Hearts stretched their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to five points with a dominant display against St Mirren at Tynecastle and assistant manager, Austin MacPhee, admitted he was delighted at his side’s attitude as well as their performance throughout the 90 minutes.
Manager Craig Levein picked the team from his sick bed following his heart scare earlier this week and he did an excellent job of it, with Hearts’ 4-1 win ensuring they maintained their 100 percent record for the season.
MacPhee was a steady pair of hands to take charge while Levein is sidelined but the assistant manager revealed the senior players deserve an equal amount of credit for ensuring the team was able to put in such a solid performance amidst the disruption of the past week.
"The infrastructure that the manager has put in place stood up this week," said MacPhee.
“So we weren’t a deer in the headlights when we had to drive the bus this week. I’ve had regular communications with Craig and I'm just delighted that we have won here. We asked players and staff to do a little bit more, without changing anything that the manager really did, and they are doing really well."
The league leaders made the perfect start, going ahead after just four minutes. St Mirren’s full-back Lee Hodson brought Uche Ikpeazu down inside the box and Steven Naismith duly slotted home the penalty to give the home side the lead.
Hearts were on top for much of the opening twenty minutes but entirely against the run of play, St Mirren sneaked an equaliser courtesy of an own goal from Jimmy Dunne.
The home side were unperturbed however and resumed their dominance immediately. They were rewarded on the half-hour mark when Olly Lee restored Hearts’ lead with a clinical volley from inside the box before Naismith scored his second of the game on the 40 minute mark. He then completed his hat-trick on the stroke of half-time to give the home side a comfortable cushion. The second 45 minutes was far more uneventful, with few chances from either side.
There were a number of positives for Hearts outwith their goal-scorers, with Demi Mitchell, who rejoined Hearts earlier this week on his second loan spell with the club from Manchester United, showing quite why the Edinburgh side were keen have him back. Arnaud Djoum made his first appearance since February to a rapturous welcome while Craig Wighton made his Hearts debut after joining the league leaders from Dundee a few days ago.
It is, of course, early days, but MacPhee admitted he sees no reason why his side cannot continue to challenge at the top of the league, despite having far fewer resources than their Glasgow rivals.
"Over four (league) games, we have managed to win them all," he said.
"We're not getting carried away but if you can get consistency - and I think we've lost once at Tynecastle in what must be over 400 days now - we're in a very strong position in terms of the group and the confidence we have. We have a much smaller budget than some others in the league but we have our own aims, we're desperate to take this club back to European football.
“If we can achieve that, the supporters and everybody involved with the club would be delighted."
Naismith was the stand-out player of the match and the midfielder perhaps made something of a point to international manager, Alex McLeish, who left him out of his squad for Scotland’s upcoming double-header.
And while the midfielder admitted he would love to return to the international set-up, his primary focus is to continue to perform well for his club side and if that earns a Scotland call-up, so be it.
"I definitely want to add to the 45 caps I've got," he said.
"As long as I'm playing well, I feel like I can contribute for Scotland. I just have to work hard and keep putting in performances like to that to stay in (McLeish's) mind.
“I wanted to have a good pre-season and I've done that. He’s been fair with me and I'm now working as hard as I can to get in there."
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