Five wins from five and 23 goals scored. Hearts of Midlothian B's pre-season couldn't have gone much better ahead of their third season in the Lowland League.

It gets underway tonight at Ainslie Park when Liam Fox's men host East Stirlingshire and, using the last few weeks as a barometer, the team are well well-placed to have another successful season having finished runners-up to East Kilbride last campaign.

Success, however, is measured slightly differently for the B team. Winning is important but more than that is the development of the individual player. Pushing them, challenging them, seeing how they react in adversity or during a difficult period. The ultimate aim isn't to win the Lowland League. It is to provide Steven Naismith with players capable of making that step up into the first-team environment and then staying there.

"The focus will always be on how we can improve the individual to get them to the point where they can hopefully regularly train with the first-team and make the breakthrough into the first-team," Fox explained to Hearts Standard. 

"Winning B team games is great because everyone likes to win but I don’t think our season will ever be judged on whether we win more games than we lose. That’s nice, that’s part of the B team, to put these types of pressure on them at certain points and resemble the first-team as closely as we can. Everyone wants to win. I don’t know anyone in football that doesn’t like winning.

"For myself and the staff it is always about the continued development of the individual, the continued development of trying to make sure our level in training, our standards are good enough that players can dip in and out of the first team and they survive. And hopefully, if they do that, depending on opportunities, depending on what the manager is thinking, depending on loads of factors, we’re hoping we push them to the point they get an opportunity. They do well and cause the manager some problems with selection.

"That will always be the underpinning factor of everything we do on a daily basis. It's you v you. How can we help the individual improve to their absolute maximum."

Hearts put on a programme for the players during the off-season which saw them come in three days a week following time off, something that was put in place prior to Fox's arrival. It meant the squad returned in excellent condition and allowed the coaching team, once the tests were out of the way, to focus on football more so than fitness.

"As a coach pre-season is one of my favourite times because you get such long, sustained period of work," Fox said. "It’s been really, really good. We’ve managed to integrate a lot of the younger players who have come in full-time in the summer. There are about eight or nine. They’ve been dropping in and out of the B team group which has been really, really good. There are a lot of young players with a lot of good talent, a lot of potential. It’s been exciting for everybody.

"The change of players and the younger players coming through it’s just about adapting to them, them adapting to the environment and as I’ve said before making sure we are making the most of every single day we have got with them."

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While young players have moved up to join the B team group, others have left to pursue their careers elsewhere or been given loan moves higher up the pyramid.

There will also be movement throughout the season with Fox using the first day of pre-season to explain the ladder operation in place where individuals can move between the first team, B team and under-18s.

It is, according to Fox, going to be "really, really fluid" - and it is within that where the management team will also learn a lot about individuals.

"That was really important that we set those parameters and we then try and set the behaviours we look for after that in the sense we look at that even more closely as a staff when they come down the ladder," he said. "How are their attitude, application and body language and performance levels?

"We do that more than when they go up the ladder because that is a natural progression and where they all want to go. Sometimes they have setbacks and at one point will drop back down the ladder. That’s where the character of the players reveals itself to us.

"And also, we need to remember they are young kids, they are going to make mistakes and they are still finding their way and dealing with loads of different emotions as well, so that’s part of it."

Young first-team players could drop down on occasion and as was seen last season, a number of the B team were in and around Naismith's squad even if they didn't get game time, the likes of Harry Forrester, Callum Sandilands and Bobby Mcluckie.

A number of factors are considered when those decisions are made. It could be rewarding good performances and consistent performers, players showing the right attitude on and off the pitch, ensuring players are getting minutes or simple, every day football issues like illness and injuries.

"The main thing is being really, really flexible, making sure the communication between David [McNeil] at the 18s, myself and the management staff and the first-team staff is consistent and open, it’s daily. Just to make sure players are not missing game time or missing different bits and pieces. I think we have got a really good handle on that.

"I’m hoping we have a healthy environment for competition and the kids can all push each other on. We say it quite a lot, you are on your own journey. It is you against you. You don’t need to look at anyone else. We are hoping that breeds good, healthy competition because that is what they will encounter when they go up the levels. That’s the nature of the environment, it is dog eat dog and they need to be ready and prepared for that."

Makenzie Kirk joined St Johnstone on a permanent dealMakenzie Kirk joined St Johnstone on a permanent deal (Image: Ross Parker - SNS Group)

With the squad setup, there have been some interesting comings and goings over the summer. Makenzie Kirk left the club permanently to join St Johnstone. The striker was not viewed as being ready for the step up to the first team and he has reached an age and level where another season in the Lowland League would not be as beneficial to his development.

Meanwhile, Bailey Dall and Liam McFarlane were allowed to move on loan. Both are at the point where it would be better for them to be challenged at a different level with McFarlane already impressing at East Fife.

"They two are good examples of players who have come through, got themselves into the team, both amassed around 50/60 games at the Lowland League level. The club and staff think they have done great but we want to expose them to football a wee bit higher up the pyramid," Fox explained. 

"They have both got good loan moves. We all look forward to seeing how they handle the challenges and experiences that will come from playing for these clubs."

The transfer that raised the most eyebrows was the return of Jamie MacDonald which Fox understands. The 38-year-old returned to the club on a one-year deal. His role is to help nurture and buy time for two goalkeepers the club rate very highly.

Lyndon Tas, who has featured during pre-season, has recently turned 16 and Jack Lyon is still 15. Both will be part of the group but also feature for the under-18s. Distilling it down, it is, Fox said, "allowing our two very high prospects a wee bit of time to get used to the environment". 

With McFarlane also still training with the club at times with East Fife only part-time, MacDonald can impart his experience and knowledge of not only goalkeeping but breaking through at Hearts.

"I understand people will look at it and go, ‘Why are they signing a 38-year-old goalkeeper to block the path of young players?’ but it is actually the furthest thing from that and the actual reality of what we are doing," Fox explained. 

"I’m hoping that over the process of time, it will turn out to be a clever move by the club to bring in someone like that to help and buy time for the younger kids. 

Jamie MacDonald returned to the club to join the B teamJamie MacDonald returned to the club to join the B team (Image: SNS Group Sammy Turner)

"They are at the very, very start of their journey, their first year full-time. We knew around Christmas time that what we didn’t want to do was to plug a gap for a year, possibly two years, somebody we were filing a jersey for, someone who was just a stopgap. We want to allow these guys time to develop. Adjust to full-time football for a start but also play at their own age group for a period of time.

"The last thing we wanted to do was throw them into the environment of the B team which is a big step up from under-18s, expose them to that and potentially cause more damage than actually doing a lot of good.

"People will say, ‘Why don’t you play the young kid?’ But we are looking longer term at the process rather than just throwing the kid into the mix of the B team.

"We did look at loads of options, we went down a couple of tracks but sometimes something can be staring you in the face. The type of person Jamie is, the experiences he has had, he’s desperate to still play which was really important to us and what he can add to the group in terms of his ability to talk, organise, to show how important that side of the game is. He has been in for the last week now and even the impact he has had in a short period of time, will no doubt help the younger players, especially the defenders."

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Two of the other news faces arrived from England, the club adding left-sided defender Henry Lister and winger Dom Plank, the latter already impressing in pre-season.

Due to players developing at different times and the movement between squads or players moving on to other challenges, the B team can be short in certain areas, as they realised at the end of last year. Fox and his coaching team are always looking at least a year ahead to prepare.

"That process goes on all the time, it’s a constant reviewing process, it’s a constant process of looking at the kids coming through the academy and the people we think have high potential," Fox said.

"We are always looking, got people looking at games all the time. Our under-18s actually played Nottingham Forest in a friendly at the turn of the year and Henry was one that stood out, we liked the look of him. We did our due diligence, we found out he was out of contract, we invited him up for a trial.

"Dom was similar but came through an outside source. We were looking at wide players, he popped up, good footage of him, we invited him up. Both of them performed very, very well, fitted into the group, two really good kids.

"They were looking for an opportunity and hungry to do well. We thought they would add to the group we have got because we see some good things in them. Sometimes it’s about giving people an opportunity."

Now the season is upon the team and Fox, it's about continued development on and off the pitch with the Lowland League viewed, at this moment in time, as "the best way to close the gap between ourselves to our first-team players".

"We learn things all the time, we learn things about the different times of the year, different opposition we’ll play, the different pitches," Fox said, reflecting on last season. "That was my first experience of the Lowland League last year so there was loads of things from my point of view, maybe setting up a team, the training week for playing certain teams, certain individuals. Even wee things like injuries. We picked up a couple of injuries toward the end of the season and that was potentially down to some overtraining at certain points.

"Any coach worth their salt is learning, evolving and adapting every single day. It’s part of the process of me wanting to be the very best but also for me to do that it will hopefully improve the players.

"We evaluate everything that we do as a staff. We have a monthly review and we had an end of season review of what went well, what can be better. There are loads of small things but ultimately our job is to stress the players and support them and put them in situations which will test them."

The first of those tests comes tonight against East Stirlingshire.