Angus Beith praised the belief of his players following their 3-2 comeback victory over Queen of the South on Tuesday.
The Wee Jambos were 2-0 down at the break bur produced a remarkable second half comeback to take all three points and you could see what it meant to the players at full-time.
Speaking to the Official Hearts Website at full-time, Beith said:
“It's a brilliant feeling in the changing room there, everybody was so delighted that we managed to get over the line because it's been a long time coming. The last time that we won as a group was Stirling Uni all the way back at the start of the season. Although it's not everything, because it's about their development, but an important part of that is learning how to win.
“At this club, you need to do that. The fans demand it; the club demands it. Them getting over the line tonight was excellent and a great feeling for them to have in the changing room.”
The Wee Jambos found themselves two goals down at the break, but they hadn’t done much wrong in the first 45, when asked if that was fair, he replied:
“Yes, definitely. I think the first goal; we talked about first and second contacts and the importance of it. We get that wrong a little bit. It was quite simple and then we don't block the shot, don't defend the box right and you find yourself 1-0 down after starting the game pretty well.
“Having a brilliant chance from Gus and then we compound that with another goal, a poor one from the set play. We should never give the free kick away and I think we can do better but again, first and second contacts. So that was the disappointing, but I don't want to dwell on that too much because the response in the second half was excellent.
“We started the second half okay, but I think when we changed and went to a back three, we looked a lot stronger. Once we got the goal, you could see the belief in the team and the boys, and we just kept that momentum going.
“I was really pleased with how we saw out the game as well. We actually looked like we were still a threat, and we were going to go 4-2, rather than sitting in our box and defending our box for the last 5-10 minutes. I thought we managed that situation brilliantly as well.”
Beith is hopeful the Wee Jambos can now take this good feeling into their league campaign, starting at Celtic B on Saturday.
“In those types of games, there's less of the unknown. A few of them know each other. The game has probably got a little bit more of an academy type feel to it. They're always right up for it because they're playing against their peers, guys that they've been playing against since they were younger.
The challenge for the boys now is to maintain that, keep the high level of performance, keep pushing themselves to develop and improve. Have that hunger and desire to go and win again.”
