Devlin praises ‘the Naisey factor’ at Tynecastle

Aussie World Cup player Cammy Devlin heaped praise of Steven Naismith for his methods since taking interim charge of the Tynecastle team.

The Sydney-born midfielder thoroughly enjoyed the 2-1, come from behind win over Aberdeen and said: “I have said a few times now that Naisey (Steven Naismith) since he came in has been absolutely brilliant.

“For me, he is picking up parts of my game that I wasn’t focusing on in so much detail before and which I definitely needed and I am really enjoying the intensity of the sessions and obviously that carries on into the games.

“He is very animated and that carries us onto the pitch. To come from the week before to get a draw (at St Mirren) and then coming from behind to get the win shows the character we have in this squad.

“That is drilled into us on the training pitch so it was a really enjoyable weekend.”

The popular 24-year-old (pictured) then touched on the shots – 30 (against Ross County) and 30 (v Aberdeen) – the two highest the club have had this season and he added: “Obviously, against Ross County we were fortunate that a few more went in but at the weekend we missed chances.

“Naisey wants us to play attacking football and use any opportunity we can to go forward and put pressure on the opponent. He is instilling that into the players and it is showing.

“Getting shots on opposition defenses is not comfortable for any team so he just wants us to play attacking football as much as we can and we are trying to put that from training onto the pitch.”

Hearts have not scored against Rangers so far this term and focusing on Wednesday’s cinch Premiership with Rangers at Ibrox (kick-off 19,45) Devlin said that Hearts would approach the fixture with a game plan.

He added: “It is obviously a quick turnaround (from Saturday) and it is a massive week. There is no shying away from that, going to Ibrox in any situation is obviously a very tough place to go but we go there full of confidence on the back of a win.”