'I think we are turning the corner' - Hearts feel upturn has begun

Hearts took a valuable point from Rangers. Pic: SNS

The Edinburgh side have enjoyed a slight upturn in form over the past month, with their last five matches featuring victory over Hibs, a Betfred Cup elimination of Aberdeen, a point away to St Mirren and a spirited home draw with Rangers. The only rogue result within this period was the 1-0 home defeat by Kilmarnock prior to the international break, and Clare feels the signs are promising.

“I think we are turning the corner,” he told the Evening News. “We’re working on a lot of things in training. We’ve brought a lot of new players in but we’re finally starting to work out exactly who does what. That will help us in the long run. New players change the dynamic of the team but we’re gelling a lot more now and understanding each other better.”

Hearts languish tenth in the Scottish Premiership - eight points adrift of the top four and just three points off the bottom - but Clare believes Sunday’s draw with Rangers proves they are moving in the right direction.

“We can take a lot of confidence from the Rangers game,” he said. “We contained them for a large majority of the game. Obviously a good team like Rangers are going to have possession and occasional chances but we kept the chances to a minimum. We’re not overly happy because we didn’t get the win but I think overall it was a step in the right direction.

“I thought in the first 15 to 30 minutes we were outstanding and could have had two or three goals. We caused them real problems. It was frustrating to give away the goal the way we did but it’s a really good platform for us to kick on now. We’ve shown what we’re capable of and we need to show it on a consistent basis now. We can’t just sit back on this result - we need to build on it.”