Derek McInnes admits he hasn’t had to speak to his players about ‘bouncing back’ this weekend as he believes it’s in their nature.
The Jambos welcome Falkirk to Tynecastle this Saturday, for the club’s annual Big Hearts Day fixture, looking to get back to winning ways after defeat at Ibrox last time out.
The men in maroon still sit top of the table, after a tough run of fixtures and McInnes insists the group will not be dwelling on a rare defeat.
Speaking to the media at the press conference, he said:
“I've not really spoken to the players about bouncing back or anything like that. I think that's just in their nature.
“It's par for the course for professionals. It's not always going to be a bed of roses; you've got to respond. There was a lot about the performance we were encouraged by and liked, but it was a difficult afternoon.
“I thought it was a proper game. I thought it felt like a good tie, a game that meant a lot for both teams. I thought we were good value in it. We just lost poor goals at bad times, as we spoke about, but we move on from it.
“I think we need to sit back in the cold light of day. We knew getting through those fixtures Tannadice, St Mirren, Ibrox, dealing with Celtic, playing Hibs in the derby. We thought if we could still be top of the league when we come through those fixtures that we had, on paper, potentially a good opportunity between now and the split.
“We are still where we are, top of the league. It's important that we just now focus on the job in hand and not dwell too much.”
The Jambos have four of their six pre-split fixtures at Tynecastle and McInnes highlighted the importance of the fans’ support in the final stages of the season.
“We've had brilliant help from the support. What I'm getting now, every supporter I meet in the street. I met a group from the charity yesterday, Big Hearts and they said when they wake up on a Saturday morning, they just can't wait to get to Tynecastle, and it's not always been that way for a while. We get encouragement from that sort of language.
“The fans, I think, want to come and help play their part. I think it's important that, from our perspective, everybody stays on board, helps the team as best we can. Because we've got so many obstacles ahead of us.
“We've got so many different challenges and so many disadvantages. But what we have got in our locker is a huge advantage at Tynecastle, as it's been so many times this season. Hopefully, our job on the pitch helps instil that a wee bit more for the fans as well.”
The head coach provided a positive update on Oisin McEntee. The midfielder was forced off early on at Ibrox, but McInnes confirmed it’s nothing serious, but added he will miss this weekend’s match.
“He's actually good, a lot better than we anticipated. When you see the fall back and how he landed, it looked horrendous. So, we feared the worst a wee bit with it. But there’s no bone damage, we thought the rotator cuff might have been something that was going to be an issue, but it's just more the impact and everything compressing together and the nerve.
“We think it will probably settle pretty quickly. Not for this Saturday, but maybe for Aberdeen, which when we looked at how he landed, we would’ve taken that all day long.”
You can watch Derek’s press conference in full on Hearts TV.
