What Steven Naismith said to his Hearts players at half-time

The Hearts head coach revealed what he said to his players at half-time, why Jorge Grant took the penalty and spoke about another fantastic Lawrence Shankland goal.

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That must be a nice way to celebrate a 150th anniversary, talk us through it.

It was a good day, a good win and overall I’m pleased with the performance. In the first half if you split the game from being a battle to football the battle was one. Both teams had their points where they moved the ball a bit and created some chances. But it was really about the fight. Aberdeen came out really aggressively and we were probably second best on that front. Their wide players naturally want to come inside the pitch and that caused us a bit of an issue for them picking up second balls. In the second half, we tweaked it slightly but we started much better. And once we got the first goal it changes the dynamic of the game. The pleasing thing for us is we controlled the game after that, our decision-making was good. And it could have been more than two eventually.

It’s a tale of two VARs – do you feel that you got off the hook with Aberdeen’s disallowed goal?

I don’t think he means it but it’s a 50/50 in the corner and it’s our job to defend the situation. By him getting clipped it allows him a free run into the box and that’s where it should be a foul. In terms of rules and regulations I’m not sure, but I thought it was a foul. And with the penalty, it’s a penalty because of the way VAR and the handball rule is, I think he’s unfortunate with it.

Do you expect any more ins and outs before the window closes?

I don’t expect to lose anybody. In terms of ins, everybody knows Scott Fraser is someone we are trying to bring in but we’ll see how that develops, the change of manager there is holding things up. And then it will be reactive. We have a great squad of players and there are guys who haven’t played as much as they want. If they want to go and we can do it and we can maybe replace them then we might do it. There is nobody desperately wanting to leave. I can understand it if they want more football but we’re not planning on being busy.

Who decided who would take the penalty?

Shanks. I said last week Shanks will decide in the moment. It was a pressure penalty. When you've missed your last three and the delay in taking it (due to a lengthy VAR check), I think Granty was the coolest man on the pitch as you could see from the penalty. It was some finish. It just eased everything, it made us be able to play the way we want to. 

What was the message to the team at half-time?

It was just the fight. It was similar at Pittodrie, they were really aggressive on second balls. They outnumbered us a bit and we were reactive, I felt. It was just about changing that slightly.

Can you sum up Shankland’s skill for the second goal?

It's Shanks. I say it all the time, he's not just a threat in the box or the six-yard box. He's a threat anywhere in the final third. There have been questions asked, he's missed three penalties, he'll go through periods of not scoring but I know he'll go into every game being a threat.  It was similar to the one a few weeks ago, it was instinctive. That's the easy part for Shanks, the part that makes him different to a lot of other strikers because he doesn't overthink it. He sees it all happening and understands the backlift he needs and the trajectory of the ball. That's why he's banging goals in for fun.

It would be a travesty if he doesn’t go to Germany then?

There's still a lot of time. I think he's different to the other strikers and I think that gives him an edge to be picked.   

You sent Vargas out to warm up early on, were you tempted to change the set-up?

I was frustrated with a couple and I would have changed it if I thought I needed to. We managed to start making better decisions, which made up my mind.

You’re in a great position in the race for third, what are your thoughts?

We are in a very good position. Our form recently has been really good. After a slow start and getting battered in the press, we have continued to just get on with our business. Internally we are comfortable and we are getting our rewards from that. We don’t panic. We didn’t panic against Spartans, we played to the end and got our goal. We were 2-0 down against Dundee and came back. But we have got to see it as – any successful player’s mentality is always ‘I’m doing well, but how can I get to the next bit?’. Whether you’re a young player breaking into the team or Shanks scoring goals, it’s always ‘how can we be better?’. We are building that mentality and that’s what we need to have.

Can we ask about Phillip Clement’s comments? He didn’t seem to know about Alex Lowry’s injury.

I think that’s more to do with internal communication between their departments than anything to do with us. With any loan player there is nothing that can be done without the parent club having the say-so. The whole way through with Alex, Rangers were in control of it. So it must be a communication issue with them.

When you were getting battered in the press, what was the significant thing you were staying resolute on? What was key to the turnaround?

I’ve experienced it as a player. I’ve had managers come in that are completely different to the previous one or making lots of changes, and it takes time. We are unfortunately in an era of instant success and if that’s not happening then you’re done, you’re not good enough. That gave me lots of confidence. A lot of our players were improving day-to-day and we could see it. But the hard part is to do it on a Saturday when there are loads of people watching you, and nerves come into it. But once you can start dealing with that and you trust yourself, you improve. At the end of the day I go home and I have got a wife and two kids that are more important than any football game.

There have been a couple of new contracts recently, are there any more lined up?

We are getting there. There are a few that will be getting announced in the next couple of weeks, which is brilliant, and it adds in to why we are so successful just now. It has taken a bit of time but everyone is buying into it and wants to be here. We reward people when they are doing well, not just when their contracts are up or when there is a necessity to do so. You have got to keep people hungry, and when they’re hungry you’ve got to show them the reward of their hard work.