It's February. Midway through the Lowland League campaign and Heart of Midlothian's B team are performing well in the country's fifth tier. It was about to get even better, winning eight of their last nine to finish second behind East Kilbride.

But this particular day in February was a difficult one. The team were training at Oriam. Head coach Liam Fox, preparing for the aspect of the job no one enjoys, informed some of the players that they were to come and see him in his office at the club's training base following their work on the pitch.

Individually they would go into the office where they were told that they would be released at the end of the season once their contracts had expired.

One of those was Murray Thomas. 

"Me and a few of the boys were in a similar position," he recalled to Hearts Standard. "We hadn’t heard much and then Foxy said to us during training to go and see him after. We went in on our own. He told us that it wasn’t a nice chat to have with anyone but that there wasn’t going to be anything else for us here next year."

(Image: SNS)

The forward, who had just turned 20 the month before, was now having to prepare for life away from Tynecastle Park.

Thomas had been at Hearts for a number of years following a move from local team Linlithgow Rose where he had been playing up a level. In November 2021, at 17, he signed a professional contract with the club. And, by the end of the season, made his first-team bow under Robbie Neilson. At Celtic Park.

Those highs form the player Thomas is today. But in football, no player can escape the lows, no matter the level. Getting released falls into such a category. For years players will have known one club. Known a routine. Their routine. From that moment in February, it was all about to change for Thomas.

Hearts are keen to inform players, especially those in the lower age groups, of their future early enough in the campaign to allow them to prepare for the next step. In Fox, youngsters departing Tynecastle Park also have someone who will always be at the other end of the telephone, eager to help in any way he can.

"Football can change in a heartbeat so giving us time to plan, to try and get something sorted for next season and letting other clubs know the position you’re in, it’s 100 per cent better knowing earlier," Thomas said.

"Foxy has been brilliant with me. You’d struggle to find anyone on the team who has a bad word to say about him. He said, ‘If you have any issues or problems, you have my number and you know where I am. Don’t be afraid'.

"I had been at Hearts for a long time so it was obviously bad news but you have just got to get on with it."

Read more

Getting on with it is what Thomas has been doing. There have been trials down south, contract offers to weigh up and the experience of the exit trials run by PFA Scotland. 

The 20-year-old speaks with the authority and wisdom of someone older with lived experience and the positive outlook and mental fortitude that are required to not only deal with setbacks but to be a success.

He hasn't had far to look for inspiration. In fact, inspiration was delivered at the club's end-of-season awards ceremony in April following chats with Lawrence Shankland and Zander Clark.

Thomas said: "They were all telling me that at one point in their career, they were training in a park by themselves, unemployed, thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’. Just look at Shanks now: player of the year in the Scottish Premiership and playing at the Euros.

"He was brilliant with me, just telling me, ‘Look, you are good enough, don’t give up. The cream will always rise to the top and you will get there if you work hard enough'."

"You do see it a lot more these days in football. In every league in every country, you see it. People will be in my position and think, ‘That’s me done, if I’m not going to make it at Hearts then I’m not going to make it anywhere’ but that’s not right.

"Look at Callumn Morrison – he’s doing brilliantly at Falkirk. There are loads of examples that I could point to and I could go on for ages naming them. But having someone that I know in Shanks, it’s kind of like the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s having something to look at being able to take a leaf out of their book."

(Image: SNS)

Thomas has an agent looking out for him and a strong family behind him while he has been keeping sharp with one-to-one sessions at the Pro Performance Academy in Falkirk. He knows the next step is a big one.

It was refreshing to hear him approach the question of what's next in such a measured and mature manner. It's not a decision to rush. Nothing is being ruled out. When the idea of going into part-time was floated it was met with a positive response. Players have gone part-time to return to full-time.

"I’ve had a couple of offers but I have just been waiting just now because it’s an important step and it is critical that I make the right choice," Thomas said. "I am hopefully going into men’s competitive football now so I need to play. I am only 20 years old so spending a season sitting on the bench wouldn’t do me any good.

"I’ve been on trial at a few places and it’s different. I’m leaving the third biggest club in Scotland but you just have to bite the bullet and realise that you aren’t there anymore. This is my opportunity and you have to take it in your own hands so you can show that you are still good enough to become a professional footballer. It is tough but it’s reality.

"I could be going part-time but obviously full-time football is a lot more appealing to me. It’s still what I want to do. But would I rather go to a good full-time team and play five to 10 games next season, or drop down to part-time and play 40? It’s a decision that I have to make."

He added: "Football is crazy. You only need a good season and that’s you, a big move comes in just like that."

Read more

Such is the way Thomas has approached the last six months and his general outlook on his situation, it felt only right to ask what advice and guidance he would give to players in a similar position. 

He spoke positively of the PFA Scotland's showcase and exit trials. The organisation's personal development manager Chris Higgins, who played senior football in Scotland for over 20 years and coached Thomas during his time at Hearts, reached out to him about the event.

The showcase and trial are run across six days and are held each year for members who have just been released or are without a club. As well as a game it offers the chance to network, take part in training, learn about careers beyond football but ultimately get an opportunity to put your name out there to clubs looking to add to their squad.

"Take some time," Thomas said. "It’s not good news to be given but the amount of players that come through the academy, play for the first team and stay there – it’s so small. It’s not the be-all-and-end-all and it’s not the end of your career. Lots of players have done it; the majority of them have. Before leaving I was looking around at the first-team boys and thinking you’ve got [Aidan] Denholm, Craigy [Gordon], Macaulay [Tait], Finlay [Pollock] – no one else was at Hearts as a boy. So you can still definitely go on and make a good career of it.

"If I could say anything to anyone who is in a similar position to me and you don’t have anything lined up in concrete, then go to the PFA. It’s a win-win, you can’t lose from going. It would be stupid not to go.

"Even if you get nothing from it you get food, full-time training for a week and there is stuff on in the afternoon to help you throughout your career in football. If you’re signing up for the PFA then you should 100 per cent go to this. It’s brilliant and all the guys there are fantastic."

Thomas playing in PFA Scotland's exit trials.Thomas playing in PFA Scotland's exit trials. (Image: PFA Scotland)

For interested parties, Thomas has a good CV. He has first-team experience, both playing and training. He also has two seasons of Lowland League football under his belt. Fifty games in men's football that he can lean on. 

That could be important. He's not walking into a club having only known youth football. He has been tested and taught, grown and developed. As well as the understanding of a professional environment at Hearts, he knows the need to battle, scrap and fight for points in a league.

Even with 15 goal involvements in his first Lowland League campaign, there is some brutal honesty around the initial experience. There were struggles.

"I had probably had my best season for the 18s just before that," Thomas explained. "I went into the Lowland League probably thinking it was going to be easier than it was and I was in for a big shock.

"I really struggled with the change and it’s like it’s a different sport. The way the game is played, the pace, the physicality – it was a completely different thing for me. Doing those two seasons in the Lowland League has definitely benefitted me a lot.

"In the first season, we had a lot of the same players, played some good stuff and scored some nice goals but it was just silly little things like set-pieces and getting used to playing against men, being a bit streetwise – stuff like that. After a year of getting dripped into the Lowland League, though, the league standings speak for themselves."

The focus is now on the future and that next step but all that came before brought Thomas to this point, the "absolutely surreal" moment of making his Hearts debut at Celtic Park and the experience as a whole. It's now the time to take everything he has learned forward on a new path, on a new journey.

One that started in February.

"I had a really good season that year for the 18s and I am really grateful to Robbie Neilson for giving me my debut," he said. "It’s a moment I’ll never, ever forget. Obviously, I’ve left Hearts now but I’ve played for them twice and nobody can ever take that away from me.

"I loved it and it made me who I am today. In terms of coaches, I have had Steven Naismith, Liam Fox, John Rankin, Paul Thomson – loads of coaches that are great. The coaching has been brilliant and the man-management has been brilliant. I’ve made friends for life and I still talk to people that left long before me. I’m sad to be leaving but I don’t have much bad to say about it. I loved my time there.

"It’s now just down to me, I guess. The ball is in my court and I’ve got to see where I can go from here."