Hearts B head coach Liam Fox admits he is looking for a response from his young side this weekend as they prepare to take on Caledonian Braves.
The Wee Jambos travel to Alliance Park on Saturday, looking to bounce back from back-to-back defeats against Cumbernauld Colts and University of Stirling.
Speaking to the Official Hearts Website, the head coach said:
“Whenever you lose a game, you want to make sure that you bounce back with the right attitude and show the qualities that this group has.
“It’s the first time this season that we’ve had back-to-back defeats, to get to this point in the season without having that is good, as it shows we’ve had a level of consistency, but there are always kicks in the teeth in football and it’s about how we bounce back now.
“You can never guarantee that you’re going to win any game of football, but we need to make sure our attitude and application doesn’t drop off like it did last week.”
There was nothing to separate the sides when they met at Ainslie Park earlier in the season and Fox is again anticipating a tight encounter.
“Like every game in the league, it’s going to be a challenge,” he continued. “A different challenge, we’re away from home. We had a difficult night against them at home. They work extremely hard, and they have some players who have some real bits of quality.
“I’m more concentrating on what we do. We are looking to bounce back after Sunday. We let ourselves down as a group, which is something they haven’t done very often this season.
“We’ve reviewed the game, done what we needed to do this week, the boys have gone back out on the training pitch and worked extremely hard, so we’ll hopefully get a positive reaction tomorrow.”
There are just ten league matches remaining for the Wee Jambos this season and Fox, who returned to the club last summer, explained he has enjoyed his first season leading the B Team.
“I learn about the players every day. They’re young players, they have ups and downs, they’re still finding their way and getting used to the environment and that means there are going to be challenging moments.
“There are moments when I need to be patient with them and there are moments when they need to be told if something isn’t acceptable.
“But the group have been brilliant for me. I have enjoyed coming in and working with them every day, they are very honest, they have some good qualities and I feel like they are improving. So, this weekend is just another challenge for them, and we will see how it goes.”
