Cammy Devlin insists the Jambos camp is brimming with positivity following a tough pre-season, successful League Cup campaign and opening day victory over Aberdeen.
The men in maroon got their League campaign up and running with a 2-0 victory over the Dons at a rocking Tynecastle last Monday and speaking to the media ahead of Sunday’s trip to Tannadice, Devlin said:
“Since the manager's come in, we've had a really positive pre-season. The boys have been working hard.We’ve had a lot of games, which I think have been really beneficial. For the first league game, there was a big focus last week on none of it matters, of what we've done in pre-season or in the League Cup, if we don't go and win in front of our home fans on Monday night.
“Obviously, it was a night game, sold out. It was good to be back, and I feel it was really important that we came off to a good start and we did that, which was great.”
The tenacious midfielder admits he’s relishing playing under new head coach Derek McInnes and is enjoying the instructions he’s receiving in the middle of the park.
“He's been really good. I think he's simplified a lot of things for everyone in terms of the way we're playing. The messages are really clear; we're not overdoing it. We're just doing the basics of football. He's big on that, just doing what we're being told really well.
“If we do that, then our quality should come through, which I feel it has done. You can see in Shanks, for example, his goal disallowed his quality to do that. But if that works, we go in 2-0 up and things are looking really good.
“I've really enjoyed working under him and his staff. A lot of the new boys that have come in, like I said, have brought that fresh energy.
“It's been really positive. But for me, he just wants me to be a central midfielder, be really aggressive, which I like being. And like I said, he's just kept it really simple and really clear.
“For all of us, he wants us to just go and express ourselves and be ourselves. We're all here for a reason and it's just about showing that on the pitch.”
Hearts head to Tannadice on Sunday to take on Dundee United and with United in European action, Devlin admits the full squad have the hunger to ensure it’s the Jambos back playing in Europe next season.
“I was fortunate enough over the few years that I've been here to have had European football every season and I'm really missing it. You're seeing the other teams play and they obviously deserved it because of their performances last year.
“I've got that hunger and I know I can speak on behalf of all the boys and the staff, that everyone wants to get back there. But that's just talk, you've just got to go and perform.
“I feel like the Premier Sports Cup was super beneficial. You can fall into that trap of a friendly game if you've got three or four games building up into the season, whereas we only had a couple in Spain and then the one against Sunderland the week before. But you're going to get up for that because you're playing against a Premier League team.
"So having those games that were competitive games, and you have to win and that feeling of we've got to go out and win here, you can't really beat that.”
You can watch Cammy’s press conference in full on Hearts TV
