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Match Preview
Heart of Midlothian vs. Ayr United
SPFL Championship Saturday 13th March 2021. Kick-off 3pm
On Saturday, David Hopkin takes charge of his first game as new Ayr United manager when the Honest Men travel to the capital to face league leaders Heart of Midlothian.
The start of a busy spell of seven games in three weeks during March kicked off last weekend with a much needed victory at Greenock Morton under the interim management of Davie White. The side followed this up with a point at Kirkcaldy on Tuesday night, lifting United into seventh place in the league table. With just seven points separating ninth and third it is still all to play for as we head into the final third of the season.
Opposition
Hearts are unbeaten in their last seven games. On Saturday, they followed up three consecutive 1-1 draws, versus Queen of the South (away), Greenock Morton (home) and Inverness (away) with a 2-1 win over Dundee at Tynecastle to extend their advantage at the top of the Championship table to 14 points.
Andy Halliday opened the scoring for Robbie Neilson’s side, with French striker Armand Gnanduillet grabbing what proved to be the winner, a third for the club after netting a brace on his debut in January. Liam Boyce, with 11 goals in 17 appearances is the Championship’s top goalscorer.
Team News
Andre Wright misses out with injury. Everyone else is fit and available
The Manager Says:
Head to Head
Ayr United wins: 27
Draws: 20
Hearts wins: 49
The Honest Men’s last league win at Tynecastle was on April 1st, 1980.
Last Meeting:
Hearts were narrow winners in the last meeting of the sides, at Somerset Park just last month. A disputed penalty at the start of the second-half, converted by Liam Boyce, was all that separated the teams at full-time.
On Boxing Day, the sides shared eight goals at Tynecastle. Stephen Kingsley gave the home side an early lead but goals from Cammy Smith and Luke McCowan in the space of three minutes on the hour mark put the Honest Men in front. We were unable to hold on, however, with a Craig Wighton double, Olly Lee and Liam Boyce firmly putting Hearts in control before a late Tom Walsh consolation.
Match Officials
Referee – Colin Steven
Assistant Referee 1 – Frank Connor
Assistant Referee 2 – John McCrossan
Live Coverage
Live Coverage:
Saturday’s game will be shown live on Hearts TV, with coverage starting at 2.15pm. Register your details at https://ppv.heartsfc.co.uk/events and once logged in you can purchase the PPV for £18.50 by heading to the ‘Events’ page, clicking on the graphic and then selecting ‘Purchase Game Pass’.
The PPV site is a unique site and fans that purchase PPV should watch the game at https://ppv.heartsfc.co.uk/ and not on Hearts TV or heartsfcpass.com
If there are any issues logging in then please contact heartstv@streamdigital.tv ahead of kick off.
HonestMen Picks:
Download the new HonestMen Picks app on Apple or Android and predict Saturday’s match action for a chance to top the live leaderboard and win cash prizes.
I was really impressed with training today and the players were in good spirits. We are all looking forward to the game especially after two good results. Davie White and the coaching staff have done a brilliant job and they still have a huge part to play.