Gary Mackay: Hearts wingers need to repay Robbie Neilson's faith

Brilliant to see Jamie Walker back doing what he does best on Saturday. Long may it continue.

Jamie Walker is a vital player for Hearts when on top from.

If you can go to Morton and perform like Jamie did, score a couple of goals, then you can do it anywhere in the Championship. Hearts slipped up at Dunfermline and Alloa but Morton was another potential banana skin. It’s never, ever, been an easy place to pick up points.

To win relatively comfortably there with Jamie showing the qualities he has augurs well. Scoring goals and assisting goals is his game. I don’t want him chasing opposing full-backs into his own half, I want him at the top end of the pitch threatening the opposition.

If you are given that kind of a free licence then you need to perform. That’s what flair players are about. We were fortunate in my time to have John Colquhoun in the team because he was seven or eight out of ten every week.

Wingers can be up and down but Colquhoun was able to demand a consistent level of performance from himself. It’s up to Jamie and the other wide players – Jordan Roberts, Elliott Frear and Josh Ginnelly when he’s back – to do the same.

If the manager puts his faith in you as a flair player, you need to make sure it’s justified to keep him happy. Robbie Neilson and the coaching staff can only demand so much from players, it’s about self-motivation a lot of the time.

It’s about wanting to play every week to a high standard, game in and game out. The disappointment of being left out should fire you up to make sure that you go on and have an impact as a sub. Those demands come from within.

With the age Jamie and a lot of the Hearts players are at, the demand from themselves is crucial. They’ve shown they can do it. You only need look at the Scottish Cup semi-final or the Edinburgh derby at Easter Road earlier this year.

It doesn’t have to be a nine-out-of-ten display every week. I think Robbie and the supporters would settle for a seven out of ten every week. That should be good enough for Hearts to win the Championship.

I do empathise with the players at the moment given the circumstances they find themselves in. They are in the second division playing in front of no crowds and it must be difficult.

I remember how difficult I found it towards the end of my career at Airdrie when you were playing in front of 1,200 and 1,500 folk. The lads right now don’t even have that.

When I played in the second tier with Hearts, places like Clydebank and Dumbarton were wide open and airy but we had fans there helping motivate you. The pandemic means players are needing to take the self-motivation to another level.

However, they are playing for a big club. You need to look at that badge on your shirt and say to yourself: ‘We need to do that badge proud this season.’

They have to show defiance on the back of decisions which put us in this division, and they have to produce that kind of attitude every single week.

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