Replacing both Beni Baningime and Cammy Devlin in the Hearts engine room was never going to be a straightforward task, even with the mighty Jamestown Analytics machine at the club’s disposal.

Very much the yin to each other’s yang, the pair were central to the Jambos’ title challenge last season. Devlin took care of the ugly stuff, while his midfield partner provided the calm on the ball amid the chaos.

Two very different players performing very different roles. Yet, in Laurent Mendy, Hearts might just have found a chap who can do both.

They’ve had to bide their time to get the 29-year-old in the door, having had a bid turned down by Forest Green Rovers back in January before finally getting a deal over the line in the summer.

On the face of it, Mendy’s capture wasn’t necessarily one to get pulses racing. As recently as 2021, the Frenchman was playing in the North West Counties League – surely you’ve heard of it – south of the border with Macclesfield FC.

He followed manager Robbie Savage to the National League with Forest Green and captained the side to the play-offs, where they would lose out to Boreham Wood.

Laurent Mendy celebrates after helping to force an own goal from St Johnstone’s Enes Alic

Described by Savage as a ‘fantastic player and a fantastic person’, Mendy was sent to Gorgie with everyone’s best wishes.

A lack of a proper pre-season didn’t do him any favours, and after a couple of appearances – and defeats – against Aberdeen and Benfica, he picked up a muscle injury which kept him sidelined until coming off the bench in Wednesday’s energy-sapping Europa Conference League win over Rapid Vienna.

Against St Johnstone on Saturday, Hearts fans finally got the chance to see why the club were so persistent in securing his signature. He was outstanding for just short of an hour before his legs could give no more.

Defensively, he was on hand time and time again to plug the gaps and win back possession for his side. He has that handy knack of being in the right place at the right time.

His use of the ball when he got it was also on point. Mind you, there were a few hearts in mouths when he opted to take on his man inside his own penalty box midway through the half.

Fortunately for him, he apparently knew exactly what he was doing. The rest of us inside the stadium weren’t quite so sure.

He was every bit as effective at the other end of the pitch. Indeed, on another day, he could have had a hat-trick.

There was his powerful header from close range from a set-piece which forced Saints stopper Toby Steward into a save. There was a long-range strike which deflected inches past the post. There was a disallowed goal after referee Ryan Lee spotted a soft foul on Steward as he rose to bullet a header home.

Even when he did eventually celebrate a first goal for his new club six minutes before the break, it turned out it wasn’t his to celebrate, with Saints debutant Enes Alic instead credited with putting the ball into his own net after Mendy’s touch at the back post. You suspect both would have been much happier if the cameras hadn’t picked up the nick off the Bosnian’s outstretched leg.

Mendy’s back post efforts led to Alic’s own goal… though the Hearts man tried to claim it

Mendy came off on 57 minutes to a standing ovation. It was well-deserved, and he may well get accustomed to such treatment on a regular basis once he gets fully up to speed.

He was accompanied off the pitch by teenager James Wilson, who got things rolling with a fine early finish to notch his third goal of the season.

It’s hard to believe that Wilson’s only league start last year came in a 3-3 draw at home to Motherwell. Even then, he was hooked at the break.

Going out on loan in January made sense at the time. Going to the Tottenham Hotspur youth academy didn’t.

But that spell has clearly done him some good. He has all the talent required to be Hearts’ main man this season if he gets an extended run in the team.

Wilson’s movement is top class. On Saturday, his team-mates didn’t find him anywhere often enough.

It remains to be seen if he will have the opportunity to build up a rapport with the man who played alongside him here.

It’s frankly a huge surprise that last season’s Scottish Premiership Player of the Year Claudio Braga is still at Tynecastle with just a few days to go until the transfer window shuts.

Reported interest in the Portuguese has cooled off somewhat over the past few weeks, and if any scouts were watching him this weekend, that won’t change.

Effort is a given with Braga. But pretty much nothing whatsoever came off for him in the final third. Oddly enough, if this performance keeps potential suitors away, the Hearts fans will gladly accept a rare off-day if that means he sticks around for a while longer.

Mendy rises highest above St Johnstone’s Ruari Paton in what was an all-action performance

He wasn’t the only one to struggle. Indeed, St Johnstone will feel they deserved more for their efforts after dominating much of the contest.

The concession of the opening goal was a shocker, with Zach Mitchell inexplicably passing straight to former Saint Josh McPake, who put it on a plate for Wilson.

That didn’t seem to knock their confidence though. Simo Valakari’s side continued to take risks and, to be fair, they were largely successful in their build-up.

The big issue facing the Finn is trying to turn positive performances into positive results. For all their good play and pressure, they created very little outside Ruari Paton’s well-taken goal early in the second period which halved the deficit.

Perhaps that killer instinct will come with a few more games under their belt. Let’s not forget, the visitors’ last competitive fixture before this came three weeks ago.

They now have three games in the next ten days to find their feet. If they play anything like this, you would expect them to pick up a few points.