The Jambos produced the result of the weekend as they defeated Brendan Rodgers’ league leaders in their own backyard to make it back to back losses for the champions
Steven Naismith praised Hearts’ mindset in their upset triumph against Celtic and encouraged his team to demonstrate it week after week.
The Jambos provided the weekend’s result, defeating Brendan Rodgers’ league leaders in their own backyard to hand the champions back-to-back defeats. Lawrence Shankland scored the goal for the Gorgie men after breaking free at the back post from a corner and sending a powerful header past Joe Hart.
Stephen Kingsley then produced a moment of magic as he netted a stunning free-kick to send the travelling support wild in Glasgow’s east end. It is a performance in many aspects that had boss Naisy delighted. He reckons looking at last week’s second half display at Aberdeen to the stunning win over the Hoops shows his side have a ‘good mentality’. Speaking to Hearts TV, he said: “Really pleased with so many aspects of the performance. How we set up in our structure, how we were composed in possession, the quality of the goals we score.
“Then, if you look a little deeper, you have Jorge Grant getting injured but still wanting to play, and Nathaniel Atkinson just coming back and giving it his all for as long as he can.”
“You have two of the academy boys playing in the game, Macaulay making his debut. So there are so many aspects that are pleasing. I have said consistently, that we need to be a team that challenges in these games. In these big games, you need to compete and we showed that as a group today.
“When you are against a team that have the resources and the budget that they do, you can’t just go toe-to-toe with them. You need to accept that you are going to have to defend, which I thought we were incredible at.
“Then, when you’re tired and win possession, you have to be good enough to cause them problems, and I think we demonstrated that today.”
“When you play for Hearts, you have to be mentally strong. That is something I have mentioned repeatedly. It won’t happen overnight, but going from last week’s second half performance to today shows we have a good mentality.
Leave a Reply