Naisy: That’s Entertainment

A hat-trick from Lawrence Shankland and a brace from Josh Ginnelly followed Alex Cochrane’s opener as Hearts ran riot in Gorgie.

Speaking to HeartsTV at full-time, Naisy said:

“It was really good. If you can’t enjoy that and be entertained by that, then I think you are watching the wrong sport.

“I thought we started the game well. The first ten minutes were slightly tense all round. I think everybody understands you just want to get that win, but the players dealt with it brilliantly.

“What we’ve been working on and how we want to play is being more aggressive going forward. Picking the right moments to play forward and causing teams problems.

“Last week, I said we were one pass away from creating opportunities. Today, we made that right pass, and we scored a lot of goals, by firstly, getting control, then passing forward, creating an opportunity, and then taking it.

“The hardest thing as a footballer is when you are on a losing run, is to still do the right things that are riskier than being safe, like going back to the goalie. It’s about playing those right passes, and as soon as you are confident enough to do that, opportunities come.

I think we are a team that can cause a lot of problems to a lot of teams. I thought the defence today were superb and all round, it was a great performance.”

On an afternoon of many positives, Peter Haring had his first start since returning from a concussion injury and Yutaro Oda made his first Tynecastle start, Naismith was impressed with the impact of both players.

“I have a great relationship with Pete from when I was a player, he came in today, he had a specific role to do, and he carried it out perfectly. He wasn’t involved in the goals, but he plays a big part in the overall performance.

“Oda, I have spent a lot of time with in the last week, to firstly understand him as a person and also as a player. Where does he enjoy playing, and what are his threats? He has lots of attributes that we can use.

“Today was a prime example of that. The one thing he needs to do is shoot quicker, it was the first conversation I had with him. I’m sure before the end of the season, he will have broken his duck in terms of goals.”