Steven Naismith on Alex Lowry, Jorge Grant and best player

Here's everything the Hearts head coach had to say:

You're through to the semi-final, how does it feel?

Feels good. Delighted to get through, it was the next step we needed to take. At this club there’s a demand to get to semi-finals and finals and ultimately win silverware. I’m happier with the performance than the result, I thought we were really good. We were the better team in the first-half, scored a really good goal. Then they scored a good goal and we can go one of two ways – we either go flat and safe and it becomes hard or we continue to play the way we want to play. When they scored the momentum changed but we stemmed that flow and had a few attacks ourselves. Our season has either been really entertaining or flat performances and it’s now about getting that on a more consistent basis. It’s a big win and everybody’s delighted but we do need to back that up. Over the past few seasons we haven’t had good performances at Kilmarnock and Ross County has been the same.

Have you given the fans something they can cling to?

Since I’ve been taking the team there have been moments when we’ve been entertaining but it’s about bringing that consistency. Calum Nieuwenhof came in during the summer and has taken time to settle but I thought he was the best player on the park. Odel Offiah is another one who put in a great ball at the winner. There’s a demand on the players at the club – I as a player grew to enjoy that challenge and understand it. You either accept it or use it to your advantage or you won’t make it at the club. It's about that consistency. The hard part for the players is that there is a demand at this club. Me as a player grew to enjoy that feeling, understand it. It's the biggest challenge for any player at Hearts. The demand is there. You either accept it or try to use it to your advantage, or you'll not make it at the club. That's simply it. I think we've got some really good footballers who can bring success. One hundred per cent it's a mental challenge. When you're expected to go to every game and have a performance and win, that naturally brings pressure. As a player, you either do it or don't. As a player, at the Old Firm, in my first year I was really poor, but you understand it and you learn from it. You make mistakes but you learn from it and you get better. I believe that we have got success in this group.

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You have had some honest conversations with Jorge Grant. What convinced you to start him tonight?

This was at the start of the season and I had given every player a feeling of where they are within the group. I believe that over the course of the season, you'll need everybody. The biggest thing for me is that I am honest with the players because I felt that as a player myself, it was better to be that way. I said to him that he needs to work hard and show his chances. In my first game as interim against Hibs, I started Jorge Grant. I think he's a top player. I just wanted to see more, more good moments and have bigger impacts in games. Over the past few weeks, against Aberdeen and in training, he's been good. He had to wait for his moment.

It was terrific composure from Alex Lowry, wasn't it?

It was a great goal all-round. Alex has got brilliant ability. I'm not sure I've seen in my whole footballing career a young Scottish player that I have been working with that has got such good ... he can do things with a ball that a lot of others can't. I've challenged him to see more moments like that. He's been frustrated at not getting more game-time, but I said to him, you need to show moments and when you are on the park, you need to do more.

Was Devlin's substitution a tactical decision or an injury?

He wasn't feeling great at half time, so we just took him off because we knew the type of game it was. If someone isn't 100 per cent, we would rather have someone in there that can be.