Derek McInnes is keen for Hearts to bounce back from midweek defeat against St Mirren with three points in the Edinburgh Derby at Tynecastle.
It was a disappointing midweek for the ten-men Jambos, going down 1-0 in Paisley and the head coach admits the intention is to get back to winning ways in the Derby.
Speaking to the media at the pre-match press conference, McInnes said:
“It’s professional football, you lose a game, which happens, you've got to try and just go and win the next game and that's the intention. We had a bad night, I thought we actually started the game okay, but I thought between 10 minutes and then the sending off we just gave St Mirren too much encouragement.
“The difficulty of the game for us was the fact that we were down to 10 men again. There is a knock on with that, you also lose the players for the next game and obviously we've had to deal with that recently. I thought we had a wee bit of lack of energy with some, there was a lot of players maybe not played as much recently, but that aside, I thought we competed admirably. When we have lost games this season, it's been by an odd goal or penalty kicks, we're in games all the time, the competitive element of the team is there, and the bar has been raised, and everybody expects so much from us every game.
“It's difficult to produce your best every game and when you're not your best in the Premier League, then at times you put the result at chance.”
It’s one win apiece in the Edinburgh Derby this season and McInnes explained Hearts have a clear plan for the type of game they want it to be.
“We were over ourselves with delight when we won in the last minute, it's stuff the fans love and all the rest of it, but the game itself was pretty tight. Hibs played that day the way we expected them to play, they come off the game, they try and hit you on transitions, they've got good speed at the top end of the pitch and we've won the game on a second phase of a set play, with a cross into the box in the dying embers of the game.
“In the second game we were hands down second best for the majority, certainly the first half and for the first hour, but we still nearly got something for the game, and it shows you the fighting spirit of the team, but both results was a totally different contrast and feeling.
“I remember I was feeling miserable at Easter Road, I was ill for two or three days going into the game and the result didn't make me feel any better, it was just a bad day all round for us. We see the importance, every game is important, we've got 13 cup finals, and the supporters will always see, regardless of where Hibs and Hearts are in the league, regardless of how their season is playing out, a cup final is how a Hearts supporter would expect a Hearts team to play against Hibs. So, we're under no illusions about the type of game we want it to be and need it to be.
“We've got three home games out of the next four, we're going through a couple of tough fixtures, we've got some good fixtures coming up for us, tough at the same time but I really think in terms of really strong fixtures for us to go and show our strength and hopefully get results.”
McInnes added that Christian Borchgrevink has returned to training, but Stephen Kingsley had suffered a setback and remains sidelined.
You can watch Derek’s press conference in full on Hearts TV.
