Harry Cochrane reveals fitness plan to get back into Hearts team and pinpoints why he struggled last season

Harry Cochrane is eager to reclaim a starting place at Hearts.

Teenage midfielder Harry Cochrane feels he struggled to impose himself at Hearts last year because he wasn’t fit enough.

He has embarked on an eating and fitness plan during lockdown aimed at impressing manager Daniel Stendel and reclaiming his place in the team next season.

The 19-year-old was loaned out to Dunfermline by former manager Craig Levein last August but returned in January after 12 appearances for the Championship side.

Cochrane hoped to endear himself to Stendel, who replaced Levein in December, but did not manage to feature for Hearts before coronavirus forced football into shutdown on March 13.

This summer, he is planning a very different scenario. He has spent lockdown eating greater amounts of food in an effort to improve his slender frame and is also training individually to improve his fitness.

Hearts are unclear when they will be able to restart training – or indeed whether Stendel will still be in charge – after relegation to the Championship, but Cochrane explained that he intends to hit the ground running.

Speaking in a podcast on www.theboysinmaroon.com, he said: “I've just been trying to keep fit and put a bit of weight on. I've ordered all the gym stuff. I'm not great with it but that's my aim during lockdown – trying to put a bit of beef on.

"I think everybody can see from the physical side of my game it isn't my strong point. That's what I'm trying to improve on as well as keeping fit.

"What I've been told is I need to try and eat a lot. I don't really eat that much. I'm not a big eater and I struggle with eating regularly throughout the day. When I'm in full training, I need to be eating a lot more than what I do.

"Not doing as much as I would be when training every day, right now is a good time for me to try to eat a lot more and put on a bit of weight.

"I just want to be back in the team and trying to consistently get a game. It's been tough for me in the last few seasons but I try not to look too far in front.

“Right now, my main goal is just to go back next season, be as fit as I can be, get as much power in my legs as I can, and go back better than I have in the past. Hopefully I can get back in the team.”

Stendel’s high-pressing approach demands significant amounts of energy and Cochrane admitted that may have worked against him.

"The way the new gaffer, Stendel, wants to play, he wants to enforce that pressing so much. I think that's maybe why I've struggled to get a game,” he added.

“When I came back to pre-season, I wasn't as fit as I should have been. I wouldn't say it was a bad season because the loan was good for me, but it's certainly not the season I wanted to have.

"With the new manager's style of play, for me during lockdown, as well as putting on weight, it's trying to get as fit as I can for going back next season.”

The Riccarton academy graduate rose to prominence after breaking into Hearts’ first team as a 16-year-old early in season 2017/18.

He scored his first senior goal in a memorable 4-0 rout against Celtic at Tynecastle which ended the Glasgow club’s 69-game unbeaten domestic run in December that season.

He explained the euphoria of that moment and how emotion took hold of him in the aftermath.

"People are meant to say that they knew where it was going to go. When it came to me on my weaker side, I thought: 'There's not much I can do here. I just need to hit it as hard as I can and keep it low.' Thankfully, it went in. I think I've picked [Craig] Gordon's weaker side.

"I did not know what to do. I blacked out. I just started running about mental. All I can remember is getting pulled to the ground by big [Kyle] Lafferty.

“When I was walking back to the centre, I saw my dad and gave him a wee fist pump. I did have a celebration planned but it didn't go to plan.

"People who don't go mental when they score, I don't really agree with that. That's the only goal I've scored and I can tell you it was the best feeling of my life. I would love to do it again but I don't know if I'm ever going to get to score again.

"When you score, you need to make the most of it. That's one of the things big Laff did. He certainly ripped it a wee bit.”

The following week at St Johnstone, Cochrane suffered an immediate comedown when he was sent off for the first time in his fledgling career.

A late challenge on the McDiarmid Park player Blair Alston earned him a second yellow card from referee Kevin Clancy.

"I shouldn't have dived in. I was trying to block the ball going up the line so I've slid in front and I've maybe slid a bit too close,” recalled Cochrane. “It obviously hasn't helped with the full-back jumping about and rolling about screaming.

"I couldn't actually believe it when he pulled out the red card. I was thinking: 'Kevin, what are you doing? Kevin, please.' That was one of my worst days in football. I was walking by the gaffer trying not to look at him.

"There was maybe 15 minutes to go in the game and I'm sat in the changing room. I felt as though it was 90 minutes while I was in there. I was absolutely dreading the gaffer coming in. I could've just lost us the game. I think we drew in the end.

"When the gaffer came in, he said: 'You'll learn from it. You're still young, you'll learn from it.' I think I got away with one there. To be fair, I haven't been sent off again so the gaffer was right.

"I was trying to keep my head down [walking towards the tunnel]. When I got to the gaffer, I could see his hand coming out to shake my hand. I was thinking: 'Surely he isn't wanting to shake my hand after I've just been sent off.' He actually did shake my hand.

"I thought: 'I need to say something to him here because he's going to think I'm an idiot getting sent off.' I said to him: 'He's an idiot. That's never a red card.' Then I just walked into the dressing room.”

Cochrane conceded he changed his approach towards referees not long after breaking into the Hearts first team.

“I used to always moan at referees when I was playing reserves. When I started playing first-team, I was told: 'Don't have a go at the referees. Try and make pals with them so they give you more decisions.' Now I try to have a laugh and a joke with them.

"I'll have a wee bit of banter so that they're maybe going to give me more decisions and more fouls.

“When I'm up against physical men who are bigger than me, if I'm in trouble I'll need to go down and try to get a foul. For me, it's trying to play the game a different way because of my size.

"People have been in my head before as well in games I haven't done so well in because of that. It's 100 per cent a big part of the game.”

During the podcast, Cochrane also offered anecdotes on current and former team-mates, including Aaron Hickey, Michael Smith and Aaron Hughes.

He recalled driving fellow teenager Hickey home last summer after a day of pre-season running on the beach at Gullane.

"He is just so unbothered about everything. He does give his all but he doesn't stress about anything,” said Cochrane. “One day in pre-season after the beach runs at Gullane, I was taking two of the boys home.

"I dropped Connor Smith at his house in Fife. Hickey was in the back. I said to Hickey: 'You want to jump in the front?' He said: 'Nah, I'm just going to stay in the back.'

“He sat in the back, as though I was a taxi driver, the whole way back to his house. He went to sleep.

"He is always consistently good. I don't think I've ever seen him have a terrible game. He is always there or thereabouts.

“The funny thing is, if you ask him what foot he is, he couldn't actually tell you. I'd say that's probably why he's so good with both feet. He hasn't got a clue what foot he is. I don't know if he knows his name.”

Cochrane admitted his surprise that Smith never speaks about scoring for Northern Ireland against Germany last November. Michael O’Neill’s side lost 6-1 on the night but it was the Hearts defender who opened the scoring in fine fashion.

"He is an absolute legend. He scored the goal against Germany and not once have I heard him talk about it. If that was me, I wouldn't stop going on about it. That's one of the best achievements you can get in football,” said Cochrane.

"Scoring against Germany is unbelievable and I've never heard the guy say a thing about it. That shows how much he's done and he's still so down to earth. He's just an overall great guy.”

The support of another Northern Ireland internationalist, Aaron Hughes, has not been forgotten by Cochrane since the defender retired last June.

He recalled how Hughes stopped him doing certain mundane tasks at Riccarton because he felt lazy team-mates were leaving the dressing room in a mess.

"I was still in the reserve changing room and I had my duties for cleaning up the first-team changing room,” said Cochrane. “We used to have to go in and clear up the empty water bottles and flip-flops, put them in the lockers.

"I went in one day and it was just Aaron Hughes left. I was putting away the flip-flops and he said: 'Don't put them away. Leave them. That's not good enough, people being so lazy not to put their flip-flops in the locker.’

"Any time that happened from then on, he would say to me: 'Don't touch them. Leave them for folk to get them in the morning.' I would usually get a row off the coaches but I'd be like: 'Aaron Hughes has told me.'

"He was another one who was so down to earth. He is the most-capped British defender ever, I think, but you would never be able to tell.”

Listen to the full interview here: Harry Cochrane

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