A you would expect, it has been a bit of a mixed bag for the Heart of Midlothian loan stars.

Usually for younger players, it is seen as a quid pro quo: the loaning club will usually get someone with the potential but beyond their wage structure, the parent club get the benefit of a year of development in a first-team environment.

Cutting your teeth as a youngster means making mistakes, wherever that is and even difficult loan spells can be useful. Professional football is not always about being selected from week to week, sometimes you have to fight for your place. It is all valuable experience.

With that said, Hearts Standard used the international break to check in with how the loanees are getting on.

Lewis Neilson

Age: 21
Position: Defender
Loan club: St Johnstone
League position: 10th in Scottish Premiership
Appearances: 12 starts, 1 sub
Stats: 2 clean sheets

Lewis Neilson played for 90 minutes in every league game, as well as in the League Cup defeat to Rangers, until St Johnstone faced Hearts at McDiarmid Park recently.

That’s under three different managers. Craig Levein signed him on loan in at the end of July and Neilson retained his place under the interim stewardship of another ex-Hearts player, Andy Kirk.

Simo Valakari continued to start the defender until he was forced not to but he was benched for his return last weekend against Motherwell. Neilson came on in midfield and helped swing the momentum in St Johnstone’s favour.

Though that in itself perhaps speaks to one of the issues with the promising defender: nailing down his best position. Neilson has played in a back three, a back four, at right-back, left-back briefly and in midfield.

Aidan Denholm

Age: 21
Position: Midfielder
Loan club: Ross County
League position: 9th in Scottish Premiership
Appearances: 14 starts, 2 sub
Stats: 2 assists

Like Neilson, the only league match Aidan Denholm has not played a part in is the 1-1 draw with Hearts at Tynecastle. Curiously, the 21-year-old has started all seven of the other league matches but has not finished one.

He has played across all midfield positions, usually out wide even if in a narrow role. He may have been a victim of the number of the central midfielders County manager Don Cowie has at the club though appears to have generally had a positive impact on the team.

Upon joining up with Cowie in Dingwall, Denholm told the Press and Journal about the “privilege” of being managed by the man he once watched help slay Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic Invincibles at Tynecastle Park.

Harry Stone

Age: 22
Position: Goalkeeper
Loan club: Ayr United
League position: 3rd in Scottish Championship
Appearances: 12 starts
Stats: 14 goals conceded, 4 clean sheets

Harry Stone started the season as Ayr United’s No.1. The Honest Men made an eye-catching start under Scott Brown, his first full season in charge of the club.

After four wins and conceding just three goals in the opening five Scottish Championship matches, Stone picked up an injury. When he returned, 19-year-old Liam Russell was preferred until their recent Challenge Cup exit to East Kilbride.

Stone started in the 3-2 defeat to East Kilbride and was singled out by Brown during his post-match interview. It leaves the goalkeeper’s future at Ayr uncertain after the former Celtic captain was ruthless with shot-stopper Charlie Albinson last season after a poor performance.

Finlay Pollock

Age: 20
Position: Attacking midfielder
Loan club: Raith Rovers
League position: 7th in Scottish Championship
Appearances: 5 starts, 3 sub
Stats: 1 goal

Finlay Pollock started his Raith Rovers stint on fire, netting shortly after coming off the bench early in a game for his debut. While he has not quite lived up to that since, he remains fairly popular with the Stark’s Park support.

He is always looking for the ball, even after making a mistake, and has the pace to beat most Championship full-backs. His final ball is where he is lacking at times though there have also been tactical issues, through no fault of his own.

Raith boss Neil Collins has preferred a back three at previous clubs Barnsley and Tampa Bay Rowdies. During his time at Raith so far, he has switched between the two and, being used predominantly as a winger, it makes it more difficult to fit Pollock into the shape.

Bailey Dall

Age: 20
Position: Left-back
Loan club: Stirling Albion
League position: 4th in Scottish League Two
Appearances: 10 starts, 2 subs
Stats: 4 clean sheets

A regular but has missed the last two matches Manager Alan Maybury prefers Callum Crane as a midfielder and Dall started the season as the first-choice left-back. The young full-back was sent off for two bookable offences at the end of August.

That coincided with Crane’s return from injury who then slotted in at left-back. Dall has since failed to regain his place from the lower-league stalwart but Crane picked up another injury last weekend and that could spell a return for the Hearts loanee. If he does it will be to a more settled defence than it was earlier in the campaign.

Dall has been a target of some of the Stirling support, perhaps unfairly so. Maybury, yet another ex-Hearts player currently managing a loanee from the club, has told local media that he is happy with the player’s contribution and that it will take time for the youngster to adapt to his way of playing.

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Liam McFarlane

Age: 20
Position: Goalkeeper
Loan club: East Fife
League position: 2nd in Scottish League Two
Appearances: 10 starts, 2 subs
Stats: 4 clean sheets

The imposing Liam McFarlane started the season as East Fife’s first choice ahead of the vastly more experienced Allan Fleming, starting in all four League Cup matches and the first six league matches until an unjust red card for a bizarre incident saw him lose his place – he released the ball in his own box before picking it up again and was deemed to have denied a clear and obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

The 20-year-old shot-stopper had to be patient for a few weeks to regain his spot but grasped the opportunity with both hands on his return at home to Stirling. Other than one dip in performances around the start of the league campaign, McFarlane has performed well and is preferred partly because of his use of the ball with his feet. 

Thank you to Iain Collin and Eric Nicolson of The Courier, Stuart McFarlane from Stirling Observer, Shaughan McGuigan from A View From the Terrace, Liam Anderson of East Fife, Alistair Gemmell and Mark MacDonald for their help in putting this article together