.”

McIness confident Mato will be a Hearts player

McInnes is confident that Rogers Mato will sign for Hearts despite mixed messages coming from his current club FK Vardar, who claim they have agreed to sell the player to Sporting Kansas City.

Less than 24-hours after Hearts announced a pre-contract deal to sign Ugandan international Mato, his club FK Vardar claim they have agreed to sell the player to the MLS club.

On Tuesday, Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts confirmed the forward would move to Tynecastle Park in the summer, following the expiration of his contract with the North Macedonian club.

However, on Wednesday, Vardar announced they accepted a $1m bid from the MLS side documents they claim prove the deal is legitimate.

“He’s signed the pre-contract,” McIness told Sky Sports.

“The boy’s itching to come. I think he was maybe under a lot of pressure to maybe look elsewhere, but he stuck to his word. I enjoyed the conversations I had with the boy a few weeks ago.

“This is something that we’ve been targeting him for a while.

“We’re excited to get him with us and delighted he showed that commitment to us. Anything else I don’t really know because we can only deal with what we’re dealing with at Hearts.”

When asked if he hopes he can join potentially in January, he said: “Certainly that would be my hope. Whether we can, I don’t know.”

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