Head coach Derek McInnes admits it’s all about maintaining the high standards the Jambos have set in their early season matches, as they turn their attentions to the League Cup once more.
It’s a tricky trip to Paisley in R2 of the Premier Sports Cup this Saturday, but following a bounce game victory over Ross County, McInnes admits every player is feeling positive, following on from Stuart Findlay’s late Tannadice header last weekend.
Speaking to the media at the pre-match conference, McInnes said:
“We spoke about that [momentum] today. Sometimes football is hard. Sometimes you do a lot of soul searching. Sometimes you need to dig deep when the results aren't coming, and things can be a bit challenging. But today, it was a glorious day. The training pitch was magnificent. The boys are feeling good about themselves.
“The thing that really pleases me as much as anything, is the ones who could be feeling a wee bit sorry for themselves, they've maybe been on the outside looking in for the first couple of games. Playing in the bounce game yesterday and their appetite for the game was unbelievable. It was so good, so refreshing and so encouraging for me.
“It shows you everything we've got here. A good, positive few days. It's up to us to try and maintain the standards that are set in terms of work rate, try to show that real togetherness. We can play better. We can improve as we go along. But certainly, what the players are giving us, gives us a chance to win matches."
McInnes confirmed that full back Adam Forrester has returned to the club from his cooperation loan at St Johnstone.
Forrester joined Simo Valakari’s side earlier this month, but following an injury to Christian Borchgrevink, has returned to the men in maroon.
“We’ve brought Adam back. That's the beauty of the co-operation loan. I said a couple of weeks ago, that we felt it was a good move for Adam, in terms of just maintaining his minutes. I think that's so important for young Hearts players to maintain their minutes.
“We got the results of Christian's scan on the Saturday. Adam was up to play on the Thursday [for St Johnstone], their game was on the Friday, but St Johnstone hadn't registered him, so he never even got to play the game at Ross County.
“Then when we got the news with Christian, that he was going to be out for potentially six to eight weeks. We're hoping it's not as long as that. Sometimes, the scan can maybe exaggerate an issue. The way Christian is right now, he's not actually feeling too bad.
“But he'll certainly be out for a few weeks. From that, of course, bringing Adam back made so much sense. But we wanted to speak to Adam face-to-face on Tuesday. So we involved Adam in the game yesterday and informed him that we'd bring him back. He was good with that. He understands the mechanics of the cooperation loan and he is back in amongst things here, trying to get into our team.”
Finally, McInnes confirmed that Calem Nieuwenhof and Beni Baningime received minutes in the bounce game as they move closer to returning from injury.
“We've managed to get [Calem] Nieuwenhof and [Beni] Baningime involved in a bounce game yesterday. They both trained the day before the Dundee United game with the intention of training on Monday and then being involved in the bounce game.
“So, there's two players that will be added to the squad that are certainly available for the weekend. Which leaves us just Craig Gordon, Jamie McCart, Finlay Pollock and Kenny Varga who has got a little slight hip issue and that's us. I think everybody else is good to go.”
You can watch Derek's press conference in full on Hearts TV.
