Saturday's heavy defeat away to Rangers was a painful one for Heart of Midlothian players and supporters - but they have a chance to right that wrong almost immediately with a victory over Hibernian.

Alex Cochrane sat down with the press ahead of Wednesday night's Edinburgh derby, where the Englishman discussed Hearts' form, the blip at Ibrox, and what to expect from Nick Montgomery's side at Tynecastle Park.

Here's everything he had to say.

READ MORE: Ability, versatility, consistency: How Alex Cochrane became a key Hearts player

After Saturday, is this the perfect game to bounce back into?

Yeah. I think if you ask the boys what game they want after that, they would say a derby. Obviously Saturday is done now and we know it wasn't acceptable and wasn't our best. But we have been in a good place for the past two months or so and are certainly in a good position in the league. We have a derby to look forward to and every player will be getting up for that. Perfect game to bounce back to.

Is it key to remind yourselves that 12 games before were pretty much perfect?

Yeah, exactly that. We have had a good spell from December onwards but there is still a long way to go in the season and we need to make sure Wednesday night we start it right and get the win. That is the most important thing. We know it will be a tough game. We know Hibs have quality and a derby speaks for itself as well. We are looking forward to it and hopefully get the win.

Do you feel the team are in a better place to respond because it had been such a long time since you had tasted defeat?

I think so. We have been on a good run and picked up ways of getting the job done and getting victories. The defeat is not nice, you don't want to lose a game of football. We are a strong group together and we know what is expected of everyone. We expect the same on Wednesday night. It's a derby and hopefully it's a good game.

Will these three games - Rangers, Hibs, Celtic - tell you a lot about the team by the end of it?

I think it will. We want to be competing with Rangers and Celtic and have close games with them. The weekend score wasn't that but these three games are probably the biggest games of the season, in that at the start of the season, these are the games you look forward to. Playing Rangers, Celtic, the derby. We have all spoken about how big a week it is and how excited we are for it as well. Our focus is Wednesday and we still have to be confident going into it, which I think we are.

What has the message after the Rangers game from the manager? 

The turnaround of games has probably helped us and the fact it’s a derby. The goals we conceded were a bit sloppy from our part, not really like us. But it’s been put the bed fairly quickly and we move on to this game. We know the importance of it now.

Hibs probably need a win to cement their top-six hopes, so there's a lot riding on the game?

Derbies always have a little bit more on them. We know what to expect. I have played quite a few of these games now and I know what to expect as well. They are fighting to get into the top six. We want to stay third and keep the gap on fourth as wide as it is so it should be a good game.

READ MORE: Steven Naismith Q&A: What Hearts expect from Hibs, defensive record, fast start

What is the manager telling you to expect? 

Just what we’ve done all season, for the past two months. Nothing really changes. I know we had a defeat, but there is no point changing too much because we have found a good rhythm. We’ve found different styles of playing in terms of systems and playing five at the back or four at the back. Us boys expect more of the game from each other as well because we know we have to work hard on Wednesday night. We are not going to be given the three points. It’s more or less the same as what we’ve done for last two months.

Do the team have a points target in mind to secure third? 

No, not really. It’s really just every game as it comes. I don’t really think you can look at a points total or get too carried away with that. It’s a case of us just turning up every game and trying to win basically. It's as simple as that.

Is there a particular derby memory that stands out? 

The last derby was a good one. It’s either that one or the one at Hampden. But December was very enjoyable afterwards. It’s always important to win a derby game and get that feel-good factor afterwards. It’s not going to be a pretty game. They’ll try to make it hard for us and we’ll try to play our stuff as well.