Hearts reach Scottish Cup semi-final with late win over Morton at Cappielow

Hearts have booked their place in the Scottish Cup semi-final draw with a tight win over Greenock Morton.

The Premiership side scored a late winner to leave Cappielow with a 1-0 victory on Monday night.

A goal from Kenneth Vargas in the 85th minute was enough to win the game and deny the Championship side extra-time and a place at Hampden.

Hearts went into the game as overwhelming favourites to reach the national stadium but it was the home side that had the first real attack when a cross from Alan Power caused some panic in the box before being well cleared.

Lawrence Shankland had a chance to add to his impressive goal-tally for the season when the ball fell to him in the box, but he couldn’t keep his volley down and it flew over the bar.

The Scotland forward then turned provider when he picked out Alan Forrest at the back post but his shot was deflected wide.

Shankland and Forrest both had other opportunities as Steven Naismith’s side started to dominate the game but they were unable to break the deadlock.

Craig Gordon returned to the starting line-up for the visitors and he easily saved a free-kick effort from Robbie Muirhead just before half-time and the tie remained goalless going into the break.

Dougrie Imrie’s side were not about to just sit back and hope for extra-time and they took the game to Hearts in the second with Blues and Baird both having efforts.

Baningime also had a good chance to give Hearts the lead with a header as the game began to open up and flow from end-to-end in the second-half.

Cammy Devlin came close to grabbing the opener with just over 20 minutes remaining when the Australia international forced a save from Ryan Mullen with a long range drive.

The visitors came close again after Vargas hit the crossbar before Denholm was denied by Mullen as the game edged closed to extra-time.

And just as it looked as though another 30 minutes would be required to decide a winner, Vargas drilled home to make it 1-0 with five minutes left on the clock.