Hearts defender James Penrice seeks a new experience and a quiet dinner

General consensus among Hearts fans is that James Penrice is their club’s best summer signing so far. Recruited as a free agent from Livingston, the left-back’s steady performances are at odds with those of his new team. Supporters are able to separate seeing their club bottom of the Premiership table from Penrice’s relative prosperity in maroon. His capture is one of their few positives so far this season.

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Penrice, 25, shows a level of desire Hearts badly need to fight their way out of their current predicament. Ross County are the guests at Tynecastle Park on Saturday as interim manager Liam Fox takes charge of the hosts for the first time. One name almost guaranteed to be on his teamsheet is that of Penrice. Fox’s desire for Hearts to attack suits the full-back’s attributes.

“You’ve seen that I like to get up the pitch, get involved in attacks and cross the ball. Any style which helps that, I’m buzzing for. I think it will be good. You normally get a manager bounce but the boys have been brilliant this week,” explained Penrice, speaking exclusively to the Edinburgh News.

“You will find Ross County will come and try to make it as hard as possible. They will want to frustrate. They don’t want to go there and have the ball, they will probably sit in a low block. We have to break them down and put a performance on for the fans because they deserve it. The main thing is we go and win.”

The advantage Hearts have is the opportunity to dictate the atmosphere within Tynecastle. There is certain to be a touch of trepidation in the stands given the club’s league position and the relative unknown of a new man in the dugout. Penrice stressed the need to take control of the situation and get the famous ground at its raucous best.

“Yes, 100 per cent,” he remarked. “Even just with our press. Just going to close the nearest man down and getting a reaction from the fans, that can only build the atmosphere. That’s what we need to do. We haven’t been good enough and that’s the simple fact but only we can turn it around.

“It needs to be 100 per cent, that’s the very minimum we should give. The boys haven’t been going out there not trying, but I think it’s the quality after you give that 100 per cent. We will be going out to give 100 per cent to create a reaction from the fans. If the fans realise we are giving our all and it’s just that final bit of quality lacking, then we can change that.”

Despite the malaise, Penrice has enjoyed all eight of his Hearts appearances. The joyous feeling of victory remains elusive and that is his only frustration. His ambitions on Saturday are to see Tynecastle bouncing amid a victorious home display before heading off to reflect on a good day’s work with family.

“I have absolutely loved every minute of it here but the results haven’t been there. I haven’t enjoyed getting beat,” he admitted. “It’s a step up from where I’ve been before. I’ve let myself know that, if nothing is going right, just work harder. I just wish the results were a wee bit different.

“The club is brilliant and hopefully the results turn soon - then I can get a nice Saturday night enjoying my dinner with my family. That’s what I want, not just for myself but for the boys as well. But you know what? You need to go and earn the right to win games. We haven’t done that yet so hopefully this is a turning point.”

Beating Ross County would give the squad an important springboard ahead of next week’s opening Conference League tie against Dinamo Minsk in Azerbaijan. There is also the no-so-small matter of a Premiership visit to Aberdeen three days later. In short, a potentially-pivotal week lies ahead for the Hearts players.

“The league table is not a massive thing. Right now, it isn’t,” stressed Penrice. “It doesn’t read great if you are sitting at the bottom of the table but there is plenty of time to go and change it. We want to start on Saturday and make a real good week of it for however long Foxy is in charge. These three games as massive. It’s about putting points on the board.

“Going into Europe as well, it’s going to be tough going away but you need to look forward to these games. I’ve never experienced a competition like this so I’m buzzing going there, but first of all it’s the league. We need to put points on the board. You want to build the confidence as much as possible. You want to be going into this next game saying: ‘Right, come ahead.’ Saturday is the most important. Deal with that and then focus on next week.”