Head Coach Derek McInnes says he will utilise his squad throughout the Premier Sports Cup group stages.
It’s a quick turnaround for the men in maroon, following Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Dunfermline, with Hamilton Academical next up on Tuesday, before a trip to Stirling Albion on Saturday.
Hearts are back at Tynecastle for their final group stage match against Dumbarton on the 23rd July, before Sunderland arrive in Gorgie for Craig Gordon’s Testimonial on the 26th.
All in all, that’s five games in two weeks for McInnes’ side as preparations continue to ramp up ahead of the new Premiership season which gets underway on the 4th August against Aberdeen.
Previewing the Hamilton match, the head coach admitted there’s a little bit of the unknown about what to expect from Accies, with a few trialists in their ranks, but believes approaching the game in the right manner is the key.
“Hamilton have been a wee bit more difficult to pick up in terms of the pre-season games,” McInnes said.
“We've managed to get a couple of games to watch, which we'll familiarise ourselves on with the analysts over the next couple of days. I believe they had plenty of trialists playing today [Saturday], which obviously the competition now allows. So we'll get a good look at them.
“I think any cup tie away from home can be a wee bit trickier on a new surface. So we'll factor all that in.
“We'll see how everybody's fixed tomorrow in terms of recovery and we'll pick up on the boys who never played as much today, and we'll see from those ones who's going to start on Tuesday.
“I do think at this stage of the season, playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday against Sunderland, we're going to have to utilise the squad clearly. So, it'll be a tough game as most cup games are, but if we approach it in the right manner, do a lot of what we did right today against Dunfermline, hopefully we can have the same outcome.
“We'll see how everybody's fixed tomorrow in terms of the recovery. It'll not be a completely new team, but there'll be certain areas we can look to freshen up, such as away pre-season.
“I think you've got to try and utilise that squad. But we still, obviously, whatever Hearts team is put out, it'll be a strong team and we're there to go and try and win the game.”
You can watch Derek's interview in full on Hearts TV.
