IT has taken two-and-a-half years but Liam Smith finally feels like he belongs in the Hearts first-team squad, and now the 20-year-old hopes to make himself a permanent fixture in Robbie Neilson’s starting line-up.
The Scotland under-21 right-back was given his debut in August 2014 but had only made 13 appearances by the time this season kicked off. He was even farmed out to Raith Rovers in September, only for a hamstring injury to curtail his stint in Fife.
But Smith’s disappointment did not last long as he started the capital outfit’s last match, a 2-2 draw with St Johnstone before the international break, and he hopes to feature again when his team make the trip to Hamilton Academical tonight.
Smith said: “The season so far has been pretty positive. I was involved in the European games but heading into the league games my involvement died down a little.
“I then got the opportunity to go to Raith Rovers which I was grateful for. The idea was to go there, play a handful of games and build up my fitness. It would have been great if I could have played five or six games but the injury cost me a bit. In the first game against Dumbarton, I thought I did well but then in the second game I felt my hamstring go, which was really disappointing.
“However, coming back to Tynecastle and going straight into the team put me right back on the positive side. Hopefully, it shows the manager has confidence in me.
“At the start of the season I was still trying to find my feet. But now I’m starting to play a bit more and I’m even in the first-team dressing room. I feel part of it now. It’s a good dressing room with a lot of young guys. There aren’t too many scary characters to intimidate you so it wasn’t too daunting making the move over from the youth team dressing room.
“Everyone has to do a initiation ceremony when they join the first team but, thankfully, I did mine a few years ago. I had to sing a song, I chose Uptown Girl. I did okay but I think I’ll stick to football. I won’t be trying out for X Factor any time soon.
“Hopefully, if I can work hard in training and push on I can fulfil my ambition of holding down a place rather than just getting the odd game here and there.”
Hearts are hoping a win over Hamilton at the SuperSeal Stadium will keep them in the race for second place in the Ladbrokes Premiership.
Smith added: “You know every time you go to Accies it will be difficult. The pitch is tight and an artificial one. They come after the ball too, so you won’t get a second on it. We know we’ll have to play a bit better than we have done recently and it’s important we do that.
“It’s tight down their end of the table but it’s also tight at our end. We are trying to catch Aberdeen, so we need points.”
Tonight’s game is the start of a busy spell for Hamilton which will see them squeeze in nine games before the turn of the year.
They will close out 2016 with games against Celtic, Rangers, Celtic again and then Aberdeen. Midfielder Grant Gillespie admits it would be good to put some points in the bag before that run. Accies go into the encounter with Hearts just one point above bottom club Dundee but only two behind Inverness and the top half of the table.
Gillespie said: “We’ve got a really busy period before the end of the year, so it’s going to be a bit hectic. We tried to go away over the international break and rest up both physically and mentally as much as we could.
“The manager gave us three days off because he knows it’s vitally important we come back and try to put a few wins together. We just hope we can go on a wee run and give ourselves a cushion going into the second half of the season.
“It is still so tight that a couple of wins could put us in the top six.”
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