Exclusive:League Cup groups and Sunderland test have sharpened Hearts for Aberdeen opener says Zander Clark
The Jambos go into their first match of the 2025/26 Scottish Premiership season on the back of a five game winning streak.
Zander Clark believes Hearts’ Premier Sports Cup group stage fixtures and Craig Gordon’s testimonial match against Sunderland have helped sharpen them up as a team ahead of the new Scottish Premiership season.
The Jambos won all four of their League Cup matches and ran out comfortable winners against English Premier League outfit Sunderland at Tynecastle in their final pre-season match. Attention now turns to the visit of Aberdeen to the capital on Monday, August 4.
"At the end of last season, there was frustration of not being in Europe,” said Clark. “When this season comes around, we had a job at hand in the group stages.
“They were competitive games, we had to be right at it. These ties can be tricky, but we handled them brilliantly. It sets us up well.
"Going into the game today against a tougher opposition than what we've faced this pre-season, I thought we looked very sharp and very well organised. That sets us up well going into the league opener on Monday."
Well drilled Hearts show benefit of competitive pre-season by putting Sunderland to the sword
The match honouring Gordon saw two teams at opposite ends of their pre-season preparations going head-to-head and it showed. Hearts were visibly sharper and more alert while the game seemed to pass the visitors by.
Unlike Hearts, opening weekend opponents Aberdeen have not faced any competitive action since the end of last season. They were beaten 3-1 by Ipswich Town in a friendly match at Pittodrie on Friday night.
For Clark, it’s been pleasing to see how well the new group of players have managed to gel. He is looking forward to the benefits it should bring to the club.
"We've gelled well. There's boys from all over the world in now, but they've integrated into the squad brilliantly.
"They're bubbly people, they're outgoing, so they want to make time to try and fit in with the squad. It's a welcoming group, I felt that when I came to the club, I was gelled pretty quickly.
"I'm delighted that they've managed to come in and do well. Hopefully, we can keep that up through the season.
“We were solid throughout (against Sunderland), anything that came our way, they dealt with.
"Anything that got past them, I was there to clear up. It was probably one that you're going to ignore. They're a couple of weeks behind us in terms of pre-season and stuff, but it was still a really tough test.
"I think over £100 million or something was spent on the squad. They're good quality players, so we had to be by at it. I thought we were.”
Special day for Craig Gordon on goalkeeping ‘rival’ plays his part
Clark and Gordon have have been in competition with each other at Tynecastle for the starting keeper’s berth for some time now. Despite that,the two get on well on the training pitch and Clark was please to be able to be a part of Gordon’s special day.
He replaced the 42-year old, who is still recovering from injury, ten seconds into the match. From kick off the ball was played back to Gordon who aimed a massive kick towards Clark in the dugout as he put it out of play.
“I think he was (trying to hit me),” joked Clark. “We joked about it and then I had sat on the dugout. When I saw it coming, he's actually done pretty well. He's overcooked it. He couldn't be happier with that"
“It was great that obviously Craigie was able to do that at the start. It was, I'm sure, a special day for him and his family. It was good that he managed to get some time on the park.
“It was a good game to end the pre-season and get us ready for Monday. It was obviously a special day for Craigie and family, but for us as a team, it was an opportunity to test ourselves against a good opposition.
"In preparation for the league start on Monday, I thought we'd done really well in how we handled the occasion and the match. As I say, we celebrated Craigie, but we were right at it and treated it as an actual match"