When can Hearts secure third place? Rivals Hibs, Kilmarnock, St Mirren, and Dundee will have an influence

The motivation for Hearts after this international break is clear: Three victories would leave them poised to secure third place in the Premiership in their first post-split fixture next month. The stated aim for the season could soon be within touching distance as management look to tick off the first box on a list of priorities.

Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Ross County was an unexpected setback for a side who arrived in Dingwall on a run of 13 wins in 16 games. There is no reason one result should derail the campaign, particularly when third-placed Hearts still hold an 11-point lead over Kilmarnock in fourth and sit 13 points better off than St Mirren in fifth. The Ayrshire side are next on the fixture list at Tynecastle Park a week on Saturday, followed by Saints in Paisley a week later.

Hearts are currently on 55 points with eight league games remaining, meaning the maximum total they can reach is 79. The most Kilmarnock can amass is 68 points, St Mirren could reach 66, while Hibs in sixth spot can get to 62. Dundee in seventh place have a game in hand and can hit 63 points.

If Hearts beat Kilmarnock and St Mirren in their next two games, then the maximum those two clubs could reach would be 65 and 63 points respectively. Hearts would then be sitting on 61. Victory over Livingston at Tynecastle in their final match before the split would elevate them to 64 points. One win from their five post-split fixtures, which are due to begin on the last weekend in April, would then be enough to cement third spot for the second time in three seasons. Of course, that can be achieved sooner if the others drop points in matches not involving Hearts.

The reward for finishing third is a place in the Europa League's second qualifying round. However, if one of Scotland's Champions League entrants wins the Scottish Cup, then the cup's European spot goes to the team third in the Premiership. That is a Europa League play-off berth, with accompanying parachute in the Conference League group phase in the event of defeat. So European group-stage football would be guaranteed in that scenario.

Steven Naismith, Hearts head coach, is not one for mapping out points totals weeks in advance. At least, not in public. He is simply focused on beating Kilmarnock - but also mindful of premeditated ambitions. "When I took over [last summer], the main targets were: Competing to get into Europe, being in cup finals and trying to win silverware. You want to do all of those things. We got to the first [League Cup] semi-final and then dropped out. Now we have managed to get to a second [Scottish Cup] semi-final with a chance to get to a final.

"In the league, you want to be as successful as you can as quickly as you can. What will be, will be. I enjoy the normality of that feeling where you are going into games and winning them, which ultimately is going to get you the prizes you want. If we win this next block after the internationals, then the dynamic changes in terms of the league. The pressure of getting results all the time goes and you can hopefully have a real enjoyment towards the end of the season."

Naismith and his players got used victories over the winter by building the aforementioned run. "It's been normal. That's the feeling, although it isn't really spoken about too much," he explained. "We don't really highlight it. We go into each game thinking: 'What can we get from this game?' We are getting closer to getting third. That's it. There is an expectation from us now of the level we expect, and if we hit that level we've got a good chance of winning games. That has been proven over the last few months."

The flip side of that momentum is that losing becomes more irritating when it does occur. "It's frustration when you lose. Saturday was a missed opportunity," admitted Naismith. "If you defend like we did there, you give yourself a mountain to climb and that hasn't been like us. We are in a good moment and we've made good progress but this happens. You aren't going to go through a season without losing so it was going to happen at some point. It's then how you react.

"It should become normal, we should be resilient enough and understand how we want to play so that we should be going to get the win in the next game."

Preparations are impacted slightly this week with 10 players absent from Riccarton on international duty. "We have quite a few players away - Macaulay Tait and Aidan Denholm with the younger Scotland squads, the Australian boys, Kenneth Vargas with Costa Rica, the Scotland boys, Dexter Lembikisa with Jamaica and Toby Sibbick with Uganda. We have quite a few away."