Looking at the Scottish Premiership table, there isn’t much to separate these sides with both sitting on 30 points although Hearts’ recent form may just swing this tie in their favour but not without it being an entertaining affair. Hearts have seen over 2.5 goals in each of their last 3 games across all competitions with all 3 games ending in victories for Neil Critchley’s side extending their run to 7 games unbeaten, 5 of these ending in wins.

St Mirren have seen 69 goals across their 25 Scottish Premiership games this season (2.76 per game), their home games are quite entertaining with 30 goals in across 13 home fixtures (2.30 per game). They’ve seen over 2.5 goals in 3 of their last 5 games across all competitions.

The initial meeting between these sides ended in a 4-0 Hearts victory, they were pretty dominant in the game and efficient when chances fell their way in finding the back of the net with each of their 4 shots on target in the game culminating in an xG of 1.73. It’s unlikely to be that one sided in this cup tie, especially when considering the change of venue but an entertaining tie is still in store with St Mirren expected to offer a bit more of a fight back than they did in that particular league meeting.

When looking at St Mirren players that can pick up a caution in this game, striker Toyosi Olusunya really stands out. Olusunya leads the St Mirren squad in bookings (6) and also sits second in the squad rankings for fouls committed per 90 (2.5).

Olusunya lived up to these metrics in the initial meeting between the sides in which he committed 5 fouls from 14 duels and collected a yellow card. For context, these 5 fouls made up a third of the total fouls St Mirren committed in that game making Olusunya an obvious standout to be in the wars again here and pick up a yellow card.