What Derek McInnes liked from Hearts win, Dhanda answer, McCart injury.

While Heart of Midlothian did not meet all of Derek McInnes’ aims for their two friendly matches in Spain, the head coach was delighted with the team’s progress this week, particularly portions of the 3-1 win over Crawley Town on Friday night.

The triumph over the English lower league side came after a 1-1 draw with St Mirren earlier in the week, with both games taking place at the club’s training facility in Algorfa.

Over the course of the two games, 25 players played, with Lewis Neilson, Harry Stone, and Yan Dhanda the only ones who did not. Dhanda flew home before the St Mirren game to attend the birth of his child.

Meanwhile, Hearts want to determine the seriousness of Jamie McCart’s injury sustained at the end of the St Mirren game. The athlete underwent a scan on Friday, with the findings due on Saturday.

McInnes felt the team demonstrated more of what he wants them to be in their victory over Crawley. “The first game we’d spoken to the players and we mentioned it again,” McInnes recalled. “All managers will argue that outcomes aren’t crucial, but we still want to support your efforts and, at the end of the day, try to win the game. “We wanted clean sheets for both games.

We didn’t want any injuries. We wanted a couple of victories. We didn’t receive everything with Jamie’s injury.”I think there was a little bit more of what I wanted from us [versus Crawley].

I thought there was more responsibility for making forward runs and passing forward. On top of that, you still get some opportunities to manage the game. I think we pressed well. “We knew Crawley was a team that enjoyed having you on board.

They’re a team that wants to dominate through possession. And sometimes we were happy. “I believed we received much better press in the second half. I thought we had some excellent opportunities in the first half, but I’d like us to be a little more aggressive on the press.

I think our press was good, but we never turned the ball over in dangerous or advantageous situations as often as we should have. “So again, these wee things need to become a bit more natural if we’re going to go after teams who want to take us on there.” McInnes used the word “natural” to describe the progress he expects from the club.

Not only does the team press, but it also shows a willingness to play forward, which is applauded by the Tynecastle Park crowd. He saw positive indicators, particularly among the full-backs.

“I want things to become a bit more natural for us when our first thought is to try and play forward as much as we can,” said the coach. “I believe both full-backs, [Christian] Borchgrevink and [Adam] Forrester, as well as [Harry] Milne and [Stephen] Kingsley, attempted to take on that role.

“We tried to get our strikers on the last line against them as often as we could get [Blair] Spittal, [Sander] Kartum, [Alexandros] Kyziridis, [Alan] Forrest, and our two strikers, whoever they were at the time.” We attempted to put some strain on their back line rather than make it a comfortable day. And I believe we got some of that.

“I was much happier with that type of performance.” I think we looked a little sharper than the other night.

I believe we have certainly benefited from the warm weather throughout training and matches. I believe 45 minutes there would be equivalent to 65-70 minutes under regular conditions. “So we’re two games in, and considering we barely started two weeks ago, we’re doing okay. We’re doing well, but I believe there is still much room for development. But I’m confident we’ll get there.

“I was far happier with that type of performance. I think we looked a wee bit sharper than we were the other night. I think we’ve had the benefit clearly of the warm weather training and the warm weather in the matches. I think 45 minutes there would probably equate to about 65-70 minutes in normal conditions.

“So we’re two games in, considering we were only two weeks back yesterday, we’re alright. We’re looking fine and I still think there’s loads of improvement. But we’ll get there, I’m pretty sure of it.”

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