Hearts players welcome cup derby pressure '“ Ian Cathro

Ian Cathro is pleased with the experience of his squad

The Easter Road forward had said his city rivals would be under intense strain at Tynecastle because they are a Premiership club facing a Championship side.

“The good thing is the pressure is all on them,” said Holt. “We are only a Championship team, supposedly. Well, that’s what I keep hearing, so we’ll see what happens.

“We are the Championship team and they are supposedly better than us and in a bigger league, so we will see how they like the pressure.”

Cathro, Hearts’ head coach, replied by stating that he and his players want that stress because they have the mentality to cope. “I’m happy to have it all and I think my players would be happy with that too, so we’ll take that pressure,” he smiled.

“There can be a lot of reasons for that type of comment to be made and each person will have their own reason for portraying that.

“I want these challenges and I want to bring players here that feel the same way. I think we are getting there. We have a squad that wants pressure. It enjoys the need to win.”

Cathro signed nine new players last month because he wanted more characters with experience within his squad. “Bringing in players who have experienced these sort of occasions was part of the character and profile of person we wanted to bring to the club,” he continued.

“The club is ambitious and wants to grow and progress. We will need to do that gradually, calmly and in the right way, but these guys are coming from the right level of the game to be ready.

“There becomes a little bit of keeping people focused, because everything is that little bit louder.

“We enjoy that, we all enjoy big matches and relish that. Our actual day-to-day build-up will be pretty normal.

“We understand that these derby games mean more to people and are more memorable. We respect that and like it. We enjoy the fact it adds pressure and some more spotlight. It makes every single touch and every single touch feel that little bit more important.”