Steven Naismith reveals the reasons behind Hearts' attacking threat after the 6-1 win against Ross County

The Tynecastle side were relentless against the Premiership’s bottom club.

Interim Hearts manager Steven Naismith emphasised his team’s attacking threat following a 6-1 win against Ross County which ended the Edinburgh club’s poor recent run. Alex Cochrane’s opening goal, a double from Josh Ginnelly and captain Lawrence Shankland’s hat-trick earned Hearts their first win in seven games.

They recorded 30 attempts at goal during the 90 minutes and could have scored more. “Last weekend I said we didn't carry as much of an attacking threat against Hibs as we should have,” said Naismith. “We were maybe one pass away from creating opportunities and today we did that much better. We were brave, especially in our own half, on the ball and made the right choices with our passing.

“We played forward at the right times which creates opportunities but we have really good players here. I knew if we created opportunities then we would take them. It was a good day’s work and it will give players loads of confidence as it breaks that rut of not winning.

“I think people were second-guessing the comments I was making but I said before that there is a good group of players here. They want to do well and be successful. This has probably been the most challenging time since most of them have been at the club but they showed today that they were brave.

“In the past, the amount of times we have passed the ball back to our goalkeeper has been too many. It can happen once or twice at the right moments so, in terms of our choice of pass, it was much better. That creates the opportunities so it's really pleasing overall.

“The work-rate and the being brave and the performance in terms of the goals, most of the chances we created we scored so that's not going to happen every week. For me, it was about the variety. The times when Ross County tried to press us high, we managed to play through and we have had Four-v-three attacks on their back line.

“Shank’ header comes from a ball into the box after we recycle it, pick the right moments to shuffle them about the box, and then the ball comes in at the right time and he gets a header. All of these moments were really good. It shows that we do have variety and we have intelligent players.

Interim manager Steven Naismith oversaw Hearts' 6-1 win against Ross County.

“Our expected goals is really high, the amount of times we played balls into the final third was much higher. It's not rocket science. We have good players here and they just need to be confident in how they receive the ball and where they play the pass.

“In the final third, Shanks is in the right area as he's a natural goalscorer, Josh gets the ball and manipulates it very well as that's his strength. You don't teach that. that's just a player's ability. What we can teach is getting the ball into areas where we can cause problems. I also need to give a special mention to our defence as that's been a big Achilles heel recently by the run of 14 goals have conceded.”