Loic Damour: Hearts are united but we must stop giving away kids’ goals

Loic Damour is sure Hearts fans will soon see positive results

Since committing to a four-year contract, adversity and acrimony have been the main themes of the Frenchman’s first six weeks at Tynecastle.

In the five games Hearts have played during this time, they have been heavily criticised after four of them, with the impressive Betfred Cup win away to Motherwell being Damour’s only experience of a positive matchday for his new team so far.

Now bottom of the Premiership after taking just two points from their opening five league games, the pressure has been cranked up to the max on manager Craig Levein, who was the subject of a protest from angry supporters at Tynecastle on Saturday.

As far as settling-in periods go, it has been anything but harmonious for Damour, who moved to Edinburgh following two years with Cardiff City. “It’s a negative time for Hearts but we have to stick together,” the 28-year-old told the Evening News. “It’s always difficult when you’re not winning games – that’s football. I just have to keep my head up, keep working and try to help the team as much as I can. The most important thing for all of the club is to stick together and stay positive for the future because it is a new team and we have good players.

“We need to learn how to play with each other. I’m pretty sure there are many positive things coming for this team but we need to work hard to turn things round. It’s still early in the season so hopefully the wins are coming very, very soon, starting against Hibs.”

Damour is adamant all the nuts and bolts are in place for Hearts to thrive if they can find a way of eradicating the basic errors that have undermined them in recent matches.

“Especially in our situation, you can see every mistake we make is getting punished,” he said. “We can’t be making these mistakes at these moments. If it happens once or twice you can maybe say you were unlucky but we have made too many mistakes so far this season. We need to change that because it is making it hard to win games. When you score one, two or three goals, you should win the game but we have scored two goals in our last two games and haven’t won either game because we’ve made too many mistakes. We need to play more like adults because we are giving away kids’ goals. We need to stop that.”

Damour, who was a second-half substitute in Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat by Motherwell, admits Hearts are playing like a team lacking confidence.

“It’s hard at the moment,” he said. “We have young lads in the team and it’s hard for them. It’s harder when it’s like this than when you are winning games because everyone is better when they play with confidence and just now we don’t have that confidence. It’s our fault though because we are making the mistakes. If we change that, we will win games, for sure, because we have a good team.

“Just now, you can sense the tension in the stadium, but that’s football. The fans are very impatient but it is normal to want success straight away. I am impatient too so there are no worries with that.

“It’s never good to be bottom of the league. We need to change a lot of things. We need to learn about our mistakes and stop them happening because if we can do that, I’m sure success is coming. We have a good team but we need to show we are a good team. With this team, I am optimistic it will turn round.”