Hearts star refuses to get 'carried away' after crushing St Mirren win as season finally springs into life

Hearts' Blair Spittal (L) goes down with cramp as he celebrates scoring to make it 4-0 against St Mirren with teammate Malachi Boateng (R) | SNS Group

Blair Spittal reckons Hearts have finally given themselves a platform to build on at a crucial stage in their season after a thumping 4-0 Scottish Premiership win over St Mirren at Tynecastle on Saturday.

Ahead of a busy week for the Gorgie club in which they entertain Cypriot side Omonia Nicosia in the Europa Conference League on Thursday before making the short trip across the capital to face Hibs at Easter Road on Sunday, attacker Spittal insists it was vital they got supporters back onside after a dismal start to their domestic campaign.

Not only did the manner of the performance and result delight new head coach Neil Critchley, it also lifted the Jambos above their Edinburgh derby rivals and off the foot of the table.

Hearts' Blair Spittal and St Mirren's Elvis Bwomono in action at Tynecastle | SNS Group

Spittal admitted: “It was a good day all round for the team and something to build on, for sure. It was important we got the manager’s reign off to a good start and get a wee bit of momentum going into Thursday. A really good performance, but we’re not going to get too carried away.

“Obviously, coming away from the Aberdeen game, the performance was good but the result wasn’t. I said after the game it was important we back that up by getting the result along with a performance and I think we’ve managed to do that. Scoring first against St Mirren, we knew coming here that they would make it hard and try to draw us into a bit of a battle. But I think we took that away from them. It was important we started well and we did that.

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“We’re still in a position that we don’t want to be in the table, but we’ve managed to give ourselves a good start under the new manager and that’s all we could hope for. The manager had two or three days to drum in a few ideas. He says it’s going to take a bit of time for it to happen, but it was important we went out there and got the fans behind us. Obviously, we’ve not gave them a lot to shout about this season so far but if we keep putting in performances like that and start games like we did on Saturday, the full stadium will be together.

“We’ve got a massive game on Thursday now, so we’ll look forward to that. We don’t really know what to expect in terms of the opposition as we’ve not come up against Omonia before. But it will be a stern test and one that we’ve got to look forward to on the back of that performance. The games are coming thick and fast and that’s what you want as players when things are going well.”

There was plenty of intrigue in Critchley’s first starting line-up among Hearts fans before kick-off and while there were no drastic changes, the hosts set up in a different shape with Beni Baningime and Malachi Boateng providing a double pivot behind an attacking front four comprising Spittal, Yan Dhanda, Kenneth Vargas and Lawrence Shankland.

Asked specifically about his role and whether that was his best individual performance of the season to date, Spittal said: “It’s easy to say that, obviously winning 4-0, there’s a feel-good factor within the squad. I think the way we played and pressed St Mirren allowed us to be on the front-foot right from the off. We didn’t really give them an opportunity, which is something that we spoke about that we’ve been a bit open in transition. We managed to suffocate the game well and make sure we were in control of it throughout. So that allows us to pick up nice positions and get on the ball.

“I won’t go into too much detail (about what the manager said to forward player), but it was all about picking up pockets of space. Kenneth and Lawrence managed to stretch the game well for us and we managed to pin St Mirren’s defence back. That gave our full-backs the width and myself and Yan, we know that if we get on the half-turn that we can hopefully create things.”