Steven Naismith was prepared for Heart of Midlothian's trip to St Mirren. The team had trained in the afternoon. Calem Nieuwenhof was going to be absent while Beni Baningime was a doubt through injury.

Then the call arrived on Friday night.

"Shanks is ill," the unfortunate news on the other end of the line. Hearts would have to do without their leading scorer for one of the more demanding challenges in the Scottish Premiership.

Ahead of the clash with Livingston, the Hearts head coach is reflecting on 12 months in the main job at Tynecastle Park, discussing the challenges, the learnings, the future.

"Everybody says to you being a manager is a 24/7 job," Naisimth said. "And you think at the time you understand that. But when you're in this environment in the football department of a club, it's not like any other business. It's reactive, it's now. It's not two days from now. We don't switch off at 6pm and think we'll get that in the morning.

"To be successful at any club, that environment has to be created. We've created that and that's why we have progressed as well as we have this season."

The Shankland story was used as an example of the reactive nature of the job and having to deal with it.

Early in his tenure when fans expressed doubts about his ability to do the job Naismith remained unfazed. The demands and pressure of being manager of Heart of Midlothian Football Club doesn't seem to be a challenge or an issue for someone who has thrived under that pressure as a player, both at Rangers and in the Premier League.

But Naismith did admit it has been harder than expected, only "not for the reasons you'd expect".

"Family life, my wife and kids have suffered a lot," he explained. "That's the hard part for me and the part I'm still trying to deal with. Football-wise, it's probably went as I'd expected.

"There's slightly harder moments in terms of conversations you need to have, decisions that need to be made and problems that come up.  They're the things you don't see even when you're a coach. When I've been away with the national team, the manager has one-to-one conversations with players and you get feedback on how that went. But you're not directly involved in that.

"It's the same here with Hearts. There are details that need to change, they're the parts you can't learn before. You have to learn them on the job. They've been the most difficult parts, but it's all within reason. I've been comfortable. It's been enjoyable, but it is intense and the family life is the part that suffers."

Additional reading...

Being able to switch off, finding a better balance are areas that Naismith is still working on. A keen golfer, he has not been able to play a round for two years. He has spoken to his peers about that element of the job. The answer is vague but often along similar lines.

"I'm that type of person, if I want something done I want it to be done now," he said. "My wife is used to it, comfortable with it and my kids have got to that stage now. You do have family time but things then happen. 

"I've probably mentioned it to a lot of managers I have come up against. It is whatever works for you. I'm good friends with Russell Martin and he is somebody who is as close to me in terms of family life, not long in a job, same type of character. He basically turns his phone off and has a day to himself and the family. I'm not at that stage yet but I imagine we'll get to that point eventually."

He added: "You hear managers say 'Your handicap goes down when you get the sack'. I can understand that. You choose what you want to do and I want to do this. It's really intense, it's really demanding but I enjoy that more than I enjoy golf so I'll keep doing it as much as I can."

Naismith, who picked out the 2-1 win at Fir Park as his most satisfying result, has taken Hearts forward from where they were 12 months ago. He has done it while learning on the job as a rookie manager. Something that fans understandably questioned following his permanent appointment.

It has been noted, however, that he has been effective with that learning. 

Twelve months on and Hearts have a better manager.

"That there are some better coaches here than me," Naismith admitted when asked what he had learned as a coach. "If I'm honest, Gordy [Forrest] and Frankie [McAvoy] and their experience, I'll let them lead it because they are better at delivering it than me. I understand that it is a team game. I understand the picture in my head of how I ideally want it doesn't mean I need to do everything.

"I've had managers that do both. I'm a very hands-on person and I do get involved but there are times when you need to say the best person for the job do it.

"That and that you are not going to make every decision right. That was me as a player. I was never the best prospect, I learned and very rarely made them again and again. It's the same in management. I said early on that I was going to make mistakes but I better learn from them and I think I have."

The message, with a view to what's next, is the team have only started and have "loads of work to do", areas of growth. There is no desire to take the plaudits for one season done well. No place for complacency.

One aim that will enthuse fans is a want for the team to be more emphatic, to be more clinical. To be killers, essentially.

Hearts Standard:

"I still think we have a long way to go to feel comfortable consistently being here," Naismith explained. "We've got loads of work to do but being in the two semi-finals this season is a brilliant start. I want us to do better than we did in the last one and go in with real belief that we can win it.

"Getting third and getting that signed off, that comes by winning on Saturday and going into the split not needing to win too many more games.

"If all our achievements are achieved, we have group stage football, and Europe in itself if we don't change anything, that becomes harder. Group stage is one big thing we would need to deal with and we will suffer.

"I think this season looking back at games, we haven't killed teams off as much as I would have liked at times when we have got ourselves in good positions. I think if you do that, or if you can get that where you get out of sight in games, the jump in belief and confidence is a bigger jump than the jump we have had this season. Because the confidence is there, 'We know this is comfortable for us.'

"Everything becomes easier so if we get to the point of killing teams off... even on Saturday, we had two chances, one with Kenneth [Vargas] and the one with Cammy [Devlin]. If we score that, the last 10 or 15 minutes of games are comfortable. We haven't done that enough so that is another target we will want to try and push to next if we can."