A week past Friday, Liam Fox sat in one of the suites at the Oriam looking ahead to Heart of Midlothian's Scottish Premiership fixture with Ross County. A few days earlier he had been installed as the club's interim head coach following Steven Naismith's dismissal. 

The B team boss had been told that he wasn't a consideration for the permanent position. It made his job clear. 

"I'm going to do the very best I can to see where it goes," he said, "and hopefully pass it to somebody else in a better place.”

When Blair Spittal zipped a shot past Dimitar Mitov to put Hearts ahead at Aberdeen after the hour mark, Hearts were heading to their first win of the league season, off the bottom of the Scottish Premiership and toward a much better international break than the one previous.

In fact, a win at Pittodrie would have eased a hell of a lot of pressure on the pitch and off of it with regard to the appointment of the new head coach. There is pressure on the club to get it right but there would not have been quite as much urgency to get the new man in place.

On a personal level it would have been a fantastic achievement for Fox, a boyhood Hearts fan, to have not only led the team to a win in Europe but to the club's first win at Pittodrie in eight years.

Hearts, however, contrived to lose a match where they were the better team for large chunks, owing to a mixture of poor defending and poor officiating, and then poor decision-making from Jorge Grant.

The 3-2 defeat leaves Hearts bottom of the Scottish Premiership on two points, two adrift of 11th-place St Johnstone, after eight games. No team has scored fewer and only St Johnstone and Kilmarnock have conceded more. Therefore it is only natural for fans to not want to hear about any positivity. In fact, they don't want to hear anything. They just want to see their team win games.

Yet, there have been positives to take from the last three games. There are positives to take from the game with Aberdeen. Hearts are far from perfect and the new head coach has plenty of work to do but, as things stand, Fox will pass on the team to "somebody else in a better place".

The performance on Sunday was arguably the best of the season, certainly until Grant's daft challenge to pick up his second yellow card after 75 minutes.

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Fox has overseen two league games where Hearts have created more than enough chances to win each game. Something that hadn't been the case. The performance was hard to watch in Azerbaijan but the team got the win even if there were not too many standout individual performances. Against Aberdeen, there were elements which fans want to see in their Hearts team, in and out of possession, while there were several solid or good individual displays.

Firstly, the interim management team have installed a consistent framework with the 4-3-3. Fox has also demonstrated that there was always going to be a need for rotation with only four players starting each of the three games. It perhaps makes that rotation easier with a settled system.

Effective pressing and Boateng role

Having made the journey back from Azerbaijan to Aberdeen on Friday afternoon Hearts trained at Formartine Untied's ground on Saturday. On seeing the team and the number of changes made which included two players who are regarded as more centre-backs than full-backs playing in the latter positions, you could be forgiven for thinking Hearts would sit with a bank of four, quite deep and narrow.

Yet, from the off, they demonstrated positive intentions. Within seconds of kick-off, the home side are forced to play back to Mitov.

(Image: SNS) Mitov plays it long and within two passes Hearts win it back before Spittal attempts to release Lawrence Shankland quickly.

(Image: SNS) The opening goal, of course, arrives moments later. Stephen Kingsely's reaction said it all. The left-back was caught out on two occasions in quick succession as the home side earned some luck with the ball being diverted over Craig Gordon by the excellent Kye Rowles.

Prior to that, Hearts are probably guilty of being too eager in pressing the Dons. Spittal goes to close down Slobodan Rubezic. It frees up Graeme Shinnie with Aberdeen playing in a triangle, breaking the Hearts pressure and allowing him to play forward. In hindsight, Spittal should have stayed on Shinnie and allowed Shankland to move over. The Dons centre-back didn't need pressed as aggressively in such a situation.

(Image: Wyscout) But Aberdeen struggled to play through the Hearts press. Out of possession, Hearts were full of energy and enthusiasm. They didn't look like a team who had a near 9,000km round trip during the week.

There are various instances in the first 30 minutes where Hearts' pressing led to a turnover and even a chance. Shankland should have netted in the fourth minute when Jorge Grant blocked an attempted long ball from Gavin Molloy.

Boateng, in his first appearance under Fox, was hugely effective at the base of the midfield. His presence allowed Grant and Spittal to engage opponents further up the pitch while he swept in and up on any loose or poor passes.

Below are three of four instances in which the midfielder wins the ball back for his team.

(Image: Wyscout) (Image: Wyscout) (Image: Wyscout) What is important to note is the way the team operated collectively allowed him to perform such a role. The players higher up pitch putting pressure on Aberdeen forced them into such passes.

Attacking shape

When Hearts had the ball there was good tempo plus a clear aim to get it into wide areas. The requirement of Yan Dhanda and Kenneth Vargas was to open up the pitch and basically stand on the touchline. Daniel Oyegoke, who put in his best performance, and Stephen Kingsley – and then James Penrice – played narrow roles. It gave the wide men space, it provided more central options and it would help to prevent being vulnerable on the counterattack.

In the 10th minute Frankie Kent fired a ball to Vargas out of shot. We can see Oyegoke's movement with an underlapping run. The Costa Rican would move infield with the ball.

(Image: Wyscout) Kingsley, prior to his substitution held a narrow position, while Spittal and Dhanda swapped, the former maintaining Hearts' width on the left. Which could be key when the ball was worked back across the pitch.

(Image: Wyscout) Spittal, in space, steadied himself and whipped in a cross to the back post which Shankland turned over.

Later that half, Spittal was again involved, nipping into win the ball in the middle of the park.

(Image: Wyscout) When he steps forward he is joined by Oyegoke who is deeper to the right. In turn Vargas goes out of shot onto the touchline. Oyegoke, motoring forward, and Vargas exchange passes and it leads to a Grant effort.

(Image: Wyscout) The positioning of the full-backs and wide men and the attacking intention can be seen in an attack down the left after Penrice replaced Kingsley.

(Image: Wyscout) The left-back had been central but as the ball was worked to Dhanda who had moved infield, he spotted an opportunity to overlap rather than underlap which is more natural due to the balance on the left.

Now, when he and Dhanda combine, look at the bodies Hearts have in and around the box and in the final third in general. Everyone bar the two centre-backs and Craig Gordon.

(Image: Wyscout)

Second-half mayhem

Up until the goal that put Hearts in the lead, the visitors were the better side and continued to do what they had done in the first half.

For example, Kent bypassing a simple, easy pass to go higher and wider to Vargas, Oyegoke's positioning opening up the space. The kind of pass Steven Naismith had urged from the sidelines.

(Image: Wyscout) For the goal, it arrived via some excellent off-the-ball work and running from Spittal and notably Kye Rowles. Aberdeen had an opportunity to counter but it was snuffed out.

On winning possession back, there were two quick, forward passes, via Rowles and Spittal, to get Hearts back on the front foot, leading to the corner Spittal would score from.

(Image: Wyscout) How Hearts lost the game from such a position says a lot about the momentum of both sides, plus the proclivity of the Tynecastle Park side giving up cheap goals. Aberdeen scored with all three shots on target with an xG of 0.69 from their 11 efforts.

Having read down to here you may be thinking, and understandably so, 'Why such positivity? Hearts have just lost again and are still bottom of the Premiership!' Plus, the fact it is even more difficult to search for positives after such a loss.

However, there were clear elements, in and out of possession, of what fans want to see from the side. Elements that haven't been seen all that often this season. It demonstrated that while there are still issues, there is a squad for the new head coach to work with, certainly in the short term, to get the team motoring up the table.

As things stand, Hearts are in a better place than they have been. The goal after the international break is to ensure the team are no longer in bottom place.