Steven Naismith reveals management move he’ll continue to pull as he makes demand:

Jambos boss has told his players they need to show stronger mentality and become more resilient after Aberdeen surrender.

Steven Naismith insists he’ll keep rotating his Hearts side to give them an edge – but has demanded his players prove they can handle the sharp end of winning football games.

The Jambos boss was a frustrated figure after Aberdeen overturned Hearts’ half time lead to snatch an injury time victory at Pittodrie on Saturday. Naismith had already seen his players throw away a victory at Ibrox when Rangers scored twice in injury time and also surrender a two-goal lead in the Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle when Hibs rescued a point.

A trip to face Celtic is up next on Saturday and the Gorgie boss insists his players have to be mentally stronger when they get in winning positions. And he’s vowed to do his bit by keeping the team fresh. Skipper Lawrence Shankland has had three different partners in the frontline in the last three games. And Naismith said: “Each game is different. For the players it’s tough because someone could play well then not start the next game.

“I wouldn’t have liked that as a player. But the game is changing and I believe that especially in the forward areas, if you give up so much in terms of sharpness, sharp movements being the difference of beating a man or not, going game, game, game especially three in a week. That tapers off and you end up not beating your man.

“So that sharpness is so important. I learned that as a player and dealt with it. That’s where you see it, you see more change in forward areas. But each game is different.

“We go about changing our tactics to play Kilmarnock at Kilmarnock. It went against a lot of my ideal way of playing. But you have to do it in Scottish football and that impacts who you play and who you have on the bench. I do believe you have to compromise.”

Hearts left Pittodrie with nothing to show for their efforts despite taking the lead through Shankland. Naismith accused his team of being bullied in the second half as the Dons responded through Bojan Miovski and an injury-time Leighton Clarkson winner.

But Naismith also insists that the players need to develop greater resilience to see out games in future. On the back of Wednesday’s defeat to Rangers at Tynecastle, the result has seen the Jambos slip to fifth.

And Naismith said: “I don’t think we can dwell on it, we need to learn lessons for it. This goes into the category, Ibrox – we’re winning after 90 minutes and we don’t take three points. At home we concede in the derby, it’s the same things. It’s the mentality, it’s a culture to say we’re determined enough.

“You put so much hard work into games, to get yourself in the lead in games, to be brave in possession and stop teams having their attacks. But then to throw it away so easily like we have done on these occasions is hard to take. For us as a mentality and as a group it needs to be better.

“It is hard to play for Hearts, the demand is there, when you’ve got the backing and you’re brave and you do it we’re a good team but we can’t give up points on the occasions that I’ve mentioned.”