'USA, USA': Hearts heading to Hampden as hopes grow of ending 64-year wait

The Tynecastle outfit are safely in Sunday afternoon’s draw for the semi-finals after a convincing 3-0 win over Stenhousemuir at Ochilview and are growing in stature with each passing game.

Hearts are now nine unbeaten across all competitions under Wouter Vrancken and they displayed more of their attack-minded, aggressive football that is becoming a hallmark of their Belgian head coach.

With one of the Old Firm guaranteed to be out of the competition as Rangers host Celtic on Sunday, Hearts are now one of the frontrunners to land the Premier Sports Cup - as the tournament has been rebranded. Having beaten Hibs already this season, they are unlikely to fear their Edinburgh rivals should they also make it into the last-four hat, nor Ross County, Aberdeen or Kilmarnock.

Vrancken rested his first-choice frontline at Ochilview and was without influential midfielders such as Blair Spittal and Oisin McEntee, yet there was no discernible drop-off from his team. Striker JJ Williams, recently procured from Rhode Island from the second tier of America, opened the scoring and led the line with aplomb. Rogers Mato was given a rare start on the wing and he terrorised the Stenhousemuir backline with his searing pace, netting the goal that had Hearts 2-0 up at the break.

Yan Dhanda added a third on 74 minutes to extinguish the faint chance of Stenhousemuir staging an improbable comeback and Hearts can now sit back and await the other three teams to join them for a Hallowe’en weekend at Hampden

Stenhousemuir had banana-skin potential written all over them. They are top of the Championship and came into this match unbeaten, having scalped another Premiership team in Motherwell in the previous round. They are also managed by Marvin Bartley - a former Hibs midfielder who tasted success against Hearts on more than one occasion.

Not this time, though. Stenhousemuir haven’t reached a major cup semi-final since 1903 and in truth, they never looked like troubling Hearts on their plastic pitch.

Ochilview was packed to the rafters for Hearts’ first trip since 2014, when Kevin McHattie and Gary Oliver netted in a 2-1 success in this competition. These are heady times in this small town between Falkirk and Larbert.

Hearts treated the tie with the respect it deserved. Sabri Guendouz headed wide within 60 seconds but the opening ten minutes were fairly even. Hearts, however, began to assert themselves thereafter, with Williams linking up with Mato, Guendouz and Sabah Kerjota around him.

Williams was making his first start for Hearts and the powerful striker was taking up good positions in the penalty area. He perhaps could have done better, though, with a header on 19 minutes that he planted straight into the grasp of Stenny keeper Darren Jamieson.

Hearts ceaselessly searched for the breakthrough and it came on 35 minutes. Stenhousemuir could not clear their lines from a corner kick and the ball landed at Williams’ feet seven yards out via Tomas Magnusson. He belted it home and embraced the fans packed in behind the goal.

Stenhousemuir needed to stop the bleeding before the break, but they couldn’t manage it. Mato had been bounding down the left flank, skinning Ross Meechan and Leyton Grant at will, and he netted on 39 minutes after being set up by Williams.

The American was enjoying his trip to central Scotland on a Friday night and he was front and centre of Hearts’ play throughout the second half. While he wasn’t able to get on the scoresheet again, he showed great awareness to head the ball back across goal for the lesser-spotted Dhanda, not long on a sub, to net from close range on 74 minutes.

Williams was replaced not long after and his ears would have been ringing with “USA, USA” from the 1400 Hearts fans who had accompanied him to Ochilview. He did his case for more game-time in more demanding fixtures no harm at all.

Hearts coasted through the rest of the tie. Jamieson stopped it from being 4-0 with an excellent save from Jordi Altena on 89 minutes and referee Calum Scott inexplicably missed a stonewall penalty when Euan O’Reilly pushed away a Stephen Kingsley free-kick with his arm. The final whistle would have been a relief for Stenhousemuir, who won’t face many better teams this season.