Head coach Derek McInnes believes his Hearts side are in a good place ahead of Saturday’s competitive season opener against Dunfermline.
The Pars visit Tynecastle on matchday one of the Premier Sports Cup group stages and the new man in the Jambos dugout admits the men in maroon have enjoyed a good pre-season.
Speaking to the media at the pre-match press conference, the new head coach said:
“It’s been good, in the sense that I think we've done the work that we set out to do and came through it all pretty much unscathed in terms of injury, except obviously Jamie McCart, although, we did get some better news yesterday. The initial feeling was he might have been out for three to four months, but we think he might be more like six to eight weeks.
“The surgeon now feels that he won't need surgery. So, that’s still bad news, but not as bad as we first feared on further investigations.
“So, in terms of pre-season, it's went well apart from that. I've been involved in pre-seasons when you've wiped the floor with every team and then not started the season well, and other times when you've not had the smoothest of pre-seasons and you've started brilliantly. But I feel as though, considering when we started, we've done a lot of the yards and done a lot of the work, familiarised ourselves with what we're after.
“Still not going to be perfect, like every team at this stage of the season, but we need to be good enough to try and deal with the challenge that Dunfermline will face on Saturday. Ultimately, when we first came back three and a bit weeks ago, it was all about trying to be ready as we could be for this game.”
The Jambos announced the return of Lawrence Shankland last week, an arrival that McInnes feels has given everyone around the club a real boost.
“He's such an important player. Lawrence is well used to that responsibility. There's been a lot of focus on him throughout the close season, such as the importance that he is.
“We were keen to get the right decision and thankfully, we've arrived at where we wanted. I, for one, and you've seen the positive reaction from his teammates and the support, how important Lawrence is going to be for us. So, I think it's a brilliant sign. I think he's lifted us, to be honest.
“I think the standard of training has gone up. When you sign good players, it makes the other ones around them step up as well. I think we've had a bit of that, to be honest.
“He's been just as I knew he would be, so it's great to have him. It's important that we try and get that from whoever's in the building.”
You can watch Derek’s press conference in full on Hearts TV.
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