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Hearts supporters deserved every bit of credit that came their way last season after revamping a popular Queen song in tribute to the goalscoring exploits of Claudio Braga.
It’s not too much of a stretch to say that chants of ‘USA! USA!’ don’t quite hit the mark in terms of creativity or catchiness, but we may well be hearing it belted out just as often over the coming months.
JJ Williams will certainly hope so.
The big American was handed his first start for his new club last night after joining from Rhode Island a little over a fortnight ago, and he made the most of his opportunity, providing a goal and an assist to send Hearts on their way to the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals at the expense of Stenhousemuir.
There was so much to enjoy about the 28-year-old’s performance against the Championship side. He’s clearly quite comfortable with the physical side of things — as you would expect for a man of his size — but there was no shortage of quality too.
Hearts, on the whole, simply had too much of it for their opponents — beaten for the first time this season — to handle.
JJ Williams notched a goal and an assist as Hearts eased past Stenhousemuir at Ochilview
This could have been a really tricky tie against the part-timers, but Wouter Vrancken’s men made light work of things in the end. Very professional. Very impressive.
The visitors should have been ahead within the first 20 seconds, with Tomas Magnusson showing quick feet on the angle of the area before picking out Sabri Guendouz in the middle. The Frenchman should have burst the net, but headed wide from six yards.
A quick throw-in from the hosts caught out a static Hearts defence on nine minutes, but Kinlay Bilham could only blaze over the top from 15 yards.
Williams eased any growing tension amongst the away contingent 10 minutes before the break, reacting quickest after a bit of pinball inside the Stenny box to lash home from close range.
Bartley’s men barely had time to regroup before falling further behind, with the outstanding Rogers Mato coolly slotting beyond Darren Jamieson after being played in by a wonderful Guendouz pass from just inside his own half.
Stenhousemuir had Jamieson to thank for keeping them in the tie on the hour, sticking out a leg to deny Mato, who had found space in the box to get a head on Guendouz’s corner.
But substitute Yan Dhanda did eventually kill off any hope of a Stenny comeback on 74 minutes, tapping in unopposed from Williams’ header back across goal. Job done.
