A passive observer of Heart of Midlothian B could be forgiven, when attending a game at Ainslie Park on a Friday night, for wondering who plays at right-back.

It may start by recognising Adam Forrester, wearing the captain's armband, as the man who is performing that role. But he begins popping up in the centre of the pitch a lot. And then he's taking on an opponent on the left. Wait, that's him zipping a shot off the base of the post just outside the box.

That's Adam Forrester. That's Hearts B's right-back. A key cog in how the team have played under Liam Fox, given a free role almost out of possession.

It is no surprise then that the 19-year-old has chipped in with a fair few goals and assists in the past couple of seasons. In the most recent outing, a 2-0 loss to Broomhill, he came the closest to scoring with the aforementioned shot off the post.

"The way we try to play, he comes into the middle of the pitch, he can handle the ball, he's physically good, he can get up and down," Fox told Hearts Standard before his appointment as interim coach of the first team. "His 1v1 defending is improving.

"What I quite like about him is that he gets in the box and actually scores a fair amount of goals and creates things."

Forrester performs an important function off the pitch as well for the B team. Wearing the captain's armband, he is a leading figure who has more experience than others.

"He's a great kid to work with every day, his willingness to learn, he's still improving," Fox explained. "He's been a captain for a long period of time because of the example he sets.

"He's one of the older ones and you can tell he's been through this process of a bit of stress, a bit of disappointment and he's through the other end."

Forrester is a name that will be familiar to fans having been on the bench for the League Cup semi-final last year against Rangers at Hampden Park. And he has been involved regularly in training with the first team.

He's not yet made the step up to make his first appearance but perhaps in an alternate timeline, it would have been him starting at right-back against Dundee United earlier this campaign when Steven Naismith opted for the experience of Stephen Kingsley.

There is, however, belief that he has what it takes to make that step up.

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"He's one that we know has potential to hopefully eventually break in [to the first team]," Fox said. "He's been involved and trained regularly with them. He just needs to keep that level of performance and keep improving as well. Hopefully, an opportunity comes and hopefully, he takes it with both hands.

"The potential is there. Like a lot of things, he needs an opportunity and if he gets an opportunity he needs to take it. The quality of players and the number of players in the first team, when they get an opportunity they have got to take it or it can bypass them very quickly and they might not get another one. That's the harsh reality of it.

"We're happy with where Adam is. He knows he has still got things to work on and if the opportunity comes, that might be during a training week or an illness or injury, he need to make sure he is ready. But I see a maturity in him this year."

Who knows, that opportunity could arrive sooner rather than later. But if it doesn't, Forrester is one of those players who could be primed for a loan move in January having now played more than 60 games at Lowland League level.

Fox explained that there are areas of his game that would become sharper higher up the pyramid.

"I think his ability to sense the defensive danger a wee bit quicker," he said. "The way we ask him to play we ask him to get forward, it's just that recognition of if we look like we are going to lose the ball, that anticipation. Those small details we talk about.

"But what I will say, if you were to drop Adam in against a higher level [team] I think that might automatically happen. If you play against better players you are more switched on.

"He's probably at a point now where he has played a lot of games at the Lowland League. He's probably comfy in the environment now so, hopefully there is an opportunity for him, but it might be a point around Christmas time that there could be a potential loan for him."

Forrester is not the only one who is in that position.

Callum Sandilands, fresh from signing a contract extension, is another who could have a loan move in his future.

The midfielder, like Forrester, has been a key asset for Hearts B, having improved from his experience in the Lowland League. But it is almost like the duo have completed that level.

"He's probably around two and a half weeks away from getting back to fit which is obviously the first priority, making sure he comes back and he's fit and raring to go," Fox explained. 

"Probably like Adam, he'll hopefully be with us until January and then we see what comes up around then. But he has got to use this time from now until January to get himself fit, get himself ready.

"I keep saying to them all the time you never know when you could get an opportunity, you just never know. You can have all these plans in place for players but the reality is that something might happen and you have got to be ready for that opportunity."