Gary Mackay: Back-to back wins can boost Hearts morale

It was another underwhelming match against Motherwell on Saturday, but the bottom line is that Hearts came out of it with three points, which is something we've not been able to say a lot recently.

Kyle Lafferty is making his presence felt at Tynecastle

It was very important to finally get the victory in front of the new stand and get the monkey off our back because the pressure would have been mounting on the team after recent results. Hopefully now we’ve stopped the rot, we can go into tomorrow’s game against Dundee with a bit of confidence and try and make it back-to-wins. We certainly have a better chance of doing that if Arnaud Djoum and Jamie Walker are able to shake off the injuries that forced them off on Saturday because they are our two most creative players. Even if they’re not available, though, we still have a chance of getting a result because we are fortunate to have one of the best defences in the division who are always capable of keeping a clean sheet.

We can probably be characterised as a team who have a solid defence and don’t create much at the moment, and that’s reflected by the fact we are not losing games but aren’t winning them handsomely either. Everything is a bit of a struggle just now, but back-to-back victories would certainly help raise confidence levels. I’d love to see us somehow conjure a victory by a couple of goals against Dundee because that’s something we’ve not managed all season and I think it would do our morale the world of good ahead of a very testing fixture against Celtic on Sunday.

We’ve been reliant on Kyle Lafferty to secure our last two victories, and it was a moment of composure from him that won the game from pretty much his only chance on Saturday. I really like Kyle because he seems to have forged a connection with the supporters, which is something not many Hearts players have managed in recent seasons. He plays with a bit of personality and tries to transmit that to the rest of the team. It is clear that he has real enthusiasm and is desperate to succeed here. That was apparent on Saturday with his work ethic and his goal celebration. He looks like he could be a good type to have around the club for the next few years.