Steven Naismith was happy with the test his Heart of Midlothian side face against Tottenham Hotspur at Tynecastle Park.

Hearts lost 5-1 but competed well with the Premier League side for an hour before a number of changes.

He spoke about the positives, Jorge Grant, Gerald Taylor and more.

Assessment of the game?

I thought it was a really good night. The game comes probably a bit earlier than we ideally want in pre-season. Last year we had Leeds as our last game which was a brilliant test, this would have been a similar fixture. The way it landed with the commitments and the back story of the game, it comes earlier. I thought there were loads of positives, especially in the first half. When you go toe-to-toe with a team like Spurs you are going to get picked off and that's what you see at the end of the game. At the start, we create as many good chances as they have, we should have scored. We were patient and tried to use this more as what could be an opportunity to play against a team in Europe so I thought from that aspect it was good. We carried a threat, we had pace, we made good decisions. The game gets a bit stretched toward the end when we are bringing on some young guys who are just making their way in the game and the young players they are bringing on have been bought for £10million, the gap widens. I actually thought a lot of the goals we conceded tonight were one mistake in the chain but it gets punished because of the quality of player, that is evidently what happened. But it was really good, a really good test and one we can take positives from.

Gerald Taylor did well?

Yeah, there were lots of his attributes on show tonight. He's powerful, he's quick, his reading of the game, happy to defend 1v1. We've watched him a lot. It's harder bringing players from other leagues and how they are going to fit into Scottish football. He's won trophies, he's played at a club with demand, he's played international football, he's played at major tournaments internationally so it minimises the risk and I said when he signed he was going to be an exciting player and we seen glimpses of that tonight.

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Lawrence showing his lethal ability...

For Shanks, Zander, Kenneth and even Gerald the time off was rest. That’s what they needed. They’re not going to lose their fitness. They’ve only been in a few days. The natural finisher Shanks is does it. What probably goes unnoticed is Yan’s pass. It looks simple but loads of players take a touch there and the opportunity is gone. Yan has the quickness of mind to see the pass, execute it perfectly and that’s how we get our goal. It comes from a high press and being brave. These are the good things we will take from the game.

Could we see Jorge Grant in that deeper role more often?

He can play that role. Ideally, he is more comfortable higher up but with the boys out at the moment we have had to shuffle a few. But he has shown up in the games and in training that he’s intelligent enough to pick up positions in that role and do the defensive side. He has come back in good shape.”

How is Frankie Kent?

He took a blow to the face and I’ve not checked how he is. It’s a friendly, the precaution is to take him off.

Why was Liam Boyce out?

He has been ill. I didn’t even expect to see him tonight. He is feeling better but the last two days he has been in his bed.