Heart of Midlothian will look to progress into the quarter-final of the Premier Sports Cup this afternoon when they face Falkirk.

Steven Naismith takes his men to the Falkirk Stadium to face last season's unbeaten League One winners. Former Hearts boss John McGlynn is in charge of the Bairns who have started their Championship campaign with two wins from two.

The Capital outfit, meanwhile, are searching for their first win of the season after drawing and losing their first two Scottish Premiership fixtures.

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Hearts come into the game off the back of a 3-1 loss at Dundee. A game that saw the team trail 3-0 at the interval with Naismith making a triple change and switching from a back three to a back four. Fans questioned the decision to go with a back three at Dens Park and the head coach admitted he "got some things wrong" on reflection.

It would be a surprise if he didn't revert to a similar formation to the one that performed so well against Rangers in the opening game of the season. Add in the performance last week and it being the League Cup, it appears the perfect opportunity to hand the experienced trio of Craig Gordon, Craig Halkett, and Stephen Kingsley their first starts of the season.

Halkett replaces Frankie Kent's stopper qualities with the Englishman out injured. Kingsley, facing his old team, was one of the best players last season and is waiting for his first minutes after injury curtailed his pre-season. 

The midfield struggled in the game against Dundee. Both Yan Dhanda and Malachi Boateng improved matters when they came on. In this instance, Dhanda may occupy a slightly wider role to allow Lawrence Shankland and Kenneth Vargas to dovetail through the middle as a strike pairing.

Alan Forrest and Cammy Devlin would inject plenty of energy into the team, alongside full-backs James Penrice and Gerald Taylor.

(Image: BeFunky)