Hearts boss 'really pleased' despite defeat in opening pre-season friendly

Hearts head coach Frankie McAvoy insists he was “really pleased” with the club’s first pre-season friendly against Plymouth Argyle despite the 1-0 defeat.

Hearts head coach Frankie McAvoy thought his side played well after a slow start. Picture: SNS

Freddie Issaka scored the only goal of a game at the Marbella Football Center in the south of Spain. It was also a fixture which saw Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime make their long-awaited return in maroon after several months out with ACL tears.

McAvoy believes the English Championship side are further ahead of Hearts in their preparation for the new campaign, so he wasn’t overly concerned with the Jambos’ slow start to the contest as they tried to shake off the cobwebs following the summer lay off.

The management team are focused on building up the fitness of the team and further implementing their aggressive style of play.

"It took us about fifteen minutes to get properly going, after they got the first goal, but we eventually found our feet and did a lot better," McVoy told the Hearts Website.

"Plymouth are probably a bit head of us at the moment in terms of their fitness, and found it a bit easy to play out against us at times.

"The second half saw us get some young lads on, some fresh legs, which gave us a real vibrancy which I thought you could see. Great to see the likes of Boycie and Beni coming back and playing – it's fantastic for us.

"Overall, really pleased with it. The result's probably not what we wanted but it's still very early days and I thought there were some good points to take away from it all.

"It's all about building up to the first games and that's what we need to do. It's extremely warm out here but I thought both teams put on a good show. Great to see the support as well, may I add. They made it a much more competitive game.

"All in all, it's pleasing. The manner in which we lost the goal was frustrating - letting the wide player come inside and shoot. As the game wore on, we started to put our own stamp on the game."